family

Even More Parties: Spearfish, SD

As we meet new friends along our journey, most people are curious to know how far we’ve made it in the last two years living in the Turtle. And when they hear the answer, nearly all of them are surprised to discover how few states and provinces we’ve added to the list.

In case you’re wondering, here it is:

Oregon
Washington
Idaho
Montana
Wyoming
South Dakota
Colorado
New Mexico
Oklahoma
Utah
Arizona
Nevada
Alaska
Texas*
British Columbia
Alberta
Yukon

* I can’t decide if we should count Texas since we just crossed through the panhandle, which—on a side note—we learned is actually referred to as “West Texas”. Hm. Anyway, we were just there for a few days and never really got into the state so it feels like cheating to add it at this point. I’ll get back to you on that one.

Looking at the list, it seems like a lot of places to have spent time in two years, especially considering what my list would have looked like a few years ago living in Portland! But we’ve found that many full-time travelers move much more quickly than we do, and the fact that we haven’t even crossed over into the eastern half of the United States is perplexing to them. We’ve talked to people who drove from one coast to the other in a week! Which is perfectly fine—especially if your vehicle gets good gas mileage—but that’s just not our travel style. The Turtle is aptly named. We move slowly. And we like it that way!

First of all, there are just a staggering number of incredible and beautiful and strange things to discover in every area we go. The more slowly we move, the more things we get to experience. Some of our favorite places have been little surprise spots we’ve stumbled across and loved so much we just stayed. Secret lakes, rivers, overlooks and canyons that we’ve had all to ourselves, and that we could have easily just driven by if we hadn’t taken the time to turn off the beaten path to explore.

Secondly, we don’t get good gas mileage. I think you’re not surprised. So the less we drive, the less money we’re spending. We might as well stop to smell the roses so that we can prolong our trip.

And lastly, we haven’t made it far because we keep getting opportunities to hang out with family! There’s always something going on and now that we have the chance to be more present, we’ve really been enjoying family time as if we were neighbors. So as we’re driving around, if we hear of an upcoming event, we just head that way.

After spending a few weeks of fun visiting Andy’s family in Great Falls and then my family in Bozeman, the last of the family stops (for now) was a visit to Andy’s sister Maggie’s house in Spearfish, South Dakota. His mom Genie was getting knee surgery there, so we stopped by for moral support and to lend a hand where we could, and if a lot of fun was had together in the meantime, so be it.

Genie’s knee surgery was scheduled for birthday, so we celebrated ahead of time with a formal dinner. Andy prepared another fantastic feast, with his scrumptious stuffing and a second turkey.

Andy’s niece Ellie can plan a party like nobody I’ve ever met before, and she’d already picked out the perfect cake to make. (I’d advise saving the date for her to plan your party now; by the time she’s old enough to begin working, she’ll be booked for a lifetime already.) Maggie baked the cake and made the icing, I iced it, and Ellie and I piped the flowers. Her brother Will came home and soon he and Andy were even hard at work piping flowers too.

Maggie set a lovely table, and Andy’s turkey came out perfectly.

It was really shaping up to be a good party! Everyone got dressed up and we got a few photos to show that we do in fact clean up pretty well.

It was a lovely party!

Genie had her surgery, and it went well. As she recovered, we all enjoyed our time together.

Gracie and Scout played outside in the sunshine regularly.

Andy made some turkey noodle soup.

And it was delicious!

He also worked on this car part. Before meeting Andy I didn’t realize that an appropriate adjective for car parts could be “pretty”.

A few days later, it was Andy’s birthday! We surprised him with a Lego-themed party, which I’d been wanting to do for a few years now, but this location was ideal since Will and Ellie have extensive Lego collections and are also nice people who are wiling to share their Legos.

Ellie blew up exactly 70 balloons. And lived to tell the tale.

Since Andy is not fond of sweets, I made him his second-annual mashed potato and gravy birthday cake, which he deemed satisfactory under the authority of his Lego crown.

