LONG STORY SHORT By Kristine McGowan  Once we settled on getting an Outdoors RV trailer [INSERT CHOOSING OUR RIG LINK], we came up against a problem: Very few dealerships in our area sold Outdoors RV trailers. And the ones that did typically didn’t sell the models that appealed to us.
We could have given up on Outdoors RV and gone with a brand more widely available in Southern California. But as you might have learned from reading about how Jason determined our route for this trip, we’re not ones to give up easily. Instead, we decided we’d have to go where Outdoors RV trailers were easier to find: the Pacific Northwest. So Jason reserved an Airbnb for us just south of Seattle in early 2023. We’d always wanted to explore the Seattle area. Even if we failed to find a trailer, at least we’d get to see a place on our travel list, we figured.
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LONG STORY SHORT By Kristine McGowan  Whatever happens this year, it can’t be as scary as Sonora Pass was, right? Right? Our “winter break” at home has come to an end. After three months of stuffing ourselves with Thanksgiving turkey, Christmas tamales, and Super Bowl BBQ, we’re finally back on the road.
We’re so ready—and a bit nervous, too. LONG STORY SHORT By Jason Clark  One of the first rules of buying a truck and a trailer is this: Pick your trailer first. That way, you can find a truck that’s 100% capable of towing the trailer you like.
Well… we picked our truck first. It was for good reason, and we have no regrets. But it did affect how big we could go with our trailer. LONG STORY SHORT By Kristine McGowan  If you've been following our blog here, first of all—thank you. Second of all, you've probably noticed that the longer we were on the road last year, the scanter our updates grew—until we finally stopped posting altogether in October.
LONG STORY SHORT By Kristine McGowan As much as we’d like to believe our trip will go according to plan, we can’t control everything. Bad weather, illness, family emergencies—anything can upend a planned trip. And when you’re traveling around the country for 18 months straight, you open yourself up to endless opportunities for derailment. We came up against that reality on the first leg of our trip, what we’ve otherwise been calling our “western route.” Here’s the route Jason originally planned for this leg:  LONG STORY SHORT By Jason Clark We were sitting in a tandem kayak in the San Juan Islands, watching black dorsal fins crest the water several hundred feet away. Somehow, we’d won the wildlife-viewing lottery. We were in the right place at the right time to see the one thing we’d hoped to: orcas.
I looked at Kristine and said, “We can’t complain about our luck for the rest of this trip.” Arrested Development narrator: They would still complain. As with any vacation, we’ve stumbled across both good and bad luck on The Big Trip. For instance, the same sequence of events that led us to those orcas also put us in North Cascades National Park right when a wildfire had closed much of the park. I wanted to assess how our luck has balanced out on the road. What follows is a record of our luckiest and unluckiest days so far. LONG STORY SHORT By Kristine McGowan Utah might just be my favorite state.
One could argue—and I do—that its parks rival the crown jewels of the National Park System, even Yosemite and Yellowstone. (Don’t come at me until you’ve read this whole story, okay?) Each one offers big adventure among unique geological features that, frankly, make my brain implode. They’re incredible to look at—but when I consider the natural forces that worked together seamlessly to form these vast canyons, stunning arches, and sandstone cathedrals? It’s mindboggling. LONG STORY SHORT By Kristine McGowan  During our time in Bend, Ore., we devoured baked goods and every news article we could find about the looming government shutdown. The baked goods tasted better. We did a lot of planning before we hit the road. We mapped out our route. We selected our rig after extensive research into trucks and travel trailers. And we made sure we had enough savings to cover not only 18 months of life on the road but also several months of life after the road, when we’ll search for jobs and a new home (without wheels).
Despite all that, there was something we didn’t plan for: Congress’s inability to negotiate a spending bill that would keep the U.S. government open. |
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