La Voz Creative Podcast

On Airbnb—To offset costs and lack of income (from Amy), we listed our house on airbnb. Making our house a welcoming home for guests while wrapping up work, soccer, school and planning was… challenging. We threw away broken plates, de-cluttered, got rid of the sticky stuff in the fridge, donated loads from the storage room and cleaned out the pantry and closets.Airbnb was SUPER easy, making our house a home for others was super HARD! Sharing our home was an emotional experience but “it’s just things”?! It was an adventure and ultimately a great experience. We helped a family trying to secure their own home, made some money and came back to a decluttered, clean house. Maybe we should just leave our AirBnB adventure at that? Should we do it again and risk a different, worse outcome?Our Taxa Tiger Moth TrailerSee previous episodes: the awning and outside kitchen are still great! And, thinking back, it was a nearly perfect solution for our trip. But, what should we do with the trailer now? Will we use it again for shorter trips? Renovate to a food truck?We used it to carry the boats and the bikes, get away from bugs, snow, wind chill, to make an impromptu roadside/parking lot coffee or lunch, to take in a movie, as a magnet to meet new and interesting people. The Volvo XC60 suspension wasn’t great for pulling even a light trailer. But, the Tiger Moth was small enough to move by hand, including so that we didn’t need to back down the ramp on the ferry, and we just love Taxa’s thoughtful design and ruggedness.Maybe we wouldn’t have been so homesick with a proper camper. Kenedy wanted space for herself and less set up/take down—she wanted to take her own bed. Kris would not use a bathroom in an RV or the kitchen. Amy thinks it might be worth the sacrifice.Stay tuned for more on Valdez and our favorite conversations with friendly Alaskans and Canadians along the way.

Have it or don’t have it on the long trek from Colorado to Alaska?Ice: yes, ice but the cooler hasn’t been very cold.Fuel: no problem. Lots of fuel!Laundry: way too much laundry and only one place we really wanted to do it (Snowdome in Jasper)!Coverage: great cell coverage at most of the towns along the AlCan but not much in the middle. WiFi has been tough: mostly this comes through satellite which is OK for checking the occasional e-mail, not OK for making reservations or loading maps.Power: we are charged up now that we have the GoalZero Yeti!Sunshine: 16-22 hours of sunshine (kinda weird indirect, semi-sunshine, though).Cords: often lost.Showers: take them whenever you can because you never know when the next will come.

Take the Alaskan Marine Highway or a plane to Gustavus, Alaska. Taxies (some electric) will come and get you. In case you bring your car the whole way here (expensive and unnecessary), there IS a gas station in Gustavus. Unfortunately we did not get a chance to have a meal at the Gustavus Inn.You can camp in Glacier Bay near the Visitor’s Center. Bartlett Cove campground is an easy walk to many campsites. They have wheelbarrows to carry stuff. Sites are quiet, clean, free and on the beach next to the dock where the Glacier Bay boat tour leaves. The lodge and visitor’s center has WiFi, laundry and showers. The lodge rooms look comfy and peaceful- we did not tay.The Glacier Bay boat tour is worth the investment, but plan for a long day (8 hours). They do feed you drinks, snacks, lunch and they have beer on tap! Lots learned on the Boat Tour!Kayaking looks amazing—probably go with a guide since the water is cold, wildlife is abundant and tides are drastic.

Ferry through Southeast Alaska to Glacier Bay—so much to say, not enough time to write because it’s time to catch the ferry back to Juneau!

Camp FoodMike’s Mighty Good just add water Ramen surpassed expectations by a lot! Good!Seeds of Change pre-cooked rice in a vacuum bag is easy to eat with simmer sauce.Birch Benders pancake mix—grab it up whenever you see it!Bagels toasted on the camp stove are Tucker’s fav.Bubbly, flavored water is much better than pop at every gas stop (and there are many).Sir Kensington mayonnaise and mustard makes lunchtime a little more exciting.For gourmet PB&J just add freshly baked raisin bread and local jam.Too Much Information about Camp CoffeeRiver guides know everything! Our Main Salmon river trip coffee was SO good. They dunk the coffee beans in a huge vat of water with a tea bag (so good!). And, wraps are the best delivery method for salad. Thank you ARTA!Percolator and French press make a big mess and if you don’t have water from a sink to clean the screen and the bottom. Plus it gets cold too fast.We don’t love flavored coffee (even Huckleberry). We did enjoy Montana Coffee Roasters and LOVE Kicking Horse which we could get in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado even though its a Canadian coffee company. Kaladi Coffee is the BEST, though!Our trailer battery can’t run a computer, blender or coffee grinder. Duh!

