May Travel Blogger Interview Series – AO Wanders

Welcome to our May interview featuring Adam from AO Wanders. His blog talks about his journey from leaving everything behind and moving to LA, becoming a full time traveler, and his adventures while on the road.

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DITS: Who is AO Wanders? Tell us about you, your blog and your mission.

AO: Well the short answer is just a guy traveling the world trying to soak in as many experiences as possible.  But a better answer is a kid from suburbia capital of America who accidentally stumbled onto a life of travel through rejection, poverty and a never ending drive to find purpose through anything remotely enticing at a time before the internet was even invented.

AOWANDERS.COM is my travel blog, and it’s taken on many forms over the years.  AO are my initials and wanders just seemed to fit when trying to figure out my domain name as a homeless street kid in LA. Originally my travel blog was nothing more than an online diary which I have since taken all that down because Google can find anything no matter how well you hide it.  But in the early years of my travel life I wanted a record of my thoughts, feelings and choices as I bounced from one destination to the next. It was the only constant in my unstable life, and I used it like an ongoing lab experiment to figure out what I should use it for.  As well as a best friend I could talk to about anything.

Nowadays AOWANDERS has one purpose, and that is to help others pursue their “travel dreams” with a burning passion! To help others travel further, cheaper and easier!  To creatively fund their travel dreams through conventional and unconventional methods. Like the 83 methods you can find in this 45,000 word article on how I’ve funded my life of travel for the past 21 years! https://aowanders.com/creative-ways-to-fund-your-travels/

I’ve done long term international backing travel, short term domestic travel, and even seasonal working vacation travel.  But easily the most rewarding, cheapest & adventurous travel I have participated in is RV travel.  Which is what my travel blogs focus is on now and for the rest of its existence. RV travel allows you to freely roam about where ever you please with all your worldly possessions while still providing a sense of adventure on top of normalcy.  

You’re able to travel with pets, gear and necessities without always being on alert for thieves or paying stupid baggage fees at the airport.  You can have a million dollar ocean front home without the million dollar bank account and so many other great benefits to RV life. But the real gem to RV life is the ability to possess a home with no monthly financial obligations that’s still compatible with a life of travel.  

DITS: What inspires you to choose the places you travel to?

AO: When I first started traveling I chose places based off of the money I could earn. Then as I begun to figure this travel life out, and discovered there are employers out there that would house you, feed you and pay you – I would only travel to places that had those type of employers. Which turned out to be pretty extraordinary because those type of employers are usually only found in iconic vacation destinations around the globe.

Then once again I accidentally stumbled into a passionate hobby that would forever change my life – Skiing! A wonderful hobby that you can do solo or with others, but more importantly skiing is a way of life that creates a vibe and pulse only found in ski towns.  It’s an infectious culture that catches outsiders by surprise because ski towns reward passion, adventure and acceptance. Over money, materialism and superficial shit you find elsewhere.  Here’s a glimpse into the atmosphere of a ski town.

After getting hooked on a skiing I found an outlet to fill my adventure cravings and a community to do it with.  If you’ve ever done any type of long term travel you can relate to always doing things solo or long stretches of loneliness.  Skiing provided endless amount of amazing travel partners to breathtaking destinations around the world. Through a community of generous “travel angels” quick to offer spare rooms, rides, meals,  lift tickets, locals secrets and anything else they thought a fellow “ski bum” would need while in their neck of the woods.

Skiing opened a door I never knew existed.  To a life of travel I never dreamed I could obtain because my first attempt of travel left me homeless in Los Angeles.  Where I washing my clothes at a beach shower and budgeting for 30 cent donuts to survive.

It was the first article I wrote on the new AOWANDERS to inspire others that anything is possible.  As long as you’re willing to try new things. Adjust your vantage point, and become a resourceful problem solver.  Here is how my travel life began.  

DITS: We see that you mention on your blog that you don’t need sponsors or a big bank account in order to travel, may we ask how do you travel as often as you do? We’d love to know your secret!

