andy

3 Months in Baja: Bahía de los Ángeles to Guerrero Negro

This is the story of all Amy’s dreams coming true.

Ok—again, not all of them, and not just mine either. A whole literal boatful of people’s dreams came true in this portion of the trip! But I’m getting ahead of myself.

We left Bahía de los Ángeles via the long, bumpy dirt road that for a long portion of the drive follows the route that the Baja 1000 drivers take. We had full-blown off-road-racing fever, so it seemed like a great idea the moment we had it.

We had conquered the jarring Mex 5 and felt confident about our ability to manage this stretch of road. Our friends from Bahía had assured us that it wasn’t too much worse than the Mex 5, and as long as we were fully supplied we should be fine. The only difference between the two drives was the amount of road between towns.

So in order to continue having stories to tell, the Turtle decided to wait until we were just far enough away from Bahía that going back wasn’t an option, and that’s when it began leaking fuel. I had been smelling gas for a while, but it was just faint enough that we thought it could be burn-off or something non-troubling. But soon the smell was overwhelming and it was necessary to stop and have a look.

After a few minutes diagnosing the problem, Andy began unloading his tools.

From underneath the Turtle Andy explained to me that the fuel pump was leaking, squirting fuel out all over the undercarriage. We had a long distance to go until the next gas station, so losing any amount of fuel was a problem. He continued poking around while I took the pets out for a walk along the Bahia 1000 track.

When we came back to check on him, I noticed Andy had been digging around his storage space under the bench seats inside. I asked him how everything was going, and he asked me if I remembered what we’d purchased at the Auto Zone a week ago in San Felipe. Because we’d looked up and memorized the words “bomba de combustible” especially for that visit to Auto Zone, I also of course remembered what they meant.

Fuel pump! Andy had just bought a spare. He’s a real wizard, that one.

So despite the fact that we would have been in a real jam out there in the desert alone on a dirt track nobody uses, in about an hour we were back on the road! I love how he’s able to turn disaster into mere inconvenience with a wave of his wrench. I never take for granted Andy’s mechanic skills and his Eagle Scout level of preparedness. We’re able to take risks and see portions of the world that few others get to see because we’re not as worried about being totally stranded (see: Dalton Highway). He’s the best!

We continued on, driving through stunning desert landscapes, surrounded by cacti of all shapes and sizes.

Our unplanned stop to replace the bomba de combustible meant we were in a race against the sun to reach our boondocking site before dark. As we wound around the curves leading up to San Rafael, we were slowed down further by this hilarious herd of cows who were apparently doing a slapstick bit for our enjoyment and exasperation. They could easily have exited the road on either side, but trotted ahead of us for about a mile, weaving back and forth and giving us annoyed looks over their shoulders as they went. And stopped. And then went again.

We made it to our site just as darkness swallowed up the roads, and went in to fix up some fancy clams we’d brought with us from the beach of La Gringa.

Since we almost never drive at night we were curious to see what our new front yard would look like in the morning.

It was awesome! We were the only humans as far as the eye could see, on a low bluff overlooking our private beach.

The animals were safe to roam freely, so while they did I happily took lots of photos of them. The beach looks really good on these two.

I took Scout down to the beac to play in the surf and read for a while. He just kept digging his face in my bag for the frisbee so I didn’t get much reading done, but when you’re on a private beach there’s really no wrong way to spend the day.

We stayed a few days before getting back on the bumpy road that would reconnect us with the Mex 1. Where it connects, we’d originally planned on heading south and visiting Guerrero Negro in a month or two on our way back up north, but as we drove and I read about the whale watching season, we thought we’d go right away in order to hit peak whale season.

This road was another long stretch of slow going, surrounded by every flavor of cactus.

It was so beautiful that we didn’t mind it too much, until we’d reached hour seven and our brains couldn’t take the jolting back and forth for one more actual minute. The only vehicle we’d seen on the road in days was a truck hauling eight cows and traveling at about 80kph as they passed us. This isn’t a road for the faint of heart.

I began researching places to boondock for the night. iOverlander works offline, which was a lifesaver throughout our entire time in Baja! I saw a little ranch up ahead called Rancho Piedra Blanca that has room for campers for about $10 a night, and even had snacks and showers.

We sat on the porch and chatted with the caretaker in Spanish until bedtime. It was a lovely relaxing evening, watching the sun set and enjoying the pace of life out in the middle of nowhere. We discussed life in Baja, family and travel in as many words as I could recall, we learned that the cows who had passed us in a blur had been on their way to Rancho Piedra Blanca and were now residents, and I fell deeply in love with this tiny lady:

The next day we steeled ourselves for more bumps and after many more hours we saw pavement and cheered! We turned right on the Mex 1 to go just a bit out of our way up north to Guerrero Negro and after driving through the entire town we decided the best spot to camp for the night would be an RV park. Two nights in a row paying for camping! What are we, the Rockefellers? Is that a reference the kids are using these days?

We sat on the patio and I began researching Guerrero Negro’s famous whale watching opportunities in earnest.

