Hi, friends!
It’s time for more pics of the wonderful pets we’ve met along the way!
#fbf to the time we spent with these two awesome puppies, Sparky and Hoti (pronounced Hodie), who live in Georgia with my cousin Donna and her husband, Robert.
We got to spend a bit of time with them a few weeks ago and they’re adorable, but we kept @JacksonTheodoreMcCloud away from them to preserve his life
We love you!
Maya, Christopher, and Jackson.
Hi there, friends.
Do you sometimes experience writer’s block when you’re writing about your own life?
Cause that’s a little bit where I’ve been the past week or so.
Finding my “bloggy” voice has been fun, but it’s not always there, lol. Sometimes I just sound boring in my head, so I don’t feel like sharing that side of me so much and I wait a bit until I feel like there’s a flow again.
And part of it was that we allowed ourselves a few days of letting go of our 24/7 work mentality, which was necessary.
We love the south! It’s warm here!
We went into Savannah from Tybee Island (a whopping 16 miles away!) and had only planned to stay in town for a couple of nights before moving on to Florida, but the minute we got there we fell in love.
It’s such a great town!
So we ended up staying all week, and since we did put in quite a bit of work and we want to see more, we decided to go back through Savannah when we’re done going around some of Florida.
Currently we’re in Jacksonville, where we have some lovely friends who are letting us borrow their tools as - you guessed it - Christopher fixes Madame P! Again. #fkityes
We have what is now a big soft plank in the floor, which means the wood has rotted and needs to be replaced, so replace it we will.
Christopher is going to remove the linoleum floor and take a look to see what needs to be done, and when we’re finished, we should have a nice new floor!
And how is your February going so far?
We love you,
Maya, Christopher, and Jackson.
As always, please subscribe if you haven’t already so you can follow along (www.youtube.com/fkityes), and if you want to support our journey, please consider becoming a member on Patreon: www.Patreon.com/fkityes @ Savannah, Georgia
Had a bit of a tough week existentially speaking, so I had to make another outtake video where I laugh (mostly) at myself (sometimes at Christopher.)
We’ve been on Tybee Island, right outside of Savannah, GA for a few days and today drove into Savannah itself. Can’t wait to walk around and see all the ghosts! #fkityes!
And also, apparently there’s promising chocolate around here somewhere. I’ll report back.
We love you!
Maya, Christopher, and Jackson (who’s just not making it into the outtakes yet.)
Please keep subscribing so you can laugh at us some more (www.youtube.com/fkityes), and if you want to support our journey, please consider becoming a member on Patreon: www.Patreon.com/fkityes
Friends, we did it!
We thought that pigs would fly before we had our very own customized URL on YouTube, and even though the they did, we also got the URL!
And it’s all thanks to you!
So now all you have to do to find us on YouTube is search for @fkityes and you’ll find us!
With all of the exclamation points!!!
We hope you’ve been enjoying what we’ve done so far. We’ve been on a non-stop learning excursion since we started and we can’t wait to bring the episodes up to date.
Please keep subscribing so you can follow along (www.youtube.com/fkityes), and if you want to support our journey, please consider becoming a member on Patreon: www.Patreon.com/fkityes
We love you all so very much! #FKITYES
Maya, Christopher, and Jackson (who wasn’t sure about those pigs, but he doesn’t always get a say in who he’s photographed with.)
Happy #NationalKazooDay!
Friends, how could we not celebrate this most wonderful of instruments on its special day?
You're right, we can't not celebrate it! (see what I did there...) #fkityes
We’ve been in Savannah since yesterday and it's gorgeous. What are the things we must see/do while we're around for the next few days?
Stay tuned for camper updates. Madame P is a little under the weather. Le sigh.
We love you,
Maya, Christopher, and Jackson.
Social media: @fkityes
Friends, have you subscribed to our YouTube channel yet? We have 87 subscribers and we only need 13 more until we can personalize our url.
This is the url we have right now: https://youtube.com/channel/UCansX1WOQJC8OuGKH7PCbFQ
See what we mean?
We’ve been back in North Carolina for a few days, meeting and interviewing awesome people, taking 16 mile long bike rides (ok, just one bike ride, we took a Lyft home, but it was a doozy ) and seeing the beautiful countryside.