As everyone else in the group is normal and does like sweets, I also make a proper birthday cake for the rest of us. I planned a little surprise for Will during Andy’s surprise party, which was a challenge to remember which secrets to keep from whom, but somehow we pulled it off. When he came up to visit us in Alaska this last summer, we’d talked about having Baked Alaska at some point, but it never happened. So for the birthday cake, I tried making a Baked Alaska for the first time and was lucky enough that everything went according to plan and it turned out great. And tasted delicious too!

Second Party was a success.

Whose dog is this?

A few days later it was time for the third party of the trip—Thanksgiving dinner. Ellie brilliantly repurposed the sign she’d made for Andy’s birthday, and added the most impressive and charming little Lego turkey! Andy and I both assumed the other had helped her with it and laughed out loud when we learned that she did it completely on her own.

It was our third turkey feast in under a month, so we felt very spoiled and happy about it. Andy’s turkey roasting skills only improved each time, and the holiday dinner was his best showing yet! Once Thanksgiving day had passed, we’d gotten so accustomed to having parties that we kept the good times rolling with other activities, such as:

Face taping.

Bowling.

Hanging Christmas lights.

Festive drinks.

More fancy dinners. (Andy dry aged a steak and cooked it sous vide! Truly the best steak I’ve ever had. He’s something else.)

Recess.

Grocery shopping.

Perfecting more car parts. (Bonus points if you can identify the part.)

Pizza eating.

Christmas train maintenance.

General shenanigans.

We felt lucky to begin December with sunshine, but soon the cold weather did finally set in. It just so happened that our trip was coming to a close anyway, as Genie had recovered enough to return to Great Falls.

So as winter descended on Spearfish, we left in search of sunshine, and to add another state to our slowly growing list: California!

All Kinds of Parties: Billings & Bozeman, MT

As October neared its end, we found ourselves back in Bozeman, MT to visit my family as we continued our journey south. It’s still beautiful there!

The weekend before Halloween, we drove over to Billings to spend the weekend with our good friends Blake and Martha. (Martha is taking this photo, so she is not pictured. Sorry Martha.)

We were excited to have time this year to make Halloween costumes, and while we stayed with Blake and Martha we’d planned to dress up and go out with some friends. Andy was a steampunk mad scientist, and after he put the outfit on I realized that this isn’t too far a cry from his real persona.

I was a steampunk mechanic, and the moment I put on the bustle I’d made (from curtains at Goodwill) I decided it was the one thing that’s always been missing from my daily wardrobe.

Once the group arrived at Blake and Martha’s, Martha unveiled the snacks that she had prepared (with some help from Andy and Blake, they’ll want you to know). Aren’t they adorable?

And isn’t the group adorable?

Off we went to a local pub downtown, where the Halloween party was just beginning. (Wonder Woman did not join us on this portion of the outing.)

We had a blast! It was a fun night, and a super-fun weekend hanging out with good friends. We watched a couple World Series games, ate some Chalet Market sandwiches (my favorite), Blake, Andy and Harper carved pumpkins. . .

And then suddenly Blake had to go back to work. BOOOOO!

He was probably relieved.

It was still sunny in Billings when we pulled away.

And no sooner were we in Bozeman than the snow began to fall.

Though Gracie enjoys snow as much as any adventure cat, she preferred my mom’s warm bed. And when it wasn’t available, she’d wait outside the door for her turn.

The rest of us enjoyed playing outside.

Then we’d come back inside to visit Gracie.

The last time we visited Bozeman, we made good use of my mom’s kitchen and cooked up a number of tasty feasts for the three of us. Andy and I both love to cook, and do quite well with our three small burners, two pots, one small pan, and limited counter space in the Turtle. (We had authentic Pho while cozied up inside our tiny house in Deadhorse! It was pretty fancy.) But a complete kitchen with lots of space and a full sized oven is a treat we can’t resist. Andy had his heart set on cooking a turkey, and if you’re going to cook a turkey, you may as well make stuffing, and if you’re going to make stuffing, you ought to make mashed potatoes and gravy and also bake a pie, right?