Here’s what I learned: half an hour south of the town is the Ojo de Liebre Lagoon, which is a popular calving spot for grey whales traveling their 6,000 mile journey from the Bering Sea. From January through April they come by the thousands to this lagoon, which is warm and protected from predators. The mothers feel so protected there that they seek out and enjoy the company of humans, and are even known to push their babies up to the surface with their noses to show them off and let them be petted. The height of the season is late January through late March, so our early February timing couldn’t have been better.

We met two awesome couples on the patio at El Malarrimo and spent a few hours hanging out over some beers and sharing stories. Marcus and Doria were planning to take a tour from Guerrero Negro the following day on a large tour boat with many passengers, and we met when I told them they might consider another tour. I’d just read on a website (because we got a wifi signal there!) that there are tours you can take on smaller 10-passenger panga boats that get you much closer to the whales, but I wasn’t sure where to go. As fate would have it, Di and CR had just taken a tour a day or two ago and they highly recommended that we drive the half hour south to a camp spot on the beach at Ojo de Liebre instead. They said the tour boats out of Guerrero Negro weren’t authorized to travel in the portion of the lagoon where there are the most whales, and because the boats are larger you don’t get a chance to touch them either. And I needed to touch a whale (now that I knew that was an option). They gave us directions and we started getting super excited.

The next day we ran around Guerrero Negro, eating as many tacos as we could manage.

With hard work and dedication, Andy was able to reach a daily total of seven tacos, giving rise to our new expression, “It really was a Seven Taco Day.” This can be used in any application as an equivalent to “best day ever.” And the tacos adobadas at Señor Taco were in the Top Three Tacos we had on the entire peninsula, so that was icing on the cake. The taco cake.

Later that day we followed Di and CR’s directions down to a campsite right by the lagoon, with huge round palapas at each site that basically doubled our living space. Fancy!

We walked down to the restaurant at the entrance for dinner and big icy margaritas with Marcus and Doria and a handful of other travelers who were all going out to see the whales the next day as well.

When we woke up the next day, it was pretty overcast and chilly. We optimistically mused that since it was only 7 a.m. maybe it would burn off, but the impression we got from the staff on the patio as we drank our coffee and watched the sky told us that what we were seeing is what we’d get. Oh well, we were going to see whales!

Marcus and Doria were as excited as we were.

We sped out to open water on our little 10-person panga boat and breathlessly watched the horizon for spouts.

It only took about 10 minutes before we saw not only spouts in the distance, but the whales themselves, and close up!

When we first began seeing the whales, a little girl on our tour was pointing each one out, saying, “There’s one!” “There’s another one!” until after a while we were seeing fifteen at a time, and she turned from the bow, threw out her arms and happily shouted, “We’re surrounded by whales!” It became the group’s catchphrase for the next few days.

It was a fun tour, but we all suspected that the overcast weather may have had something to do with how mellow the whales were. We decided not to be terribly disappointed since we just had a miraculous day seeing grey whales from 10 feet away, and we reminisced with Marcus and Doria at their palapa as the boys fixed a broken oil pan (not the Turtle’s injury, for once!).

Scout was no help at all, and silently criticized Marcus and Andy for misusing their frisbee time by working on the Golf.

Gracie oversaw the project from on high.

We considered the tour company’s policy of giving a discounted rate for a second day out on the boat, dropping the price from $45 to $20 if you wanted to go out again. We decided we couldn’t pass it up, and made plans with our new friends Ransom and Casey to meet up for coffee early the next day to try to get on the same boat.

The next day was absolutely perfect. It was warm and sunny, and we were able to get all our friends in one boat. Everyone felt positive about our chances to get closer to a whale on this gorgeous day.

Though the tour began at the same time as the previous day, it was clear that the whales were feeling much friskier; they were swimming right up next to the boat in no time!

I didn’t take many photos because I wanted to be present and experience the trip firsthand, but I did take some videos at chin level while I watched so I could relive it later.

It was a magical and deeply moving experience. These magnificent creatures were both enormous and gentle, and it was clear that they really did want to interact and play with us. The “little” 1,000 lb. babies followed their mothers right up to our boat, and flipped around onto their backs as they passed underneath us!

We watched these videos again after the tour, and Andy commented that I was grinning as widely as I had been when I witnessed it in real life. And now as I uploaded these I just realized I’m doing it again! It was a life-changing experience.

And then I GOT TO PET A WHALE!

I actually got a little teary-eyed afterward and had to sit back for a moment to take it all in. It’s hard to explain, but I felt tremendously close to nature and a part of another world that seemed so remote just an hour before. What’s another word for magic? Because I want to keep using that word as I describe the experience. I got to pet a whale!!!!

Almost everyone on our boat got to touch one at least once, which is why we looked like this on the way back:

What a day.

We got back to our mansion after a big celebration lunch at the restaurant patio just as the coastal clouds were beginning to roll in.

Luckily our suite had walls all around, so while the wind picked up and the rain began, we were all very cozy as we read books and watched the birds flying over the water in the distance.

