It wasn't until the past few years that I started checking the labels and ingredients of things I put in, on, and around my body. Truth be told, it probably started becoming a more regular thing because of Vanessa. When we first started dating, she would come over to my apartment in North Miami Beach and I would cook her dinner. She would sit at my counter and chat while I cooked, and I would always have a candle or two burning. I loved candles. It wasn't until I guess she got more comfortable that she told me what we were really inhaling from those chemicals. They weren't soy candles. They weren't all-natural. They were $3.99 from Walmart. I guess I never really checked, or cared.

I was glad that she mentioned something, because I probably wouldn't gone through life obliviously lighting these paraffin wax candles which emitted toxins like benzene and toluene, which when burned become carcinogens.

Let's just say I also used Febreeze to freshen up certain things....and that didn't go over to well either.

It wasn't until living in the RV full-time that we realized we needed something to help the place smell nice that wasn't spreading toxins throughout the air. Most air fresheners on the market today sure do smell nice (yeah, I want my house to smell like the inside of a baking apple drenched in cinnamon, too) but the amount of s*&t in those fresheners that can potentially harm you and your family is astounding.

​Here are a few chemical agents that most basic air fresheners contain:
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​In fact, it's been said that air fresheners these days can be potentially more harmful than cigarettes. No freaking way. You think you're just freshening up the house, but no. You're really just keeping your family locked in a chemical sarcophagus. 

For us, we decided to create a simple all-natural air freshening technique that wouldn't harm us or our animals. The scent is entirely up to you. We like to use things on the lighter side—sweet orange, lemon, eucalyptus. But whatever floats your boat works. Here is what you need:
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What you'll need:
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Amber Glass Bottle w/Black Fine Mist Sprayer
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​Pure Therapeutic Grade Essential Oil

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Distilled Water
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Annnnnnd that's it. Can you believe it? It's that simple. And also cost effective.

Simply fill the amber bottle with distilled water, add as many drops of the essential oil as you'd like, and BOOM. You're done.

Let's say you click both photos above, the essential oils and the amber spray bottles and purchase them through Amazon. $8.99 for the Amber Bottles, which you can reuse time and time again. $18.99 for the essential oils, which some may find a bit pricey, but it's better to invest in something that's therapeutic grade, pure oil than just chemically fragranced crap. Then, the distilled water which you can find at a grocery store or local chain pharmacy store. If you were to only make 6 air fresheners out of the above ingredients (which believe me, you can make a ton more than 6 refills) it'll be around $4.50 each bottle. 

Think about that for a second....

$4.50 at most, for each all natural bottle of air freshener. $4.50 to know that you or your children or your pets aren't ingesting chemical crap that may potentially cause cancer. Seems like a small price to pay for a bit of health reassurance.

Essential oils are good for more than just making the inside of your RV smell nice. In fact, many of them offer antiviral, antifungal and even antibiotic properties. Take a look at a few from our friends at Organic Authority:

Antibacterial Essential Oils
Cypress, Eucalyptus, Lavender, Lemon, Lime, Peppermint, Rosemary, Sage, Sandalwood, Wild Orange, Wintergreen

Antiviral Essential Oils
Cinnamon, Clove, Eucalyptus, Lavender, Lemon, Oregano, Sandalwood, Thyme

Antifungal Essential Oils
Eucalyptus, Lavender, Lemon, Patchouli, Sage, Sandalwood, Thyme

Antibiotic Essential Oils
Clove, Eucalyptus, Lavender, Lemon, Lime, Oregano, Patchouli, Roman Chamomile

We wish you luck on making your own all-natural air fresheners. Let us know how they turn out!

It's summertime, which means invites for BBQs and picnics are flying in left and right. Okay, maybe not flying in, but we've been known to be invited to a party or two. With that said, Vanessa is pretty limited in what she can eat and what she can bring. There are only so many times you can show up to a carnivore carnival and be the tofu toting invitee, right? 

The good news is we have a vegan potato salad recipe which will knock some socks off at your next summer gathering. It's a super simple recipe, easy on the pockets, and of course, delicious down to the very last drop.  
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I took an old family recipe and adapted it to fit Vanessa's vegan ways. As an added bonus, making it vegan also made the potato salad a bit healthier, too! We cut the mayo out and ditched the oil and boom, a vegan summer side dish to die for. (Note: please don't die for this potato salad. It's good, but not give-your-life-over kind of good).

​You can make it on the road, living in an RV, or even at a campsite as long as you have your propane burner going strong. Here is the recipe, without further ado...

Serving Size: A Whole Lot - Like Ten
Price Per Serving: Less Than a Buck

Ingredients

1/2-2/3 Bottle Hampton Creek Just Mayo
1 Green Pepper
1/2 White Onion
1-2 TBS White Vinegar
​Salt & Pepper to Taste
8-10 Medium-Sized Red Potatoes

Steps:

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt that puppy up.
2. Scrub the heck out of those potatoes. We're leaving the skins on, so keep 'em clean!
3. Cut the potatoes into quarters and drop them into the pot. Cook them until they slide off a fork when inserted.
4. Drain and cool the potatoes.
5. Slice the onions and dice the pepper!
6. Add all the ingredients into the pot. Potatoes, onions, pepper, vegan mayo, and white vinegar.
7. SHAKE VIGOROUSLY. Stirring might cause the potatoes to break, so shaking in the pot is a fun way to combine all the ingredients. My mom likes to turn the pot upside-down and test her luck on whether or not it'll all fall out on the ground.
8. Refrigerate to let those flavors marinate.
9. Salt and pepper to taste when ready.

And there you have it, vegan potato salad that may just be a lifesaving side dish at your next summer soiree. The thing is, you really don't even need to tell people it's vegan. You can just let them eat and admire and salivate, then drop that vegan bomb on them after they lick the plate clean. Then you can say something like, "BAM you just got veganized". Or something much cooler than that.