It was weeks until Thanksgiving, but it seemed like the plan was shaping up into a real party. We christened it Fall Feastival, and invited my sister’s family and a few friends over, and Andy spent all day carefully preparing the turkey.

Meanwhile, Clive and Scout and I played in the snow. That boy can really throw a frisbee, even with winter gloves on. Scout was very impressed.

My sister and I contributed to the meal a bit, but mainly it was Andy’s show and he was happy to have full reign over the kitchen. He made stuffing and gravy so good we all considered drinking it straight out of mugs.

It was a genuine feast! The turkey was without a doubt the best I’d ever had. Andy really knocked it out of the park! I made a pumpkin pie cheesecake and hot chocolate for dessert, just in case we didn’t feel we’d spoiled ourselves enough already.

Afterwards we played a little Pin the Tail on the Turkey, which Liam, Clive, and Bella all helped put together.

It was a wonderful celebration! Maybe the First Annual? Any excuse for a feast.

The Fall Feastival marked the end of our visit to Bozeman, so on we traveled toward our next stop: Spearfish, South Dakota. It’s always so hard to leave my people, but we’re grateful to see them as often as we do these days.

I mean, if we didn’t live in the Turtle, I may have never seen this work of art:

Liam made The Eye of Sauron’s girlfriend.

Like I said—my people.

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!

Wildlife Safari on the Alaska Highway

Remember that time I said we loved spotting wildlife? Well we really loved the drive down through British Columbia into Alberta.

As we pulled away from Liard Hot Springs, we made it about 100 feet before spotting this darling lineup of wood bison.

We read in one of our travel pamphlets that while wood bison are a subspecies of the American bison, they differ slightly from the plains bison that are more common in the States. The most obvious difference is in size: these guys are much larger than the bison we’d seen before, and when we looked it up we learned that they are the largest land mammal in North America. Large males can weigh over 2,000 lbs!

I found this handy visual online which compares the two:

As I read this information aloud to Andy as we drove, he tapped my arm and pointed up ahead.

There, on both sides of the road, were about 60 or more wood bison! They ranged in size from hulking males to darling little fuzzy babies.

We pulled over to watch them graze and nap in the tall grass, while others crossed the road right in front of us to meet their group on the other side.

It was very, very exciting—for us, not the wood bison. They seemed pretty nonplussed by the whole encounter.

After a while we decided to move along, and the landscape along the Alaska Highway was just as incredible to watch as the wildlife.

It wasn’t long before we came across another neat animal: a female rock sheep. She was the only one we saw during that portion of the drive, despite the signs all along the road telling us to watch out for rock sheep.

After we passed rock sheep country, we stopped to take a picture of the beautiful rainbow of fall colors on the hill, and this time I was the wildlife being observed from someone inside the Turtle.

The drive took us up into the mountains and then back down again as we approached Fort St. John, B.C.

Once we’d left the mountains we thought the wildlife spotting was over, but just outside of town we came across this handsome couple:

We hadn’t seen as many caribou as Andy had hoped, so this close-up view was just perfect.

There’s a great rocky beach just south of Fort St. John that lots of locals go to launch boats and spend the day, and we saw other boondockers there for the night as well. That night we watched the Northern Lights while Scout and Gracie sniffed around on their leashes, and in the morning we played outside for a while before getting back in the Turtle and driving some more.

Typically we prefer to move really slowly and drive a maximum of two hours a day when we’re not camped out. We’re not in any hurry, it’s cheaper and uses less gas, and we get to see so much more of the world and have more impromptu adventures that way. But since we were trying to stay ahead of the weather, we’d been driving much more frequently than usual, and it was starting to catch up with us. Being in a van all day is not why we’re living in a van!

So when we finally reached Whitecourt, naps were in order. Gracie is the best nap buddy a person could ask for.

Waking people up to interact and play is much more in Scout’s wheelhouse.

We pushed on, and within about 20 minutes of each other we watched a black bear cross the road in front of us, and then a lynx. I speculated that British Columbia wanted to make sure we left satisfied and was quickly sending animals out for us to have one last treat before we crossed over into Alberta.