With the internet you can literally do anything you want nowadays.  You can work a 6 figure a year job out of tent in the middle of nowhere.  Or you can bust out your creative juices and sell homemade items on sites like Etsy.  Apply for a job on a cruise ship. Which comes with free room and board as well as free tour excursions at each port.  The only thing you will spend your money on is entertainment and alcohol.

In the spring you can walk into the woods with an empty pillow case and fill it with mushrooms to sell to a local restaurant for big money.  There are so many different ways to make money its unbelievably easy to fund a life of travel nowadays. When I started traveling there was no internet.  No google, Facebook, Tripadvisor or even Craigslist filled with information.

Nowadays, you can be a digital landlord that makes $5,000 a month by forwarding a phone number to a local business.  You can rake sea weed onto a company boat drunk off your ass for $200 a day in Maine. Trust me I barely remember the summer of 2011!  Like to road trip? You can logon to sites like Uship and pay for your entire road trip by delivering packages along your route.

20 years ago you had to buy expensive text books for college only to see them collect dust before you finally threw them out.  Now you can purchase them for pennies on the dollar and sell them to a college bookstore for 75% of their original value. This is actually such a popular method to make money people are downloading PDFs of college text book and printing counterfeit books to sell to bookstores and college students over the internet.  

Didn’t make enough money mushroom hunting in the spring?  Don’t worry I got you covered there too. Ever heard of Ginseng?  There’s an actual season for it. September to December, and you can get paid hundreds to thousands of dollars a pound for Ginseng roots.  Out on the East coast people are making over $100,000 a month harvesting wild Ginseng roots out in the woods. Easy retirement nest egg. Go plant an acre of Ginseng seeds somewhere and 20 years from now you could have a half million dollars.  

A few years ago to make money online from a website you had to have a huge social following, thousands of backlinks and thousands of visitors a day funnel through your site before sending them to another site.  All you have to do in today’s internet world is answer 10 questions to make $3,000 a month.

No social media, no back linking, no advertising, no inventory, no selling.  You don’t even need any information about your site visitors. No contact information. No shipping.  Nothing. All you need to do is write sentences that will rank 10 blog posts. 10 blog posts that get at least 300 views a day would translate into $100 a day using google adsense.  I could go on forever but here are 83 ways to make money to pay for travel or get paid while traveling.  

The best way to get paid to travel is what I call working vacations. By working for seasonal employers also known as adventure jobs.  This can be a cruise ship, Ski Resort, fishing boat, tour operator, guest ranch, summer camp or just about anything.

A couple of years ago I worked in the Grand Canyon at a restaurant as a server.  Delivering burgers and beers to tables making around $1500 a week in cash tips. It only cost me $16/week to stay in employee housing.  $72 month to live in one of the 7 wonders of the world that also included 3 meals a day. While making close to $6,000/month.

You can find these type of jobs much easier than you could back when I first started traveling.  Back then you had to know a guy who knew a guy who might be able to talk to a guy and travel based on faith it would all work out when you got there.  

Nowadays you simply visit sites like adventurejobscouk, coolworks, backdoorjobs, workingcouples or use a site like searchtempest and search all job listings for the word “employee housing.”  Give you a hint almost every employer in Alaska provides employee housing and end of the year bonuses for those that complete the summer season.

Every ski resort, summer resort, National Park and cruise ship provide employee housing.  Every desirable summer vacation destination in the United States will have an employer that offers housing, meals and a paycheck to come work for them.  For example: high volume tourist towns like Bar Harbor Maine, Custer South Dakota, Grand Lake Colorado, Jackson Wyoming, Whitefish Montana, Outer Banks North Carolina don’t have an employee pool to draw from so employers there hire travelers and provide employee housing.  

Imagine working as a server at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon.  Where minimum wage is like $13/hr, and a shitty server with no experience will & does average $28/hr in cash tips.  You could make $41/hr for the summer while living in a National Park for only $210 a month. Which also includes 3 meals a day.  Like I said I could go on forever about ways to pay for travel.

