Swimming along in the Wyoming Heat

Aha! We have resurfaced after 6 days in Yellowstone National Park and 2 days in Bighorn Canyon. Reception has been scarce of course so it feels strange to actually be interacting with the technology grid once more. We're stopped in Sheridan, Wyoming and taking advantage of some free WiFi offered at their visitor center. I'm using this opportunity to offer some updates, clear my e-mail, and transfer all the massive amount of pictures we took the park! I'm thinking I may need to utilize my flicker account to deal with all the pictures instead of just trying to post them haphazardly here or on facebook.

Yellowstone National Park was a blast and I can see why it remains one of the most visited places in the United States. There is so much to see and so many trails leading to amazing beautiful places. Actually, I was shocked at how little we actually hiked. All of the major attractions are right off the main roads with lots of parking and very comprehensive facilities throughout the park. Actually, the main attractions are so accessible that there is absolutely no reason that ANYONE should not be able to enjoy the park and all it has to offer. Many roads are paved, wheelchair accessible, and I was impressed with the wide variety of accommodations made available. We saw two bears, countless bison, and less elk than I thought we would. The weather was perfect in the 70's and 80's with a lot of breeze which made the heat bearable. It even rained one day which was a relief and cooled things off considerably. It also didn't stick around too long so it worked out! The geysers were amazing and interesting in their wide variety but by the end I was a little geysered out. You can only take so much sulphur and billowing heat.

Bighorn Canyon National Park turned out to be a hole-in-the-wall kind of place, a far cry from the crowds of people we experienced at Yellowstone. Bighorn has its own beauty however with rust red cliffsides and geological structures that were very beautiful. There was also a lake to swim in, however, it was also swarming with BUGS. I mean, LOTS and LOTS of bugs! Most were fine and of the grasshopper/locust family but there were some scary spiders and Jurassic park sized mosquitoes to contend with. Our natural oil bug spray held up really well though and we'll be needing a restock on that pronto. Bighorn was extremely hot and very windy in the evenings. It also offered utility hookups at a steal of a deal which we took advantage of to watch movies and.... drumroll please.... I FINISHED A NOVEL! As in, I succeeded in writing the remainder of a novel I have been laboring over for some time now. Whitney also worked a lot on her novel and together we were quite the writing pair! It was quiet solitude and just what the doctor ordered.

Well, my butt is numb and my stomach is growling so off I go!

Wowwwww

So our trip has been off to a hectic start. Moving out sapped whitney and I of a lot of our initial enthusiasm and whitney is still recovering from numerous bruises and physical scrapes (though she seems to be steadily accumulating more courtesy of our trailer :)) However, even with the craziness that has been the beginning, I think we're hanging on.

We've made it all the way to Spokane with few problems. Most of my problems have been physical stemming from a nasty sinus infection and special lady cramps. As a result I've been pretty grumpy and struggling with general irritation.

I'll post more at a later time. After a gym workout and shower its time for lunch before we head to idaho!

MOVING INSANITY!

In all my excitement for our adventure and upcoming joy, I had refused to allow the prospect of "hard work" get to me. Sure, we had to move out of our house 3 days after our wedding. Of course we would have to lug all our personal effects to Gig Harbor. And yes, there was the chaos that was sure to be the first few days un-tethered from true domicile. But I REFUSE TO LET THAT RAIN ON MY PARADE! ....until now. I'm exhausted. Whitney is covered head to toe in hideous and painful bruises and both of us are suffering from a variety of strained muscles.

Side note: the wedding was AMAZING. It exceeded my wildest expectations and was a true showcase of how wonderful our combined families are. We are so grateful and blessed to have the family we do and to have been able to share our love with them.

That being said, we danced so long and so hard that the following morning I could barely walk. Whitney's sister had feet that looked like they had encountered land mines, what with all the open wounds. So our physical well-being had naught a day to recoup before we had to suddenly begin lugging boxes and all sorts of ridiculousness out of our rental home. So although we are at the beginning of our journey, it feels like the first week will simply be spent lounging and resting in some beautiful place while we recover. And that's just fine with us! :-)

More pictures and adventures to follow!

