Mount Rainier

Hey y'all!

It's a few days into the trip and already we have seen some spectacular sites. On Saturday we rolled out of our friend Kecia Doolittle's apartment and headed form Mt. Rainier National Park. It was a bit of a drive but as we climbed through the mountains, but we were greeted by a snowcovered Rainier standing tall and proud. We hit the Pacific Crest Trail (the only dog friendly trail in the park). After about an hour of walking we hit some snow and the path became unclear. We were all pretty tired, so we headed back and made some dinner at Tipsoo Lake which overlooks the mountain. After getting some food in the belly we found a nice spot on the side of the road in the nearby Snoqualmie National Forest and called it a night.

The next two days were filled with many hikes around the park. Because most of the good trails are not dog friendly we split up, one of us choosing a trail in the park and one of us taking the Pacific Crest with Seymour.  I'll leave it to Amber to describe her exprerience.

My first day was with the doggywog, Seymour Butts (thusly named because he compulsively lickes all the hair of his butt).  We took the Pacific Crest down the side of the mountains and then into the woods.  Like before we hit a bunch of snow and I wasn't too sure where to go.  Behind me another couple had been walking and I turned to see if they knew where to go.  They told me "We'd been following you".  Nuts.  So I decided to climb my way up the creek nearby and besides being a bunch of fun, led me straight to the trail.  After that it was more of a walk inward toward the nearby lake.  We kicked it there for a while and headed back.

My second day was much different.  I decided to take part of the Wonderland Trail, known for its intimidating climbs and epic views.  I headed over the the White River Campgrounds where I knew the trail split off and started climbing.  Oh boy, did was I in for a treat: an hour and a half of grueling uphill climb with little else to look at but a bunch of trees.  Just before my spirit was starting to wain, however, I came across a huge waterfall, probably close to 120 tall that crossed trail.  After spashing my face with water to refresh my heart, I plodded on.  After just a short journey I hit a fantastic view of the mountain and knew that I couldn't give up the journey.  After about another half hour of hiking up hill the ground became pretty flat and before I knew it, I was in this "Wonderland" which up until this point I had honestly been "wondering" about.  View after view of the mountains and Rainier filled my vision and creek after creek, meadow after meadow, and flower after flower filled my imagination.  I completed the journey at the top of the Bourough Mountain Trail where I was gifted an almost surreal view of Rainier and the surrounding landscapes.  Words are simply not enough for it.  You'll have to see it for yourself ;) After that I was a pretty easy climb down the mountain and a comfy dinner with my love. 

It is now Tuesday and we are sitting in a cafe in Astoria, Oregon, ready for some relaxation in the sun for the next few days.

-John

Well, John has basically told you our tale of Mount Rainier. My hike on day two was not as epic as John's solo hike, but the solitude and silence was epic for my heart. At one point on the hike I realized I had only seen a couple people, and that had been quite awhile ago. It only delighted me for a second, then I remembered hearing the ranger tell some people the day before that there was an agressive bear they were trying to find and put down. So I disturbed the silence by clapping and yelling, hoping to let the animals know I was there.
On my hike I saw several small waterfalls, and one epic huge one. In an attempt to get a better view of the huge, powerful waterfall, I stepped off the trail and fell, getting myself our first battle wound of the trip-several scrapes on the side of my right leg with a solid bruise underneath. It doesn't hurt enough to outweigh how badass I feel about it. The trail was supposed to lead to a Owywich lake, however the snow eventually became too deep and the trail was impassable. I turned back and sat on a log, soaked my feet in my favorite little waterfall and read.
We slept on shoulders on the road the winding road through the National Forest. The first night we freaked ourselves out, determined that every headlight that passed by was either a ranger about to stop and tell us we couldn't sleep there, or some drunk jerks ready to screw with us. On the third and last night we were finally starting to get used to it and feel safe when a car did stop, headlights pointed at us. They never got out, they were probably just checking their maps or peeing on the side of the road, but we must have held our breath the entire time. I wonder at what point I'll get used to sleeping on the side of the road, if I ever will.
The van is holding up, the dog is loving every minute of every hike and car ride, and the bed set-up is everything we dreamed of.
Unfortunately, as sturdy as old Luna is, we've made a mess of her, and the camera's cords have been lost of misplaced. (better than my wallet, which we spent 20 furried minutes at the Safeway gas station searching for.) We will update this post with our pictures of making burritos in front of Mount Rainier and all those waterfalls.
My first sight of Mount Rainier made my heart cry a little bit. I look forward to all the other landscapes we'll see trying to top it.
-Amber

The Trip is On!