I mentioned websites above that you could go to find jobs like the ones I’ve mentioned.  I purposely didn’t create a link to them because I just finished designing the best job board on the internet for passionate travelers.  www.myadventurejobs.com  The goal is to be a one stop shop for “Amazing Jobs in Amazing Places” around the world for people that want more out of life than a commute, paycheck and an iffy retirement.  So check it out.

DITS: You’ve been traveling the world since 1998, I’m sure you have some stories! Tell us about your most epic adventure (if you can pick just one)!

AO: This is going to be a tough one to answer.  Whenever I get this question everything seems like 80 lifetimes ago, and what I used to use as an answer doesn’t seem all that epic to me anymore.  

I mean I’ve smuggled myself back into America twice.  Once because I lost my passport and didn’t want to wait for a new one, and another time Canada wanted me to get a form from the embassy, but it was Friday evening.  The embassy was hours away and probably wouldn’t even be able to address my needs till Monday. So I chose to drive through the forest in my 1978 Volkswagon Jetta named Ernie until I came across a road in Montana.

I’ve hiked the entire AT & PCT trails.  I’ve kayaked the entire Mississippi River from start to finish, and I’ve done the “Great Loop” in a houseboat.  From Duluth Minnesota out to Maine by way of the great lakes. Then down the East coast to the Florida Keys and through the Gulf of Mexico to New Orleans.  And all the way up the Mississippi River to my parents’ house in Minnesota.

After kayaking the entire Mississippi River I backpacked down to Brazil in time for World Cup 2014 to watch Brazil win the World Cup.  Talk about an epic experience and adventure. That’s a tough one to top.

But if I had to pick just one it would be the summer of 2008 and the series of event that lead me to Ketchikan Alaska.  Searching for purpose, adventure and excitement. I set my sites on France to join the French Foreign Legion. I spent 3 days in a urine foul smelling bus.  With degenerates, hookers and bat shit crazy individuals as I made my way to JFK.

When I showed up in New York a guy talked me into his Mercedes whatever class and took me on a private tour of NY with the top down.  The lights, sounds, and smells of the big city had me intoxicated with excitement. That was until we got pulled over, and I found out I was riding around in a stolen vehicle that belonged to a murder victim.

Ummmmmm see ya!  No I don’t have bail, but heres my fake number & look me up when you get out.  My names Tom Pederson. I swear. Yikes!!!!

Eventually I made it to Paris, but so did my brother who was searching hi and low for me.  To talk me out of joining the French Foreign Legion. Which sounded way more exciting than anything he was offering up.  Plus it was dangerous and of course a once in lifetime adventure.

Then a company I don’t even remember applying to offered me a job in Ketchikan Alaska as a zipline guide for the upcoming summer.  I’ll admit I never heard of zipline before then, and Alaska was never on my radar. But my brother said all the right things to make me put the FFL on hold and go see what Alaska had to offer.  I mean its not like the FFL was going anywhere. I’m glad he did because that magical summer in Alaska changed my life forever.

Every day was a new adventure.  From discouraging 1,000 pound bears away from the fish I had laying on the beach to discovering underwater submarine bases.  The entire staff were new to seasonal life, employee housing, tour operations and Alaska. Which was perfect. We were all high on the excitement of the newness of everything.  Personalities meshed perfectly with one another, and it was like everything was straight out of a movie. Aligning perfectly and everything working out as planned.

We flew helicopters over the Misty Fjords.  Drank next to raging bonfires under the Northern lights.  We invented card games, board games & drinking games. Hiked mountains, kayaked across the Pacific Ocean to deserted islands.  Guided tours over grizzly bears while soaring through the tree tops with bald Eagles. Celebrated birthdays on cruise ships, fishing ships, private yachts, beaches, docks and even rooftops.  We had bears in our cars, houses, trash and even the gift store. We learned to unicycle and juggle. So that we could host our own talent show at the family dinners we implemented . We swam with dolphins, luminescents and whale sharks!

