South Dakota

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!

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!

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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!

A Year of Vandwelling!

Guess what?

This Halloween marked our one year anniversary of being full-time vandwellers! It hardly seems possible that 12 whole months ago we were starting off with no idea what we were doing, not to mention where we’d be a year later. (Spoiler: It’s not as far away as we thought we’d be!)

It has been an incredible year—the best of my life so far—and we have loads of lessons to show for it. We get a lot of questions about the less glamorous side of our lives on the road, and sometimes while writing about our days I forget to include both the highs and the lows of the vandwelling lifestyle. I know it’s interesting to read about the difficult aspects, because I love reading about the obstacles other full-timers face too, but it’s never my first instinct to complain about the rough bits when we’re enjoying our dream life! But life is still life, and it’s not always perfect. And the people want to know the dirt!

So in honor of our one-year Turtleversary, here’s a list of both the easy and fun aspects of Turtle Life, and the stuff we didn’t realize was going to be hard.

THE EASY:

Freedom & Adventure
- Let’s be honest; this is the whole reason we hatched this plan in the first place! We were tired of working for an income that just went to pay rent and bills in our house in Portland that we loved but didn’t get to enjoy as much as we’d have liked, since we were always at work! Andy was working days and I was working evenings and nights, and in the slivers of time we did have together, all we wanted to do was get out, go camping, float the river, and explore the outdoors. We had the desire for adventure, but no freedom to truly embrace it. Now we go wherever we want as our whims dictate, and every day is an adventure. It’s delicious.
Seeing Friends and Family
- This has been an incredible side effect to our new life. In the last year, we’ve been around for more birthdays, moving days, celebration days, and regular days in the lives of our families and good friends than in the last 5 years combined!
Getting to Know Each Other
- I don’t care how long you’ve been with someone, when you move into a 100 square foot box with them full-time, you get to know them on a whole new level! And seriously you guys, this has been so much fun. (We’ll get to the “Time Alone” portion on the next list shortly, so you can take this all at face value, knowing I’m not trying to convince you that it’s all roses.)
- But if you like your significant other, then this can be the adult equivalent of your 3rd grade best friend! All your shared experiences are new to both of you, and the world is your playground to explore together. You learn so much about each other as you try new things, learn how to compromise when there are unlimited options, and create new stories and inside jokes that are just yours. These days, our conversations are less about the day-to-day experiences we’ve had, and more about ideas, dreams and plans. Now we craft our days together, and the best-friend-ness that develops is super duper fun.
Getting to Know Ourselves
- I only realized how significant this one was after writing the last paragraph, so I added it in. This lifestyle is so outside the norm that as we learn more about each other and our surroundings, we are also reassessing who we are and discovering more about ourselves. We’ve had more time to try out new ideas and challenge ourselves and to be creative, and being outdoors is a great place to let your mind wander and see where it takes you.
The Stuff We Get To See!
- This one seems obvious, since we’re always moving and seeing new things. And as we anticipated, it’s been awesome! What’s surprised us about this, though, is that so much of what delights us lies in between the highlight reels of our travels. We meet incredible and intriguing people, we stumble across charming small-town spots, we pull off the road to let the dog out and find such a gorgeous chunk of public land that we decide to stay for the night and end up watching a storm roll in as we drink a beer under the awning, cuddled up under blankets in our camp chairs watching the animals run around together. Our happiest memories include both the destinations and the journey. We’ve got stories, you guys. 🙂
Our Time Is Valuable
- What I’ve really appreciated in this last year is the ability to determine how I spend the majority of my time, since we’re no longer going through the motions 40 or more hours a week. Andy’s favorite thing these days is to take on a project and make it absolutely perfect. Instead of just wiring the solar up for functionality, he gets to think it through from start to finish and has the time to make it not only functional but attractive. He adds that it’s also really fun that when you do have projects, it’s a lot easier to do a more detailed and professional job because everything is so much smaller. (Right now he’s building a new vanity in the bathroom, and it’s a much smaller project than a full-size bathroom vanity! So he can put a lot of care into it.) We get to nurture our hobbies while discovering new ones! The funny thing is how we still don’t have time to get everything done. . . some things don’t change no matter where you live.
Learning New Things
- Since we’re only a year into this life, we still have a bunch to learn. Slowly but surely we’re adding to our “life education,” both practical and just for fun. We’re learning more about the Turtle, about the U.S., about sweet hot-dog stick carving techniques, Andy’s learning to make fishing lures, I’m learning about edible wild plants, we’re learning to identify bird calls, I’m brushing up on my Spanish, and we now know all the state nicknames, just to name a few new skills. That last one is mostly worthless, but interesting to know that Arkansas is The Natural State, for example. The more you know, right?
Our Animals Are So Happy
- You’ve seen the pictures. They’re living the life! We’ve fielded some concerns about whether or not the animals are happy in such a small space, especially since we have a curious, active cat and the “Energetic Border Collie” poster-boy. And I agree that if we spent most of our time indoors, they’d go bonkers. Luckily, in Turtle life we spend a tiny fraction of our days indoors and are mostly busy playing outside! Nothing but mountains to climb, fields to race through, trees to climb, friends to meet, things to sniff, and rivers to swim in or sit cautiously by, depending on which animal we’re talking about on that one. When we worked full-time, the animals were home alone for multiple hours, whereas now they’re with us nearly all the time and are enjoying the open door policy giving them access to their enormous back yard.
Amazon Delivers
- We once ordered an inverter for the Turtle at a tent camping site near Wheeler, Oregon, and two days later the UPS truck came bumping down the dirt road with our package. We still crack up about it! We’re generally always able to get what we need, even without a permanent mailing address! Amazon rocks, and makes all our projects possible, even fairly of the grid.
Simplicity
- When we decide that we’ve done all we wanted to do and seen all we wanted to see, eventually we’ll settle down somewhere. (Luckily we’re test driving cities ahead of time, so we’ll know right away where that somewhere will be!) And when we do, I know the biggest take-away for me will be the joy of simplicity that we’ve discovered in this process.
- We didn’t have much of a choice regarding how much “stuff” we could bring with us, and we decided right away that we didn’t want a huge storage unit full of miscellaneous junk waiting for us to deal with after our travels. So we sold and got rid of just about everything that we had stored up in our house. All that stuff we’d been carrying around for years and years and hauled in boxes from one house to the next, finding places to store in the house, and digging through when we were looking for something. The process was intense and looooong, but now that we’ve pared down to the barest of essentials, I can’t imagine going back to the piles of stuff. Right now, we know where everything is, and all our belongings are essential and valuable to us. It’s liberating, and I wish I had done it years ago.

