November Wrap Up and OHEMGEE, IT’S A VLOG!!!

Back in August, Macky and I sat down over dinner and starting going through everything we had done so far in the year. We made it to, like, February. It’s been a big, big year. And if our plans for next year come even CLOSE to fruition, 2015 will be even bigger, which means that we are in grave danger of forgetting things. What’s the point of doing awesome things if you forget them?!?!?! Eek! So, for totally selfish reasons, I’ve decided to start doing a monthly here-is-everything-we-did post. Around the same time, Macky and I decided we needed to do a vlog, because we film EVERYTHING and then never use any of our footage. So, voila, monthly wrap up and vlog. Here we go.

~NOVEMBER~

Where we were: Athens, Ohio, spending time with my family. Here is a handy map for locating Athens.

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What we did: Rode bikes. Built a trail. Went to Ray’s Indoor Mountain Bike Park in Cleveland, Ohio. Hung out with my family. Tortured the family dogs. Helped my family cut down and chop up a bunch of trees.

Training: (Because a surprising amount of people are curious about this) Unstructured, fun base miles. I also got my very own heart rate monitor (Thanks, POLAR!!!) and have started using Strava more than once a century — so if you’re into that sorta thing, you can follow me here. The whole heartrate monitor/strava thing might not seem like a big deal (in fact a certain segment of the population might be appalled that I WASN’T using one before), but it’s actually a huge part of the whole me-trying-to-take-myself-seriously-as-an-athlete thing.

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What we ate: Turkey. Lots of turkey. Also, lots of venison. In fact, we even learned how to field dress a deer in my backyard…and by LEARNED, I mean watched someone do it without puking. Tonight, we are going to eat part of that deer. As Macky said, “it could only be more local if it had been standing on the porch.”

The Big News: We bought a home! And by home, I mean a home on wheels. Her name is Great White and she is a 1998 Ford E-250 van. You can look forward to a whole blog post all about Great White in the coming weeks, but here’s a synopsis: she’s in pretty good condition, if you can overlook the rust and the giant gaping holes in the floor. She used to belong to AT&T, so we spent the latter part of the month wrestling out the hideous and clanky utility cabinets and battling the ladder racks. We really REALLY wanted to keep the flashing light that you can see in the picture below, but unfortunately it was so rusted to the ladder rack that even a crow bar wouldn’t budge it.

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And now, the moment ya’ll have been waiting for. The VLOG. This is our first stab at vlogging, and as you’re about to see, I feel super awks about it. But we had to start somewhere….Please let us know what you think!

This is What It’s Like to Live in A Sprinter Van for 11 Weeks

Also could be titled, this is what it’s like to drive 5,000 miles and live in a sprinter van for 11 weeks with two smelly boys and eight bicycles, but my web designer would object to both the length of that title and to being called smelly.

When you hear about people living out of a van, it’s usually a couple, or maybe a couple and their dog. In extreme circumstances, a toddler might be involved. You don’t often hear about TWO couples living in a van. That’s because, by all logical considerations, it’s a terrible idea. However, that’s what we did, and a few stressful moments aside, we had a pretty awesome summer.

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Before anyone gets too concerned, Macky and I slept in a tent, because no Sprinter van, not even an extended one, sleeps four. Especially after you put eight bicycles and a full workshop and an air compressor in the back. One of these days (when this whole blogging thing starts to pay off big, amirite?!), I’m going to buy my own van and it will have wood panelling and homemade curtains and all sorts of other evidence of female nesting, but for the moment, the van belongs to Sean and is therefore basically a man cave on wheels.

So, here’s a brief summer overview, mainly photos, to give you some idea of what it’s like to live out of a van.

The Sprinter took us to some pretty awesome places.

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We spent a lot of time staring at the open road…

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Our campsite was usually a little chaotic. With two coleman stoves and a propane tank, we could whip up some pretty elaborate meals.

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Sometimes it rained, and we cooked in the back of the van.

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Sometimes there were mosquitoes. Note my outfit.

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Sometimes we ate dinner in the middle of the road, because there were no other humans within a ten mile radius.

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In case of naptime emergencies, the Sprinter can kinda sorta sleep three….

Sometimes, we're tired.

We took very few showers and the ones we did take tended to be cold. Sorry Macky, for posting a picture of your naked bum on this site not once, but twice.

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When you drive a ~25 foot van, it can be hard to find a parking space so sometimes you have to improvise.

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In addition to our two Coleman stoves, we had a Jetboil Sumo for super fast morning coffee creation. Nothing quite like drinking a cup of strong coffee and watching the first sun beams hit the Moab redrocks.

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With very little internet access, we had nothing to distract ourselves from the beauty that surrounded us.

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Photo: Sean Leader

Photo: Sean Leader

Do you live in a van or have dreams of doing so? Share your thoughts below!

Epic American Roadtrip Summer 2014 (third edition)

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The little ol’ blog is a bit behind the times. I am currently three weeks into the Epic American Road Trip Summer 2014 and I haven’t even told you what it is. (Hint: it’s an epic roadtrip in the US! During the summer!) This is the third edition of #EpicAmericanRoadTrip — see what I did there? I just gave myself a hashtag! — which is really awesome to think about because it means Macky and I have been traveling around for THREE YEARS and we still love each other. Cue “aww moment.” Continue reading