After nine months of working, hustling and dreaming the New Zealand/Australia trip was upon us! We had worked for the past 9 months in my hometown of Leavenworth, Washington to save enough to get us to Australia where we plan on working and living for up to a year (what up working holiday visa!) Our flights left Wenatchee, Washington at 12 on December 29. Wenatchee-LA-Rarotonga-Auckland-Christchuch. We planned on ringing in the New Year in Rarotonga, a small island in the South Pacific where I worked for four months right after college, then flying to New Zealand for two months before starting ..read more

Where have I been? Even writing these words is overwhelming.  I realized the other day that I had not written a blog post in a very long time, hell I haven’t posted anything on social media for months as well.  It’s funny how you can feel this sense of pressure to ‘keep up’ on things like this.  So lets go back…  In December of 2016, about 10 months after being on the road alone, I met Charlie.  I suppose this has been the biggest change., I had known Charlie from back in Washington, and he was on a road trip with another mutual friend in Utah. We connected, as so man ..read more

“When you travel you realize the possibilities of life in this world are endless, and that beneath our differences of language and culture we all share the same dream of loving and being loved, of having a life with more joy than sorrow.” - Simple Truths, Kent Newborn From August to September of 2017 I worked full time at a guiding company in Haines, Alaska.  It was my first foray into seasonal work-  ‘the  nonstop work and play when the season is over' mentality.  It was challenging to say the least, long hours, challenging weather all summer, and foraging new friendships ..read more

“Am I safe?”  That is a question that I think every night that I am in the van.  Am I in a good area? How am I parked in case I need to quickly leave? Could I get blocked in? What is my gut telling me? The fear of being a woman alone on the road is something that I get asked about a lot and something that is on my mind constantly. Before I left on the trip I had multiple people express concerns about my safety.  Would I be carrying a gun? What kind of defenses did I have?  It was a scary moment, and I wasn’t even on the road yet.  I also did not have my dog for the ma ..read more

When my van life dream trip was becoming more and more a reality I quickly realized that I would need a way to power my fridge, batteries, and inverter without paying to plug in every few days.  Solar panels have been big in the van community for a long time, and I am not the first to this party.  They are efficient, relatively cheap, and provide enough power to stay off the grid for weeks on end.   I want to start this all by saying solar is a lot easier than people think, anyone can do it, and with the right prep you can have it done in a few hours.  This set up that I am ..read more

Recently, I was lucky enough to receive two packs of the LumiNoodle Light Rope Plus, a five and ten foot. I was immediately struck by how durable the lights are.  They are styled after traditional rope lights, but produce a golden light rather than the traditional blue LED.  They are very flat, and can easily lie flush with a surface, and best of all they are powered by a small re-chargeable lithium battery pack.  I immediately started to scheme of how I could incorporate them into the van.  I’ve been having difficultly lately having enough light when cooking as the li ..read more

I want to talk about something that not a lot of people talk about. It’s alluded to a lot of times, even spoken quickly, and then bustled along to another topic- loneliness.  You know that stomach dropping, lost, helpless feeling that comes over us.  When we feel suddenly sad and we aren’t exactly sure why. I feel like that on the road a lot.  I pull into a town or see something beautiful and I am sad that I’m not sharing it with someone.  When I’m confused or lost I don’t have anyone to knock ideas off of. I began this trip because I didn’t want to wait for anyone.  I ..read more

There’s not a day that goes by without someone asking me about how I pay for all of this.  How is this lifestyle sustainable? Hell how is it even attainable?  I get a lot of specific questions about how much I spend daily, monthly, or how much I had in my bank account before I took off. So I wanted to write an expense report of the road.  A list totaling what I generally spend and how I got here.  I will make a brief disclaimer that I won’t get into specifics about my personal finances leading up to this trip out of respect for my employer. So what does it take? I saved up ..read more

I’ve had so many ask me what I hope to get out of this trip.  When is it done? What are you doing? Hw does it work? Doubt.  Questions. Uncertainty. I truly believe that the universe will provide us with answers if we ask it the questions.  I once heard a quote that said something along the lines of “It’s about asking the universe for what you want and then letting go of how it comes to pass”   Letting go of how it comes to pass. We put so much emphasis on how something is supposed to look- relationships, work, apartments, fuck we have expectations we’ve created in our minds ..read more

Haines.  The adventure capitol of Alaska.  That’s the motto at least that welcomes you into this small community that resides between the Chillkat and Chillkoot mountain ranges, and is boarded by the sea. It’s not hard to imagine as you gaze upon the snow peaked mountains that house glaciers, crevasses and some of the best skiing in the state.   We arrived in Haines on one of the rare 70 degree days that happens every few months and remind everyone of why they put up with Alaskan winters.  We drove off the ferry and I was stunned into silence by the bay, the greenery that ..read more