Figuring it all out!

Our first meal in the trailer??? BACON! Well, technically it was a bacon chicken salad but yeah. We also discovered that cooking bacon in the trailer makes the trailer smell like bacon for DAYS. So... we might not make bacon as often ^.^ But it was still fun. Whitney and I took our own private trip with the trailer to test our abilities at setting up, sleeping, and cooking. I think it went exceptionally well and we discovered several things that we need in order to make our trip more comfortable and ideal.

First of all, sorting out the lighting situation. The trailer is supposedly wired for 110 and for 12 volt and only recently have I discovered the 12 volt wiring and where the battery is supposed to go. However, the previous owner seems to have attempted to splice the wiring and in doing so, created a rather dangerous unsafe line. So we will be removing that wiring and replacing it, as well as figuring out how to install a 12v light and power outlet. Right now, the trailer only has 110 lights which means when we are not hooked up, we have no light. We have battery operated lanterns but that's a lot of batteries. However, I have also registered us for a battery charger and some rechargeable batteries. In addition to our car charger and solar charger, that should take care of our electronic charging needs. I am still trying to determine how to run a laptop while boondocking. It may well be out of our capabilities and we might be limited to only using the laptop when in the car, in cafes, or when plugged in. That means my earning potential for writing on the road will be largely reduced and concentrated to those specific times.

We've made a lot of progress in our trailer packing and organizing. I am very pleased with the amount of storage we have and so far, having packed almost all our essentials except for clothes and a tent, I do not anticipate a problem. In fact, we might even have room to pick up a souvenir here and there! I've been enjoying labeling storage containers and testing equipment for our trip. We received many wonderful REI products from our bridal shower (thank you everyone!) and have had a chance to experiment with them on our recent camping trip.

Solar Shower: This was a piece of equipment that I admit, I was skeptical about. We got the biggest size because I wasn't sure how much water each person would really need for a shower. However, it works as advertised! There are some downsides of course but with access to full sunlight you can have a bag of pretty dang warm water. It also was enough to give 2 showers and to do dishes with for two days. It cools down overnight but since we were dealing with glacier water at our campsite, it was still significantly more tolerable than that. A shaded campsite will prove very limiting unless there is a nearby place to lay it out in sunshine, which our campsite did giving us the perfect opportunity to try this out. I am considering trading it down for a smaller size to improve the time it takes to warm up. It took most of one day to get it hot -- I would guess around 6 hours. But again, this is for a 5 gallon bag and it provided a lot of water.

More updates to follow as well as pictures of the inside of the trailer!

WOW!

Today is my final day of conventional employment. It has yet to truly sink in, that I stand at the peak of my journey, ready to begin the downhill voyage toward travel and the road. Not to say it will be an easy downhill because travel itself is filled with all kinds of obstacles and challenges. But it is the beginning.

After today we will begin our trial runs with the trailer, an opportunity to really test out the features, practice parking and towing, and getting any last minute repairs or maintenance completed. From our bridal shower we got many amazing gifts to be used for our trip and I can’t wait to try them out. Technology gets more and more amazing and through careful brainstorming we had registered for two essential pieces of equipment.

- The Brunton Inspire Portable Power Device

- The Brunton Explorer Foldable Solar Panel

These devices will be very helpful in ensuring that we will be able to power our devices in case of emergency or being in rural/backwoods locations where utilities will not be readily available. The Power Device can be charged from either the Solar Panel or also by our vehicle while driving and can charge several devices before needing another recharge. Also, since they are both from REI, should they prove to be unsatisfactory we can return them to try a different device or approach to our power needs. We are attempting to remain as minimal as possible regarding our power/electrical needs to make boon docking as comfortable as possible.

We'll let you know how they perform on our trial adventures!

So close!!