Before we went to Baja, I didn’t know that one of my biggest dreams would be getting to pet a whale. Rarely do we get to realize a dream exists while it’s happening, and I’m so grateful I got to experience it. When we talk about our best days in Baja, this one always tops the list.

It really was a Seven Taco Day!!!

3 Months in Baja: A Photo Snapshot

Hello everyone!

It’s been a while since our last blog post, and we’ve been busy since our adventures at RTR in Arizona last January!

We’ve spent the last three months in Baja, making our way slowly to the farthest point at Los Cabos and then back up again, doing exhaustive research on where to find the best tacos on the peninsula. (We have the reports and will be happy to share our findings at your request.)

During our travels I tried a handful times to upload pictures to the blog, but the internet down there was virtually nonexistent so a photo could take around 40 minutes to upload and we’d get impatient and put the computer aside and head to the beach. We quickly fell into the rhythms of an outdoor lifestyle without the trappings of technology, and enjoyed the absence of the distraction.

I have so much I want to share about our adventures in Baja, but for the time being I thought I’d post a whole bunch of photos—in mostly chronological order—to give a general sense of the trip. It was an experience of a lifetime, and I can’t wait to fill you in!

So there you have it! Three months of fun, lots of sunshine, a thousand seaside frisbee sessions and maybe 500 tacos later, we’re back in the U.S. and ready for whatever the road brings our way.

(Hopefully more tacos.)

Mojave National Preserve: Kelso Dunes

Everyone has heard me say it over and over—whether in defense of my inability to supply Turtle arrival dates and destinations or even just to tell stories involving unexpected delights and trials—and just in case you haven’t heard me say it lately, I’m here today to say it again! When you travel full time and are regularly on the move, there’s not a lot of time to make future plans. We’re always in the middle of an experience, so not only do we not have time to sit and research, we also could change course at a moment’s notice and then all the time we spent planning would be for nothing. So we just wing it, and more often than not we’re pleasantly surprised!

There was a whole lot more to Mojave National Preserve than we’d imagined, and the next stop was the Kelso Dunes on the south side of the preserve.

Just a little ways past the Kelso Dunes Trail parking is a free dispersed camping area, where we found a nice spot against the dunes, had some lunch, and let the animals out to play in the sand.

While Andy sat outside the Turtle, basking in the sun and sanding a car part to artistic perfection, Scout and I embarked on a hike up the dunes.

The dunes give the landscape no sense of perspective, but if you can see the line where the light sand meets the darker shade, just to the right of the green swath in the middle is the lighter dirt of the parking area, where a teeny tiny turtle sits almost imperceptible to the naked eye.

After a few hot hours of slow and steady climbing, we got nearly to the top when we were faced with a nearly vertical wall of sand. I tried scrambling up at top speed, but the moment my hand dug into the sand, this happened:

My hands and feet would get buried in the sand avalanche and I’d slide right back down! After some serious top speed climbing and a ton of grunting and a few requests to Scout to stop making it look so easy, we made it to the top.

Totally worth it!

A wonderfully long hike is not its own reward in Scout’s opinion, so I had to make the journey worth his while by playing a little frisbee with him on top of the world.

When the day began, I couldn’t have anticipated that this would be my backyard vista. Another pleasant surprise for the books.

Jasper National Park and Banff, AB

Happy Halloween everyone!

If you’ve been in touch with us over the last month, you’ll know that despite what the blog might lead you to believe, we’re not in Canada anymore! We got back to the states about a month ago, and are currently visiting my family in Bozeman, Montana after a really fun few weeks in Great Falls visiting Andy’s family.

But so many people had told us how much we were going to love Jasper National Park and Banff, Alberta, and we really, really did. So I’ll catch up with a quick photo-heavy post to share the beauty! It was cold and overcast as we drove through, but that couldn’t stop the views.

Neither of us knew that the town of Jasper was right in the middle of the park, which was a fun surprise.

We stopped for pizza. . .

We stopped to watch this handsome fellow for a while. . .

And admired these sweet little deer until they hopped back into the forest.

The sun set before we made it through the park, so we stayed the night at the only spot that was still open for the winter on the south side of the park. The Columbia Icefields National Park Centre keeps the lower parking lot open for overnight campers, which was around $15 a night. A little spendy for a parking lot, but we really didn’t want to miss the views!

When we woke up the next morning, we discovered that we’d been parked right across the street from two glaciers!

The rest of the drive was so beautiful that the $15 camping fee seemed like a really good investment.

After exiting Jasper National Park, we were immediately in Banff National Park. Another gorgeous drive! One of my favorite things about this stretch of the highway was the wildlife bridges. There are fences all along the road to prevent animals from wandering out into traffic, so in order to allow safe crossing they built these tunnels covered by dirt and grass so the animals can access the whole park safely.

Soon we’d passed through Banff as well, and by mid-afternoon we were back in Montana.

When we got to Andy’s dad’s house, we were exhausted from three months of nonstop action. We slept like logs, relaxed, and visited with Andy’s dad and mom over some IPA’s and home-cooked meals, ate Howard’s pizza more than once, and slept some more . It was exactly what we’d been waiting for.

