Voyager3
Active member
Well, I'm really sorry I didn't finish my trip report from a couple years ago. You know how life can be.
But things have changed. The trip you missed, which I could still write up, was the catalyst for the way the last couple years have gone. After that my girlfriend and I decided to get a school bus. By the time we made that call and found something that would work for us, we had 4 months to downsize from renting a converted barn in Frederick, Colorado where I had 1900 Sq Ft of garage space (full) to whatever fit in the bus and the Jeep.
It was good for us. We summered at Lake Powell for the first seven months and then moved the bus again to the Oregon coast where we stayed in Waldport for the winter and moved on to Newport for the past year. We went to Iceland twice, Patagonia, and all over the American West. While I haven't had a real job in all this time, (at Powell, I just didn't need to, we were splitting $150 a month rent and full hookups) I've still been busy. Volunteering at Central Coast Fire in Waldport and then Newport Fire,t raining and achieving building entry status as a firefighter, getting my EMR license, my class B commercial driver's license, nearly becoming a part time actual school bus driver, getting trained as a deckhand on a river rescue boat, helping set up a couple fireworks shows, and even a short stint as a stop sign for roadworks. But the most pivotal point in my traveling story was the trip last May to Flagstaff to volunteer at Overland Expo.
That trip really deserves its own thread, and maybe I still will. The plan was really very simple and the results were fantastic. I flew one way to Flagstaff with a day pack. At the time I had a Ducati 916 still in Denver but didn't have a helmet, boots, gloves, or a tent with me. My idea was to find a motorcycle at the Expo and ride it back to Oregon. So, while meeting the staff, other volunteers, and patrons of the show, I would put feelers out and try to make it happen. Well, by the Friday evening happy hour, I was chatting to a couple from New Mexico and they asked what kind of bike I was looking for. When I said, “Oh, a DR650, or something like it.” after only a moment's pause the gentleman said, “We've got one of those. We'll sell it to you.” So there it was, a 2007, just 5200 miles on it, big tank, skid plate, luggage racks. My luggage only ended up being the box my new Alpinestars boots came in strapped to the tail with a strap donated by a Dutch world rider who would eventually become a friend over later Expos.
It was about 2500 miles back to Newport over about 3 weeks out to Death Valley, up through the Sequoias, over to Tahoe, the Alvord and back to the coast. And I suppose the combination of the trip and the story struck something with the Expo staff, so rather unexpectedly I received an email that summer asking me to be a part of the Change Your World Fund Class of 2017. Briefly, it's a grant program for young people to get out and do their first big international overland trip provided it's paired with a humanitarian project. It was formed in honor of a inspiring young man named Alistair Farland who tragically lost his life in a motorcycle accident after leaving Expo East back in 2014 on his way to South America. It was quite an honor and they agreed to let Sam come with me. I mentioned earlier in the abandoned thread she has an international background and loves travel as well. Our mission was to tackle some part of the clean water issues in Central America. We flew into Expo East to learn more and get help planning our project, but the big curve ball came that following December.
Sam moved out.
I won't get too sad right off the bat. Part of what I have been doing to get over the depression of the last 6 months is to try to focus on where I'm going and keep the momentum up. Buslife, for me anyway, was always supposed to be a stepping stone from where we were in Denver to traveling more or less full time. I still want that. And so I will. After the change in my little family, the plan has changed. Now I and my dog Jenson are headed to Alaska AND all the way to Panama picking up, documenting, and drawing attention to the problem of marine debris on beaches across North and Central America. This aligns very closely with my core values as I grew up in south Florida, and have again found myself on the coast, and everywhere I go, I'm picking up trash anyway. So this is an opportunity to make a dent in it myself, organize others to help with cleanups, draw attention to problems, and educate folks on marine debris issues. Overlanding for the health of our oceans, I suppose.
In February I took at trial run again to help me climb out of the residual darkness in my brain and did a loop from Newport through the Alvord and Bonneville to Denver, Death Valley, and up California to Yosemite, hoping to catch the Firefall. No luck on the Firefall, but it was an excellent albeit cold trip. I also very nearly sold the Jeep in Denver and got a Toyota Chinook, and I'm glad I didn't. I found a way to organize it so that it's very cheap and bearable to live out of it, no fancy drawers, no full mattress. But it feels good to still be going with the Jeep that started this whole thing for me way back in Denver. More on the Jeep later.
So where does that leave us now? This May, I again traveled to Expo West in the Jeep with Jenson to work the event as staff setting up and taking down exhibitor stalls. This thread is really for that trip. All told, it was Newport to Flagstaff via the Alvord desert (again, I like the Alvord), down through Nevada over the Duck Creek area into Utah, through White Pocket, and then to Flagstaff. After working the show, north past Powell, Red Canyon, my favorite restaurant, up Utah on any road that looked interesting on a paper map, briefly into Wyoming on my way Northwest from Arizona......oops, and across the middle of Idaho to Oregon. Capped off with the Painted Hills, and Smith Rock. So thank you for bearing with me, let's get into it. New beginnings.
