It’s that time of the month again! The ups and downs of the last thirtyish days, the behind-the-scenes happenings, and everything non-travel related that I feel like sharing with the web.
If you’ve been a long-time reader of this series, welcome back. If this is your first visit, I hope you enjoy getting to know me a little bit better!
You can read the last few monthly roundups here: March, April, May, June. Can you believe I’ve been writing these for three years now? So much has changed in that time!
Without further ado…
In July 2017…
We took our first trip with our new camper, Ginger.
Back in May, a friend of Hans decided to sell his camper and truck. Since we’d already been talking about experimenting with life on the road, it seemed too coincidental, too good to be true. We jumped on the opportunity and bought the thing.
Between learning about the camper and signing the title over to our names, barely one week had passed. This is what happens when both people in a relationship are impulsive. Oops!
Neither one of us has much experience with RV living, but we figured we’d learn as we went. Unfortunately, our summer turned out to be so busy that we hardly had time to sneak away for a trip, let alone get to know the inner workings of our new baby.
But finally, in mid-July, a free weekend presented itself so we hopped in Ginger (the name we gave her, a reference to her orangey-brown tones) and took off for a quick trip to the North Cascades. We spent most of our time with new friends in Winthrop, a cutesy western-themed town (see image at top of post), but spent the night in a campsite just outside of neighboring Mazama on scenic Highway 20.
Funnily enough, we decided that very weekend that RV life ultimately wasn’t what we were looking for. The camper setup is great for short trips like this one and having everything we could possibly need in the vehicle (fridge, stove/oven, bathroom, shower) is pretty sweet, but we’ve still got our sights set on buying a van that we can convert into a camper ourselves.
So, after just one trip with ol’ Ginger, we’ve decided to pass her on to the next lucky family. We’ll be making a few repairs to the truck this month before putting her up for sale once again. Sorry, Gingey, the #vanlife is calling to us…
Lots of family came to visit.
The last weekend of July turned out to be surprisingly hectic when family members of mine and Hans’ descended on our little town all at the same time. We managed to wrangle the entire group together for one evening of music at a local winery, but the rest of the time felt a lot like herding cats.
In the end, we got a good amount of face time with just about everybody, we drank a lot of wine (a LOT of wine), and did our best to stay cool in the sweltering summer heat (our best was not good enough).
I did my first little DIY project in the new apartment.
That’s right, this month I decided to finally get handy around the house–by painting a chair. My chair/desk combo came from the local Salvation Army for a whopping $25, so they needed a little sprucing up.
I want my home office space to eventually feel like a tranquil oasis of creativity and was growing tired of putting it off (and tired of looking at it, frankly) so I put on my DIY hat and got to painting. The desk is next!
We set some fall travel plans in motion.
For the last few weeks, Hans and I have been devising plans for escaping Washington for part of the winter. Things are slowly coming together, but I can’t give away our final itinerary just yet.
You can rest assured that wherever we go will be WARM and we will be spending lots and lots of time in the outdoors.
I decided it’s time to start sharing income reports.
I’ve gone back and forth about whether to share blogging income reports over the years, but I’ve finally warmed up to the idea. After all, this blog is supposed to be a resource for becoming location independent and making money online, so it only makes sense to be transparent about my earnings with you so others can learn alongside me.
Megan Kathleen Photography
So, keep your eyes peeled for July’s income report coming out in the next week or so. They may not be totally comprehensive as I get my feet wet in the beginning (i.e. I’m not sure if I’ll share expenses just yet) and as I get myself organized (this will be a good challenge for me) but as time goes on, I hope for these reports to be a valuable resource for other bloggers and digital nomads.
My Most Popular Posts
From 9 to 5 Job to Digital Nomad: How to Prepare Financially
Editing Travel Photos with Lightroom: Tips, Tricks & Alternative Apps
Leavenworth Community Workspace: Coworking in Leavenworth, Washington
My Best Instagrams
What I’m Reading
This month, I’ve found my way back to A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, this time starting it from the beginning. Judging by how much I loved The Power of Now, I think this will become one of my favorites. On Hans’ suggestion, I’ve also recently downloaded A Journey of Awakening by Ram Dass.
In the non-spirituality category, I’m also reading Profit First by Mike Michalowicz. My whole money mindset instantly shifted after reading just the first few chapters. If you’re running a business of any kind, you will benefit greatly from the lessons in this book.
A Few Things I’m Loving
Working from somewhere new for the last week – Don’t get me wrong here, I love our little apartment, but it’s been a nice change of pace to work from Leavenworth, where Hans and I are house sitting. I have lots of natural light, cats to play with and snuggle, a beautiful mountain view in the backyard, and garden veggies waiting to be picked. Something about being somewhere different just sparks my creativity!
Scheduling my Instagram posts in advance – I don’t know why it took me so long to start doing this, but it’s been a huge weight off my shoulders knowing most of my Instagram photos are scheduled well ahead of time. I use an app called Later, which is free to use and also provides some basic analytics.
That’s it for July…onward and upward!
This post contains affiliate links.