After many days of cleaning, getting rid of stuff, more cleaning, moving, packing and dropping off our extra belongings to our friends, the trip has actually started!  I suppose you could say it started when we left our keys in our apartment and said goodbye to the walls which gave us a home for the last year, but there is another sense of readiness and setting out now that the van is filled only with our trip supplies and we have waved goodbye to the friends who have been our home in the grand state of Washington. 

(a sideways tree growing in Washington Park in Anacortes, WA)

Our first stop has been my home town of Anactores, WA.  It is located in the San Juan Islands and is home to some of the most beautiful scenes this country has to offer.  The hypnotic motions of the Puget Sound, the regal poise of Cap Sante and the gorgeous clear skies speckled with clouds that only an archipelago can produce. 
We met with my brother, Mark Richcreek, late last night and after a cup of coffee and some oatmeal we headed out for a hike aroud Deception Pass, know for its misleading sailors who thought it went straight through.  To me it has always been known for it's curved beaches and epic views.  We then went for a nice dinner over at Washington Park and after a few minutes of messing with the stove, managed to get some quesadillas in our bellies while enjoying a nice beach breeze and a lovely sunset.  After that, Amber and I headed over to Cap Sante and chilled out watching the rest of the sunset give way to an incredibly clear crecent moon. 

(the moon was much bigger and more epic in person.. Still figuring out landscape pictures.)

(Also, a paypal donation button has been created. Not out of an assumption that anyone would want to contribute to our adventure, but because of the urging of others to post it.)

It's Happening!

So the trip is coming up in 12 short days. It has morphed and changed in recent weeks, getting 2 months and many miles shorter due to finances-however, we feel confident that it will still be uber epic. How could 5 months living on the road not be? The bulk of the planning has been done for months, and there is nothing left to do but wait out the last days. Well, wait, and get rid of all our belongings, get a root canal (for Amber), say our goodbyes, leave our jobs, repaint the apartment, hand over the keys (with fingers crossed to get some deposit back) and pack up the van.
This trip is something I have dreamt of since I was a small child and our car broke down on the highway. My mom and we 3 little kids started walking towards the nearest gas station or pay phone when a young hippie man offered us a ride in his VW bus. The kindness of a stranger always triggers to me remember "this is a good place to be." And I thought having a bed in the back of your van was super cool.
My mom and dad traveled the country like this, living in a teepee that my mother had sewed, hopping between the California National Forests, eventually ending up near the Ozarks. Somehow I always assumed I would follow their footsteps-except instead of having a husband (without a drivers license) and two toddlers in tow, I would have a boyfriend (with a drivers license) and a dog. Flash forward many years and a couple boyfriends later, I decide I want a man with enough adventure in his blood to be willing to do something like this with me, but enough calm that I don't have to struggle to keep up with him. In comes John, a homebody who perks up at the mention of this dream, whose parents have also done this journey. John is the kind of man that decides he wants to live in the woods for an indefinite amount of time, and so he does it. And now of course here we are, 12 days away from the adventure of a lifetime.
We've spent a year and a half planning and saving together, and now I feel as if I'm at the top of a roller coaster and I need to close my eyes. The climb up here was scary and exciting-now we're about to free fall and it's terrifying and exhilarating. "It's happening!" goes through my head and out of my mouth several times a day. Shortened or not, this is going to be spectacular.
Plus I get to have a bed in the back of my van.
Amber

So come the last couple of weeks before our trip starts.  I’ve been in this position a few times before, transitioning from the comfortable, rhythmic, settled nature of domestic living toward an adventure whose freshness and discomfort offer unspoken promises.  Giving up a bed and a home, I go to lay claim to those promises.  Inside, I will build a lasting home out of the experiences and wisdom the land will give me.  There is a sense of security that must be given up if one desires to live intensely. 
A big part of that is the great purge of stuff.  Many of the items which have been enormously useful, practical, sentimental and decorative must be left behind. When you are going to be living a van for a few months, there is simply not enough room to bring everything.   And even more than that, if the adventure is to be assumed with the greatest openness to the treasures it will give, space needs to be cleared inside.  With every piece of clothing donated, with every kitchen appliance sold on craigslist, with every book given away, a bit of the old life moves aside to give way to the new.
It is not without irony that the novelty and freshness come from the timeless land.  As we set off on our journey, I look at the many atlases and books of pictures that one might find on the floor of our apartment.  In them are the towering Sequoias of California, the fathomlessly deep canyons of the Southwest, the endless plains of the Midwest and the ancient weather drawn faces of myriads of mountains.  These features of our American landscape have inspired countless generations and have been the homes of more life than a small human mind can grasp. 
And I will be a bit of that life.  To me these are all imaginings and pictures in books.  When I see them for the first time with my eyes, in my little life, they will be born anew and I will be drawn back into the depth of time beyond remembering.  As a Catholic seminarian I would often reflect on the connective quality of tradition, how the same songs, the same prayers had been spoken and heard by so many over the course of hundreds of years.  How much more have the mountains and rivers been seen and heard over the course of millennia! Taking them into myself will be as a holy communion, linking me to the body and blood of the land as well as my fellow humans who walk her surface and taste her treasures.  