Alberta felt very metropolitan compared to the rural areas we’d gotten used to, but it was exciting to have cell service and reasonable gas prices again. We decided to take a trip to the West Edmonton Mall to get our wave pool and waterslides on at the World Waterpark. It was a great way to spend a blustery day, and as full-time travelers we always appreciate a fun activity that ends in free showers.

The next day we returned to check out Galaxyland in the mall and went on the “largest indoor triple-loop roller coaster,” the Mindbender, which is very aptly named. Holy moly.

After a few days in town, we escaped back to nature. We had plans to meet up on the road with some friends we met at Diablo Canyon in New Mexico last year, Eric and his PBD (plain black dog), Willow.

We stayed for the weekend at a dispersed campsite outside of Hinton, AB. It was a great spot to catch up on the past year’s travels, have a few beers, enjoy a nice fire in the pit Andy built, and watch some animal playtime.

Now that we were moving away from the land of many predators, we let Gracie have a little supervised off-leash time, and she chose to use her freedom to revisit her favorite sun porch and oversee everyone else’s activities.

While we’re on the subject of wildlife, there are three pets in this picture. Can you spot them all?

Eric is a 5-star animal lover and was a patient and accommodating friend to Scout, throwing toys for him almost every time Scout asked. That meant he was busy from morning to night. Willow loves a cozy chair and a sunbeam, so she didn’t mind watching her human play with another dog.

In case you were wondering, this is what the aftermath of two days of being totally spoiled looks like:

The next day, he was back to his old self and ready to go again!

Of all the wildlife we’ve gotten to see along the way, these two are the strangest and sweetest.

Hmm . . . make that “these three.” Wild beasts, all. I think I’ll keep them.

Heading South: North Pole and Chicken, AK Are Real Places

After our long journey up to Deadhorse and back, we needed a few days to recover.

We decided to post up in Fairbanks for a day or two to do some laundry, resupply, see the Ice Museum, and just generally knock the dirt off of ourselves.

After a few days, we began the journey back down south which surprisingly brought us to the North Pole! Ok, not THE North Pole. But North Pole, Alaska which is as close as you can get to the real thing.

The whole town is Christmas themed year-round, from candy cane light poles to road names like “Mistletoe Drive” and “St. Nicholas Drive,” and there are resident reindeer who live next door to the Santa Claus house, where we spent some time getting in the spirit of Christmas a few months in advance.

We’d had our hearts set on seeing a huge herd of caribou in the wild while we were up north, but we made do with Santa’s reindeer. (Which we learned on this trip are the same animal—reindeer are just domesticated caribou! The more you know.) But then on our way toward Tok, AK we came across a darling mama moose and her baby, and felt very lucky indeed. They hung around right alongside the road for over ten minutes before meandering back into the trees . . . but not before they posed for this glamour shot.

The sun was setting as we neared Tok, which we’d traveled through on our way up and had stayed overnight with the dirt bike rally racers at an unused airstrip outside of town. We went back to the spot, and had the whole place to ourselves! That night we saw the best Northern Lights of the trip so far, and the next morning we raced around the track at Top Turtle Speed. I’ll let you speculate on what speed that could be, and hopefully you’re generous.

A much-needed Turtle bath afterwards helped us offload many of pounds of dirt, and we wondered if maybe we should have gone back to try the race track again to see if we could shave some time off our record. But we had more stops to go, and with the dirt highway ahead of us, we knew we were pressed for daylight.

Beyond Tok lay Chicken, Alaska: a real place that I did not make up. We got to town shortly before the one store that was still open for the season was closing for the day, so we looked around, admired how wonderful the chicken soup smelled, took some enormous chicken photos, and drove on.

The next portion of the road is a beautiful drive called “The Top of the World Highway” which was where we finally had to say farewell to Alaska as we crossed back over into Yukon once again.

We had an amazing vantage point to watch the sun set over the valleys far below.