THE HARD:

The Mess
- We didn’t see this one coming. It’s not something many people talk about in blogs, or share in the beautifully-staged Instagram shots of feet poking out the back doors of spotless van interiors. But I’m here to tell you that full-time vandwelling is messy! I just asked Andy what his first line item would be on this list, and after thinking for a minute he said “Well, it is quite a bit messier than we’d anticipated. . . ” Yep. We have to stay on top of clean-up nonstop, or we’d go nuts. Neither of us is fussy about cleanliness, but we certainly appreciate a tidy home. And since our space is so small, even a little clutter can feel oppressive, and a muddy dog can wreak havoc on every square inch of furniture in three happy bounds through the door. I vacuum or sweep at least twice a day, and we’re on constant pet hair duty. Happily, we’ve established systems that work for us to combat the mess over this last year, but for a while it seemed like we’d never stop cleaning. I mean, we never will, but we’re used to it now. 🙂
Laundry, Showers, Dishes
- After the mess comes the clean-up, and this part is a challenge as well. The chores that we used to do at home without a thought must now be thoughtfully planned out well in advance, and they can dictate a whole day. The Turtle had a built-in shower when we bought it, but it was in the tiny bathroom and—aside from moisture damage issues—the awkwardness of showering while hovering over a toilet gave us the heebie-jeebies. Not to mention that since we have limited water on board, both showering and washing dishes can deplete our resources in a flash. And you know we’ve got no laundry room! So this aspect of our lives that used to be so simple is now quite a time consuming ordeal. When the weather is nice, we’re fine to bathe and wash clothes in the lake, but during colder weather we’ve had to coordinate our trips into town with visits to public pools, gyms, and laundromats. We discovered far too long into Turtle-life that many towns have free RV dumps that also supply potable water, so that’s been a lifesaver for washing dishes. Just wash and refill!
Working Remotely
- It definitely has been a challenge to balance the off-grid life with being places we get wi-fi. Of course if we had our way, we’d just stay off grid for months at a time and become the postmodern Swiss Family Robinson. We’re fortunate to work in fields where we can work on the road, and the income is helping prolong our travels, but if we’re talking about unforeseen obstacles this definitely is on the list.
Boondocking
- I’m way overdue for a full blog post on this topic. There is so much to say about boondocking! We feel much more prepared and comfortable living off the grid these days, but this first year has been a real crash course and it was challenging at times to figure it all out. We didn’t find a ton of information on it that applied to our specific situation, so we’ve really just been learning on the job. We originally pictured boondocking by rivers and tucked into trees somewhere, which is definitely part of it, but not always the case! We’ve stayed in parking lots, rest stops, on the side of the road in the middle of town, at scenic overlooks off the freeway, in public parks. . . you name it. This was hard at first because we always want to be parked legally and safely, and it took us a while to figure out how to find those places, especially without having to drive around for an hour or two looking for a place that suited us. This aspect is easy and awesome now, and it’s one of my favorite parts of Turtle life—not knowing where we’re going to sleep from one day to the next! But it definitely falls into the “Hard” list for how long it took us to nail it.
Alone Time
- Remember that time I talked about how much fun it is getting to know each other? Well the other side of the best friend coin is trying to find time for yourself. It can be difficult to admit to your buddy that you need a break from their face! After we moved in, because everything was so new and we were busy learning the ropes together, it took a long time to even get to the point where living in a van was regular life and we started wanting some time to ourselves. But it happens. When the weather is nice, it’s easy to split up and do our own thing outside, walking the dog, collecting firewood, going fishing. But when we’re stuck in the Turtle for long periods of time, we’ve learned to not take it personally when the other person just decides to put in headphones.
Being In Other People’s Space
- We really love that when visiting our friends and family, we’re able to “live next door” to them, as opposed to staying in their home and making them feel obligated to entertain. We love how much time we’re getting to spend with our people! The challenging part with the time we spend in people’s towns is that we’re living our daily life but also in visiting mode, and even though we have our own house and space, we’re still living on someone else’s schedule. And while the time together a treat and loads of fun, sometimes we visit people back to back to back, and it’s hard to explain to the friend at the end of the party train that while I’m excited to spend time together, I’ve been visiting for weeks straight with no personal time and I really just want to watch Project Runway on my couch with my pets for a bit.