We know we’re late to the party, but we just finished watching Schitt's Creek, and watching the Cabaret episode made us completely burst into tears. And the finale, dear gods
We both miss the stage and performing so much, and getting used to this new medium takes time. But the vaccine is starting to be rolled out, so there’s hope yet!
Have you seen our latest episode? We’ve heard from some of you that you feel like we’ve finally found our voice.
Tell us more!
We love you guys so much.
Maya, Christopher, and Jackson.
WE DID IT! We finally got episode 5 up! Phew.
Man, it took us long enough!
Where we left off, the engine was well and truly deceased, but we did finally get our beloved Madame P down to Southern California and set off on our journey... right back to where we just came from?
Have we mentioned we’re a little crazy? #FKITYES!
Oh, and we got a bear from Susan's Store Room and heard Susan's awesome stories!
Anyway, we’re still riding high off of the inauguration yesterday, and we figured if Joe (we can still call him Joe, right?) can get work done - so can we!
We love you,
Maya, Christopher, and Jackson (who’s finally in this one!)
Drum track: Nick Martellaro
Follow us on social media: @fkityes
What can we say today, friends, beyond a giant CONGRATULATIONS to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris!
We watched the #inauguration ceremony today (#JacksonTheodoreMcCloud helped) and shed many tears of relief, hope, joy, and love.
It feels like a step in the right direction though the road is a long one and we’re all on it.
Here’s to a new beginning, and may we all take a deep breath and then get to work making the world better and healing.
We love you,
Maya, Christopher, and Jackson.
What do you think of Jordan Lake, NC?
Cause we LOVE it here, and it’s not that cold after all!
We’ve been camped here for a couple of days, a few minutes’ walk from the lake itself, almost in the middle of nowhere, and it’s a literal breath of fresh air.
We finally feel like we’re getting back to some sort of routine, which we both miss. We get up and make breakfast (Christopher has been doing that more than me lately, even though breakfast is my jam), which is usually oatmeal. We’ve been getting into savory oatmeal, too, and friends, it’s a revelation.
I can’t for the life of me remember who told me a few months back that they only eat savory oatmeal. I probably raised my eyebrow as high as it can go, because why would anyone want to do that when everybody knows oatmeal is a *sweet* option, but I stand corrected!
Savory oatmeal #ftw!
Anyway, we then split up (Gods forbid we don’t spend every minute of every day together, only 23 out of 24 hours a day ). Christopher goes on a run/bike ride to work out and I practice some singing (which I’ve not done enough of and I sorely miss) and then he gets back and we switch. I go on a bike ride (why would I ever want to run?! It’s boring) and he practices.
Then we have some lunch and get to work.
This way we don’t find that we’re waking up at 8 in the morning and working until we fall asleep.
It’s important to remember that while this isn’t supposed to be easy, it’s still supposed to be worth it.
We’re staying here for another few days and then off for an interview in Raleigh, after which we *will* be heading south.
How do you like the new outtake videos? Have you seen them yet?
You can find them on our YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCansX1WOQJC8OuGKH7PCbFQ
We love you,
Maya, Christopher, and Jackson.
On a scale of 1-Super Crazy where do you think we stand?
If you said Super-Duper-Crazy, you’re spot on!
Cause instead of heading further south, we decided it’s a good idea to say #FKITYES and go a few hundred miles north, BACK INTO WINTER, to chase a story.
We’re leaving Golden Grove Farm & Brew where we’ve been camped for a few days working and filming (it’s gorgeous here btw, and they make *stellar* beer) but it’s time to move on.
Do you guys know how much I hate the cold? The original plan was for us to miss the cold entirely and spend all of winter in the south.
Obviously, that didn’t happen.
We keep trying to go south and not succeeding! So we figured what the hell - if there’s a cool story in North Carolina (and there is), it’s worth the cold.
Raleigh, NC, here we come!
Should be interesting.
And THEN we’ll finally head south.
(Famous last words)
We love you.
Are you keeping warm? Do you have enough blankets and sweaters?
Share them with us!
Maya, Christopher, and Jackson. @ Golden Grove Farm & Brew
Where would we be if we couldn't laugh at ourselves? Nowhere fun, that's for sure!
Every now and again some levity is in order.
Enjoy this view into our ridiculousness.
