3.5 months on the road! 12,000+ miles (plus a couple oil changes and a new set of front tires) and we’re home!
Rob and I made the decision to work towards a semi-nomadic lifestyle in 2017, something I’ve spoken about a lot in this newsletter. We’ve been lucky to kick around some of the prettiest places on these summer adventures (Vermont, the Berkshires, Maine…) and it never gets old or boring. There’s only more gratitude, more amazement and an endless craving to do more, see more and experience more.
In early May, the trip started with one of my lifelong dreams —- a solo road-trip! Well, solo plus Walter, the most important canine travel companion I coasted down the Blue Ridge Parkway all the way to the Great Smoky Mountains, then all the way to Nashville to pick up Rob from his weekend trip. (I wrote about the 570 mile journey here if you missed it).
From there, we stayed in Sacramento (our former home and Rob’s hometown!) for a whole month, soaking up love from friends and family we hadn’t seen since 2018. Then we had a fun weekend in Oregon with a family wedding before heading up to Vancouver Island for a week of gorgeous beauty I’ll never forget.
After, we saw Vancouver, hiked big mountains in Whistler and Squamish, returned to our favorite places (Banff, Jasper and the Icefields Parkway), hung out in the chill lake town of Coldstream, kayaked down a giant river in Golden and stared, wide-eyed, at the Canadian Rockies.
We saw family in Montana, drove through Yellowstone (twice) and finally saw the Grand Tetons for the very first time (I cried!). We soaked up sunrises in Pinedale, Wyoming, celebrated my birthday in Cody and then spent our last week enjoying the natural hot springs of Saratoga. (12/10 recommend soaking in hot springs every night when you’re on deadline!)
Nothing makes me happier then the sound of boots on a hiking trail, the smell of campfire smoke in the morning, the freedom to drive without a destination. This world is astonishing, regardless of the view — and we owe so much to each other, so much to this earth and to the communities that have lovingly stewarded this land long before it was stolen from them.
I’m no expert when it to comes to the cultures and communities of indigenous, native and First Nations people in the US and Canada. But I’ve learned so much (and continue to learn) from indigenous creators, from writers like Robin Wall Kimmerer and Stephen Graham Jones, podcasts like This Land and TV shows like Reservation Dogs. If you’re an outdoorsy person like me, I highly recommend studying land acknowledgement projects and checking out organizations like Recreate Responsibly.
On our travels, we visited the ancestral homelands, traditional territories and unceded/stolen land of many people, including the Shoshone, Treaty 6, 7 and 8 and the Métis Nation homeland, the Squamish First Nation, Lil’wat and Coast Salish people, Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, Kwakwaka’wakw First Nation and the Nuu-Chan-multi First Nation. This is definitely not a comprehensive list and any mistakes are absolutely my own.
Every single time we return from traveling, the same truths are revealed: leave no trace, do no harm. Caring for each other and every being on this earth (plant + animal) in radical abundance is the future. Collective liberation is how we do it.