- P.S. This must be said. Just because we come out of the Turtle at noon, doesn’t mean we slept until noon! We sometimes get raised eyebrows for our “late start to the day.” Never in my old life would I wake up and race right over to a friend’s house first thing. We’re still in our house, and like to make coffee and hang out together and cuddle the animals and get ready and finish the chapter in the book that we fell asleep reading the night before. Yes, we like to sleep in. No, not until noon. Just to clarify. 😉
Pets’ Limitations
- Despite the fact that Gracie and Scout are living their dream life, there are, of course, complications involved in traveling with your pets. There are some places we go that aren’t as pet friendly, such as the National Parks where they have to stay on their leashes and don’t get as much exercise. When we’re at less pet-friendly spots, such as friend’s houses or areas outdoors where we have safety concerns, they get a little stir crazy because they’ve gotten so used to having the run of the place, and don’t understand why we’re closing the door on them. If anyone speaks cat, please tell me the translation for “Stop yowling and clawing at the door! There are coyotes howling in the distance and I don’t care how high you climbed that tree yesterday, you’re not tougher than a coyote, dummy!” We’d appreciate it.
People’s Expectations
- It never occurred to me how much we’d have to explain our lifestyle until we were living it! Full-time vandwelling is very polarizing. I told Andy while we were building the Turtle that the best part about making such a quirky vehicle is that it will more quickly make apparent the people we have the most in common with. And that’s been 100% true; we make friends on the road just getting out of the Turtle. People who appreciate what we’ve made always turn out to be people we’d love to spend time with, and often they have their own adventure-mobiles that we can check out and be excited about too.
- Our supporters are the strong majority, however there are also a handful of people who can’t wrap their heads around it and have bunches of questions for us. We love answering questions, because we know it’s an uncommon lifestyle choice and hard to comprehend, but we’ve found we have to address many of the same questions from people who aren’t so sure about our decision and who are unwilling to alter their preconceptions about the right way to live. Here’s a short list of answers to these questions.
  - The Turtle is a conversion van, and we live in the Turtle.
  - Yes, we have a house. The Turtle is our house.
  - No, we don’t have a back-up house somewhere. Do you?
  - Yes, it’s a small space. We love living in our simple, cozy little space.
  - No, we don’t wish we lived in a bigger space. We gave up a bigger space for this.
  - Yes, when we’re done with Turtle living we will eventually live in a house again.
  - No, we don’t have plans for where we’ll live after this is all over.
  - No, we don’t know when that will be.
  - No, we’re definitely not ready to come back to regular life yet.
  - No, we don’t want to rent your cousin’s guest house.
  - Yes, I do appreciate your concern. But we have a house. The Turtle is our house.
Finding Time, At Times
- There are a few things that don’t change, no matter what lifestyle you’re working with. They always come as a surprise to me, because it seems like a huge shift in environment would bring a huge shift in lots of other areas of life too.
- One that hasn’t changed is that there’s just never enough time! Between getting improvements on the Turtle done, Andy’s work, my freelancing work, writing blog posts, cleaning, cooking, travel time, planning upcoming travels, cleaning, staying in touch with friends, grooming the animals, exploring the surroundings, and cleaning, it’s hard to establish a routine. Additionally, these things also have to be coordinated with the weather, access to tools, the time between destinations, and availability of stores or facilities from place to place. We’re still working on finding the balance between work and play, just as we always were when we lived in Portland.
Missing Friends
- ACK, this one is tricky! It’s funny because we’re getting to spend so much more time with our friends and family who are all spread out, but we miss our Portland friends SO much! We had a great bunch of strange and awesome people there, and it’s hard to be away from all the fun we had. Two of my sisters live right outside Portland too, so I’m also mourning the loss of sister and auntie time. Every choice comes with some sort of sacrifice, and we are regularly aware of how much we miss everyone.
- It’s also worth noting that the more we see of our long-distance friends and reconnect, the more we miss them as the Turtle pulls away. So there’s that too.