We also took some time to reorganize and assess the state of the Turtle. Andy looked in one of the compartments and found that it was filled with hunks of the Dalton Highway! Hilarious.

We got the famous vacuum sealer out and sealed things up for winter storage. . .

Andy fixed up our front brakes. . .

And then we slept some more!

On Top of the World: Deadhorse, AK + The Arctic Ocean + An Arctic Fox

Here is what you need to know about Deadhorse, AK. It’s a small town in northernmost Alaska near the Arctic Ocean with a population that is often listed at 25-50 permanent residents. The town’s primary function is to house the workers at the Prudhoe Bay oil field, which when including the temporary workers brings the population to around 3,000. In order to house the workers, “pre-fabricated modules” (cozy!) were shipped up and put on man-made gravel pads on top of the tundra, where the workers live for the duration of their employment.

Most people work 12-hour shifts daily for two weeks straight, and then have a week off. The town has a very small airport for transporting workers at no charge, so most people fly home and back in that week. Each work camp has its own building, with different amenities from camp to camp. Some have theaters or gyms or basketball courts, but these are all housed right in the work camp building.

It’s not as if anyone would want to pass the time outside their camp anyway; the mean annual temperature is 12 degrees Fahrenheit, and even the warmest month—July—sees an average temperature of only 47 degrees! Lows in the winter are generally below -40 degrees. It’s freakin’ cold up there. Almost every parking spot in town comes with a power cord.

What this means for tourists is that after being shaken around in your vehicle like dice in a Yahtzee cup for somewhere around 18 hours, there’s not a lot going on up there to do! Well, that’s not necessarily true, but the accomodations for tourists are limited to a gas station, general store, Napa store, a handful of buffet-style cafeterias for the workers that are open to the public during limited hours, and a hotel with a little snack shop and coffee counter inside. So we did all those things on our first full day there.

The white building up there is the hotel. It didn’t look any different than the housing, General Store, or gas station and the town really doesn’t waste good money on signage.

We also came across one of my favorite wildlife sightings to date: a little arctic fox! He was just the sweetest little thing and stayed close enough for us to watch him scamper around for about 5 minutes.

There is also a tour bus that you can book 24-hours in advance (to run a security check), which will take you past the security checkpoint and up to the Arctic Ocean! They charge $70 per person, but once you get that far, you really have to go all the way, right?

We thought so. So on our third day in Deadhorse, we took the early tour through the oil fields and saw the sights on our way to the beach. There were five others on our tour: a French couple who had flown in, and a couple from upstate New York and their tour guide who had driven them up in a tricked out Ford Escape set up by the tour company specifically for the Dalton Highway drive. Their guide jokingly asked if we’d remembered our swimsuits, to which I replied, “Actually, yes!” He laughed good-naturedly, as it was the first day of September, and said he’d be amazed if we went through with it. Challenge accepted!

The beach access we were able to explore was a nice long stretch that jutted out into the ocean. When we got there, our view was especially lovely under a hazy rainbow.

The guide volunteered to take pictures for us, and got a nice play-by-play of our walk out, and Andy’s sudden and shocking dive below the water.

What a beast! That boy knows how to have an adventure. I take longer than Andy does when it comes to decisions involving plunging my bare skin into frigid arctic water on a 30-degree day. But of course I eventually got the job done.

Ok . . . half done. But I’m telling you; it was so cold that not even my five layers on top could save me from that icy shock, or the subsequent half hour of numb legs and toes! It was awesome. We are very proud new members of the Polar Bear Club, and have a pure white rock from the beach as our memento of the day we took the plunge.

By the time we got back to the Turtle, we’d warmed up under the blanket Andy had brought along and felt ready to take on the Dalton Highway again. We decided to break the drive up into three days this time, because we wanted to check another National Park off our list by hiking into Gates of the Arctic.

We turned southward and said farewell to Deadhorse. We were so glad we made the trip, but are fairly certain we won’t be returning unless Andy will agree with my brilliant idea to build a summer home there. And so far he’s not budging. Oh well . . . goodbye, Deadhorse!

The Road to Alaska – Part 7: Anchorage, AK with Family + The Kenai Peninsula

When we planned our road trip to Alaska, we wouldn’t have anticipated that we’d be spending so much time with familiar faces, but after our super enjoyable visit with friends in Anchorage, we still had more fun coming our way!

Knowing we were spending some time up north, Andy’s mom Genie had planned a trip with Andy’s nephew Will to visit Alaska while we were in the area. Will loves to fish, and the Kenai Peninsula has been on his list for some time now. So they flew in to Anchorage, where we kicked off the trip by catching up, having dinner, and witnessing the beginning to Will and Andy’s very promising career as meat smoker models.

We drove down the Kenai Peninsula and stopped at Deep Creek, a fishing spot that had been recommended to Will by a fellow fisherman back home. We stayed a few hours, enjoying the sun and scenery as we watched other people catch our fish.