We love you,
Maya, Christopher, and Jackson (who’s not in this one, either, because he’s a perfect little bear )
Have you followed the @fkityes page yet or subscribed to our YouTube channel? This would be the perfect opportunity, and it would make us so, so happy.
We hope we were able to put a smile on your faces.
As per usual, friends, our days go up, and also, frequently, down.
We’ve been spending some time in the great state of Georgia, where we’ve been getting some work done but still feeling stuck.
But we spent the weekend up at Amicalola Falls State Park, which is absolutely gorgeous, and that definitely brought our spirits up. The 600 steps we went down to reach the base of the falls, which we then promptly had to climb, helped.
We got our new propane tank, the one that sits sideways, and it fits... almost.
There’s a tiny barrier (to keep the tank from shifting too much) that’s part of the propane niche in the side of the camper, and the new tank is just about .5 inches too long! (where’s that ‘tear-out-your-hair’ emoji when you need it?!)
We tried to have it filled today, tried being the operative word. The lovely people at the first place we went to (a home decor store that happened to inherit a propane pump with the building) didn’t quite know how to properly deal with a brand new never-before-filled tank. Shocked ... I know. Eventually we found out their propane tank wasn’t working correctly, possibly because we broke it . And then we couldn’t find another place that fills tanks rather than just exchanged the vertical tanks... you see where this is going. Le sigh.
Tomorrow we’ll figure it out.
We also got a new water pump, and Christopher successfully installed it! It works and we have water pressure again!
Apparently the old pump was the *original* one that came with the truck since it was made in 1980!
As we keep saying - it’s never boring.
Today we made it back to South Carolina to a cool brewery where we parked around New Year’s, and we’ll interview them in the next couple of days about their cool story.
We love all of you.
Maya, Christopher, and Jackson. @ Amicalola Falls
Are we crazy, friends? Well, of course we are! What kind of question is that?
We decided that since our water pump isn’t working well (we just bought another one and will be replacing it in a couple of days) it doesn’t really matter where we park for the night, so we went camping in the snow!
It’s cold, peeps. But we have our trusty propane heater and it’s super pretty here.
We’ve been parked in my cousin’s driveway in Georgia for the past week, trying to get work done and having a frustrating time of it, but making a tiny bit of progress even though it feels like we’re sliding backwards.
And then, of course, we saw what happened in Washington, DC, on Wednesday and just had to pause for a couple of days. Because how can you go on when the world is consistently falling apart?
I can tell you that it’s absolutely going to make both of us more involved in what’s going on where we are, and once we settle down again we’ll be paying closer attention to what’s going on and seeing what it is that we can do to be more active in the community where we end up.
But we consistently hit that reset button so that we can put one foot in front of the other and move just that little bit forward.
So we’re here in the woods and the little bit of snow for the weekend (we think it’s stopped for now). Might go hiking tomorrow in the cold. I might become an icicle. Check back to find out!
As always, we love you guys. Love.
Maya, Christopher, and Jackson.
Follow us on social media: @fkityes
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCansX1WOQJC8OuGKH7PCbFQ
And if you want to support us on this journey, consider becoming our patron on Patreon: www.Patreon.com/fkityes
Having a day filled with uncertainty here, which is a perfect time to share some outtakes!
There are so many bits that don’t and won’t make it into our episodes because it’s just too much, but how can we deprive you of our weird-ass selves?
So here’s the first installment, which is a jumble of random things.
We love you!
Maya, Christopher, and Jackson (though I think I left him out of this one)
Follow us on social media: @fkityes
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCansX1WOQJC8OuGKH7PCbFQ
And if you want to support us on this journey, consider becoming our patron on Patreon: www.Patreon.com/fkityes
Friends, as has been the case for us since we started this project, we’re late at wishing you all a Happy New Year!
We have also been remiss at sharing the wonderful pets we met along the way, so here are a few photos of our friends from @silverlinetheatre.
On a tired night a couple of weeks ago, Melly here decided we were finally safe enough to cuddle with.
If you swipe left you can see her as well as her brother Peachy.
We failed at getting photos of the guinea pigs and Shelly the turtle.
But we love them all!
And you. We love you, too.
May 2021 be everything we wanted 2020 to be but wasn’t. #FKITYES!
Christopher, Maya, and Jackson.