Last but not least, we have an honorable mention! A list item that belonged in both lists:

Breaking Down
- Con: The Turtle was made in 1985, so it’s no spring chicken. It has loads of quirks and issues, and we frequently break down. Sometimes it’s while we’re traveling down a snowy highway and we have to coast across 70 mph traffic to get to the only available pull-off before we roll to a complete stop, white-knuckled on the steering wheel. Sometimes it’s in front of our friends’ house, and we have to impose ourselves upon their lives for extra days (that one was actually a pro for us but you see what I’m getting at). Sometimes we pull off I90 to see why we’re losing power and there are burning flamedrops falling from under the hood, or “little hot spots” as Andy refers to them. All those hypothetical scenarios aside, though it’s annoying, it comes with one awesome. . .
- Pro: If we are ever stranded somewhere, we’re stranded in our house! It’s like being snowed in. We don’t go anywhere for a bit, but we’ve got food and heat, our bed and blankets, and wine and games. So it’s not the panic that usually comes with breaking down. We make a lot of jokes about our house breaking down. 🙂

Well, there you have it! We’re still learning as we go, and finding new positive and negative aspects to Turtle life all the time. I’ll be sure to mention both sides in future blog posts. That is, if I can find the time. . .

Everything’s Happy Underground

Ben Folds Five reference, anyone? Anyone?

Ok, well before we get underground, we have a few stops to make.

By the time we left Angostura Reservoir, we’d been there almost two weeks! We really, really enjoyed that spot. We have a freezer full of fish, the animals are in top physical condition, and Andy and I are tan and relaxed.

Additionally, we have an album full of photos of unbelievable views! The summer weather in South Dakota makes for some stunning sunsets and thrilling storms. Unlike the storms we’re used to in Portland, these lasted for hours and hours. We sat outside on multiple evenings, snuggled under the awning in blankets, drinking wine and watching the show.

So cool, right? South Dakota, man. We love it.

Eventually, though, it was time to leave the reservoir. We had other spots on our list to check out, so off we drove to Wind Cave National Park. This park is super neat! Wind Cave is one of the longest caves in the world, and that length counts just the 5% of the cave that has been explored. You get to walk down, down, through winding tunnels that open into big rooms with amazing minerals and rare boxwork formations. A lot of Lord of the Rings references were mentioned by members of our tour group from room to room.

I have very few photos of our cave tours, as they do the experience no justice. Here are two that help you imagine what it’s like, but as with most things, it’s much better in person.

I love spelunking! There’s something so far from normal about climbing deep into the earth and seeing things that were created without any help from humans. If you have any imagination, it will go wild down there! They even have caving tours you can take where you spend four hours crawling on your hands and knees in areas most people don’t get to go, but as a portion of the tour requires you to squeeze under rock with just a 10″ clearance, I passed.

We stayed two nights in the campground at the park, saw fireflies, rode our bikes through the park, listened to rangers tell stories at the amphitheater in the campground, and were gifted some homemade moose dinner by our lovely French neighbors.

As we left the park, we made a number of stops on our way to Jewel Cave. We pulled over in Pringle to see a huge bike sculpture. . .

We stopped to see Flintstones Bedrock City, and discovered it’s being torn down after 50 years for a Western-themed campground. . .

We visited the National Woodcarving Museum, where you can see charming animatronic carvings made by the man whose talents inspired Walt Disney to ask him to help build Disneyland. . .