But things have changed. The trip you missed, which I could still write up, was the catalyst for the way the last couple years have gone. After that my girlfriend and I decided to get a school bus. By the time we made that call and found something that would work for us, we had 4 months to downsize from renting a converted barn in Frederick, Colorado where I had 1900 Sq Ft of garage space (full) to whatever fit in the bus and the Jeep.
It was good for us. We summered at Lake Powell for the first seven months and then moved the bus again to the Oregon coast where we stayed in Waldport for the winter and moved on to Newport for the past year. We went to Iceland twice, Patagonia, and all over the American West. While I haven't had a real job in all this time, (at Powell, I just didn't need to, we were splitting $150 a month rent and full hookups) I've still been busy. Volunteering at Central Coast Fire in Waldport and then Newport Fire,t raining and achieving building entry status as a firefighter, getting my EMR license, my class B commercial driver's license, nearly becoming a part time actual school bus driver, getting trained as a deckhand on a river rescue boat, helping set up a couple fireworks shows, and even a short stint as a stop sign for roadworks. But the most pivotal point in my traveling story was the trip last May to Flagstaff to volunteer at Overland Expo.
That trip really deserves its own thread, and maybe I still will. The plan was really very simple and the results were fantastic. I flew one way to Flagstaff with a day pack. At the time I had a Ducati 916 still in Denver but didn't have a helmet, boots, gloves, or a tent with me. My idea was to find a motorcycle at the Expo and ride it back to Oregon. So, while meeting the staff, other volunteers, and patrons of the show, I would put feelers out and try to make it happen. Well, by the Friday evening happy hour, I was chatting to a couple from New Mexico and they asked what kind of bike I was looking for. When I said, “Oh, a DR650, or something like it.” after only a moment's pause the gentleman said, “We've got one of those. We'll sell it to you.” So there it was, a 2007, just 5200 miles on it, big tank, skid plate, luggage racks. My luggage only ended up being the box my new Alpinestars boots came in strapped to the tail with a strap donated by a Dutch world rider who would eventually become a friend over later Expos.
It was about 2500 miles back to Newport over about 3 weeks out to Death Valley, up through the Sequoias, over to Tahoe, the Alvord and back to the coast. And I suppose the combination of the trip and the story struck something with the Expo staff, so rather unexpectedly I received an email that summer asking me to be a part of the Change Your World Fund Class of 2017. Briefly, it's a grant program for young people to get out and do their first big international overland trip provided it's paired with a humanitarian project. It was formed in honor of a inspiring young man named Alistair Farland who tragically lost his life in a motorcycle accident after leaving Expo East back in 2014 on his way to South America. It was quite an honor and they agreed to let Sam come with me. I mentioned earlier in the abandoned thread she has an international background and loves travel as well. Our mission was to tackle some part of the clean water issues in Central America. We flew into Expo East to learn more and get help planning our project, but the big curve ball came that following December.
Sam moved out.
I won't get too sad right off the bat. Part of what I have been doing to get over the depression of the last 6 months is to try to focus on where I'm going and keep the momentum up. Buslife, for me anyway, was always supposed to be a stepping stone from where we were in Denver to traveling more or less full time. I still want that. And so I will. After the change in my little family, the plan has changed. Now I and my dog Jenson are headed to Alaska AND all the way to Panama picking up, documenting, and drawing attention to the problem of marine debris on beaches across North and Central America. This aligns very closely with my core values as I grew up in south Florida, and have again found myself on the coast, and everywhere I go, I'm picking up trash anyway. So this is an opportunity to make a dent in it myself, organize others to help with cleanups, draw attention to problems, and educate folks on marine debris issues. Overlanding for the health of our oceans, I suppose.
In February I took at trial run again to help me climb out of the residual darkness in my brain and did a loop from Newport through the Alvord and Bonneville to Denver, Death Valley, and up California to Yosemite, hoping to catch the Firefall. No luck on the Firefall, but it was an excellent albeit cold trip. I also very nearly sold the Jeep in Denver and got a Toyota Chinook, and I'm glad I didn't. I found a way to organize it so that it's very cheap and bearable to live out of it, no fancy drawers, no full mattress. But it feels good to still be going with the Jeep that started this whole thing for me way back in Denver. More on the Jeep later.
So where does that leave us now? This May, I again traveled to Expo West in the Jeep with Jenson to work the event as staff setting up and taking down exhibitor stalls. This thread is really for that trip. All told, it was Newport to Flagstaff via the Alvord desert (again, I like the Alvord), down through Nevada over the Duck Creek area into Utah, through White Pocket, and then to Flagstaff. After working the show, north past Powell, Red Canyon, my favorite restaurant, up Utah on any road that looked interesting on a paper map, briefly into Wyoming on my way Northwest from Arizona......oops, and across the middle of Idaho to Oregon. Capped off with the Painted Hills, and Smith Rock. So thank you for bearing with me, let's get into it. New beginnings.