Time has flown by and there are moments I can't believe that in less than 3 months we will be liquidating our physical "home" items and taking off into the wild blue yonder. Are we insane?! Yes. But we love every minute of it. We're still far enough out that we've begun to consider just some general preparations that we need to be making. Tomorrow I plan to go to Schucks with my brother (very handy mechanical man he is) and pick up the plugs and sparks for the Expedition. It also will need a comprehensive visit to a mechanic to examine an oil leak that was reported at the last oil change. I'm tempted to switch the oil to synthetic but it depends mostly on whether the Expedition does in fact burn/leak oil. It will also need a new windshield before we go. We've also begun to investigate insurance for the trailer and have been very pleasantly surprised by the affordable cost. Looking forward to buying that and getting squared away for that. Next research the vehicle insurance through the same company, see if we can get a cheaper rate for both. One thing I'm really looking forward to buying is a new foam mattress for the trailer bed. And to take the trailer on a psuedo camping trip! We are hoping to take several of these before we leave to hopefully shake loose any potential problems before we get too far out on our journey. Beyond all the nuts-and-bolts planning that goes into something like this, I find myself struggling with the concept of settling into a lifestyle where I literally will not have to work. When I say work I mean work in the traditional sense. I will continue to do website content and writing online for some additional cash flow but no longer will I be anchored to a schedule that threatens to beat the resilency out of me with each passing day. Not that I don't like my current employment because I actually do very much -- but the grind has felt aptly named. Plus, I won't be working a 2nd and 3rd job... basically, having my life revolve around something other than work is going to be an amazing concept. Spending the past year doing just that has robbed me of certain nuances in my life that I look forward to commiting to with new enthusiasm. Especially with Whitney and Spike, the development of our own family :)

Wow, 110 days!

It's amazing to think about how quickly time is dripping by now that we have passed the 6 month countdown. We're already early into March and before we know it'll be April, May, and then DA DA -- JUNE! Of course, planning for the wedding is going to speed up the next couple months considerably as we begin to make preparations and take care of all the "decision making" of details.

I have a tendency to "future trip" and I also really enjoy making house plans. While I do not possess any CAD abilities to draft actual blueprints, I do use a cool program called SmartDraw to create house layouts with basic dimensions. It has the ability do electrical and plumbing schematics, as well as irrigation systems but I don't know enough about that to effectively use them. BUT! I have worked long and hard on several designs for our future "homestead"which will utilize alternative building supplies such as tire bales, straw bale, even shipping containers! Experimenting and researching the benefits and deficiencies of the building materials has been an ongoing process -- and will continue -- but I have drafted a house layout that we are definitely liking as a real potential for our dream homestead. It also has the ability to be built in phases which is important when you are "paying as you go," which we also intend to do to avoid the ridiculous black hole of mortgages, interest, and big banks. It takes longer and more work but when you consider that the savings can average at well over $100,000.... well, bring it!

Click on the thumbnail to open it in Flickr.

I'll outline the details of the house plan:

A 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom home with a semi-attached 2 car garage with above 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment.

The garage apartment will be constructed from a 2x2 structure of shipping containers which will be 16 x 40 space of two floors. On the bottom floor is a two-car garage and a workshop which can be used for processing pet food as part of our raw food business plan. This can also be built as phase one, creating a living space and workspace while working on the main structure. The shipping container model also will make it relatively quick to construct and will make an excellent guest house space. Or for our kids when they come home from college during the summers.

The main house has three bedrooms featuring two master suites and a half bath for guests. There's a library/office room for our love of massive quantities of books. We would also like to have a "homestead library" for those in the community who want to check out books about alternative building, canning, sustainable living, etc. A unique aspect of the rooms are the murphy beds. If we intend on using straw bales and/or tires for our interior walls, they are deep enough to contain recessed beds -- also known as murphy beds. This is an attractive way to store the beds and create more space in the rooms.

Another special feature that we are especially passionate about are built-in fish tanks. I've featured a couple of them in the house. Whitney and I both love fish and they create a calming atmosphere in any situation.

The house also has a walk-in pantry, walk-in storage closet, and a utility room. There's a formal dining room for entertaining and an upstairs loft. The loft features two game tables (we love pool) and another murphy bed for guests.

Okay so basically this is a big ass house but it has everything we could possibly want and hey, I like to shoot big and for the ideal!