Such a communion has been the heart of America since her earliest days.  From the natives who had a deeper connection to this land that perhaps we will ever know, to the settlers who, in their quest for freedom, stumbled across some of the most liberating scenes any human has beheld.  In the more recent past, my own parents set out to live on the road in a revamped school bus.  My girlfriend’s parents lived out of a teepee in the national forests.  And many other Americans have done the same. Absent the great frontier to explore and settle they have taken to the road.  
John

 

"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." - Tolkien

The Car!

After an unsuccessful walking tour of several dealerships, we went online to find the specific car we were looking for. We found everything we wanted in a 1991 Chevy Astrovan, extended cab AWD. A test drive and a thorough look through confirmed that it was destined to be our vessel on our great American Road Trip.

Parking the car (and moving it every third day) in Capitol Hill is the trickiest part.

The next step is to take out the rear seat, flip the middle and build the bed/storage area. Most of the parts for this have fallen in our lap already-things are seeming too good to be true!



Seymour is ready to go.

With the car (aka: home for 7 months) officially ours, suddenly the trip is becoming very real.

"The car has become a secular sanctuary for the individual, his shrine to the self, his mobile Walden Pond."
-Edward McDonagh

The Planning Process

My turn for a blog post! It is my intention with this adventure to connect with my nationality. I have always been jealous of people that can identify their ethnicity or nationality with pride, and feeling lost with my mixed Caucasian American identity. I hope to be able to wear "I am American" comfortably with all the pride and embarrassment and knowledge that can be associated with it. The blog is because I love living vicariously through my traveling friends, and so I think it's important for us to reciprocate.
In the 163 days until the trip actually begins, we'll be posting our planning status. Kinda so we have it solidified and typed, kinda so we can share with our loved ones when we're visiting their areas. The living vicariously through us part will probably not happen for another 163 days or so.
We've broken the trip into 9 "legs" of varying mileages and times allotted.
The Legs are broken up as such:
1. Seattle-Los Angeles
2. Los Angeles-Yellowstone
3. Yellowstone-Chicago
4. Chicago-Maine
5. Maine-Florida
6. Florida-New Orleans
7. New Orleans-St Louis
8. St Louis-Carlsbad Caverns
9. Carlsbad-Seattle













A rough map of the route, minus a few little wiggles here and there.
I want to second what John said about feedback and advice! If you know any great (free) campsites or little towns or Civil War battlefields, etc, don't hesitate to let us know!

Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don't be sorry. - Jack Kerouac

-Amber

The Blog Begins

Hey y'all,

       My name is John and my girlfriend, Amber, my dog, Seymour, and I are preparing for an adventure of epic proportions.  We intend to spend 28 weeks on the road touring the great landmarks and the cultural heritage of this country we call our home, the USA!

       You may be asking yourself what could compel a group toward such an ambitious endeavor? Well, I think that even more than the great beauty or the promise of freedom that living on the road brings, we want to live.  So much of life is the routine and rhythm of work and home.  And while the success of career and the love of family are indeed fulfilling, I believe there is a part of the human soul that wants adventure, that wants to reach into an unknown and come back from it changed.  There is that part that longs to transform dream into reality, that longs for a sense of the magic in which we once believed as children.  I think that we chose a road trip to express this both because it has been in our minds for many years, but also because there is something deep inside a person to want to connect with their home, the land and its people.  In this connection a third eye of perspective can be gained that is invaluable in the journey of life.

       This blog is to show our journey in both the planning process as well as the trip itself.  We hope that our effort in this process will help anyone who is looking to do something similar and inspire anyone who has some other dream they want to reach for.  We would also love any input or suggestions anyone wants to share.  This is a big first for us and any support we can get, from a diner suggestion to vehicle suggestions to donations will help a lot.

       That all being said, I look forward to keeping you all posted and always remember:

       The dreamer is the real you.