One night we mooned a cruise ship passing by and they mooned us back.  So the police officers driving by pulled over and delivered their own “moonline” to the departing tourists that invaded our town only a few hours earlier.  From rallying to the aid of a coworker in a bar room brawl to bailing out a coworker for DWI we took a tour of the jail, prison and courthouse.

At the end of the year party we accidentally burnt down an abandoned water tower with our firework shenanigans and planned an epic 9 car caravan back down to the states through the beautiful British Columbia of Canada.  Where both border crossings were met with thorough searches, court summons and begrudging acceptance of entrance into the country. We learned how not to fish, properly run from charging moose and defend against attacking bald eagles.  One night we figured out when someone shouted, “Not dog” that meant there was a bear close enough for me to slap on the nose and run away before the surprise shock of what happened wore off.

We started out as strangers but over the course of a magical summer full of daily adventures and new experiences we all became lifelong friends who still stay in contact to this day. We actually had our 10 year anniversary this last fall. Ketchikan changed my perspective on life, but the individuals that made up that unforgettable summer changed my life forever! In fact they actually saved my life because if it weren’t for them I’d probably be an anonymous dead French Foreign Legion soldier killed in action.

DITS: What was your worst travel experience and how did you handle it?

Oh man there are so many things that could fit here.  I’ve been mugged, kidnapped. Thought I was going to a Caribbean Paradise for a month only to find a Caribbean ghetto complete with gunfire.  So I left 3 hours after arriving. This was a pretty unforgettable and neverending travel nightmare.  Not to mention the two times I had to smuggle myself back into America. Or the first time I arrived in Bangkok during a civil war!

All these less than stellar adventures just add to the allure of travel and complete the package.  Right? I think if I am being honest with your audience and myself the worst travel experience I’ve encountered happened a couple of years ago.  I found myself in a strange place. Trying to decide whether to stop traveling and set down roots or continue discovering this magnificent world.  I was really in a difficult mental state. Not crazy mental or gibberish speech. Just lost on the direction I wanted for my life. Unsure of what path to take.  

The romance of travel had worn off, and things had just become another thing. Travel had become a complacent routine. Just another mountain.  Just another secret waterfall. Just another 3 day drive to ….

Lost in thought I set off on what was supposed to be the launching pad of the next series of adventure travel for me around the Pacific Northwest.  Hiking, camping, climbing, fishing, skiing, kiteboarding, and whatever else I felt like doing. I even took a different route West that I’ve always wanted to take.

Across South Dakota to Custer and drop into Red Lodge Montana.  Continue West over Beartooth pass (highest road in America) and down into Yellowstone.  Over to Jackson Wyoming and up into Sun Valley Idaho. Meandering through the backcountry to McCall and finally up through Sandpoint and Whitefish Montana before arriving in Banff Canada.

It turned out to be the most scenic road trip I’ve ever taken.  Forcing me to stop almost every 100 feet in attempt to capture the beauty of the landscape.

I even picked up a hitchhiker in South Dakota who stayed with me for 1,500 mountainous miles before dropping him off in Spokane, WA.  Met up with an old pal from Alaska who tagged along from Yellowstone to McCall before parting ways. What should have been an unforgettable adventure filled with endless stories, new friends and tons of new blog content left a troubling mix of emotions.  I couldn’t shake.

Travel had lost its luster with me.  I was tired of saying goodbye. Annoyed with the revolving door of souls in and out of my life.  What it actually boiled down to was I was frustrated with sharing amazing experiences with people I would most likely never see again.  Or it would be years later before our paths would cross again. I needed a full time travel partner, or I needed to quit traveling.

What most only do for a semester or a summer I’ve been doing for over two decades. For 21 years I’ve been traveling at my own pace with whoever I met along the journey, and overcame any hurdles that got in my way.  Unfortunately that trip woke feelings I’d been ignoring for far too long. I wasn’t able to deal with it properly or even enjoy the adventure I was on because I was stuck in a rut of do I or don’t?