Follow us on social media: @fkityes
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCansX1WOQJC8OuGKH7PCbFQ
And if you want to support us on this journey, consider becoming our patron on Patreon: www.Patreon.com/fkityes
@ Staunton, Virginia
It was a day.
It was a day that started out cloudy and continued to be so.
We packed ourselves up and left the wonderful mushroom farm, where we also met new neighbors yesterday who had stopped for a night and sat around the campfire with them talking until late.
We headed into Monroe, NC, to grab some chai and get some work done before getting to our afternoon appointment at an RV repair shop to look at our hot water heater that seemed to have blown a fuse the other day.
Well, friends, seems like that was a symptom and not the actual problem.
The actual problem is that apparently we’ve been using the wrong kind of propane tank all this time!
Using the wrong tank was busting our regulator and that’s what caused the fuse to blow in the hot water heater. (Thankfully, the heater itself is fine)
The sellers we bought Madame P from either didn’t know or just didn’t tell us, but we need a tank that can sit on its side, which isn’t the standard
The guy who did the repair was surprised we haven’t had more problems thus far than we did, and replaced the regulator and the fuse.
So now we know the water heater works (we hadn’t even tried it yet, lol) and that the propane heater in the camper is a really good one with a failsafe so that we don’t have to be worried when we need to run it all night if it’s cold.
Never a dull moment with our Madame P, but we love her. #FKITYES
And we love you guys a whole lot.
Have you followed us yet or subscribed to our YouTube channel? It would make us so very happy.
Onwards and upwards!
Maya, Christopher, and Jackson. @ Indian Trail, North Carolina
WE FINALLY MADE IT TO NORTH CAROLINA!
Christopher here. I’ve finally lifted my head out of the liquid display of the editing screen to catch my breath for a moment. And do know what I discovered? Life. I’m giving Maya a break from writing tonight to share something that we’re just starting to figure out. Goals are important. Deadlines are important. Passion, ambition, and hard work are all very important. However, none so much as living the life we’re working so damn hard for. What’s the point of achievement if we don’t take the time to... well, take our time.
Yes, the truck delayed us a month from beginning the project. Yes we were stuck in NY due to the lack of care from our mechanic who tore a gash across the side of our camper and just plain gave us the runaround for weeks. Yes, our 3 day trip to Staunton, Virginia, turned into 3 weeks. But fuck it, today we picked fresh shiitake mushrooms at Sharonview farm in North Carolina, I’m about to smoke my pipe and drink whiskey (Maya’s drinking tea) and we’re cuddled under the stars.
If you’ve followed our journey on YouTube, it’s not hard to see those are mere drops in a sea of awesome.
We love you,
Christopher, Maya, and Jackson. @Sharonview Farm
Happy Merry, everyone!
It’s a simple episode this time. We just want to express our thanks for everyone in our lives.
It’s been and continues to be a hard and challenging year, but Christopher and I are so often reminded that we’ve been shown extraordinary kindness and generosity from friends, family, and even complete strangers.
So here’s our holiday offering of a simple song.
We love you,
Christopher, Maya, and Jackson.
It’s almost Christmas!
We’re still holed up in Virginia for a few more days, but we’re super excited to spend the holiday together.
We hope everyone who’s celebrating is having a good holiday.
We miss our Manhattan Holiday Carolers family. Usually we’d be out and about caroling Christmas parties and tree lightings large and small all season, but of course we can’t this year. We think we’ve found the only other acceptable alternative reality
We want to wish all of you the very Merriest of Christmases and look forward to 2021 starting soon so we can put 2020 behind us already.
We love you!
Christopher, Maya, and Jackson.
Buckle up, kids, this is a big one.
We’ve been going back and forth for days debating how to do this episode. You see, these shots that Christopher took of the journey to get Madame P were supposed to be practice. The damn things weren’t even supposed to make it into the show!
But then, everything started to go sideways. And then sideways some more.
So finally, here it is; the last bit of beginning that never seems to end.
Feel free to commiserate with us, because I’m told that misery loves company. Christopher says you can’t have the good bits without having the bad bits... it’s a good thing he’s cute.
We love you!
Maya, Christopher, and Jackson.
Animation: @BobTheMagicDragon via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRJ-RsxVvuA
Graphics: Kristyna Foltynova via https://www.rferl.org/.../day-by-day-how.../30552844.html
