Our Te Araroa speaking tour took us through the Midwest, somehow magically without any winter weather. All 4 stops–Columbus, Indianapolis, St. Louis & Kansas City–were awesome. We both love, love, love standing up in front of people and educating them about our passions and adventures. But I think the thing I enjoy even more is…
In this past week, we went from the serene quiet of the island to the organized chaos of life on the road. We are officially on our Te Araroa Speaking Tour, making 8 stops at REI stores across the country between now and Jan. 13. We started in East Hanover, NJ, with an audience of…
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…
We now have Phil Keoghan on speed dial. Okay, that’s a little of a stretch, but it was really fun to be chummy with Phil for a day. Earlier in the afternoon, we met Phil only briefly before our presentation, and thankfully, I don’t think I showed how star struck I was. Then the evening…
All summer long, friends and family asked if we would be coming to a town near them because they wanted to see us present (or maybe they just wanted a chance to win cool prizes). Well, the good news is if you are free Tuesday evening at 8:30pm EST, you can watch our presentation LIVE…
There are only a few places this summer where we stayed for more than a few days. Texas was one of them. 10 hot days. I lost 2.5 lbs just by breathing in Texas. Thursday, it finally rained in Texas (yeah for them!) and Friday, as we were driving the last bit of the Longest…
We’ve traded in coniferous trees and high-alpine lakes in the Pacific Northwest high country for barren landscapes and prickly cacti in the Southwest. We had forgotten how HOT it is in the Southwest, even though it is approaching “fall,” but we’re still hiking! Lately, we’ve had local “guides” on our hikes. In New Mexico, we…
I love Washington … always have. How could you not love a state with such diverse ecosystems? We have been lucky enough to come to Washington 3 different times this year and get to really experience its diversity. You already heard about our experience in the alpine ecosystem up on Rainier. But to get the…
We are slowly making our way west, not without a few pitstops and visiting of course!!! In June, I slept on a bed at a friend or family’s house 18 nights, 8 nights in the van, 3 nights in a hotel and only one night camping. J, on the other hand, slept 10 nights at…
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…
Our tour took us on a detour to Midwest from the East coast this week, mainly for our fourth presentation in Indianapolis. But as with all our adventures, we take the windy path to get there. So we started with a stop for the weekend in Columbus, OH to break up the drive and visit…
You guys have probably figured out we do a lot of driving with our new gig with BP … we have logged 6,500 miles in the first month!! This whole tour came together quickly and there were a few details that were unknown until the last minute, including what vehicle we would be traversing the…
10 days since my last post, but it feels more like 20 days because of everything we packed in! Sorry folks, I can’t just blog about one thing anymore, it’s going to be a package deal for awhile. Who would have thought being a professional backpacker was this busy?? We have now given our 3rd…
We are now 2 presentations in with 6,000+ miles driven across 16 states, all in 2 weeks. To say it’s been busy is an understatement! But we are happy. I have lots of updates, but a few take precedence over others. As we mentioned, we are going to see a lot of friends as we…
We gave our very first Gear & Go presentation for BP in Minneapolis and it was a success! We had about 25 people there, which was a perfect-sized crowd for our first event. People laughed at our jokes and stories and came up to us afterwards to thank us for the information. And, of course,…
Deal is really living up to his trail name these days. What started as a joke on the AT for him showing off all his deeply discounted and free gear has now become his life. We are receiving gear in droves these days. Every day is like Christmas with a new package full of goodies.…
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…
We returned to New Hampshire for our last week of freedom. We didn’t originally plan to visit the 603, but we got a call about a month ago about a house/cat sitting gig and thought … why not?? So we returned to our last state of residence and found that the things we loved about…