Do I continue solo traveling or do I return to a world that won’t understand 200 employers in 87 countries?  Do I try to rent an apartment that gobbles up 2/3 of a paycheck when I’m accustomed to paying rent prices that are cheaper than one tank of gas?  How do I return to a world that already rejected me based on my bank account status? Takes offense when you steal 2 minutes of payroll for clocking in late, but they’ll gladly steal 30 years of your life in return for a retirement package that might suffice an easy life in Cambodia!

Am I supposed to continue sacrificing holidays, birthdays and special events with families and friends so I can share an experience with a stranger half a world away?  I don’t know the proper answer to this, but after a ton of reflection I’ve come to the conclusion; I’m going to see every corner of this world starting this fall! While pouring my heart and soul into the both websites in hopes of helping others achieve their dreams and goals in life.

DITS: What was your latest trip vacation?

My latest trip was a family vacation for my nephews 18^th birthday back in Feb.  We drove from Minnesota to Colorado to Vegas.  Over to Lake Havasu and then up into Telluride, Colorado and back down to Taos, New Mexico before heading home.  Unfortunately we couldn’t have picked worse dates if we’d tried.

For the entire trip we drove through one blizzard after another.  Las Vegas is normally filled with sidewalk acts and activities. Not this trip.  In fact it snowed for the first time in 20 years in Las Vegas while we were there.  From Vegas to Flagstaff we drove a 30 foot travel trailer through 4 feet of snow the entire way.  One town we stopped all the businesses had signs hanging in their windows saying, “Sorry closed for the snownomie of 2019!”  The entire state of Iowa shut down and closed all major road ways leaving us stranded literally in the middle of I-35. Instead of waiting on others to plow the freeway.  I ended up shoveling about 3 miles of road that night with temperatures close to NEGATIVE 15 degrees. Paid a farmer $50 to clear another section, and blasted threw a 15 foot snow drift while towing a 30 foot camper.  Just another day in the life.

It was awful because I wanted to show my family some of my favorite destinations in the country.  I wanted to hike Havasu Falls, show them the wave & Happy Canyon in Utah. Do some backcountry boondock camping deep in the Rockies.  With average temperatures of -3 degrees we were forced to shop and shop and do some more shopping. I’m sure my mom loved it. My brother got some schwagg and my nephew, well he got an inappropriate T-shirt.  

DITS: Reading your story from homeless to travel blogger stunned us. We were in awe of the things you went through and look at you now! Can you tell our readers what it was like being homeless and any inspirational words for people that may be going through the same thing?

Being homeless doesn’t suck.  Its degrading, embarrassing, lonely and a never ending struggle of survival.  Luckily, I never turned to drugs or I may have never made out of LA. Being homeless forced me to develop skills, awareness and observations one normally wouldn’t possess.  But over the years those traits have saved me on more than one occasion.

I am not a believer in everything happens for a reason, but I am a firm believer in making the most of what is thrown at you.  I could have wallowed in self-pity. Disappeared onto skid row never to be seen by family and friends again. But I wanted more and felt I deserved more.  

No one was going to show me the ropes or volunteer to be my life mentor.  I had to figure this out on my own. Persistence is the key to success and over the years I have been a diligent persistent SOB!  Which has made me an incredibly resourceful and independent individual. If you want something you have never had before you’re going to have do something you have never done before!  

This is the motto I have lived by since LA, and what helped me work through my road trip break down a few years back.  

DITS: What is next on your list?  Where will you be traveling to next?

Next on my list is the biggest adventure yet.  I just bought a 4×4 turbo diesel short bus, and will be spending the rest of the summer building it out into a camper/RV.

My plan is to leave on my birthday Sept 18^th from Minnesota and do the Great Loop by road but with a twist.  Instead of following the Mississippi back up to Minnesota I’m taking left at Texas all the way to the end of South America and all the way back up to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.  Taking the East coast down through America, Mexico, Central & South America, and taking the West Coast back up.

Once I get to Prudhoe Bay I’m going to ship it over to Russia and take another left.  Through China, India, Middle East and down into Africa before coming back up into Europe and shipping back over New York before returning home.  

I’ll be creating a couchsurfing account to allow travelers to stay with me along the journey as well as offer all inclusive guided week long travel packages should anyone care to do that sort of thing.  And will document the entire trip through video, podcasts and of course the blog.

