We worked our a**es off. Every day.
Sure, you could say that we still took days off. We went on weekend vacations. We went out to dinner with friends etc. But those days we were “away from the office”, weren't truly. We were still connected. Always checking emails, on the phone, and putting out fires. We never really left the office.
That’s when Randall had the idea … let's take a month off and live out of our truck.
From him - he wanted to explore. To adventure. To have NO PLANS and nowhere to be - not for ourselves. Not for anyone.
For me. It was a goal to disconnect. To feel inspired. To see new places. To reconnect with nature - my healer.
Starting in New Mexico, originally, we thought we’d make it to Alaska. We’d go up through CO, WY, MT, through BC and then back down through WA, OR, ID, UT, and home again.
That was a BIG goal and A LOT of miles.
And so, we were off! July 1, 2019 (back when the world wasn’t ending!).
We very quickly found out that unlike what we were used to doing day in and day out … this trip was not about hitting another goal. We did that every day. This time around - we were going to do this on our own time. Scratch Alaska. If we wanted to stay another day at a spot in the middle of Fernie BC, we were going to do just that. And so, we did.
I think that is one thing that people mistake when they set to go out on a grand adventure. They set goals. They have deadlines. They forget to take a step back and enjoy the act of just being there. In the present. Whether it be exploring the place you are in or just having nowhere to be but there.
It was bliss. Everywhere we went we made friends with locals who would, in turn, introduce us to amazing mountain bike trails, delicious restaurants, rad camp spots. Someone even offered us their home to catch up on laundry! It's incredible the hospitality and generosity of humanity. Especially outside of the working world.
We work up every day, alone, just in awe of our surroundings. The life we left behind for those 30 days felt like light-years away. We were able to connect again. Both with nature and ourselves. We found joy in the day to day tasks such as planning dinners, scoping out new camp spots and telling stories and dreaming ideas around the campfire while the dogs roamed the area looking for pikas among the logs like a game of whac-a-mole!
It still brings me a smile to think back to that time. As if I could bottle up a feeling. A place. And open that jar every morning just to feel the gratitude before I begin my day.
So why did we drop everything and live out of our truck for 30 days you may ask? For US.
You don’t have to live out of a truck for 30 days to feel the same. Maybe you rent an airbnb. Maybe you backpack. Maybe you fly. Whatever it may be, make it your own. Do it for YOU.
If you’d like to follow our route you can check it out by clicking here
*Note: we spent so much time in BC that we had to book it home on the leg back. Next time, we’ll try this route in reverse to catch up on everything we missed! Feel free to email me at austinslimp@gmail.com for Qs!
To check out our journey on Instagram you can follow me @findmetrekking - stories saved to my highlights!