Tag: traveling

Packing Up for a Month

It’s the weekend before we leave Monday morning for our month-long trip. Fiona is excited to see her sister Rachelle. That’s a photo there of the two of them last August when Rachelle came to Rice Lake, Wisconsin to visit.

What do you take with you when you know you’ll be gone a month? And you’re on a budget and know you don’t want to eat out too  much so you have to bring food stuffs along. Easy! We’ve done this so often it really doesn’t take us long at all.

Joel and I did some shopping for on-the-road snacks and drinks yesterday. Things like:

  • Water, iced tea, apple juice boxes for Fiona, lemonade mix, hot cocoa mix for Fiona
  • Chips, pretzels, pita crackers, fruit & grain bars
  • Black olives (Sue loves those), three-bean salad, baked beans
  • Chocolate – milk chocolate and M&Ms for Fiona, lots of dark chocolate for the adults

We still have to get the giant jar of green olives and Sue has to make bread rolls for making vegetable sandwiches for the road. Isn’t this exciting?

Guest Post: Client’s Perspective on Work Done While Traveling

In honor of today being one year since we left for Vancouver to start house sitting, one of our client’s wrote this post about how we got work done for her even while we were traveling.

My Reduce the Chaos website sat idle for months because it was difficult to change anything on it, so I decided to move to WordPress when the time to renew the contract was coming up. The first person I contacted was unable to assist me, but they recommended Joel and Sue Canfield, which I had met just a couple of times.  Other people had mentioned what great work they did, so I was excited to work with them.

So on Aug 14th I contacted Sue to ask if they would be interested in assisting me with moving the website, and they agreed to do the transfer and set up for me.  They were fantastic, getting back to me right away.  Once I sent them the information they needed on Aug 18th,  they started on the website. The draft of the website was ready for my review right away and by Aug 22 the Website was completed and approved by me.  They even did a training session with me to walk me through how to use the site, all while they were on the road.  The new website is everything I had hoped for and any time I have a question they are willing to assist me.

Not sure at what point I knew they were traveling, but finding out only made me appreciate Joel and Sue’s exceptional customer service even more.   They have always responded to my requests in a timely and professional manner. They check on my site regularly and let me know if anything needs attention.

A couple of months ago I was trying to make a webpage for my Reduce the Chaos Facebook  Page when I ran into trouble, part of the problem was accidentally changing the theme on my website.  Joel and Sue scheduled a phone call session, logged onto my computer remotely and walked me through getting things straightened out.  Thanks to them everything is back up and running smoothly on Facebook and WordPress.  I know that I can count on them whenever I need support and no matter what location they are in. The big plus is getting to hear of all the adventures they are having along the road as they travel.

They are everything I dreamed of when it comes to having website support and great customer service.

Susan Mayfield
Virtual Office Assistant/Professional Organizer/Speaker
Reduce the Chaos
916-534-2048
Website: http://reducethechaos.com/
FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/ReduceTheChaos

Adventurous Mishaps Traveling from Arizona to New Mexico to Colorado

We left at 7:30 am Saturday to start the long drive from Arizona to Albuquerque New Mexico. We had gotten everything packed the night before and felt great about getting started. During the two weeks we’d been in Mesa house sitting, we’d never had any problems with the garage door opening and closing. But sure enough, when we went to leave that morning we couldn’t get it to close electronically. After several attempts Joel manually closed it and we made sure it locked. (Since then the home owners say it works just fine!)

Our first goal was to find a Starbucks and get our morning tea. Though we know there are half a dozen Starbucks in the area we were in, we just couldn’t seem to find one. We finally gave up because we wanted to hit the road.

Continue reading Adventurous Mishaps Traveling from Arizona to New Mexico to Colorado

Internet Access on the Road

Internet access while traveling has been limited. However, all client work is being done in a timely manner. It’s been interesting the various places we’ve been able to access the internet. Such as right this minute I’m sitting in the living room of Joel’s mom’s apartment. She doesn’t have a computer let alone internet access. Yet a connection is available and I’m able to use it.

Earlier this week I had client work that needed to be done while traveling through Wyoming and South Dakota. In Wyoming we stopped at Northern Exposure Computer Center in Torrington where they have free internet access. Here we were in a tiny town, no Starbucks, and still able to access the internet and continue client work.

Later in South Dakota we pulled into the parking lot in a small town sitting outside of Pioneer Auto and found we were able to connect to the internet and again did some client work. At a gas station later as Joel filled up I asked about internet access. They said we could come on in and use it for free. However, I was able to connect from my car and finished up a job in minutes.

So yes, we have been able to continue client work while traveling on the road. Yes, it is more challenging – but not impossible.

Fiona Wants to Keep Traveling

We didn’t get to sleep till after midnight last night and then I woke Fiona up at 8 am to start the long drive back to home base. Her words as we started to drive away were, “I don’t want to be home tonight. I want to keep traveling.”

What a trooper! A vagabond already at six. We explained that we needed to go back to home base and regroup and prepare for the next big trip (Montreal end of September and into October – details to come). Sunday she’ll get to see her friends and let the see her first lost tooth. I’m sure she’ll be happy to see her big sister Rachelle.

Pretty soon I think Fiona is going to be letting us know where it is she’d like to travel.