Do you every get antsy after eating the same meals over and over again?
My new New Year’s resolution is to cook a new-to-me recipe each week.
Some I may like
Some may bomb
But at least they will be different.
Just a few more days of 2024.
It's been a year of change for ourselves and our home on wheels.
I'm finally building out storage in the camper.
At the same time, we're building some surprising muscles while running on trails.
It's incredible how different passions dovetail with each other. Our love of the road and travel brings us to so many trailheads. And trail running takes us further than we even thought we could travel in a day.
This also has me thinking about goals for 2025.
I think that building a shower is becoming a priority.
Here's something I don't think I've said here before:
I'm afraid of heights.
Not in a I-can't-go-above-the-5th-floor kind of way but in a let's-not-stand-so-close-to-that-balcony-railing kind of way. Climbing Picacho Peak, to me, was terrifying.
2024 vs 2018
Six years.
So much has changed.
So much has stayed the same.
Both our truck and camper have been a constant in our travels, but as each year passes, we tweak each to suit us better:
Cabover extension.
Solar panels,
New windows,
Utility truck bed,
Larger, all-terrain wheels and tires,
Pass through connecting the camper and truck,
DIY lithium batteries,
the list goes on and continues to lengthen.
To another year of change and growth.
#truckcamper
We arrived early in the morning, when the sheep are particularly active, and spot a wide variety of sheep with an equivalent variety of horn sizes.
Another throwback from a previous visit to Anza Borrego:
Borrego Palm Canyon is one of the gems of desert hiking in Anza Borrego. Along with the aforementioned Palm Canyon, this loop hike follows a spring-fed creek popular among thirsty big horn sheep.
#hiking
Not a lot of the outside of our little home on wheels has changed for a while. But the inside is in constant flux, these days.
I've been working away at our dinette area: building out storage space, hidden cable runs, and just adding a bit of finish to the spartan aluminum tent we've been living in.
Working with fiberglass and epoxy takes a lot of prep and cleanup, but the resulting interior is remarkably lightweight and sturdy!
Each evening, Chris is bemused by my bubbling enthusiasm over the day's progress. But after all these years in the camper, it feels so good to take this kind of control over our living space.
#diyproject
The last time we camped here, we almost lost our door. A wind gust slammed the camper door open and ripped it free of one of the hinges. Shortly after that, I completely remade the door and remounted it with a piano hinge.
I'm almost disappointed by the calm evening. Sure, I don't like being bashed around by wind gusts, but it's satisfying to show off the work we've done, even if only to some elemental power that has no capacity to step back, eye the project, and nod with that knowing approval of a craftsman respecting another's work.
Instead, we step back, up along a ridge to admire the sunset, scenery, and our little home on wheels nestled amongst it all.
We try our best to arrive at new campsites in the daylight. But as the days get shorter and we approach the winter solstice, some days we just make due.
In this case, we compromise, stopping our journey a little early to catch the last light of the sun in a campground we are vaguely familiar.
I snap a few picks as Chris rummages around in the storage boxes for leveling blocks and we retreat into the interior for a dinner of leftovers and an early bedtime.
Just a quiet day in transit.
We have been out playing the mountain goats, trotting up and down the trails. Or, in this case, big horn sheep. We may even squeeze in one last race before we close the book in 2024.
It may be cold out (ridiculously cold!) but there is still so much to explore.
What are you up to this weekend?
Happy Thanksgiving!
Our heater may be broken and its fix may take a while, but on this chilly Thursday morning, I’m still thankful.
I’m thankful for tool kits.
I’m thankful for wide open roads.
I’m thankful for clear starry skies.
And I’m thankful for you! A community of supportive dreamers, lovers of the outdoors and adventure. People eager to push their limits and share their tragedies and triumphs.
Winter may be closing in. But there’s still plenty of opportunities to get outside and explore.
See you on the road!
What's the news?
My kind of commute, complete with a stop to pick up the paper. (No paper included).
Yeah, this was one crazy run. At one point the trail was so steep I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t fall in the process of descending it.
But the views were one of a kind!
#trailrun
Truck campers are relatively small compared to many RVs out there, but we're also huge compared to most commuter vehicles. Traffic, parking, and narrow roads are a special kind of hell when we visit a city.
That's why we will go to great lengths not to drive downtown. Lengths such as camping outside and running trails into the city. That's how we manage to visit friends in Los Angeles without parking nearby.
Was it a hectic run?
You had better believe it.
But it was one adventure.
The trail I had planned for us to run is closed, and after spitballing options with a local ranger, we settle upon a new idea: let's just run them all. Every trail on the Avenue of Giants. Most of the trails are short walks to a nearby grove. A few climb a ridge. But all of them enjoy that soft trail of forest litter.
The greatest challenge? Parking at some of the smaller trailheads.
#trailrunner #run
Take me back to that cool ocean breeze...
There’s a lot of amazing places places to #paddle. A lot that I haven’t paddled. But I’ll still venture that Antelope Canyon stands apart as not only something special but also remarkable accessible even for beginning paddlers.
https://roamlab.com/paddling-antelope-canyon/
I suppose I ought to introduce us. I’m Lexi. That’s Chris. We travel around in a 1970 Avion truck camper ( no, it’s not an Airstream but I can understand the confusion).
Sometimes we have adventures worth sharing. Other times, I just post picture of our truck camper in increasingly remote terrain.
Hello world