I’m from Montana, and Taylor and Hannah are from Colorado. So it was Joe’s summer to show off the appeal of Washington. He was a fantastic tour guide.
The rockies don’t have simple provisions like the PNW. Fish are less about eating and more about the experience of catching. Clams & mussels are invasive and never spoken of positively. And with a majority of months considered winter, fruit is from stores.
Washington is covered with things to eat. Every yard has an apple tree and every weed lining roads and sidewalks are covered with blackberries.
We ate more blackberries this summer than ever before.
We also got to collect seafood. Not catch or work hard for, but just collect.
Ever since I was a kid, “Normal” was my biggest fear. I remember vividly promising myself that I would never grow up to have a “normal” house with a “normal” job and a “normal” daily routine. It sounded terribly boring to be honest – and I knew there had to be more to life than what society expects from us. I wanted to be so much more than “normal”.
Despite knowing that I had to do something much more wild, I had no idea where to start or how to attain that wild dream. Then I met Hank, Joe, and Hannah. The boys were both 5th year seniors my freshman year of college and Hannah was a junior. They were the most fun and adventurous people I’d met so far. Plus they loved Jesus! We all met through leading a youth ministry called Young Life together. Soon enough, I learned about Hank and Joe’s dream of driving down to South America together after college, and I was all in from the moment they said I could come. Actually I don’t know if they even invited me at first, but I was already whole-heartedly committed! Fast forward to the summer after freshman year, and surprise! Hank and I are long-distance dating! Him in Cincinnati, me still at Montana State. Joe and Hannah got married and moved to California too, but despite us all living across the country from each other, the dream was still alive to make this trip as soon as I graduated!
Fast forward another two and a half years, and I FINALLY graduate and Hank and I get engaged! We took a trip to visit Hannah and Joe in Portland (where they moved to after California) and little did I know, Hank surprised me with a ring on a little Island near Joe’s dad’s house in the Puget Sound! Throughout that trip all around the PNW, we started eyeing all of the awesome-looking sailboats. Hannah and Joe had been watching a YouTube channel about sailing called SV Delos, and the new dream of sailing instead of driving south had officially hatched.
The next 6 months were a whirlwind. I had to go back to Colorado to finish up my last semester of student teaching to get my degree, Hank had to go back to Cincinnati, and Hannah and Joe began boat shopping all around the western coast. Soon enough, we had hired a yacht broker, Hannah and Joe found what looked like a dope as heck boat based on the pictures and description they sent us, we got a great deal, and BAM! We owned a 1989 Hunter Vision 32′ Sailboat!! Holy Cow!!!
The following 6 months after that were even more wild. I was planning a wedding where I got to marry the man of my dreams AND we were researching and planning the trip of my dreams. All my dreams were coming true!!!
June 22nd, 2019 Hank and I get hitched. We honeymooned in BC, Canada. We flew back to Cincinnati for 2 weeks, packed up everything we owned into our 2 trucks, drove 24 hours separately (but don’t worry, we had walkie talkie headsets) to Bozeman, Montana to offload our stuff in Hank’s parents attic, and then with only 1 small duffel bag each we drove to Seattle to move onto our new floating home. July 26th, 2019 we officially moved onto Scooter and began the adventure of a lifetime. My new life was the opposite of “normal”, and I couldn’t have been happier!!!
I’ve always loved road trips. I could’ve been a good trucker…maybe still will be. When I was in high school I joined an overlanding club, and drove all over Montana with strangers from the internet. When I got to Montana State, I started dreaming about the ultimate Road Trip. I looked at what it took to join a Dakar Rally team, how far the Trans-Canada-Highway was, how to visit all 49 states in a car, and ultimately the Pan-American Highway: The wild route from Prudhoe Bay Alaska, to Ushuaia, Argentina. I mapped it out, and sat patiently for the opportunity.
Then I met Joe. California bros are not usually welcomed well in in Montana, but Joe is unique. He’s positive, resourceful, adventurous, and turned out to be an awesome roommate. We started talking about the Pan American Highway and plans started to fall into place.