After a few hours with no luck, we decided to head into Homer to check into the house Andy’s sister had rented for the travelers. We parked the Turtle in the driveway, and were instant neighbors! I’ll under-exaggerate here and say it was a beautiful spot.

The next day we tried another fishing spot, this one just as scenic as the last. We’re beginning to see a trend in our Alaskan fishing spots: so picturesque you’d go there even if there weren’t any fish.

Except this time, there were!

A number of locals mentioned how sparse the fishing was this season, and it seemed like a pretty big deal when even the seasoned fishermen caught anything. So we felt very pleased that by the end of the day, all four of us had a caught a fish! Andy, Will and I all got humpys, and Genie got a nice big silver (gifted to her by some boys fishing next to us, but we all agreed it totally counted).

Afterwards we went down to the spit, which quickly became one of my favorite spots on our Alaskan journey. The whole spit is lined with funky shops and restaurants built on piers or decks or just smashed up against one another, people are filleting huge halibut and salmon right on the walkway, and the whole place is set against a backdrop you just can’t believe.

As we walked down the beach to get pictures of the rainbow, we took what will go down in history as The Greatest Photo of Us Ever Taken.

Sunglasses for the win!

The others did a much better job modeling and nailed it on the first try.

When we got home, Andy began preparing the fish for our big dinner.

We got so involved with preparations for a banquet, that by the time the meal was finished, it was midnight. (We didn’t know yet, but that would become kind of our thing during this trip.)

Even Scout had given up on us and went to sleep on the futon before we finished. Of course he woke up ready to play as soon as I tried to take the picture, but that’s to be expected with this one.

We still had three pink salmon on deck for us to enjoy, so before leaving for our third day of fishing Andy began experimenting with some new recipes and preparation methods. The night before he’d brined some for smoking, using the recipe given to us by Sam’s mom, and here he is removing it and readying it for smoking later in the day.

Here he is with his partner in mischief, who did not find Andy’s obsession with the new vacuum sealer strange in the least, and in fact suggested they try vacuum sealing the vacuum sealer bags.

I continued to find other goody bags stashed around the house, including this battery and handful of dried garlic chips. Also, all the dinner knives in a pouch, not pictured, but one of my favorites.

We packed up with discussions about how one might vacuum seal the vacuum sealer, and went back to Deep Creek to try a new spot this time. Unfortunately the weather had lived up to the rainy forecast, and as we fished it got colder and colder, until we finally had to admit defeat. Luckily, we had smoked salmon linguini on the evening’s menu, so we were excited to return to Homer and prepare it.

On the way, we saw more rainbows! Alaska makes really nice rainbows.

That last one is the view from the house, so we had that rainbow to admire out the big square windows as we made dinner. It really was an amazing spot. Will created a few antipasto platters that were as delicious as they were beautiful.

It was a good thing he did, too, because once again dinner wasn’t on the table until midnight! I think it must have something to do with the long daylight hours up here, but either way we partied into the A.M. every day. Andy’s smoked salmon linguini was better than any I’ve ever had in a restaurant, and fully worth the wait. Another fine fresh Alaskan fish meal!

The view from the rental house changed daily, each time a surprise and delight. The morning we left was another hit.

We took advantage of the scenery by taking a few group shots on our way out.

I had to get a photo of Scout and Will, the two best buddies you’d ever hope to meet. Scout is crazy about Will, who very generously spent much of his time playing outside with him and throwing the frisbee in the back yard. Nothing beats a boy and his dog!

We left Homer mid-day, and had planned on stopping to fish one last time on the way back to Anchorage, but the Turtle had other plans. We broke down (Andy easily agreed this one was official) and immediately got towed by a good Samaritan to a spot just up the road, which turned out to be a great place to be broken down.

Andy had no idea what the problem was. I said maybe we’d run over a lawn mower, because that’s what it sounded like, but he thought he’d investigate further despite my diagnosis. After a bit, this wizard not only figured out what the problem was, but also happened to have the spare part that we needed on hand!

Remember that time we broke down at Mike and Becky’s house in Bend, OR? While that problem was being investigated, Andy had bought a distributer to see if that was the problem, which we all know now it wasn’t. (It was Becky pulling fuses out.) So we had an extra!

While Andy pulled the Turtle apart and worked his magic, Will and Genie went fishing, and I used the time to run Scout and let Gracie play outside for a while, cleaned up the Turtle, and read my book in the sun with the animals. It was actually a very nice afternoon for all involved!

When we got back to Anchorage we decided to have an early dinner, so at 10 p.m. we stopped by 49th State Brewery to have huge delicious reubens and play with WikiSticks.

We still had a full day left in Anchorage before Genie and Will had to fly back, so we visited the zoo. . .

And saw the world’s largest chocolate waterfall at Alaska Wild Berry Products.

The candy store also had huge chocolate bars that Andy really, really wanted to touch but he obeyed the sign anyway, and a polar bear.

After a delicious Italian dinner, this time at a much more reasonable hour due to Will and Genie’s 3 a.m. wakeup call, we said our goodbyes.