Challenges to being on the road:Being away from home.Needing alone time.Motivating to work.The long cold walk to the bathrooms.Missing friends.Being bored during long drives and waiting.Staying organized.The full spectrum of laundry and wifi (and the never-ending need for ice and fuel).

Stops and connectivity so far…Boulder, WY: beautiful library inside and out with blazing wifi and plugs. Verizon was weak, T-Mobile nonexistent.Teton Colter Bay: no T-Mobile, some parts one bar Verizon LTE. Laundromat has wifi but it was sometimes slow due to heavy use). Head to Moran for 2 bars LTE and Jackson Library for blazing wifi and plugs!Yellowstone: good luck getting any coverage in The Park. Verizon had a decent signal at the Old Faithful gas station but not much T-Mobile or Verizon anywhere else (that we could find). Head to West Yellowstone for full LTE coverage both on Verizon and T-Mobile. Mountain Mama’s has yummy baked goods…think huckleberry pie!Glacier Fish Creek: no T-Mobile, barely Verizon even with the booster. Head to Columbia Falls for full Verizon and T-Mobile coverage. We loved, loved, loved, can’t say any more good things about Odd Fellows Coffee House—good coffee, comfy environment, yummy scones and waffles. Also, our car looked amazing after a visit to Glacier Clean car wash (vacuum and wash). I miss Glacier Clean every time we clean out the car.Glacier St. Mary’s: blazing Verizon AT THE CAMPSITE! Zero T-Mobile. SO windy here.Waterton Townsite: no coverage at all on T-Mobile OR Verizon. That’s OK, though, we just stopped through to watch the U.S. women’s soccer team.Fernie, BC: full, blazing T-Mobile. We stopped for the BEST yummy margaritas and food (especially the street corn) at Nevados. Fernie has great coffee and snacks at Freshies, AND…the one thing that sets some towns apart from others…Polar Peek Books. This place has it all in our opinion! Stop here en route to Banff.Kootenay Redstreak: two bars T-Mobile LTE. Didn’t check Verizon because we had strong T-Mobile. Invermere is right down the street and has Kicking Horse Cafe for snacks. We’ve now visited Miette Hot Springs (to escape mosquitoes) , Banff Upper Hot Springs and Radium Hot Springs. Radium was far and away the biggest and least crowded. They have a huge hot pool AND a cool pool with a diving board. Stay at Redstreak campground and stop at Radium Hot Springs for a dip!Banff Waterfowl Lakes: this is true remote, primitive camping. Go here if you want to get away. If the weather is nice, paddle, paddle, paddle!!

Finally la familia has launched and we are en route (on a very slow route) to Alaska. Our first phase takes us through Grand Teton’s Colter Bay, Yellowstone for four inches of snow and to Fish Creek in Glacier National Park. Listen in for all the expected silliness from Too Much J-Bs.

Tips for going solar—Get efficient inside the house first: washer, dryer, refrigerator, other appliances, lights, and furnace, windows if you can afford them, etc.Get multiple bids and select a system based on your home energy needs (with or without an electric vehicle, depending on your lifestyle, the number of people in your house, your roof and utility incentives).Right size! Excess generation goes into the energy bank for use at a later time. Over generation generally does not pay off over the longer term unless you have an EV or use a large amount of electricity.Installation goes fast but everything else takes a long time: it was three months between installation and when we turned the system ON, i.e. when generation was finally tracked by our utility.A home battery may make sense if you have frequent power outages and need electricity, or have excessive time of use charges that make it cost effective.Why we loved the Tesla System—U.S. innovation (made in Buffalo, NY)!!Great user interface allows us to manage our car + battery + solar + grid; all from our phones.Home battery because we do have frequent power outages (including during Colorado’s recent snow cyclone).Less expensive.Extensive audit: trees, rafters, vents, angle of roof.Sophisticated design software.Exceedingly responsive and patient designers.Totally hands-off permitting.

Join us from London for quick reflections on our 10 day trip to England and Ireland: favorites, what the kids learned, train-to-ferry to Dublin and Brexit: to exit or not to exit.

Trip Report from our first family adventure in Europe including:1. getting passports2. why Ireland?3. the train to the ferry, renting a car and driving on the left4. being American in Europe5. the Wild Atlantic Way: bogs, sea stacks, good food and Guinness6. happy, helpful Irish folk

We bought an electric car! What should we do first? Roadtrip! We took it 464 miles from Evergreen, Colorado to Boulder Mountain Lodge in Utah for a pre-Thanksgiving farm-to-table feast at Hell’s Backbone Grill. No problem! The Lodge has a faster charger and superchargers + good food along the way made our trip a delight.Listen in for more on purchasing, owning and driving our new EV!

