Free Time On The Road
Hey friends!
Over the years (wow it’s weird that we can say that), Owen and I get a lot of questions about life on the road and we’re ready to start tackling those questions one by one. First on the list? Free time on the road, how much we have and what we do with it!
Free Time
Though we work full time from the road, Owen and I still have a ton of free time that usually comes up in the evenings after our work is done, bad weather has set in, or the day’s activities are complete, and there’s nothing left to do but enjoy the remaining light in the day. When we first went on the road it took us a while to get used to having so much time to fill and then figuring out what to do with it, and I gotta tell you, it’s come to be one of our favorite aspects of life on the road. Now, let’s get into what we do with it!
Learning Something New
Since going on the road Owen and I have both thought that learning something new would be a productive use of our time, and we’ve chosen languages! I’m learning Spanish and German, and Owen is learning Japanese and Espanol. We have a huge love affair with Mexico and have plans for extensive travels there, so we thought it would be wise to go ahead and get started! It’s amazing how quickly we both feel we’re learning because we have time nearly everyday to dedicate to taking a lesson or two! We both use the app Duolingo, and have found it to be easy to use, fun, and really well designed. We can all rejoice in the fact that it’s free! There are an impressive amount of languages available so whatever you want to learn, I’m sure they have it!
Here is's the link: Duolingo.com
Card Games
Phase 10, Lingo Playing Cards, Uno, and Trivial Pursuit National Parks Travel Edition
Owen and I are REALLY into playing cards. Always have been. So now that we’re on the road it’s something that we do a few times a week. Card games are also light and very compact, making them the perfect entertainment for a minimal life! Here are our favorites:
Lingo Cards
You know how Owen and I are working on our Spanish?! Well this is BY FAR our favorite deck of playing cards we’ve ever gotten our hands on. With these we can play any of our many favorite card games and work on some handy words and phrases in Spanish that are great for travelers such as ourselves! Lingo cards are really high quality and are aesthetically pleasing for the designer in us. If we had to choose one compact form of entertainment to pack, this is it! Also, these cards come in a ton of different languages so you can brush up on your lingo for different destinations!
Here is the link to purchase Lingo Cards in Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Japanese!
Phase 10
Phase 10 has long been a crowd favorite in my family. If you’re not familiar, it’s a longer format card game that is perfect for as few as two players and as many as six. The fun part about it is that you can end the game after a few hands and pick it back up later because there’s a running tally that determines the winner. Take my word for it...it’s fun!
Get the crowd favorite here: Phase 10
Trivial Pursuit National Park’s Edition
What could be more fun than Trivial Pursuit that comes in an awesome little stump case with a bottle opener attached?! We found this in the gift shop in Glacier National Park and couldn’t put it down. We’ve learned a lot from this game and have even added things to our travel bucket list because of it!
Incase you don't come across it at your local National Park gift shop: Trivial Pursuit NP Edition
Reading
Thinking back to our life before the road it’s funny to think that Owen and I never really read as a form of entertainment. Now it’s something we do almost every night before bed. It started because Owen wanted to read Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson but he didn’t want to carry the weight of an actual hard copy book. Silly I know, to be so concerned with such things but with space being as precious as it is for us, Owen decided to get a Kindle Paperwhite. I’ve always been a tactile person and am a huge fan of a physical book, so I decided not to get one. After a night or two of feeling left out I convinced Owen to read Treasure Island aloud so we could both enjoy it. We made it through the whole book that way, but Owen kindly requested I just get my own Kindle for books going forward. We’ve been hooked ever since! The great thing about Kindles is that Owen and I can share a library of books. Kindle has a huge collection of free books, they hold a charge forever, and a whole library of books weighs a fraction of a pound. As a physical book lover, I’m a complete convert!
Find a Kindle Paperwhite here
Obviously there are a million and one things you can do to pass the time such as axe throwing, rock throwing for accuracy, and rock skipping (we’ve done all these things) but these have just come to be our tried and true favorites! Hope it helps!
Enjoy!
MAK
PS: all of the links to products are affiliate links to only products that we know, love, and use regularly. We would never steer you all to something that we don't 100% stand behind! If you do end up purchasing any of these items, thank you! A very tiny cut will come back to us and helps us continue traveling, photographing, blogging, and sharing. Thank you in advance for your endless support!