The trip was unforgettable, and we’re so glad you guys came up north to meet us. Alaska isn’t the same without you!

The Road to Alaska – Part 6: Anchorage, AK with Friends

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times (I may have actually said it a thousand times): one of the best things about Turtle Life is the flexibility and freedom to visit our friends and family. And during our time in Anchorage, we were lucky enough to be able to spend quality time with both friends and family!

First we spent a week with Andy’s longtime buddy Sam and his wife Sara. Sam is a professor and has the summer off, so we took full advantage of his schedule by having a full week of fun.

Andy and I had caught some salmon in Valdez and kept two to bring along, which Andy prepared in his famous marinade and Sam grilled up for us.

*A tip if you like delicious things: Sam also BBQ’s up frozen seasoned hashbrowns as a side dish, which were so good I just got jealous of myself when I saw this picture of the hashbrowns I was about to eat when I took the photo.

Sam took us on a field trip to the fish hatchery, where we saw loads of spawning salmon! Pictured are only two, so please just take my word for it that there were a bunch.

Sam, Sara, and their son Oliver took us for a crisp and refreshing rainy-day walk up to Portage Glacier.

We hadn’t seen snow in a while, so we had to take advantage of the wintery playground and make ourselves a slide. I paved the way with the classic bum slide, and Andy immediately took it to the next level, as he is wont to do.

On the way home, all our dreams came true when we spotted a moose grazing right by the road in town!

We were really beginning to believe the area moose were a rumor created by the Alaska Chamber of Commerce.

And luck was really on our side—or else the COC had gotten wind that we were on to them and planted that moose in two spots so we wouldn’t spread the conspiracy theory around—because a day later we saw another one!

This one was on a walk through a beautiful park on the way to the beach. She had been grazing on the trail blocking hikers, and the locals who warned us about her presence smiled curiously when I threw up my hands and cheered about a moose on the trail. Somehow they could tell right away that we weren’t from around there.

We stood up the hill from her to admire her moose-y cuteness, then walked on to the ocean since it’s weird to stare at a moose all day. And what a day for the beach!

Another highlight of the trip was the delivery we had waiting for us at Sam and Sara’s place! After catching so many fish in Haines and Valdez, we decided we should spring for a vacuum sealer so we can pack more of our fresh fish and berry picking surpluses into the freezer and keep them for even longer. I was super happy about our newest purchase, and Andy was even a little more so. (Sam and Sara, I’m aware that I’m grossly underselling Andy’s excitement about this purchase, but if I did his joy any justice everyone would think I was exaggerating.)

Well of course we had to test the thing out. An hour and 50 vacuum bags later, Andy had made it as far as testing out vacuum sealing tortilla chips just to see what would happen, and suddenly it was bedtime.

When we got back to the Turtle for the night, we found that someone had caused a little trouble back at home. The culprit still remains at large as we try to gather more conclusive evidence.

On Monday Sara was back at work, so Sam took Andy and me on a beautifully sunny and very fun walking tour of Anchorage.

I’ll have you know that we had way more than a week’s worth of fun that week. Sam and Andy are two peas in a pod, and it’s awesome to see your sweetheart having fun like the old days with his buddy.

Although we tried our best to convince Sam to blow off another week’s commitments to goof off with us some more, he somehow decided to take the responsible road. Go figure!

Before we moved onto the next leg of the Anchorage Adventure, we needed a little battery-recharge, at which point it became apparent which of our friends are helpful when it comes to naps . . .

And which aren’t so much.

Oh, and in case you’re still wondering what happened to the vacuum-sealed tortilla chips . . . they were all ground to corn crumbles, except for one, which stayed completely intact!

Weird and worth the suspense, right?

The Road to Alaska – Part 5: Yukon! Valdez! Gracie Cleans Her Tail!

Everything you’ve heard about the drive to Alaska is true.

Ok, wait.

I guess I don’t know what you’ve heard about the drive to Alaska. Let’s go with this instead: if you’ve heard that the drive to Alaska is mile after mile of astonishingly beautiful scenery that seems too enormous and perfect to exist in real life, then what you’ve heard is true.

Especially once you hit Yukon. I have so many photos of this drive that I promise you’re hoping I never show up at your house for a slide show. Because it would take longer to show you all the gorgeous scenery and tell the stories than it took to drive through it. But here are a few of my favorites.

Right??

If you make the drive, be sure to multiply your estimated drive time by 2 to account for all the stoping and staring you’ll be doing.

The beauty didn’t stop once we hit Alaska, of course. We went to Valdez, where we’d been told the best fishing awaited us. You’ll just have to believe me when I tell you that I caught a fish on my very first cast, and then caught two more before Andy had even finished attaching his lure! (In all fairness, he’d gallantly put mine on first, which is why I was fishing already. But it just goes to show you how good the fishing is in Valdez!) We estimate that we caught 25 fish—dollys and humpys. We kept two to bring with us and released the rest, not because we didn’t want them, but we just didn’t have any room left in the fridge after all the fish we caught in Haines. A fine problem to have, it’s true.

