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4 Day Haul: Bozeman, MT to Owego, NY

In early August, we decided that we needed to leave our Montana adventures and return to my (Liz’s) hometown area of NY. We had some family issues boiling up, and finally, we realized we just needed to be in my family’s area of residence to help. A perk of having a house on wheels… we can just bring it with us. And then we have the comforts of home, wherever we need to call home at a given time. Which is highly comforting when you are working through a stressful situation. We spent 4 days hauling 2,075 miles across the…

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July 2019: Idaho & Montana

Our summer month of July was jam packed with free front yards, little boy farts, amazing hikes, wildlife sightings, awe causing natural features, and the occasional evening spent watching Nat Geo. Our group of Chortlers for the summer We were busy – in the best ways. The outdoor from dawn past dusk kind of busy. The kind where you’re exhausted, but still want to keep on going. The sort of busy where you finally give up telling your nephew he has to shower because holy hell he smells like a rotten turd and just bribe him with the promise of…

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Moose, WY

Holy shit, guys. THE GRAND TETONS. This place is unreal. We rolled into the Moose, Wyoming area of the Bridger-Teton National Forest around 3pm on Father’s Day Sunday in June. The undeveloped camping areas on National Forest land here are pretty damned popular amongst the free camping faction. We scouted ahead to assess our comfort level with the access road and the availability of space for us to plop our big butt up on Upper Teton, then we slowly hauled ass up a steep, narrow dirt road and docked in a postcard. The view at Upper Teton View is mythical.…

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Long Haul: 1-90/Hwy 26

We spent more time than we ever desired in Sioux Falls. Because we’re a couple of idiots and broke Dyna. But as soon as we remedied that tribulation, we took a poop dump, filled our diesel tank, and booked it 900 miles. This took us around 16 driving hours. Because Dyna. She’s a synonym for ‘slow’. And I am not a very talented long hauler. I require naps. And diet cola pitstops. “But Liz, can’t you just store some diet cola in your wheeled house’s fridge and nicely ask Jake to retrieve the diet cola for you when you need…

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Denver, CO (Round 3)

We came back. We always come back. How can we not? One of our favorite people on earth, a sweet free place to park, a vibrant city, VooDoo Donuts and now – Torchy’s Tacos is in town too? Thanks for welcoming us back, Denver. Dayum, you look good. There aren’t too many things that could make us leave a boondocking space as sweet as the one we found outside of Northrop, CO after staying only a few days. The promise of Holly can. And the threat of missing out on Holly (hey, that girl travels! She’s got shit to do…

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Nathrop, CO

Jake tricked me. Jake assured me “no worries, there won’t be any big passes when we go through Colorado. We’ll just go around the passes!” Like we usually do. We always go around the passes in Colorado. Because Dyna has weenie-brakes. 40,000+lbs stopped only with a set of service (foot) brakes, and an engine brake that supposedly can hold us at a consistent speed going down grades if we go slow enough. Well, we learned what ‘slow enough’ meant over 37 miles of 6%+ grade when Jake TRICKED ME and routed us over Wolf Creek Pass. Slow enough is 23mph…

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Hesperus, CO

  We landed in Hesperus following a short scouting trip on a Sunday morning after spending a night at Mancos State Park. We weren’t sure that the area’s National Forests would be open to vehicle travel yet, but, surprise! They were. Apparently Colorado had a pretty light year in terms of snow, which was great for us in April when we wanted to park Dyna on some public lands. We settled on a spot in the San Juan National Forest on Madden Peak Road. It was a pretty swell spot. Mountain views and dirt roads for miles, which provided great…

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Monticello, UT

We got chased out of Moab by a family of mice who decided it would be cool to squat in Dyna. Spoiler: it is not cool to squat in Dyna, mice. So, this is officially the second time a pack of tiny critters has caused us to pull up our levelers and haul butt out a place. Cool. We hit the road on a Thursday morning, Jake at his computer working away, while I pointed the wheeled house South on US 191. We weren’t really sure where we were going to stop and set-up camp, but we did know we…

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Moab, UT

Moab, UT was not on the radar. For the past year and a half or so, we’ve been traveling with a ‘long term’ destination (like Disney World, or Kentucky Derby), but the route to get to that destination hasn’t been planned. I mean, we generally know a direction, and weather patterns. But other than that, we’ve been going wherever seems interesting at the time and is within a hop’s distance – which is typically about 350 miles for us. Moab, UT was not on the radar. It was about  100 miles off the radar. But then a text thread with…

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Flagstaff, AZ

Flagstaff, AZ is basically one big boondocking site. Free camping areas surround the city center like flies to sh…oo-fly-pie. Paired with Flagstaff’s reputation for great beer, great food, and running trails galore, we couldn’t resist the temptation of a free camping site – even when threatened with below enjoyable temperatures and probable snow squalls. We settled on some land in the Walnut Canyon National Monument area, as we were sure the roads would be open and possibly accessible by Dyna. When we boondock, it’s a bit of a process. Rolling around the country in a 40’er has it’s perks (dance…

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