Then I moved to Ohio, Joe got married to an awesome adventure partner, Hannah, I found an adventurous girlfriend, got the perfect Truck, found the decent job to help save and finally, found the inspiration we needed; DesktoGlory.com Desk to glory is a blog of a Canadian couple who made the trek in a 1989 Toyota Pickup, ext cab, 5 speed…which just so happened to be the exact truck I had just purchased.
Fast forward 3 years, Tay and I got engaged, and we found a second round of inspiration. Destabilization in Central America, and VoyageofTheRascal.com. Dwyer was our age, similar career, and similar personality. He sailed solo from Seattle to chile with the goal of skiing to the boat in the glaciers of Patagonia. Oh, and Team Tre got a dog.
The next two months were a whirlwind. We hired a yacht broker, found a wedding venue, looked at a few boats, low-balled a guy, and bought one. A 32 foot dreamboat: Scooter.
A year later, my resignation letter was sent, the trucks were packed, and we drove from Cincinnati to Seattle to move from a 3 bedroom house, to a 100 square foot bathtub.
As I sit here and try to figure out my feelings on what this summer will hold I struggle to pinpoint what I’m really feeling. There are days or moments where I am super excited about the thought of our “new normal” and there are others where it totally overwhelms me and I want to throw these plans in a blazing fire. My hope in writing this that it opens up a conversation that I think many people are having within themselves. I hope it creates a safe place for you and me alike to process, struggle with and reflect on what lies ahead.
My birthday 2 months into Joe and I dating The expression on my face is misleading… he is very sweet, trust me 😉
If you are someone who, like me, is married to an adventurer, someone always seeking the next big trip or excursion, then this series of posts may sound familiar to you. Joe has always deeply desired a monumental trip or adventure. When we first started dating it was flying around the world and sharing the gospel with anyone and everyone. He is also someone that will make it happen when he puts his mind to it. So in this case, he began taking ground school classes and classes that would get him closer to a pilot’s license. As we grew and changed this dream turned into driving the coast from Alaska to Argentina. The western coast of the Americas. This dream surfaced during the later years of college when we were living in Bozeman. Joe began sharing this dream with our close friends and honestly I had not given it much thought because I knew it was far off, and I was certain it was going to change at some point. I think this lack of excitement and thought I gave it came from a deeper place of uncomfortability. I had never in a million years thought I would do anything other than what I had witnessed while growing up. I would go to college, marry my best friend, get a job, live in a house and eventually raise a family. Little did I know at the time, there would be many more steps and things to be done in my life time than that small set of expectations.
The adventure Jeep – bought for the western coast, now the project car
Two of the people Joe shared this dream with are some of our very best friends to this day. At the time the guy in the couple had decided that this was something he wanted in on. The only difference between he and Joe was the number of cars in which they wanted to take on this journey. Joe was set on the four of us in one car and he was set on two cars. It was honestly kind of a funny joke of a conversation each time we had it. Funny and light hearted in the way that still did not have me convinced that this would actually ever happen.
The four best friends… Joe, Hannah, Taylor and Hank
Fast forward about a year and these two wonderful humans are visiting us in Seattle. During their time visiting, many life changing things took place. The first and most exciting was their engagement. Joe and I were lucky enough to get to witness that joyful moment and snap a few pictures of the event. On the drive back down to Portland, the crazy boys decided that we needed to take the long way home. And not just any long way but all the way up to the most northern part of Washington down to Portland along the coast. This would be a taste of what that “epic road trip” could entail. But it was on this road trip that the idea of a sail boat came to the table in part due to the fact that Joe and I had started watching a YouTube channel called SV Delos. The dream had now morphed to sailing down the Pacific coast of the Americas. Once again, it was just a fun idea to me. Even though they were talking and planning more seriously, coming up with what it would take financially, and what the timeline would look like, I still took it all in as just a dream. Not something that would come to fruition anytime soon.