From Valdez, we took a very early ferry over to Whittier. As we drank our coffee and admired the ocean, the fog made the horizon completely disappear, which was lovely.

As the sun rose, a chubby little porcupine came out of the bushes and delighted everyone in the ferry line.

The Valdez-Whittier trip is about 4.5 hours, and so beautiful that even though it got chilly we stayed posted up on the deck under our blankets for most of the ride.

Once we arrived in Whittier, we drove straight on to Anchorage. We had so much fun visiting friends while we were there that I’ll make a separate post to cover all those adventures.

For now, I’ll make the title of the post accurate with the following pictures of Gracie cleaning her tail.

The Road to Alaska – Part 3: New Aiyansh, Stewart, & Hyder

Holy cow, you guys.

We knew before we began the drive through Canada to Alaska that it was going to be beautiful, but somehow we weren’t even prepared for how majestic this part of the world is!

Every new place we go, we just look at each other, wide-eyed, and laugh out loud in amazement that we’re getting to see all this.

One of my favorite spots yet was the next stop on our map after leaving Stewart. New Aiyansh, BC and the other neighboring villages of Nisga’a are so beautiful that I can’t possibly do it any justice with words. And believe me when I say that I’ve been trying! Even when we were there, both of us were more quiet than usual.

A volcano eruption in the 18th century left the area covered in lava rock, which now is blanketed in dozens of different varieties of moss, ferns and little succulents. And the pools of water scattered around the lava fields are a perfectly clear aquamarine color that felt like something out of a fairy tale.

The Drowned Forest was a favorite stop for me.

A neighboring village has a bouncy suspension bridge spanning the Nass River, so we crossed it and I quickly admired the view as I hurried to the other side. Andy, of course, loved it!

Vetter Falls was a rainforest wonderland, and we walked out as far as we could to see if we could spot the “phantom fish”—steelhead that get trapped at the falls and develop snake-like bodies with large heads—but they lived up to their name.

Andy tried very, very hard though. So you have to give him credit.

We stayed the night at a lake near Cranberry Junction, which had a name but will now just be known as “mosquito lake” in our memory. It was a gorgeous spot for a feeding frenzy though!

Although staying indoors to escape mosquitos has its advantages.

The next day, we drove to Stewart, BC, which took us five times as long as it would have had we not stopped every half mile to marvel at the mountains, glaciers, and waterfalls.

Right next door to Stewart is a little town called Hyder. . . Alaska! They’re minutes away from one another, and have a very similar vibe; they’re just separated by a border agent on the BC side.

A local tradition is to get “hyderized” at the Glacier Inn, so we did. A bracing shot of Everclear later, we had our official cards!

The next day, one of the locals we’d met found us and invited us out for a day of fishing on their boat! We had a phenomenal time, especially considering the weather was clear and sunny so we could venture out on the speed boat to explore, fish and pick wild blueberries.

There were other perks as well:

It was such a treat and we’re so grateful we got to join! Thanks again, Kim and David!

After we left the dock that evening, we drove up to the Salmon Glacier, the fifth largest glacier in Canada. Because the sun doesn’t set until 11 p.m. around here this time of year, we had plenty of time to drive up and stop for photos along the way.

We found a great lookout to stop for the night, and watched the sun set behind the mountains.

The view from our front yard when we woke up the next day was pretty incredible!

We even had friendly neighbors!

Scout and I took a little walk while Andy made coffee.

I love our morning coffee views these days.

We drove back down the mountain to Stewart, where we got our fishing licenses and headed out to the dock to see if we could catch a few crabs. We had great luck catching crabs, but for a little while it seemed like the only crabs in the water were females! We met a local who was also crabbing from the dock and enjoyed hanging out with him while we all released the ladies back into the ocean. By the time he had to go he’d caught a number of prawns, which he gifted to us. We were totally thrilled. I’ve never had fresh prawns before, so it was generous and very much appreciated! Thanks again, Tim! 🙂

Well, I have more tales to tell and I’m not nearly caught up all the way yet, but I just looked at the time and it’s almost grizzly bear feeding time here in Haines, and we want to see more bears!

Yes, I said more! Spoiler alert:

A Busy Few Weeks: The VLA, ABQ, Boise, The Bisti Badlands, Four Corners, & Mesa Verde NP

Our current location is generally a mystery to anyone trying to keep track of us—including us—mostly due to the fact that we’re so busy having fun that I forget how long it’s been since I last updated the blog or Instagram! I promise that by the end of the next post both you and I will be completely caught up.

As I type this, I’m sitting at an adorable cafe and sweets shop in a town that, I announced immediately before consulting anyone else in the Turtle, we will one day live, even if just for a season. This place is a dream. But we’ll get to that next time. We have so much to cover right now!

We left our last story outside the Very Large Array near Socorro, NM, having a delicious evening treat of a pie sampler from Pie Town. We found a great pull-out to stay the night just a few minutes from the VLA. That night before bed, we watched Contact with a view of the VLA right outside our window! It was awesome. In the movie, the VLA plays a prominent role in Jodie Foster’s research and makes a really dramatic background. And it’s just as impressive in person.