My youtube channel ~ AOWANDERS ~ Adventure Travel Series

Patreon ~  AOWANDERS ~ Adventure Travel Series

My Website ~www.aowanders.com  where you will also be able to find all of my videos, podcasts, follow me on a map, courses & tons of helpful RV advice!

I’m sure there will be amazing days, bad days and WTF where you thinking days, but its all just part of the adventure.  

DITS: Your blog is classified as adventure travel from bungee jumping to zip lining – if you could pick one crazy thing you’ve done that you would do again, tell us!  What would you recommend our readers do if you could pick just one thing?

I want to tell you skiing because of the world of possibilities it opens up, but the biggest thing I would recommend is buck the system.  Do what you want. Don’t plan for 50 years from now when tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. A couple years ago I took a kite surfing trip to Hood River.  I am so glad I did because later that summer a wild fire burnt it to the ground. It will never look the same in my lifetime. Same for Notre Dame.  Don’t put off what you can do today, because it may very well not be there tomorrow.

The average American spends over $10,000 a year in rent or mortgage.  Meaning by the time you turn 40 years old you will have put $200,000 in someone else’s pocket!  Take that $10,000 and go buy a reliable RV.  Drive around the world.  Experience the different cultures, sights, sounds and smells of the world.  Retire to Bangkok or Singapore or wherever. But don’t sacrifice your goals and dreams to fund someone else goals and dreams during the prime years of your life.  

You can work a traditional job over the internet now.  You can acquire a new skill to start your own business by signing up for courses on Udemy, Teachable or Kelby.  Or you can launch a blog today for $50 and two years from now have it pay you $3,000 dollars every month for simply writing sentences.  

We live in an era where the only thing that is holding you back is yourself!  The potential of the internet puts so much power and control at your fingertips that you can delete the boss tomorrow and stop relying on third parties to decide how much life you get to live.  

DITS: We love what you’re doing and sharing with the world on your blog, tell us how we can support you!

I don’t have a standalone payment portal for financial support right now, but I suppose if you really wanted to donate I have a donate button on my Website Design Audit Service page  Or you can always email me at adam@aowanders.com and I can give you my paypal info.

Support that would mean the world to me would be helping me create awareness for www.myadventurejobs.com!  Seasonal jobs change lives every day.  Worlds are transformed. Best friends are found and memories for life are made.  

But more importantly opportunities for those that can’t afford college, travel or even a decent paying job can have a chance at the life they want no matter their status, location, education or financial background.  Seasonal jobs provide a sense of accomplishment. A network of support and possibilities that change people’s lives for the better. So any support that you could offer towards www.myadventurejobs.com would be extremely appreciated.  

From sharing on your social media walls, emailing friends or even employers would be amazing.  Everything is FREE. There is no credit card needed for verification. No subscription fees. Nothing!  Just a free job board for people looking for something different out of life. If you’ve worked a seasonal job and would like to write about your experience for MyAdventureJobs I would love to give you the opportunity to share with others.  Any marketing ideas, Graphic design or really just anything to help get the word out and create a community we can all benefit long term would be amazing.

I’m speaking at highschool next week about alternative ideas for life after school.  I’d be happy to talk to your class in person or via skype, google hangouts or even live facebook stream to answer any all questions you have about seasonal jobs.

How much they pay?  Where to find them? How to get hired or ace the pre-interview questions? When to apply for summer gigs? Winter gigs?  Whatever you have for questions if I don’t have the answer I will find out for you ASAP!

If seasonal gigs aren’t your thing do me a different favor.  Thank Crystal & Shane for putting this interview together by sharing one of their many wonderful blog posts found on the site.  I know they would be very thankful for that. Let me leave you with one final thought:

“Those who are not prepared to take risks in life will achieve nothing. LIVE THAT LIFE” ~AOWANDERS

Thanks for reading everyone.  If you have any questions. Throw em in the comments below.  Ask me anything. Happy travels y’all!