The sky was dark as we approached Dawson City, YT, and since we hadn’t had cell service for most of the last few days, I hadn’t noticed the map showed an unexpected break in the highway until we were right on top of it.

The Yukon River divides the road right outside of Dawson City, so we got to take the Turtle on a small ferry that was luckily still operating on summer hours and ran every 15 minutes or so. Had we been two weeks later, I’m not sure what we would have done, but we took our accidental good timing and ran with it.

This actually might have been one of Andy’s favorite parts of the entire trip. He was so excited. He kept pointing ahead and telling me to look! even though I was of course looking already, but he just couldn’t help himself. It was pretty funny to be sitting in our Turtle and watching water flow by on all sides.

We spent a few days in Dawson City, a historic town full of stories of the Gold Rush and prospecting and super-tough men and women. In the interest of time, and because they haven’t made many appearances in this post, I’ll just show you a few adorable pictures of Scout and Gracie at a nice site we found for an overnight stay as we left Dawson City.

The Alaska chapter of our journey was done, but as we mapped out our progress over Tiropitas, it was clear that there was plenty of adventure ahead!

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?

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.

Andy Wears Shorts in the Snow: Christmas In South Dakota

Happy New Year, everyone! Woo hoo!

2016 was a super exciting year in the Turtle, and the coming year should be equally full of challenges, victories, and vistas (and frisbee sessions for Scouty).

Before I get into our plans for the upcoming months, let’s catch up with some photos of what we’ve been up to since we left Yellowstone National Park last month! Since that very chilly week living in single-digit temps, we’ve learned a bunch about what we needed to do in order to better winterize the Turtle. So before we left Montana, we headed back to Mom’s house in Bozeman and got busy buttoning everything up with layers of insulation over the windows, extra curtains to divide the colder cab and loft from the warmer living portions of the Turtle, and some modifications under the hood.

Naturally Andy was in charge of the under-the-hood tasks, and he spent the week in Mom’s garage finalizing work on the second alternator. With that new addition we can charge our house batteries while we drive, as the solar panels aren’t getting a lot of sun in these winter months. Not surprisingly, this guy took the opportunity for a wiring project and really brought it to the next level. Give an engineer an electrical mission, and he’ll buy all the toggle switches Home Depot has in stock and create a panel worthy of the dashboard of a UFO. I still need to take a photo of the installed panel, but the process picture gives you a pretty good idea of the extent to which this guy takes on a project!

Meanwhile, in between my winterizing duties, I got an extra week to hang out with my mom, sister, brother-in-law, nieces and nephews. We crafted, played video games, and I took on a request for a Photoshop job: Clive wanted to see himself in his “boat” on the water. . . “with a beard!” Turns out that kid could totally pull off a beard.

Even Gracie appreciates how awesome these kids are.

The snow continued during our stay, much to Scout’s delight. This border collie LOVES snow! He leaps through the drifts with abandon, and runs back and forth between us, trying to encourage us to run along with him.

Gracie, on the other hand, finds the warmest covered spot and settles in.

After getting used to living as locals, it was hard to leave all my favorite people. It was such a treat that we were able to spend so much time with them though. In the Pre-Turtle days, we were typically limited to a week each year at most for visiting family. So I can’t get too greedy when I just got to hang around for a whole couple of months!

Once the improvements were complete, and I felt confident that the kids were ready to love The Legend of Zelda without further encouragement from their auntie, we left Bozeman. After a quick stop in Billings to see Blake, Martha, Harper, and Grant, we then made our way toward South Dakota. We drove by Little Bighorn Battlefield right before it closed for the day, and took a brief walk through the grounds as the chilly winter sun set.

Then with the heater on full blast, we moved on to Gillette, WY for the night where I got so unbelievably sick. (I’ll only include this because I promised in a previous post that I wouldn’t overlook the portions of full-time vandwelling that are challenging, and this was just AWFUL.) I’ve gotten sick a few times since we moved into the Turtle, but they were mostly mild illnesses that were inconvenient but tolerable. I’ve never gotten violently ill while living in the Turtle until that night in Gillette, and it definitely was more challenging than getting sick in a house.