We toured the Four Mile Ghost Town, a collection of antique buildings and items set up in a little town, with a cassette tape recording to guide your way. . .

And then after a tasty lunch at Pizzaworks and a beer at Sick-N-Twisted Brewery, we stopped for the evening in the Black Hills. Andy picked a lovely wildflower bouquet, I read my book, Scout played frisbee, and Gracie climbed trees.

The next day, we stopped by Jewel Cave for a tour.

Now let me interrupt myself to point out that, while it took us a day to make it from Wind Cave to Jewel Cave, for those of you planning trips, they’re not a day apart. That’s just Turtle Time. For travelers in a regular vehicle, they’re actually about half an hour apart! We move slowly, but you can easily visit both in a day. And it’s worth it; they’re very different caves.

Jewel Cave is the third longest cave in the world, and is chock full of sparkling formations and stalactites and stalagmites. We took a tour a few years ago, and I was excited to be back to see the shining crystals again. Unfortunately, it was a very popular day to visit the cave, and by the time we got there, the standard tours were all sold out for the day! They did, however, have a Lantern Tour a few hours later, so we got our tickets and had a picnic while we waited.

As our tour group assembled to hear the beginning of the tour and get our lanterns, a storm started to blow in. We hiked single file around the hill to the mouth of the cave, and right as we got inside, the clouds broke and it began pouring! We stood inside the dry cave and lit our lanterns, the thunder booming and the wind pushing the rain sideways in sheets outside. It was so exciting! It felt like being another person in another time. We heard some history of the cave’s discovery from our tour guide, and then walked into the cave.

If you ever want to know how it feels to be Indiana Jones, this is the tour for you! If you grew up watching The Goonies and wanted so badly to adventure underground searching for One-Eyed Willie’s treasure, this is also the tour for you. We just laughed out loud with excitement the whole way. The tour took us down incredibly steep and narrow steps that descend endlessly, until finally we reached The Heavenly Room. We all sat on rocks and listened to more stories, and then were instructed to blow out our lanterns. The darkness was absolute. It was thrilling.

We had such a great time on that tour! It was a great way to end our time in South Dakota, and we discussed how much we loved it the whole way to Montana.

And here we are now, fishing licenses in hand and ready to spend the summer playing in Montana’s backyard. Bring it on!

Livin’ By A Lake: Why We Heartily Endorse Vandwelling

When we were moving out of our house in Portland and into the Turtle, our friends Rhema and Lisa gifted us a wonderful going-away gift: Lisa’s Sensational Pickled Carrots. She’d popped open a jar during a BBQ at their place a few months prior, and I forgot to eat most of my dinner because I was too busy going back for sevenths and eighths of those carrots! I agree with you that pickled carrots sound different, but I promise, they’re super-duper awesome. Lisa’s crazy in the kitchen.

Lisa and Andy whipped up some serious turkey and stuffing last Thanksgiving.
Rhema and I helped by making sure the video games were played.

The only bummer was that since she’d just canned them, we had to wait six whole months before we could eat them! So we put them in a box and labeled it “Do not open until April 21st, 2016.” Before sealing up the box, I thought it would be fun for us to write a letter to our future selves, predicting where we’d be when we opened the box. So we wrote our individual thoughts down, dropped them in, and taped that baby up.

As the date approached, we thought it would be fun to open the carrots when we were somewhere really neat. So as we approached Badlands, we decided that was it. That worked great for me, since I was too excited to wait any longer!

They were SO GOOD. What a fun going-away gift! It was a tasty treat that reminded us of Lisa and Rhema and the fun times in John’s Landing. We miss you guys!

After our snack, we opened up the paper with our predictions. Interestingly, without consulting one another, we both wrote that we’d probably be somewhere in Utah! I suppose because there are so many great parks around there, and we’re both so excited to spend time in that part of the U.S. But in order to have made it that far, we’d have to be covering ground at a much quicker rate than we are currently traveling.

This is more the speed we’re interested in.

It was a moment of revelation and reflection for us; one that made us really appreciate an aspect of this lifestyle that we worked so hard to achieve. We wanted to be able to slow down and really enjoy each day of our lives, spending less time paying bills for a house we’re never around because we’re busy at work to pay the bills! Now we get to live virtually anywhere we like, for as long as we like. Unlike vacation time, we don’t feel stressed out trying to fit in all the fun right now. We can take our time and explore a spot at our leisure, take an extra day to do nothing if we choose, and see more of any area that interests us.

This is why we currently live by a lake. (We got here meaning to stay a few days, and we now plan to stay another week, or until this crazy 80-90 degree weather leaves!)

