Special Guest:
Dominique Ritchie

Dominique is a full time vanlifer with her blue heeler, Kaia. She travels the world in her van sharing her stories through her blog and her own podcast, Roaming Roads.  

She wanders earth hoping to make a difference by empowering people to live a meaningful life, spreading awareness, kindness and love to each community she connects with.  She is focused on sustainability practices and purchases products with an eco-conscious mission. Her goal…. is to spread awareness, kindness, and love. 

MY THOUGHTS:

What did I learn from Dominique?  First off, I find Dominique to be one of the coolest people I have ever spoken to.  She is fearless, funny, knowledgeable, and just all around a good human.  You know when you meet someone, you can tell from the energy that they are one of those cool souls roaming the earth.  I felt that in our all too brief conversation.  She is an inspiration to me and I am so glad we got to meet.  Anyhow,  I’ve always dreamed of living on the road as a ,omad and doing the whole “van life” thing but there are so many factors that get in the way of chasing my wild, wild hearts desires.  One of the reasons why I started this podcast is because I get to live vicariously through other people’s adventures.  Perhaps, one day I’ll have the courage to go and chase that wanderlust dream that Dominique is living.  For now, this podcast episode has taught me a lot.  I hope it teaches you listeners out there, a few handy tips.  The moose story was terrifying!  At the time she told me, I hadn’t heard the sounds of what happened, so I had to place that recording in the episode.  Nature is beautiful and terrifying at the same time.  Dear friends and listeners, I hope this episode inspires you as much as it did for me.  And if you really want to hear more of this wonderful female powerhouse, please check her out on her own podcast, Roaming Roads.

SHOW NOTES:

2:13 Drea discusses how she found Dominique when she was searching for a Solo Female Van Lifer.

2:57 Dominique shares her passion for travel and van life living

4:00 Dominique discusses exploring her own country, Canada

4:39 Dominique tells us the life transition that pushed her to move into her van. She speaks about the documentary “Minimalism”

9:27 Dominique discusses some of the terrifying moments of living in a van/car and a few tips on how to stay safe

11:37 Dominique talks about feeling safer with Kaia, her dog by her side

12:30 Some challenges of living in a van. Dominique provides solutions on how to mitigate these challenges

14:12 Free Camping and the importance of keeping the budget low

15:21 Tips and Tricks for how to live in a van and avoiding dangerous situations like bears and people.

18:53 Dominique tells us her recent terrifying moose attack while she was hiking and a tips on how to try to keep safe

27:28 Dominque talks about what she does in order to support herself on the road

30:39 Dominque tells us advice she would give to her younger self

32:03 Dominique shares her favorite trails with us: The three sisters & Pearly Rock in Glacier NP in Canada

34:08 Dominique shares her favorite places that she has traveled to in her Van

• The Oregon Coast and The Kootnays

37:14 Dominique tells us her most meaningful person that she has ever met on the road and how this person reignited her love for van life.

41:59 Dominique shares her plans for the Canadian winter after her plans for coming to warmer areas in the US has been derailed due to Covid and the border restrictions

44:45 Tips and Tricks to Dominiques favorite destinations, Kootnays and Oregon Coast

• The importance of booking ahead in British Columbia
• The Okanagan Wineries

47:20 Dominique shares the thing that she purchases when she travels

49:14 Dominque shares with us what her podcast “Roaming Roads” is all about

Find her on: www.instagram.com/shewandersearth