I thought I had food poisoning, as I got sick so abruptly, but in retrospect I think it was likely a severe flu. I was vomiting so much all night (essentially into a pit toilet) that I got massively dehydrated, and unfortunately since we were in freezing temperatures our water tank had frozen and cracked and we had been carrying water around in jugs. As luck would have it we were low on water that night, so I was rationing water and sucking on ice cubes and trying not to step on Andy on the pull-out couch as I got up every 20 minutes to vomit. And the next day we had to move along, so I was sleeping fitfully on a bed rocking and bumping at 65 mph on the freeway. Glamorous!

So, there you go. Full-time vandwelling is not all roses. But for the record, I’m not trading it for anything!

At any rate, while I was in my sicky fog Andy got us to Spearfish in time for Christmas with his family. Much to Scout’s delight, the ground was covered in snow, with a whole bunch more in the forecast.

And much to Andy’s delight, there were plans to assemble a Lego train which would travel around the Christmas tree! I’m not sure how many total man hours were spent around the table between Will, Ellie, Andy and myself, but Andy outshone us all with his dedication to the cause, as well as his impressive Lego skills.

Between the four of us we created quite a spectacular Christmas train, if I do say so myself.

Ellie and I worked on Rudolph’s Christmas Car which led the way, and created bunches of Lego presents. Will put together the engine, the middle cars, the flatbeds, and made a magnificent cubist Christmas tree. Andy made a tippable car that he’d originally intended for imaginary molten metal, but that Ellie and I filled with our gifts instead. He also made a caboose equipped with a crane to hoist and deliver the packages, and it really works, and it’s awesome.

Each day we were surprised by the dramatic change in weather. One day: blizzard. (Andy wore shorts all day.)

The next day: sun.

The next day: more snow.

The next day: more sun!

Snow.

Sun.

You get the idea.

Highlights of our time in South Dakota also included:

Testing out the newly-wired Hella lights. . .

Learning about the difficulties of dumping tanks in winter when all the RV sites for miles around are closed for the season. . . (For those interested parties, it includes making friends with the on-site owner of a closed RV site and graciously being given permission to use the facilities if you can find it and not break anything, digging through the snow until you find the port, boiling hot water, filling a container with hot water, pouring it over the frozen cap until you can open it, taking a photo while your significant other waits for your assistance.)

Being co-planner for a stuffed animal beach wedding. . .

Waiting to see how Andy will alter the “LOVE” Valentine’s decorations his sister put on the mantle. . .

Towing stranded passengers out of a snow drift. . .

Finding Gracie tucked into cozy spots on the coldest days. . .

Scout just driving around town. . .

And knowing Christmas is officially over when you see the Christmas tree ablaze.

Coming up: We’re done with snow and are going to Mexico!

P.S. If you enjoy following along with our blog, don’t forget to click the “Follow” button, and you’ll get an email whenever we post! 🙂

Sleepin’ On The Streets: A Beginner’s Guide To Boondocking

One of my favorite Andy quotes happened outside the Baghdad Theater in Portland a few summers ago, when we still lived in a house.

We were sitting on the patio after a matinee, drinking a beer and talking about how excited we were to begin our upcoming vandwelling life. I said something about wishing we lived in the Turtle already, and how much fun it would be if we could just walk a block down Hawthorne and be “home.” Andy beamed and said, “Isn’t it exciting? By this time next year we’ll be living the dream: sleeping on the street with our half-wild dog and our garbage cat.”

It’s become our motto.

On that note, I recently realized that I’ve neglected to discuss a topic that is super fun and potentially useful to other wanderers, so. . . let’s talk about boondocking!