And this is also why we emphatically hope that people who have the capability to try this lifestyle out will do it! One of the reasons we decided to blog about our adventures was to encourage and support fellow adventure-seekers to see that it’s possible, and more than that, it’s the best decision we’ve ever made. We’re living much more inexpensively, efficiently, thoughtfully, and healthfully. There’s a daily dose of adverbs for ya! Every day is a new experience and just a ton of fun (with a fair amount of work and effort involved, of course). We keep asking ourselves why it took us this long to figure this out! Andy always says he feels like we’re cheating somehow. 🙂

Let me also acknowledge that I totally get that it’s not a possibility for everyone, and my intention is not to alienate those who aren’t able to make such a drastic life change. And according to lots of people we’ve met along the way, not everyone even wants this life! We get that too. It was hard work getting here, and can still be hard from time to time.

Our hope is that the blog can be both an endorsement for people thinking about this lifestyle, and also just a way to stay in touch with our friends, family, and other tiny house and travel enthusiasts, sharing what we’re up to for all interested parties. I know that for people with kids, it’s a much more complicated undertaking (though not impossible; we’ve met families living on the road!). I also know that we’re fortunate that both of us are able to work remotely, and that’s not true for all professions.

A lunch break. Since I’m the only one in this photo, I’ll just go ahead and take credit for the lot.

But we have met a whole bunch of people who have always dreamed of becoming vandwellers or full-time RV’ers, and who could potentially take the plunge, but are still on the fence. When we started out, we had a hard time finding online resources of people who were doing something similar to what we had in mind. So if that’s the case for you, please follow along with us for tips on what’s working for us, or feel free to send us a message and we’ll do what we can to help you along the way! It’s a huge undertaking, but the end result is worth all the hard work. I mean, we get to live by a lake, for free!

For those just following along to see where we ended up and what we’re doing there, here’s a quick photo summary of what we’ve been up to for the last week.

And if you’re wishing for greater detail on how Scout and Gracie are doing, just take these photos of Scout swimming for sticks and Gracie pouncing on buggies, repeat them to infinity, and you’ll have an idea of how they’re spending their days by the lake. Happy days for our best little friends. Happy days for us.

Bring On The Badlands!

Hello there! I’m here today to help you plan your next trip. For quality purposes, we just tried it out for you, and we can say with confidence that you are going to LOVE it.

It’s a week-long stay in Badlands National Park!

Ok, you don’t have to go, but it’s absolutely our favorite place so far, and I highly recommend it! 🙂 Neither of us had ever been, and we both had no idea what to expect. We were completely floored by how beautiful this park is. We often weren’t even able to come up with words for it; we just kept laughing out loud with happiness and complete awe!

We drove into the park from Scenic, SD on Sage Creek Road to Sage Creek Campground. It’s a free primitive campground (that’s the term, though I figure if it has toilets and garbage cans, it’s pretty fancy) and it’s outside the portion of the park with all the iconic formations. It really doesn’t get super Badlands-y until the point where Hwy 240 drops into the park.

There are lots of spots to park and set up tents, and though the days were quiet, every evening it was full and bustling, with people playing frisbee, hiking the hills and picnicking. We kept wondering when Dave Matthews was going to show up and start the show.

We decided to stay at the site for four days, as we got a strong enough wifi signal through our hot spot for Andy to log into work. What an office, huh?

If you do end up with extra time in Badlands, this is a great spot! Ok, here’s what you can do, if you want to take me up on my offer to be your trip planner. There are trails in every direction with magnificent views at the top of every hill. Hike as many as you can.

You can add your own cairn to the collection at the top of the nearest hill. . .

And sit at the top of the world and enjoy the view.

You will likely get a taste of the powerful evening weather the Badlands can conjure up! While it’s sunny and hot all day (in May, anyway), towards the end of the day, it gets wild.

Oh, and you will definitely see bison. They graze right through the camp for hours every day!

At one point, we heard a shriek, and our neighbor came racing back to her boyfriend at top speed, breathlessly giggling about the buffalo standing right outside the bathroom door as she exited. They’re not worried about us (humans) one bit.

All of our neighbors were great while we stayed at Sage Creek! Maybe you will be lucky enough to camp next to a fun outgoing couple who is on a long trek in the US before moving back to Holland. Maybe they will also gift you a map to scratch off the states you travel through. So nice of them.

These scratched off areas are limited to where the Turtle has been, of course. We’re excited to scratch off more! But our goal is to take our time and really experience the places we stay. Which was really easy this week. We knew we loved Badlands already, but then we drove to the Pinnacles Overlook.

