Currently: April

Currently living/working in: Most of April has been on the road in our van. Our Leave No Trace contract ended April 8, meaning we returned our work-provided Subaru Ascent and moved into our van until the next Leave No Trace contract. We are still juggling lots of content projects, but it’s been fun to be on the road in a different capacity. No set schedule or place to be, but still working whilst exploring new places. 

Current mood: April was crazy because I stockpiled a bunch of extra writing projects knowing we’d have “more time” without Leave No Trace work. Ha! Never enough time and always something new that comes up! But I feel a tad more balanced now that most of those deadlines are behind me. 

Currently excited about: Let’s be honest. Our purchase of the Sprinter van in May 2018 was an impulse purchase and a deal we couldn’t pass up. But then it sat in storage and we were like, why the heck did we buy it? But now that we’ve lived out of our van for a few weeks, we remember why. Sure, it has issues and worries us. But the maiden voyage with our tiny home on wheels excited us for future possibilities (after we put it back in storage again this summer).  

Currently not excited about: Between the 2 of us during a 15-day period, we are taking 15 flights for various reasons, sometimes together, sometimes separate.

Currently proud of: Recycling empty toothpaste containers!!! I’m a big fan of Terracycle programs, which offer individualized recycling for items typically hard to recycle. Some are free programs, others may have a cost. For example, we’ve used Terracyle for our dehydrated meal packages (Backpacker’s Pantry sponsors one at no cost for customers). Many of the free programs ask that you use the mailing label to ship pounds of items, instead of wasting it on just one. So I solicited the staff at Leave No Trace to help me fill a box of toothpaste tubes to send to Terracycle and we mailed in 1.5 lbs! We plan to fill another in June!

Currently regretting: Poor timing has Justin going from sea level to (hopefully) 20,320 feet within a few weeks. We’ve been at sea level since April 14. He is hoping to fly to Denali’s base camp (7,000 feet) May 13. Granted, his team will make a slow ascent to the summit and Justin’s rate of oxygen consumption is historically pretty good when going to altitude, but still! #notrecommended 

Currently worried about: Speaking of Denali … The truth is, I don’t worry as much as people want me to worry when Justin climbs mountains. I am happy to support him following his climbing dreams. Justin is a skilled mountaineer, plain and simple. In the mountains, there is a fine line between ambitious and foolhardy; Justin knows his place. I do worry about weather and things out of our control, so you better believe I will be asking for those good vibes in a few weeks!!

Currently amazed by: Mikah Meyer. We met Mikah when he was giving a presentation at Denali Education Center last summer, but had heard about him prior to that. I’m not even going to tell you about him. I’m just going to direct you to an article I wrote about him on GearJunkie. #shamlessplug

Current guilty pleasure: I’m pretty sure our 7 days of gluttony on our Eastern Caribbean Cruise with our niece was enough indulgence for awhile.

Current confession: It was SO refreshing to unplug while we were on the cruise. I truly felt like my mind decluttered. Granted, all the to-do lists were waiting for us upon our return to the mainland. I just love the fact that Justin & I go off the grid every so often (our editor at Backpacker jokes that we use it as an excuse far too often). 

Currently proud of: Just can’t get over the fact that we are hitting the road for Leave No Trace and the Zero Landfill Initiative again this summer. 

Currently reading: We love reading magazines (duh, we write for one!), but they typically stockpile. We read probably about a dozen magazines on the cruise! 

Currently watching on Netflix: We haven’t really been Netflixing on the road.