Why a Website?
Welcome along. We are ready to kick off our Pack Mule Adventure travel and living with less blog. Our website is off and running in its very, very, baby stages. We will be expanding more resources to you as we grow additional pieces. We will be releasing them on a timely basis, and invite you to journey with us. Our "contact us" section is for you to let us know what you want to learn about so we can blog accordingly to what you want to hear about.
Brett and Carmen
Koh Phangan Island, Thailand
A little Ditty bout’ the Smitties
Both SD native born and raised, we met at our University alma mater Black Hills State. Married since 1997, voluntarily childless, loving nothing more than hanging out and doing this thing called life together. We had a great time in our 20’s and 30’s working regular professional jobs, having homes to remodel, dogs to adopt, entertaining in our home (you know all the things you do to keep up with the Jones family) In our mid 30’s we decided to journey on a path (some thanks to Dave Ramsey) to freedom from all debt, cable bills, house loan and additional crap that we realized we didn’t want or need. We became debt free way sooner than anticipated and found ourselves looking for a new challenge.
Having the entrepreneurial spirit running thick in our blood, we knew a salary IV drip coming from the man was not for us forever. We started traveling more with goals to cut ties and purchase somewhere warm all year around. We found a great launching pad on a small Caribbean island off the coast of Honduras named Roatan. We purchased a beach home. At this point change happened REALLY fast. We quit our jobs, sold our home and got rid of everything, packed up 4 suitcases, our dog, a checkbook and headed off to live in the western Caribbean where our pack mule adventure really started.
After living on the island full time for a year we decided we wanted some seasonal work back in the US. We purchased a run down drive in (thanks Brother Chad for the tip) and turned it into a pretty smashing seasonal gig back in our home state of SD.
We owned the Roa house for about 7 years, and have recently sold it. We found being at our island house kept us from doing what we really loved……zipping around this earth discovering new places. We have since become what our friends (and now we fondly refer to ourselves to as) “The Gypsies”.
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Until recently, from April-August we lived in a 5th wheel camper adjacent to the drive in that we owned and operated. From Sept-Mar we Pack Muled the globe in an unconventional style. In August 2022, we sold The Take Out and are on our new adventure.
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There is much more to fill in on this story, and we want to share all our lifestyle tips, tricks, secrets and stories with you.
2023 is big changes for the Gypsies, we sold the Take Out. We have been International Housesitting since September, and are looking to take a travel break and move to the Rockies in May.
Yes, we usually have the same clothes on in all our photos. We have been traveling with only a backpack roller board including about 16 clothes items for this travel season. Looking forward to our next gig which includes sleeping in the same bed for an entire year!
The porch view from our Roatan home we sold in 2021.
