Mille Nomads

We set out in our mini van on Saturday morning feeling excited to hike and camp. We knew we had a bit of a trek ahead of us because our campsite was a mile hike from the parking lot and we did not have overnight hiking packs with us. We pulled into the parking lot and were met with views of the lake and surrounding mountains. We set off to scout out our campsite before hauling our supplies there, following a trail that hugged the side of the lake into the woods. The park was named Eleven Mile for the eleven mile trail that went around the whole lake! Eventually we decided to setup camp, so we began the multiple trips to and from the car to haul our tent, sleeping bags, food, firewood, water, etc. back to the campsite. This was quite the workout, but it was worth it once we had everything setup!  Eleven Mile State Park in Colorado deserves its own blog post. This park was one of the first truly breathtaking experience we had during our travels. We learned that reserved camping in Colora

After Austin, we spent a month in Colorado Springs, CO. We had gone a bit crazy with our spending in Austin, eating out with friends and exploring all the food and drink options the city had to offer (there were quite a few). We reeled ourselves back in once in Colorado and made an agreement to eat out as little as possible. This was actually fairly easy because we spent most of our time in Colorado hiking, camping, and exploring the Rocky Mountains. We got creative in our camping and trail meals. We rented the basement apartment of a house with an absolutely amazing view of the rocky mountains surrounding Colorado Springs. The apartment itself wasn't much to write home about, but it had everything we needed. The kitchen didn't have an oven or a dish washer, but it had two toaster ovens and a smokeless grill. We didn't really care that it wasn't fancy because we spent 90% of our time on the outside patio.  Patio Home We were there in the middle of the summer, so the day

Writing a little appreciation post for Sweet Tyler  to celebrate his 30th trip around the sun! This past trip and a half has been a whirlwind adventure. Reflecting on all our travels, trials, triumphs as well as the SIGNIFICANT amounts of one-on-one time, I am so very thankful that I get to live this adventure life with Tyler. Tyler is the perfect traveling partner. He loves to do the driving, so I get to be the passenger princess 99% of the time. He is amazing at logistics and planning; he enjoys scouring National Park websites to find the right dog friendly hike, Thrillist to find the perfect restaurant with an outdoor patio, and Furnished Finder to find us a safe and cost effective short-term rental. I hate doing all that research; so getting a short list of options to choose from is such a blessing. I think my go with the flow attitude and Tyler’s ability and love of planning (mostly this) has made us a strong traveling pair. Driving with Tyler Tyler is also the opposite of

After we left Austin, our next home base was Colorado Springs. We decided to check out two National Parks on our way from Texas to Colorado: Carlsbad Caverns in southern New Mexico and Guadalupe Mountains on the very western edge of Texas. We rented a small converted garage Airbnb in Carlsbad, NM for two nights. When we arrived, we brought our bags inside, and Tyler went to sit down on the bed. He looked up at me immediately with a look of surprise and shock on his face. I asked him what was wrong. He told me I had to feel the bed because it was a water bed! We cracked up; neither of us had ever slept on a water bed before, unique for sure. A big reason I decided to blog was to help myself remember all the funny little things that happened on our adventures too. The surprise water bed was certainly one of those funny little memories.  We got in later in the day, so after checking in we spent our first evening by the river, letting Bailey swim and play since he wouldn't be allowed i

Our first extended stop on our adventure was in Austin, Texas, where we spent 5 weeks starting in June. Some may think it is a bit silly to choose to be in Austin in the heat of the summer, but we had a great reason! Tyler had agreed to be the Director of Photography on a film our friend Caleb was producing and directing. Tyler was very excited for this opportunity, and we both had really enjoyed Austin when visiting before, so it was perfect timing for us to be in the Texas capital for an extended amount of time. The Oracle headquarters is also in Austin, so I was able to go into the office several days a week and meet up with a couple of coworkers. It was a great change of pace after working fully remotely for the previous 2 years. I loved getting to spend some face-to-face time with my coworkers in the office, at happy hour, and going out to dinner. Zilker Park  One of our favorite parts of Austin is Zilker Park, a large park on the edge of downtown Austin and Ladybird lake with tra

We left Jacksonville and headed to our first-month long stop, Austin, Texas! We soon got a taste of the many long driving days we would have ahead of us on this adventure during this part of the journey. We also experienced our first "low light." The initial leg of the trip went smoothly, we got off work at 5 and drove the 6 hours from Jacksonville to Mobile, Alabama.  We had booked a hotel room with a well-known chain that allowed dogs, and we thought would be in for an easy, peaceful sleep, but instead we were in for a rude awakening! We are by no means fancy-shmancy hotel people, but thinking about this place still makes me cringe. We arrived around midnight and were just ready to crash and get up and get back on the road in the morning. The rooms all had external entrances, and when we drove in there were multiple people sitting outside their rooms just staring at us, that made me feel uneasy right off the bat. When we opened the door to the first room we were given, the