Oh, wait! We didn’t do that yet. We were planning to drive there, but the Rim Road access was closed. So we diverted up to Wall to check out the famous Wall Drug. And holy cow! I’ll let Bill Bryson sum it up for me. “It’s an awful place, one of the world’s tackiest tourist traps, but I loved it and I won’t have a word said against it.” Yep!

I loved every weird minute we were there. They allow RV’s to park in the lot down the hill for free, so we did that, and then drove back into the park the next day via the Pinnacles Overlook entrance.

Again, holy cow.

There are loads of hikes you can take in the park, each with a very different landscape to explore.

We started with Window Trail, a super-short walk to a stunning viewpoint:

Then we played on the giant playground next to the parking lot.

And then we hiked Door Trail. This one is also fairly short, but can take as long as you want it to take, since it’s a wide open expanse of peaks and valleys to climb around on. We liked it so much we came back on our last day to sit at the end of the hike and have a picnic, sketch and read books.

After leaving Door Trail, we hiked up Notch Trail. This one has an incredible view of the geologic slump and the Cedar Pass campground, and the hike itself feels like a Star Trek set!

We stayed a few nights at the Cedar Pass Campground, which is a pay site, but totally worth every penny! It’s bordered by the peaks, which are so beautiful to see in both the morning and evening sun.

The next day, we hiked up Saddle Pass (steep and slippery!) to Medicine Root Trail and then back on a portion of Castle Trail. It’s about 4 miles of flat, picturesque views and takes you through the prairie and through some of the crazy formations.

We were so happy during our entire time in Badlands! It’s other-worldly, and so very relaxing.

Scout liked it quite a bit too! But if he was your travel planner, he’d encourage you to take a driving tour of Badlands, see the sights, and then leave the park to stay somewhere that dogs can be off leash and play frisbee!

We’ve compromised with him, and after our glorious, sunny, and exhilarating week in Badlands, we’ve moved along to Angostura Reservoir. He gets his own waterfront frisbee spot, so his week of leashed walks will soon be forgiven.

I hope you enjoy your stay at Badlands as much we did! If you follow the travel plan I’ve laid out for you, I don’t see how you can go wrong. 🙂

The Black Hills of South Dakota: Actually Quite Green

We left Spearfish last Friday feeling excited to explore the Black Hills, our list of recommended hikes in hand and a warm and sunny weekend weather forecast displayed on our phones. On our way out of town we stopped for lunch at Barbacoa’s, a tasty Mexican spot downtown. It’s set up like a Qdoba or Taco Del Mar, with a build-your-own style ingredients bar, but it’s way, way better. Super fresh ingredients, good daily specials, and the staff there is so legitimately friendly and helpful that we talk about it during our meal every time we go there!

As we sat on the patio eating our steak tacos, the clouds started rolling in.

We commented on how dense and beautiful the clouds are in South Dakota, then loaded up and headed into the Black Hills.

The drive is stunning, with tall, dramatic rock walls and lush green trees. And if Scout is to be believed, the smells are worth trampling your mother in order to get your face one inch farther out the window.

We decided to start with a hike to Devil’s Bathtub. It isn’t marked, so you just turn off onto Cleopatra Pl. just south of Bridal Veil Falls. From the small parking area, you cross the bridge and then follow the trails directly on the other side. There are a number of trails, but we found that you can take whichever you prefer; they all lead to Devil’s Bathtub. We were told that much of the hike traverses the stream, so we strapped on our Chacos and looked forward to a nice cool hike on a sunny day!

I think the earlier mention of the clouds was sufficient foreshadowing to give away what happened next. As we started into the woods, it started raining!

And it rained the whole hike through, with continuous thunder and off-and-on hailstorms. Not a big deal, but pretty funny considering how perfect the hike is for hot days! Luckily, it was still warm and the hike is easy, so it didn’t interfere with our plans at all. It actually made for a very “enchanted forest” ambiance, which I enjoyed very much.

As you near the little falls, you come to a beautiful corridor with layered limestone walls. If it had been a warmer day, we could have spent a fair amount of time right there, wading around and enjoying the view.

By the time we reached Devil’s Bathtub, we were soaked through! There’s a little overhang next to the waterfall that we stood under to take pictures, then we waded out into the shallow water and splashed around with Scout.

It’s a wonderful hike that I highly recommend to anyone traveling through the Black Hills! Next time, we’ll pack a lunch and spend the day there, weather permitting.

By the time we returned to the Turtle all three of us were drenched, and after drying off and wringing out the dog, we decided to skip the other hikes on our list as the thunderstorm was still booming along. We drove into Lead just as another impressive hailstorm was wrapping up.

