We Bought A Yurt!

You read that correctly: we now own a yurt! Even though we no longer live on the road, we will always be a bit feral. All this to say, our version of “settling down” fits a life less ordinary, which is why we now own a cabin AND a yurt in Healy, Alaska! We purchased…

Happy 1 Month to Between Each Step!

My trail memoir, Between Each Step, released 11/15/20, which means today it turns 1 month old! And because my book is now our bootstrapped side business, we’ve been busy bees during this first month. Justin has been a serious rock star partner—he has played the simultaneous role of secretary, office manager, sales manager, accountant, shipping…

Human-Powered Shuttles

Nearly every person we meet in the North Maine Woods spews off something along these lines: “You don’t have a spare tire??” No, we don’t.  First of all, we had no idea what the roads were like in northern Maine (to be fair, our AWD car is delicate). Second of all, we actually didn’t realize…

Scenes From Chesuncook

It’s been 1 week since we’ve been up here and we are getting more and more acquainted. Rainy days have outnumbered sunny days, so we’ve been doing more indoor than outdoor activities, like experimenting with baking bread (want to get it right before guests get here), making granola, and reading (J finished TWO books already!).…

Our New Home in Maine

“The first time that you begin moving in an unconventional direction is the hardest beginning,” according to modern-day adventurer Alastair Humphreys. “After that, you can’t imagine moving in any other way.” Since J & I returned from New Zealand, we had a dilemma and were at another crossroads. We have challenged ourselves to live differently…

End-of-Season Review

Today is the last day RimRock is open. Let me start by saying we had a good time this summer. Overall. This week has been anti-climatic and deathly quiet compared with all the drama and challenges we faced this summer. Add to the fact that we let our SIXTH cook go last week (partly because…

Mid-Season Review

RR has been open for more than 2 months and it’s time for reflective thoughts. Of lately, I bombard you with pictures, but I don’t often say much. Sometimes I don’t write because our life is fluid and things change by the minute. Plus, I like to let my thoughts to fester in my head…

Currently: July

Current mood:  Tired. We had a long, busy weekend Currently thankful for:  Google Translate. We have had several guests from foreign countries who don’t speak good English. How do you say “tipi” in French?  Currently worried about:  Our future Currently excited about:  Our future and our new baby niece or nephew to be born any…

Scenes from our life

I’ve been taking lots and lots of pictures of our time here, but few are shared. Until now.  First, I thought I’d share the wild in our life: We have not seen an alive bear. But, a few weeks ago, a motorcyclist hit a bear 1/4 mile away from us. Fortunately, the motorcyclist walked away…

Currently: May … okay, June

Current mood: Slowly getting in a groove here Currently thankful for: J making it off Mount Hood safely, especially after the news that 6 climbers died on Rainier this week! Currently worried about: 1) Succeeding as a waitress this summer and 2) flooding our kitchen with our dishwasher (happened again Saturday night during dinner service, but…

High Points and Low Points

Well, this week has been going much better than last week in terms of breathing a lot easier and having things under control. I felt like I was at the bottom of a pile of something (laundry? diced tomatoes? tipi liners?) and kept trying to stay afloat. But the thing about the hospitality business is…

Open for Business

  Well, RR opened for business this weekend! Let me tell you, we were putting finishing touches on everything up until the minute guests walked in on Friday at 3pm. The stress of last week was probably far worse for my health than a bloomin’ onion from Outback, but we had happy guests this weekend…

How to Build a Tipi

We open in 10 days and our to do list seems to be growing instead of shrinking!  Our have projects varied, of course. Aside from the whole business of hiring a new chef (DONE!), we had to clean the whole lodge from top to bottom and perform care on the grounds as well. This is…

Living on the Edge

J & I high-fived last Sunday as we entered Oregon, marking it as our 11th state we’ve lived in (collectively). Living in the Pacific Northwest as I always wanted, a big plus. Learning a new address and telephone number, a big minus.  So what is our role at RimRock (RR)? Well, it is both lodging…

A Twist of Fate

I have been dreading this post. You can probably tell I’ve been avoiding the blog, since I haven’t posted since the first day of the new year.  Well, here goes. We have some bad news and some good news.  First, the bad news. BP decided not to rehire us. I am sad, pissed and hurt…