Hello fellow adventurers at heart! Jason, Freya and I are back in Colorado and have finished our year on the road. I’ve been neglecting the blog and instead had to put most of my time into working for the past few months so we can start to save up for our next big adventure. What do we have in store? Keep reading and I will tell you what you can expect from us over the next year. If you’re new here, you may want to check out The First 48 Hours to hear how this all began.
We have already delved into a couple of new adventures. Jason went on a five day backpacking trip into the Flat Top Wilderness with a group of teenage boys through an amazing organization called Big City Mountaineers (more on them at another time). I rekindled my love for rock climbing by taking Sport Climbing and Rock Rescue courses through the Colorado Mountain Club. Jason and I went white water rafting on the Arkansas River with a great group of veteran river guides and learned how to hunt for porcini mushrooms in the Rockies with a wonderfully nerdy veterinarian. And we began working with Trusted Housesitters, taking care of other people’s houses and pets in the mountains – free lodging with gorgeous scenery and cuddly cats and dogs to keep us company.
We have been keeping busy and taking advantage of opportunities as they come up, trying to “go with the flow”. But goals give us purpose and direction so we do have some plans for the future.
In the next month, I am going to go on my first solo backpacking trip. I’m super nervous about it but also looking forward to the solitude and the challenge. Jason and I have a goal to complete three 14ers this year (hikes up mountains over 14,000 feet high) and are horribly out of shape so that will be interesting. We are getting a Colorado State Parks pass and plan to check out a lot of the parks around the front range so we can share what we find with you. And my favorite summer goal is that I am planning a road trip along the West coast with my mom for her 75th birthday. She has given me so much over my lifetime and I want to be able to walk through the redwoods with her so we can share that experience.
So why do you care what we will be doing? Well hopefully Jason and I can share some entertaining stories and give you some useful advice that will inspire you to get out and have your own adventures. I am committing fully to this blog and will be writing one post per week starting today. You can expect posts reviewing various destinations, tips and tricks for road tripping, entertaining stories from the road (just wait until we tell you about the night we had dinner with a cult), and we will let you know what we are up to and share things that we find as we go forward.
Over the next several months, we will also be working hard to save money for a new camper that we can actually stand up in, so if you have any recommendations for inexpensive camper vans or small RVs, please let us know. We are planning to take our new home-on-wheels on a trip to Baja in February and an extended road trip next summer to sell our drawings and photographs at art shows and festivals throughout the West. It’s going to be a busy year but I wouldn’t want it any other way. Thanks for tagging along with us!
Jesse
Rambling Strong 
Hey Jesse and Jason, first of all, thank you for responding to my Vagabond post yesterday. Second, I so enjoyed reading your post from yesterday. You guys are super talented! I applaud your desire to want to get back out on the road. We lived in Colorado for awhile while our son-in-law was in seminary in Denver. He is a certified trail guide and has climbed several 14ers and also covered most of the Colorado trail. If I could get Gina (my wife) to rehab an older trailer, I would consider (seriously) an old school bus. I guess the old hippie in me is attracted to them. You guys could get a short one to rehab. My second choice would be a Casita, they are nearly indestructible and the longest they make is 17′. No outside maintenance to worry about and they are extremely light. Check out DrivinnVibin! They’re a young couple from Alabama who set sail over a year ago. I look forward to following you guys! God Bless, RVClear.com
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I follow DrivinnVibin! They make some great videos. I also follow a couple of people on Instagram who have converted buses and they look amazing. FernTheBus is one of my favorites. They definitely have a lot of space and it blows me away what people have done with the interiors. I worry a little about gas mileage but I imagine with anything in our budget, that’s going to be an issue. We do love Colorado – really weren’t sure if we would end up back here but we have some great friends and I have a reliable employer here so it’s a good home base for us. Thanks for the comments and best of luck to you!
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How do you feel different after a year on the road? What life wisdom have you learned from your travels? I enjoy reading about your adventures.
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It sounds so cliche but really just learning to take things day by day was one of the biggest lessons. Its much easier to do while you are on the road because you really don’t have much of a choice. The trick has been to incorporate that into our daily lives now that we are stationary. I find myself being pretty lazy now that I don’t have to go get water every day or think about where I’m going to sleep or how I’m going to pay for gas, so that’s a work in progress.
When we ran out of money the first time and I had to fly back to Colorado to work for a week, I found a much greater appreciation for my job…working to live is truly a choice and I’ve kept that lesson, cutting back my “day job” back to part-time so I can focus on other interests like photography and outdoor adventures.
Jason and I both have learned to live with much, much less and it is very freeing. We had a room full of boxes of things that we saved when we packed up for our year on the road…not much really compared to the amount of stuff that we sold and gave away. But I’ve been going through those boxes and giving MORE stuff away! Simplicity is such an important part of happiness to me. I’m a little type A (Jason may say a lot) so lots of possessions mean lots of things to take care of and worry about for me.
I think the biggest challenge that I’m having now is learning how to relax now that I don’t have as many things to worry about. I just listened to a podcast about the philospoher Schopenhauer and they talked about “restless striving”, this force within all living things to strive towards something greater….the struggle is real! I have found through trial and error that I don’t do well with no goals, no plan. The idea sounds appealing but it just breeds anxiety for me. So balance is what I’m striving for.
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