Clearly Adam and I are still getting this whole ‘travel blogger’ thing nailed down and have become total slackers lately. While it was easy to keep up with it at the beginning, especially in India where everyday felt like a crazy adventure, as we got further into our trip we slipped. We’re now in the process of getting caught back up (remaining Turkey, Hungary, Czech Republic & Germany) so we figured now would be a great time to launch the first post in a series we call ‘The One With…”. As many of you know Adam and I are HUGE Friends fans (we carry all 10 seasons on a hard drive) and every episode is titled ‘The One With…” so we thought that would be the perfect title for our blogger interview series.

As we prepared for our trip we found ourselves addicted to travel blogs and even developed GoTripYourself as a way to see the web’s best travel blogs’ posts all in one place (we’d love for you to check it out, it’s an awesome tool!). We quickly identified our favorite blogs and read them top to bottom. One of those blogs was Goats on the Road, so we were thrilled when Nick and Dariece agreed to be our first ‘The One With…’ interviewees! Their blog is filled with fantastic stories, beautiful photos and thoughtful insights and we hope to one day cross paths. In the meantime it’s our pleasure to ‘introduce’ you to this amazing couple:

Nick & Dariece are the Goats on the Road

1. Let’s start with your name, Goats on the Road. Where did you come up with it?
We’re called “Goats On The Road” because wherever we travel in the world, there are goats roaming the roads! We’ve taken to calling each other “goat” as a sort of pet-name, and since we are also on the road…well, you get the idea!

2. Where are you currently and where are you heading next?
We’re currently pet sitting on the gorgeous Caribbean island of Grenada! We’re leaving here in November and will be taking off on another awesome adventure…which remains a secret for the moment!

3. We know you’re not huge fans of making long term plans, but if you had to settle in one place for a year where would it be?
You’re right, we’re not huge fans of long-term plans, but we do like to travel for a few months and then settle down for a few weeks/months in order to catch up on the website and put down some temporary roots. We will have been in Grenada for a total of 7 months when we leave – almost a year! We could also see ourselves living in Mexico, Thailand or Indonesia for a year.

4. You’ve traveled all over the globe and seem to be loving your adventures, but every location can’t be a winner. If you had to pick a destination to never return to what would it be?
I’d like to say that we’ve loved each destination we’ve visited, but that wouldn’t be the truth. Honestly, we didn’t have very good people experiences in Morocco. We were sworn at and told to go back to our own country on more than one occasion! Although, I would like to return there one day because I did enjoy the sights and culture. We also found Turkmenistan to be one of the oddest places we’ve ever visited. The people were friendly, but the capital city is made entirely of white marble! Bizarre.

5. What’s the weirdest or most unexpected item you carry with you?
We carry a heating coil! It’s a very small coil that plugs into an outlet on the wall. All you do is insert the coil into a metal cup (which we also carry), plug it in and voila! It boils water within seconds. Perfect for instant tea, coffee, noodles or oatmeal.

6. You’re known for being fans of overland travel. As huge fans of trains ourselves, what’s your favorite country for train travel?
India is an exciting train destination, but so is China, Mongolia and Russia! We highly recommend the Trans-Mongolian/Trans-Siberian train ride.

7. As a traveling couple we’ve noticed our fights are sometimes odd while on the road. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever fought about?
I don’t even remember…it mustn’t have been that important! But if we do argue, we’re either hungry or tired.

8. When you first started traveling/blogging, which travel bloggers inspired you?
Dave & Deb of The Planet D, Sam Jeffries of Nomadic Samuel and Mike Richards at Vagabondish. We wanted sooo badly to be able to write for them all, and to reach the kind of traffic their websites see. They still inspire us, along with many other bloggers.

9. For aspiring travel bloggers, what is the hardest part of running a successful blog? Or what is the biggest mistake you see new bloggers making?
For us, it’s finding the balance between work and travel. The point of having a travel blog is to write about your travels, right? Well if you have no time to travel because you’re stuck in front of your computer screen, what good is that? We also think it’s very important to schedule your time on the blog. Write up what you want to accomplish during the hours you’ve set and use a timer to ensure you get it done. Finding a balance and making a schedule will make blogging more enjoyable.

Blogging in Mexico

10. As popular travel bloggers you must be contacted all the time by email/social media. What are some of the strangest questions or requests you have ever received?
We do receive a lot of emails, but we’re not overwhelmed by them. We were once offered to participate in a show about couples in the jungle or something, but they had to be naked. Obviously, we passed.

11. Along those same lines, you must also be interviewed a lot. What is the one question you wish people would stop asking (hopefully not any we are asking :))? And what is the one question you wish people would ask but they never do?
Your questions have been great! We honestly don’t get interviewed all that often, but when we do, we’ve found all of the questions to be legit and ones we’ve wanted to answer. People never ask if we’d ever go back to a regular 9-5 job in the western world, nor do they ask if we want to have kids and settle down…perhaps they already know what our answer would be?

12. And finally, if you could run into anyone during your travels who would it be?
We love meeting up with bloggers whenever possible. It’s funny how we feel like we actually “know” people just from speaking on email, twitter, etc., it’s much more enjoyable to actually meet up for a drink!

We’d love to meet the cast of Departures. Three Canadian guys in their mid 20’s set off on a year-long adventure around the world. They loved it so much that they did a 2nd and 3rd season. They were our inspiration to start traveling, so we’d love to meet them.

We love Thailand!

Thank you again to Dariece and Nick for taking the time to do this interview. Again, if you’ve never visited their blog we encourage you to immediately stop whatever you’re doing (those cat videos can wait) and check out Goats on the Road!

About Goats on the Road: Nick and Dariece are the couple behind Goats on the Road a website designed to inspire others to live a financially sustainable, location independent lifestyle. Masters at making money abroad and turning their travels into a way of life, they’ve been on the road since 2008 and have explored some of the least visited places on earth, finding adventure wherever they go. They’re also full time contributors at Travel Pulse and Credit Walk where they share their stories and expertise of long-term travel. Check them out at Goats On The Road and follow them on Twitter, Facebook & Google+.

Would you like to be featured in a future “The One With…” interview? Email us!