The VLA is an astronomical radio observatory made up of 27 antennas that are each 82′ in diameter. They’ve helped with the investigation of black holes, quasars, pulsars, planets, and loads more. It’s astonishing to see them up close.

(Not quite sure what I was up to in this photo, but it’s the only one I’ve got, so you’re stuck with my unexplainable dance number.)

After getting our science on, we made our way back to Albuquerque where I had a flight to catch in a few days to Boise to visit my girlfriends Beth and Lexie.

But first, Andy and I had a mission: to get poolside as soon as possible. I’m not sure how we got the idea in our heads, but suddenly we couldn’t live without a swim. So we headed to the only RV park in Albuquerque that had their pool open before Memorial Day—American RV Park.

We came for the pool and stayed for the lovely park, yummy continental breakfast, clean showers and laundromat, and beyond-friendly staff. We really did stay another day. It’s a great park that I can’t recommend highly enough! We realized that it had been over a year since we had stayed in an RV park, which was fun because we’ve really gotten the hang of boondocking and have saved lots of money by not going to parks unless we need to take advantage of their amenities. Turtle power!

We stayed two nights, and the next day I left this guy:

To hang out with these guys:

It was a bunch of fun. We painted the town red, and even got dressed up to go watch the Kentucky Derby.

After a whirlwind few days, I was back in Albuquerque and the four of us were back on the road. Andy and I went to a fantastic mining museum in Grants called the New Mexico Mining Museum, which has a replica uranium mine underground. The man at the front desk had worked in mining for about 35 years, and had worked his way up from the bottom to be the head of his mine and even got an award for safety, with the longest time without a death in the mine or serious injuries. He had lots of information, was adorable, and gave me a goldstone to remember the mine by.

Outside of Grants, we stayed at the Joe Skeen campground near El Malpais.

I was happy to be reunited with this guy:

And this guy:

We drove to the Bisti Badlands wilderness, where you can stay overnight in the parking area for free! It was especially appreciated that we got to stay after we climbed for hours over the crazy hills that changed in appearance every few minutes. It felt like a walking tour of 10 different planets.

It was a hot day, and when we got back to the parking lot, we relaxed in our chairs and read books with Scout and Gracie. Gracie has become a real champ with her harness and leash these days. I think she’s figured out that sometimes it’s her only ticket outside, so she wears it without any problem, and even comes to my feet meowing when she hears me get it out.

The next day we made it to Four Corners with beautiful skies above us.

Then we drove on toward Mesa Verde National Park. The landscape on the way to the park was a destination unto itself. I swear this is not a painting.

In the last year, we’ve been to two other cliff dwellings sites: Bandelier NM and Gila Cliff Dwellings NM. We really enjoyed both, but agreed once we made it to Mesa Verde that this is our favorite site so far.

In the park are 600 beautifully preserved cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Pueblo people, many of which you can tour or see clearly from various vistas. Depending on the site, the tours are just $5 or $10 each, which gets you 1-2 hours of information and a walk right through the dwellings. You can see petroglyphs and pictographs, the different styles of construction each group used, and the actual tools they used to grind corn and make food. And the views are so vast and unreal that we both said more than once that we’d pay just to hike the trails on the mesa! There are also self-guided tours you can take, so we did all of those too.

Our second day there, as we parked at Balcony House for our tour we noticed another van that could be the Turtle’s long-lost cousin, so we parked by it as we often do when we see a van we like. After traveling around for the last year and a half, we’ve found that we can usually tell by someone’s van if they are kindred spirits, and our track record is pretty good so far. This time was no exception! We ran into Gary and Kiki as we returned from our tour, and found out that they’re just starting out on their full-time vandwelling adventure (though they’ve already been on many, many adventures of other sorts). We’d all already purchased tickets for the same tour the following day, so we got to hang out even more during the Long House tour.

We super enjoyed getting to know you guys, and I’m certain that our paths will cross down the road. (When they do, we’ll let you know what Turtle theme song we came up with; hopefully one as cool as Birdy’s.) You guys were a pleasure to hang out with. Stay in touch! 🙂

After the tour, we did a quick 6-mile loop on top of the mesa to check out the other cliff dwelling overlooks.

We would have loved to stay and visit (both the park and the new friends) longer, but the storm clouds were rolling in and the skies were getting darker. Our first rule of overlanding is “Never Drive at Night”, which is comparable to driving in terrible weather, so we hit the road to make it to Durango, CO to find a spot before the weather hit.

We hung out in Durango for the evening, a town that I already loved and knew Andy would too. The weather was unfortunate, with frigid winds and constant cloud cover, but we had a great time anyway. If you can involve pizza in the plans, Andy is a happy camper.

If you can also include a free trip to the coolest railroad museum ever, Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum, he will be even happier.

And if you really want to make his day, cap it all off with a little performance testing at the highest altitudes the Turtle has ever attempted. . .

Which, unbeknownst to us, was the next leg of the trip. And one that would bring us to where I sit now, in my new very favorite town of all time! But that’s up next.

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