Beth was born to be a scientist. As a child she would gaze through the blades of grass, pondering the workings of the great, big Earth. Now she has her own lab, staff and funding and has the ability to do science on her own terms-or so long as the dog stays in the yard. Listen to her story, perspective and advice.

Amy’s mom was diagnosed with breast cancer in March. This first episode of season 2 summarizes our family’s fight against cancer, and how we’ve maintained some semblance of normalcy as life has become real, real big.

El Malpais National Monument is about an hour outside of Albuquerque on I-40.  Exit 89 takes you South past the campground, Ventana Arch, multiple hiking trails and picnic grounds and eventually ends up at Lava Falls interpretive trail.  We took the 1.5 mile loop over the 3,000 year old lava field, past sink holes and vents, into the lava bowl and back.  The El Malpais Visitor’s Center is off of Exit 85.  Here you can obtain a caving permit (caves are formed by lava tubes).  We also decontaminated our shoes to protect bats from white nosed syndrome, and stopped at the Walmart for a set of bike helmets and work gloves.  Do you really need helmets for a 500 foot walk in a cave?  We say yes: unstable rocks, changing ceiling height, walls that close in and headlamps that only light up so much make it a strong recommendation.We made it about 75% of the way into the Zenolith cave at which point we saw several bats and the way got very small, i.e. crawling through a 3.5 foot diameter hole into the next room. So we turned back.  Next time we will have better gear: brighter, stronger headlamps, real knee pads, caving helmets and gloves.El Calderon also has an interpretive trail that leads past multiple types of lava flows and ultimately ends at a cinder cone.El Morro National Monument is about 20 miles past the El Calderon area on Highway 53.  The El Morro trails and Visitor’s Center are open limited hours. The campground is quiet with a few private sites and many trees, but no water (at least during spring break).  We drove to Ramah, NM for a jug of water.  The 25 degreeF night was a very cold initiation into camping season.

In Santa Fe we talked some (donut and coffee) shop with the friendly and welcoming owner of Whoo’s Donuts as we devoured delicious nuggets of sweet, crunchy, spicy and doughy goodness…orange cardamom cream with apricot glaze, lavender blueberry corn… need I say more?  We followed up donuts with a stop at famed, local, and counter-culture Downtown Subscription for a creamy, sweet Chai latte and to gaze lovingly at crispy, new pages in Garcia Street Books.On the Turquoise Trail to ABQ we did see signs warning of bovine abduction.  What do aliens want with New Mexico cows, anyway?  In Albuquerque we spent the remainder of the afternoon at the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History with massive B-52s, Tacos, uranium mining, nuclear warheads and Amazing Stories.We stayed in Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town and watched it rain as we inhaled savory tacos enchiladas and drank too many margaritas at the Backstreet Grill.

It’s spring break and on this quick episode we kick off our first podcast from the road.  Track our trip from Evergreen to Santa Fe, to who know’s where…Yesterday we stopped at the delicious Loyal Coffee in Colorado Springs where we heard about Meow Wolf--which is the reason we ended up in Santa Fe. Unfortunately Meow Wolf is closed on Tuesdays and it’s raining in Northern New Mexico.  But caves in El Malpais???  We stayed at the Inn at Santa Fe (well kept, clean, inexpensive) and ate at Maria’s which is open late and serves up yummy sopapillas with honey for dessert.

According to USA Today there are six steps to raising a feminist. Amy and Angie discuss this, lacrosse, leggings, dirty jobs and American Girl.How to raise a feminist in 6 not-so-easy-stepsFor full show notes visit La Voz.

Top Ten Tips for Visiting the ParkFigure out a way to make the park feel like its yours. If you see a whole bunch of people headed one direction, go the other direction. BUT! Sometimes it’s worth going with the flow.  This is sometimes the case with traffic jams and…why not just sit back, relax and enjoy the ride? These are some of the most beautiful places on earth. Don’t try to do too much but be brave and try new things. Don’t plan the minutiae, leave space for adventure and the unexpected.  Take time to talk with others, they are on their own unique journeys.  It’s worth the drive, EVEN THE KIDS AGREE!  Stay in the park for a closer, darker, quieter experience. Take advantage of the Park Service programs, both evening talks and the junior ranger program. For full show notes visit La Voz.For visuals, visit The World's Green Laughter.

Part 2 covers our favorite (and not so favorite) park experiences, some of the wildlife we’ve seen, and a recap with amendments to our tips from part 1. Tune in to future episodes for a bonus update on the meaning and spelling of minutiae.For visuals, visit The World's Green Laughter.or full show notes visit La Voz.