A place we lived for a night in Corvallis, Oregon

One of our favorite things about full-time vandwelling is the freedom we have to roam around without worrying about where we’ll stop for the night, allowing ourselves to really live in the moment. We have the ability to go where our interests blow us without worrying about planning around a place to sleep. At this point we’re a year into off-grid Turtle Life and feel completely comfortable and confident pulling over and finding places to stay overnight, but when we started out it was pretty daunting and we spent a lot more money staying in RV parks and camp sites when we didn’t need to. I know we still have lots to learn, but I’m here to share what we wish we would have known a year ago!

*An important note here is that the type of boondocking I’m referring to is not a long-term off-grid stay in the woods. I’m talking about the type of boondocking common with full-timers, which is traveling down the road and stopping for the night as we pass through an area, waking up, packing up, and continuing along our travels. Once we get into long-term boondocking, we begin talking about on-board fuel supply, second alternators, etc. and that’s a whole different conversation.

Some BLM Land near Jewel Cave National Monument, in South Dakota

It’s so liberating to realize how easy it is to get around when your house is on your back and you can just stop wherever you want! But you do need to get equipped first.

Let’s start off with the things we’ve determined necessary for comfortable boondocking:

Heat supply: Diesel or propane
- We’ve got a propane heater wired into the Turtle which is wonderful, and effective in heating up our small space quickly. Diesel works great too.
Power supply: Either a generator or solar panels and batteries
- Andy will write a technical post on this one at some point. Lots to say here! We’ve got solar panels and three batteries that, with regular sun, will keep us charged indefinitely. This includes our computers, interior lights, etc.
Water storage
- The Turtle has a water tank plumbed to the sink and bathroom, but when we bought it the water pump wasn’t working, and we lived happily with refillable water jugs for a good long time.
“Some sort of bathroom” is how Andy worded it. . . 🙂
- If you have a bathroom in your vehicle it’s pretty magical! If you don’t, you can get away with boondocking at rest areas, and using the facilities at the big box stores that let you stay overnight, and of course there’s always the great outdoors. (Andy suggests empty jugs, but he also lived way out in the bush in Kenya for a number of years, so. . .) But if you’re deciding between two vehicles and one has a bathroom, I recommend the one with the loo. It just frees up loads more off-grid options.
Food storage and preparation
- This can be a simple plan, but it’s worth adding to the list. Keep some food with you and have a way to prepare it. You know, like life.

Breakfast in Garnet Ghost Town Parking Lot

Now let’s talk about where you can stay:

Wherever you want!
Just kidding; there are restrictions. But fewer than you might think.

As I mentioned, when we started full-timing we weren’t sure how the boondocking was going to work out. Most of the literature we read about full-timing was written by and for an audience who planned on spending most of their time in RV parks. We enjoy when we stay in parks very much, but we’ve primarily got our sights set on simplifying and being independently mobile. Also, there were a few books we read in which the author was paranoid about getting harassed by the police for staying somewhere overnight, and at first we thought it was something to hide and be nervous about. (It’s not.) So it took us a while to find what worked best for us, and what we discovered is that there are loads of legal options!

Public land somewhere between Bozeman and Missoula, Montana

The sunset at that spot, later that evening. . . a pretty nice backyard

Here are the things we’ve learned about where it’s legal to stay overnight:

