Today marks 5 years Nomadic

and Where we are now

Five years ago today we turned in the keys to the apartment we lived in for 4 months, gave away the last of the kitchen dishes, pots and pans, the last of the bedding and a few odds and ends, packed up the rest in the storage shed and drove south in SleepyTurtle...our van we finally finished building out.

Gandaulf had his place in between the front seats and we were off!

It was the start of Covid so we stayed in the states and moved around off grid for the majority of the first 3 years. We traveled through Utah, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Montana, Baja, and Idaho mostly, chasing good weather and trout. We were also seeking out solitude. We had earned it. We worked our asses off for 27 years....since the last time we did this in 1993.

When our dear Gandaulf passed away in 2022, we couldn’t imagine being in the van without him so we sold our van to some friends and packed up our backpacks for a year or so abroad. We moved all over Europe for 7 months including a month in Cyprus where we bought into a construction project that would give us a condo in 3 years, then a brief stint home to repack and then off again for SE Asia for another 4 months. We also took a quick trip to the Galapagos in Ecuador.

Spending the last month in Bali, Indonesia was lovely but brutally HOT, so we decided to finish a trip we started and never finished in 2021 due to my father’s declining health. We would go get our “chill” back with a trip to Canada and Alaska. To do this we had to find another “Van” to properly explore the vast expanses of remote wilderness so during a 3 day stopover in Singapore on our way to the States, we found our next adventure van, online, at a dealer auction in Los Angeles. It had 3800 miles on it and it was virtually brand new. Not being “dealers” anymore, we made a few calls and got it bought. A week later I was driving it to Utah from L.A.

Our last road trip and extended adventure took us on an amazing trip past the Arctic Circle and down a 150 mile river trip on Alaska’s Tatshenshini-Alsek with Momentum River Expeditions, all over Alaska and British Columbia then back to Utah for my niece Abigale and Caleb’s wedding.

From there we spent a few months back in South Dakota for the dreaded medical run downs of colonoscopies, skin checks, women’s checks, and mammograms, then off to Baja to get in our visits to friends, our fill of street tacos and some paddling on the Sea of Cortez.

We also took a quick trip to Tulum and Oaxaca since flying around Mexico from Mexico is super cheap!

By the end of March this year we had handed off our van to my capable brother Doug to sell in Boulder City then flew to Costa Rica in search of our new home.

Over 27 years, we built a successful business selling cars. We built a home and a dealership. We filled our home with memories of all of our travels, then we sold it all! We walked away from it at its height and we sought out a new adventure for the last 30 years (we hope) of our lives. This was the plan. We always knew we wanted to travel the world so we saved, we scraped, and we planned and made it happen.

Looking back and even searching for these pics brings back memories of my old life. We had a lot of fun, we did. And we had a lot of stress and struggles too. It was hard...so hard sometimes but we busted our ass and made it happen. We were Salt Lake Imports! We were “the Girls”. And we had a great reputation for selling amazing hand picked cars.

Anyway, for five years we’ve been going from a Van for 2.5 years to a year in Europe and SE Asia, then back to another Van again for another 9 months then off to Costa Rica where we have now been for 3 months. We are exhausted and ready to have a new home base. Just in the last 5 years we’ve traveled through 23 countries! Crazy huh!

Singapore 🇸🇬

Langkawi, Malaysia 🇸🇬

Indonesia 🇮🇩

Laos 🇱🇦

Thailand 🇹🇭

Cambodia 🇰🇭

Vietnam 🇻🇳

Bahamas 🇧🇸

Cyprus 🇨🇾

Bosnia & Herzegovina 🇧🇦

Montenegro 🇲🇪

Croatia 🇭🇷

Switzerland 🇨🇭

Germany 🇩🇪

Portugal 🇵🇹

Spain 🇪🇸

Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Ireland 🇮🇪

Costa Rica 🇨🇷

Canada 🇨🇦

Mexico 🇲🇽

USA 🇺🇸

Ecuador 🇪🇨

After spending last fall in South Dakota just to do medical care because that’s where we live on paper, and then Trump won the White House again we knew we had to get out of the US. We knew the shit was going to hit the fan with all the crap that Trump brings with him. We needed peace and serenity. We needed love and kindness. We needed to find our home again. We will still travel but from a new home base this time and maybe not for years at a time. One thing we both know nothing about is our future. It changes all the time! We are fluid and yes we plan but we plan for our plans to change, if that makes sense. We know we are nomads and life calls us away sometimes.