Our cancelled hiking plans left us with some extra time to kill, so we stopped into Dakota Shivers Brewing for a beer. What a cozy little spot in a cozy little town! While it continued to rain, we chatted with a local who had identified us as the occupants of the crazy blue Turtle parked out front. She was charming and fun to talk to, and gave us lots of great travel destinations for our next trip through the Black Hills. So nice!

That night, we parked at a quiet secluded spot on a Forest Service road. Hooray for free camping! As we made our coffee the next morning, Scout and Gracie ran around outside and surveyed our spot.

It was decided by the committee that we could happily stay in that very spot for the allowed 14-day maximum. But we had to remind ourselves that we generally feel that way about our camping spots, and that our plan to make it to the Badlands by Sunday would make leaving worthwhile.

So off we drove toward Badlands National Park!

Our Last Few Days In Spearfish

All good things must come to an end, and this includes our sunny, relaxing, and super-fun time with family in Spearfish. One of the primary reasons we decided to move into a Turtle in the first place was to be able to spend more time with our family and friends! We’re lucky to have so many people we care about, but unfortunately they all didn’t want to move to Portland so we could all see each other all the time. (This was not without a fair amount of recruiting on my part.)

Who wouldn’t want to live near these two adorable buddies?

Because we’re all so spread out, when it comes time to allocate a week or two of vacation every year, choosing to visit one person’s hometown is always at the expense of another’s. As we floated down the river two summers ago concocting this absurd idea about living in a Turtle, we mentioned how cool it would be to visit our friends and spend more than a few rushed days with them. To not have the looming feeling that we need to pack all the fun in right now before it’s all over. To be able to see them in their natural habitat, living their life, and we just happen to be neighbors and can go to lunch, or take a hike together, sit around drinking coffee, whatever!

So we’re just loving that this quality time we dreamed about is really happening! While we were in Spearfish, we got to attend Andy’s niece and nephew’s band and choir recitals, soccer games, First Communion, and both of their birthdays. (We timed the trip just right to ensure we’d get lots of cake.) We got to make meals with his mom and sister, drive through Needles Highway, listen to lots of the Hamilton soundtrack, do art projects, play board games, have a few beers on the patio at Crow Peak, eat ice cream at Leone’s Creamery (YUM!) and work on home projects together. Everyday things that make for great bonding and fun memories.

These memories include:

Amazing South Dakota sunsets. Amazing.

Lots and lots of freedom to explore and climb trees!

An unending frisbee course.

Free time and clear weather for Turtle projects.

A special “Cat Tea” that Andy’s niece invented and brewed up for Gracie. A zesty blend of catnip and warm water. 🙂

A birthday party at the Spearfish Gymnastics Academy, where we got to jump on trampolines into a pool of foam cubes! And then the kids buried Andy.

More sunsets and exploring.

Lots of time together outside.

More frisbee! We played a lot of frisbee.

Andy’s absolutely to-die-for salmon recipe! Thanks to Roger and Mary for sending the salmon with us! It was very well-received by all. The most moist and flavorful smoky salmon you can imagine.

It was a such great time together! Happily, now that we live in the Turtle, we don’t have to wait another year or more to do it again! 🙂

Needles Scenic Highway: Take Me Back!

A few years ago, Andy and I visited South Dakota for Christmas, and I arrived excited to see Mount Rushmore, which is the only part of the state I knew anything about. Little did I know how much more there is to do and see here! During that trip, we also went to:

Wind Caves National Park
Jewel Cave
The Mammoth Site
Deadwood
The 1880 Train in Hill City
Loads of other things I’m sure I’m forgetting

Now that we’re back in South Dakota, we realize that the list of things we missed exceeds the original list of things we did! And this past weekend, we went to one of my new favorite spots:

Needles Scenic Highway. I loved every moment.

Andy, Will, Ellie, Scout and I hiked up into the needles and admired them close-up. They’re made up of granite, and most of them are studded with flashing, shiny hunks of mica and huge quartz crystals. As we walked through the towering pillars, every surface sparked and glittered in the sun. It was magical! Remember that movie Legend? Yeah, it was like that. Magical.

Finally I was told I couldn’t stay there for the rest of the day, so we drove on through Needles, and Maggie suggested that on the drive into Rapid City, we take Iron Mountain Road. It was beautiful, and we saw all kinds of wildlife. Scout even saw a buffalo!

We had plans to see The Producers in Rapid City that evening (yay!), so we weren’t able to see more of the area that day, but we’ll be back to check out neighboring Custer State Park. I’ll post photos when we do!

For now, though, here are some pictures of Gracie brushing her hair. Just because.

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