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…
I have set up “camp” at my parents’ house in New Jersey for the next 10 days and am glad for the “break.” When I say “break,” I mean to say we still have BP duties, I am writing medical articles to catch up on my freelancing and part-time work, I am giving round-the-clock tours…
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…
We spent Memorial Day weekend in Virginia Beach. Though we ALWAYS have work to do, the 4 days we spent there was the perfect balance of work and relaxation, namely in the form of visiting with J’s extended family. In our travels around the country, the easy option is to sleep in our Sprinter Van.…
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,…
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…
We’ve been to a lot of baptisms. Three godchildren each, plus a few others just to attend. We’re such experts, we could teach a class on it. But this is the first baptism where poop was involved. It’s every parent’s nightmare when it comes to the baptism. The child, all dressed in white, picks the…
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 ventured up to the Philly area for a quick overnight trip with 3 purposes. 1) Meet my college roommates’ 2 new babies. Here is my public apology to my 2 other friends in the Philly area who also have newish babies, but didn’t make the visit list. It was a short visit! 2) Attend…
My sister has lived in Newtown for the last 10 peaceful years. We have spent Christmas at my sister’s for the last 10 years (give or take a few). You can imagine that this year was quite different. The black cloud lingering over Newtown is not going anywhere anytime soon. You just feel the sadness…
We spent last week in Chi-town becoming acquainted with our new nephew! We did a lot of this: and this and this We tried to take a little of the load off of the brand-new family of 3 by helping with dishes, meal times, bath time, changing diapers, getting peed, pooped and spit up on.…
Anytime Deal goes anywhere without me, I tell him to take pictures so I can blog about it. He usually takes one picture of whoever is on the stage and calls it a day. Back in October, he took a short trip to visit theHoss/Jason in Columbus and took pictures from the trip. He was…
These days, there is a “group” for everything. Like-minded people get together and do their thing. Trekkies. Stay-at-home Moms. Stamp Collectors. The list goes on. Deal’s goes to rec director conferences, where they play whiffle ball. I go to my medical writer conferences, where we get our smart on. It’s always nice to interact with…
This weekend was eventful, very eventful. We left the confines of the hostel (I am going to call it BD from now on, so remember that) with a few tasks. We took another step in our 7-year love-hate relationship with our house in Danville. Love-hate because we were so lucky to have the same awesome…
I am happy to announce that Hallmark4Ever/Sara & GoodEgg/Rob (our friends from NJ) asked us to be godparents to their second child!!! We are thrilled!! I am godmother to Big Ears, my sister’s son and Deal is Godfather Part I (not the movie) to Curly Locks, my sister’s daughter. Many people downplay the title of…
Almost immediately after my sister’s family left, Deal’s family arrived! First, his preggo sister (our third niece or nephew to arrive in November!!) SILMeow/Julie and her hubby Napolean Dynamite/Russ. They were only at our place for one night before we ventured to Virginia Beach (all the way on the other side of VA) for a…
The weekend of May 18-20 (yes, I realize that was 2 weeks ago), Deal & I traveled down to Damascus, VA for Trail Days, an annual celebration of long-distance hiking. This could not have happened without 3 things: 1) Scott/Redwing & Marie/Hopeful, the former caretakers, coming in for the weekend to cover the incredibly busy…