“You can’t get anywhere from here,” J and I lamented the other day. By here, I mean RR and this northeast corner of Oregon. For years, J & I have talked about living off the grid. When we lived in Penacook, NH, and Bluemont, VA, we were 8 miles from the closest grocery store and…
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…
March 25th marks the one-year anniversary for my sister and her gastric bypass surgery. My sister is 6 years my senior and even though we have our personality differences (her idea of camping is staying at a 3-star hotel), the biggest difference is in our looks. Most people can’t believe we are sisters. She has…
This weekend was our last one at the cabin in the mountains of CO before we make our 3,000-mile detour to the East Coast to our house (AKA, very expensive storage unit) in VA and then head up to Oregon to start our new jobs and life. We knew saying goodbye to the cabin would…
We are still enjoying our transition period at the cabin between one adventure to the next. I have loved having a space for silence, a space for ourselves and a space for routine. We’re still pet-sitting and it’s also been nice to have pets again; we are not typically dog people, but it is becoming…
You have to be wondering what we are doing these days since we don’t start our new gig until April. I imagine our life is very much like a retired couple’s life. And we are purposely enjoying what retirement periods we can now because it will take some major lottery winnings for J & I…
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…
Happy New Year from Colorado, our temporary “home” for the next 2 months. Lest you think we are on some “pot tourism” trip, I assure you we are not. Marijuana is JUST what my clot-infested lungs need, right?. It is merely pure coincidence that we are now living in Colorado and pot is legal for…
Cliche or not, I would like to jump on the bandwagon (albeit a few days too late) and tell you what I am most thankful for this year. Well, besides the obvious thankfulness for surviving my blood clots in my lungs, that is. I am most thankful for y’all. This summer while we traversed the…
Have no fear, I am on the mend. At first, it was slowly. Too slow for my liking. It is not easy, nor fun, to go from 90 MPH to 5 MPH. But, this week has been a new week and every day I feel a little better. J said he is almost ready to…
I’ve always said it is about the journey, not the destination, and this is certainly true for my experience on Mount Rainier! As you all probably know by now, J successfully summited, along with Fire Marshall Mac. In J’s words, it was the most difficult outdoor recreation thing he ever attempted–even frightening at times–but he…
In May, we spent 17 nights sleeping at friends’ or family’s houses, 7 nights in the van, 5 nights in a hotel, and 1 night camping. In June (for the nights J & I were together), we spent 8 nights sleeping at friends/family’s houses, 3 nights in a hotel, 2 nights in the van and…
We are busier than a one-armed juggler these days. Even J, who never stresses about anything, felt a little overwhelmed these past few weeks. Here’s a snapshot has been going on: 1) Today we drove away from the castle in the woods on our way to our new adventure working for Backpacker Magazine. The transition…
Steps 1-3: Dream big, live your passions and don’t ever stop believing. I am here to report that the wanderinglavignes will be wandering once again. We are leaving BD and have a new adventure awaiting, an adventure we could only dream about until recently. And I swear I am not trying to play an early…
The point of this post is to tell you some exciting news … at the beginning of January, I started a new job as a medical writer/researcher for a small nonprofit … but before I get to that, let’s entertain a little stream of consciousness, shall we? Yawn. It’s been almost a year since we…
Today is Deal and my 6th anniversary!! I can hardly believe we’ve been married for six years. I can remember our first year of marriage like it was yesterday. Although we had been together for 4 years before getting married, being married was so new and exciting! The whole year was like a whirlwind honeymoon…
I love my new life. It’s funny how things never turn out as planned. I should know this by now, yet I am still surprised by it. The thing is, Deal took a huge pay cut in this position as caretaker, which is why it was so important for me to find a full-time job.…
Hi everyone, how are you? I quit my job. If you do not want to join my pity party, stop reading now. I am warning you, this will be a long, hopefully funny, sometimes incoherent, sometimes angry, sometimes thankful rant. The fact of the matter is, I need to get my feelings out about the…
Exhale. So, it turns out that starting two new jobs, moving into a new place and doing some home renovation projects at the same time is never a good idea. Just in case you were wondering. In an effort to try not to babble, oh wait, who am I kidding. Prepare for some babble. 1)…
We are currently in New Hampshire, thoroughly enjoying our time and busy visiting with friends all over the state. But, I have to interrupt my normally scheduled blog updates to recognize something very cool. Holy canoli, this is my 500th blog post! And because it’s my 500th blog post, I couldn’t waste it on just…