Most states that we’ve researched allow for overnight parking unless otherwise posted, usually for 10-12 hours max. And where it’s not allowed, it’s very clearly posted. And where it is legal, you can usually find signs stating the rules.
This includes parking in towns, because in the states we’ve visited at least, it’s only illegal to “live” in a vehicle on the road for more than 72 hours. It will likely vary from state to state, but we’ve never had any trouble just staying overnight in an area that didn’t have posted parking restrictions.
Lots of spots that allow overnight parking will post “No Camping,” which we have learned means that you can’t have a camp fire, put chairs outside, extend any slide-outs, or roll down your awnings. Basically you can’t do anything but park, which is all we need! I always thought it meant no overnighting of any kind, but you can stay there as long as you don’t start setting up your living room outside your vehicle.
Rest stops are actually places to stop and rest! We see lots of other RV’s and vans parked overnight at rest stops now that we’re paying attention, and the nice thing is that they’re usually well-lit, have bathrooms and potable water, and often have nice spots to walk the dog (and if you’re us, the cat). It had honestly never occurred to me that you could spend the night at a rest stop, because I’d never needed to. But there you go!
We’ve enjoyed very much the realization that you can stay at scenic viewpoints and historic pull-outs along the interstate. Again, each state determines how long you can stay, but in our experience it’s always a night’s sleep worth—around 10-12 hours or so. We’ve woken up to gorgeous views of towering rocks and rivers in the middle of mountain ranges that we would have just blasted through. A lovely and novel spot to drink coffee while the dog does his morning business.
BLM land is available for dispersed camping, and has been a favorite of ours. According to their website, “camping on public lands away from developed recreation facilities is referred to as ‘dispersed camping.’ These sites are widely dispersed, undeveloped, and are generally not signed as campsites.” You can stay for up to 14 days, have camp fires as long as you monitor them closely, and it’s a great spot for the pets to run and play.
As many of you know, lots of big box stores and travel plazas allow for overnight parking. We haven’t done that as much, because we love grass and so far there has been a lot of grassy spots available to us. But it’s an option, and a nice one if you need to grab supplies too.
At first we thought when parking in town we’d be happiest parking somewhere quiet without night traffic, like by a park or school, but then decided that a van parked overnight by a school could attract negative attention. After a fair number of trials, we’ve found that we’re most comfortable parking on—or on a side street of—the main drag of smaller towns. There’s not much night traffic typically, and it doesn’t look as sketchy to the neighbors if a vehicle is parked overnight on the road under street lights as it would in front of their house. Even though it’s legal to park in neighborhoods, we like to make sure that we’re not imposing on anyone either. Not to mention if we’re near any night life, we can explore town, hang out at the local spots, and then just walk 10 steps home without designating a driver. Safety first, guys.
There are bunches of resources for people like us, to help avoid the sometimes-annoying driving around looking for the ideal spot. The ones we like best are:
- Overnightrvparking.com: Our first favorite, and the one that got our boondocking education started. It shows on a map where there are free places to park for the night so you can plan ahead. It tells you if it’s a rest stop, scenic viewpoint, etc. and what facilities are available at that spot. This site is user-driven, but the administrator evaluates all submissions and posts whether or not the spots are legal and safe. It was just $25 for the year, and right away we got well over our money’s worth for it!
- Allstays.com: We love this one because it lists everything. As their website states, it shows “Over 29,000 Campgrounds: Independent, KOA, National/State Forest, State Parks, Public Lands, Army Corps, National Park, Military, County and City Parks, Casinos.” It tells you if it’s free or has a fee, how much it costs, and what amenities are available. The app also lets you see where there are dump sites, propane, potable water, and other resources. It’s a must-have.
- iOverlander: Much like Allstays it’s got everything, but includes a lot of information about places to stay outside the United States and additionally shows points of customs and immigration.

That time we lived on a lake

The very best part of an off-grid traveling life is that we get to try out being locals in towns all over the states, every day! We’ve really enjoyed the simplicity and flexibility it affords us, not to mention how inexpensive it is to visit new places. We can wake up in a city one day and in the woods the next. I can’t believe I waited this long to figure out that this was possible.

A lot of people are curious to know if we feel anxious about boondocking, especially in towns or populated areas. At first, yes, we were very aware of the fact that we were on a street and in an unfamiliar town. We took a very long time to find a spot, and when we found one we were careful to stay quiet and keep a low profile. After we understood the rules, though, and got a feel for what worked best for us, that completely dissolved. Now what’s remarkable is that we’re so used to it that when we close the door, we’re just home. We watch movies, listen to music, have friends over when we’re in town, and pop right out the back door in the morning to walk to a coffee shop or let the dog out. It’s so exciting to wake up in your own house, cuddled up to your person and your pets in your own warm bed, and in those first few seconds not to remember where you live!

Cooke City, Montana. . . The morning we woke up to the roar of a town full of snowmobiles!

Every day really is a new adventure. And we’re ready to see what tomorrow will bring!

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