If the potato salad was a hit, then you might just fall in love with this vegan root vegetable soup recipe.

"You don't need a degree in economics to see that wages are too low and rents too high"
—Barbara Ehrenreich Nickel and Dimed

I recently finished the book Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, and boy, was it a doozy. Vanessa had picked up a copy sometime last year and did her own perusing through, yet it took me a while to come around and read it. However, I really can't tell you how glad I am that I did, because everything about this read was enlightening from start to finish.

Think of it as class undercover reportage at it's finest. Ehrenreich decided to  join the millions of Americans who work full-time for poverty-level wages, and see how they prosper, or better yet, simply get by, on $6-7 per hour. Ehrenreich made her way through four different spots: Minnesota, Portland, Maine, and the Florida Keys. She immersed herself into this life of trying to make it work on minimum wage. This means she needed to find lodging—usually an efficiency, a motel, or a low-income housing development. She  survived on fast-food mostly, as that was all she could afford. Plus, she found jobs (despite having a PhD, mind you) for the working wage norm (only at most receiving around $7-8 an hour).  What Ehrenreich proved through this investigative journalism is that trying to make it work in society on poverty-levels wages, were barely possible. God forbid any emergencies pop up, you're in the hole. As Ehrenreich astutely observes, "you don't need a degree in economics to see that wages are too low and rents too high".

The book was written many, many years ago, so things have since changed, ie: minimum wage has increased since. However, I will recommend this book to anyone willing to glimpse into the life of a minimum-wage worker, the struggles they face, and the little help they receive.

Cheap living has been a choice that Vanessa and I have made in order to reduce the amount of hours we worked in order to pay for things we really didn't need. But this book aided in a quick reminder that not everyone has that choice to make. That when we consider it cheap living, some might consider it poor living, or just barely getting by. We're lucky to be in a position that we're able to whittle down our belongings and necessities, however, for some, that's all they can afford.

We haven't had the most glamorous of jobs either throughout the last year of our RV living. I remember an instance in Austin, Texas when we were working the Formula One event. Vanessa and I were assigned to the Owner's Box, where a lot of high profile folks found solace from the rest of society by watching the race front and center in a separate box, fixed with an open bar and free food flowing. You needed an invitation to the Owner's Box, but also needed to pay quite a bit of money for tickets. Besides the fact Vanessa and I were treated like help from the very beginning, it was amazing to me how worthless we felt afterwards, because these people simply had a bit more governmental manufacturer paper in their bank accounts. Worthless enough that some guests (male included!!), during the rainstorm, would want us to walk them to their awaiting golf carts with an umbrella so that they didn't get wet. But us? Well, that was our job, right? To get wet. To sacrifice for the betterment of the wealthy. Ehrenreich said it best when she wrote, "if you're made to feel unworthy enough, you may come to think that what you're paid is what you are actually worth".

However, probably the most disappointing event from that entire weekend was when the storm was raging, winds gusting, blowing over tents, umbrellas, fixtures from the race, and a father and his son (around 8-years-old) come running up to our tent from the grandstands. They had gotten caught in the storm, soaking wet head-to-toe, with only a sheer, $0.99 poncho covering their bodies and backpacks. At the entrance, the father explained this was his son's first Formula One, and could we believe this weather? He then proceeded to ask if they could be let inside the tent, the only shelter from rain and lightning that could be found, without having to walk a mile around the track to the main grand stand, in order to dry off and let his son rest. Simply put, they turned them away. Despite the fact not half the number of people had shown up for the Owner's Box and we had more than enough towels, Moet, and canapes to go around. But this waterlogged pair just didn't quite have enough money to stand under the tent and dry off. After all, "it was an exclusive event". The pair was sent back in the rain and I watched as the father pulled his son close, protecting him from the inclement weather, but possibly feeling like a failure as a father because he didn't have "enough" to keep his son dry.

Something just didn't sit well with me after that. And it wasn't until I read Ehrenreich's excerpt where she is detailing how all of her upper-middle-class friends had hired themselves help, and the reason why she herself, never had. Ehrenreich said that hiring help was "just not the kind of relationship I want to have with another human being". My sentiments exactly.

I recommend Nickel and Dimed to everyone. It's not a tedious or long read, and I think it will be enlightening to all in some way or another. You can snag a copy by clicking on the image below. 
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Or simply send me your address via email and I'll send you my copy. Don't forget to let me know your thoughts after reading!

It's been a long time since we last wrote, and for that we apologize. The past few weeks have been a bit hectic, but all in the best possible way. Since Vanessa and I are on the road so much, it's hard to have time to see family. So, we decided that for the end of May and into June, that's all we would do.

It really is something wonderful to be able to spend time with family at your own pace. I remember back to have abbreviated visits just a few years ago because of my work schedule. I missed out on quite a few opportunities to make memories with loved ones because I was bogged down with a conventional lifestyle.

We've been to Wisconsin and Chicago catching up with Vanessa's family, then I hopped a plane to New Jersey and Sarasota, Florida to visit mine. Although we both are still working while we visit, there's no pressure to rush back because a boss is breathing down my neck.

It is with moments like these-- reuniting with my siblings, having a glass of sangria with my dad, making the most of a three-hour layover with my sister, helping my stepmom decorate the house for a baby shower, or simply playing cards around the table with my mother-- that remind me of how lucky I am to have CHOSEN this life for myself.

Right now, I'm exactly where I want to be, and that contentment is more fulfilling than anything else.

Stay tuned for our next leg of travel. It's almost be a year (A FULL YEAR!) since we embarked on this journey of RV travel, and we have some big things in store.