Traipsing About
1,605 FOLLOWERS
Hi we are Dakota and Chelsea. We like fun and adventure, frequently in the form of bicycling. We write about travel, our thoughts on work/life balance, books and people we meet and share pictures from our lives.
Traipsing About
5M ago
Last Friday my mom called me, voice pitched with excitement. “Check your email! I GOT MY CITIZENSHIP!!!” And indeed, after three years of navigating the byzantine bureaucracy of Italy, it was official. I too was now a citizen of Italy and (therefore the European Union) via “jure sanguinis,” my blood right to Italian citizenship. My ..read more
Traipsing About
9M ago
Recently, I was forced to shut down my business. After over a decade in business, July 4th signified a new kind of freedom for me: I no longer have employees and payroll to think about. My business is was heavily impacted by rising interest rates. In case you’ve been marooned on Mars with Elon, rates ..read more
Traipsing About
1y ago
We designed our DIY Sprinter van to be a bike hauler with most of the comforts of home. Eight years later, I fell in love with playing piano and needed to figure out how to travel with a piano in the van PLUS bikes. At first, I simply tossed my keyboard onto the bed and ..read more
Traipsing About
1y ago
In my last newsletter, I wrote how future casting with a telescope is no bueno for me and that peering through a magnifying glass is a much better approach. Present moment for the win. With my focus in front of me versus spiraling on the future, I feel centered, connected to others, and generally good ..read more
Traipsing About
1y ago
Recently a friend asked me what I’m looking forward to. My answer wasn’t bikepacking or a trip overseas, but “continuing to develop the ability to be happy and satisfied without constant new experiences.” Boring, right? Who kidnapped the old Dakota?! (C’mon, you don’t actually read Traipsing About for bikepacking photos and van build posts, do ..read more
Traipsing About
1y ago
As James Clear wrote in Atomic Habits, “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” Well, my past efforts to learn a language fell apart because I didn’t have a system that allowed me to stay on top of phrases I’d learned or new concepts ..read more
Traipsing About
1y ago
I’d eyed bikepacking in the Oregon coast range quite awhile, so I wasn’t TOO sad to pivot from a fall bikepacking plan from Idaho after a forest fire messed up plans. Luckily, my ultra-endurance bike racer friend Ben organizes a race in the coast range called the Odyssey of the VOG. (VOG=Valley of Giants, an ..read more
Traipsing About
1y ago
I clearly remember the first time I rode Tyler’s, a popular local bike trail. I walked some rocky uphill ramps, awkwardly landed jumps, and generally hacked my way down it like a noob. I still had a hell of a fine time. These days, I’ve ridden Tyler’s dozens of times and know every major feature ..read more
Traipsing About
1y ago
I’m gonna get an Italian passport someday In fall of 2020, COVID raged world-wide and forest fires burned on the west coast. Oregon’s air quality hovered between a smoking pack of cigarettes a day and Chernobyling people’s lungs. It was…not awesome. A breath of fresh air arrived via a distant aunt who proclaimed, “I found ..read more
Traipsing About
1y ago
It’s almost a new year, which means it’s time for random strangers on the internet to offer you unsolicited advice on setting big goals. Time to join a new gym! Lose weight! Meh. Instead, here’s the low-key approach I take to achieve improvements in my life, calendar turnover be damned. It works for anything, be ..read more