Our Odyssey
Our story began in 2017. I had just quit my job, sold a condo, and was ready for a change in life. I thought what better way to make that change than a roadtrip circumnavigating the United States to find the next place that I wanted to live. That roadtrip led me through New Mexico and after a few way too cold nights in the Santa Fe National Forest with below freezing temperatures in my childhood sleeping bag and an Amazon tent, I thought couchsurfing might be a better option. Sure enough when heading further South I opened up CouchSurfing.com to look for a place to stay with an actual mattress and I found none other than an intelligent doctoral student who loved to travel and was into rock climbing. Immediately I knew we would have common ground and that Tara would be a great person to stay with.
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She obliged my last-minute request and before the end of the day we were roaming through a farmer’s market and having a beer on Bosque talking about research and where we saw our lives going. After a fun night getting to know each other it was time for my trip to continue onward and for Tara to begin a trip of her own to Hawaii after her semester ended. While our paths diverged I just could not get her out of my head no matter where my trip took me. We continued to talk on the phone and build our friendship over the next couple of weeks before Tara had asked if there was any chance I was looping around to Minnesota on my trip. I was not planning on it, but she didn’t have to know that, so my next text was, “Well as a matter of fact I am”. Another two weeks later and the rest is history. I met her brother and parents, and after just 3 days in Minnesota we both decided I was moving to New Mexico. Upon arriving in New Mexico 10 days later, Tara’s roommate decided to drop out of grad school, I moved into the apartment and essentially never left.
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We spent the summer of 2017 exploring the Southwest United States together from Angel’s Landing to The Needle in the Organ Mountains. We couldn’t get enough of each other or the world. It was apparent right off the bat that this travel thing was really going to be a staple of our relationship.​
Left: One of our first dates at Target Field in Minneapolis. Right: Garrett peering down the vast drop off of the Organ Needle. ​​
Once the fall rolled around, we knew we wanted to expand our adventures from just backpacking and we ventured out into the world of car camping with our purchase of “The Tarantula” or our 2006 blue Honda Pilot. The SUV had cost us a mere $6700 and was a perfect 6 feet long and 1 inch from the back of the head rest to the wall of the trunk hatch door, the perfect length for my 6 foot frame to sleep comfortably. With a $100 budget we built out the back of the pilot with a platform bed and a storage system of totes. Now we were ready to sleep anywhere we could drive. The pilot allowed us to travel further on the weekends and made life on the road just that much more comfortable and convenient. Our weekday nights turned into planning sessions and most weekends we were traveling to a new National Park or climbing area to see just how much we could pack into 72 hours.​
Left: What we thought was a magazine worthy picture of The Tarantula in the Alabama Hills. Right: Tara testing out the newly finished tri-fold bed platform.
To say the least 2017 was a very busy year for us and set the foundation for our relationship.
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2018
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In rolled 2018 and our boundaries of how far we traveled began to grow. New Years in San Diego, Spring Break snowboarding in Colorado, and all of our weekend trips in between.
Left: Angel Peak New Mexico. Right: Tara getting ready to shred down Purgatory.
In the Spring, Tara’s parents graciously invited us on a summer trip to Alaska that they were going to treat the family with. While the trip sounded amazing on its own, at the time we were both in grad school and our jobs were pretty flexible during the summer months. In just a few gradual conversations of what ifs, a week-long trip in Alaska turned into a 100-day roadtrip in The Tarantula from New Mexico with Alaska being our midway point to meet up with Tara’s family. This trip was transformative for our relationship, as we got engaged at Toketee Falls, and for our comfort level in traveling long distances for extended periods of time. That summer was magical from the peaks of the Tetons to rafting glacier lakes in our makeshift dingy boat to almost setting our car on fire by overheating an air compressor in the middle of nowhere Yukon Canada. We loved every minute of it and as soon as we got home we laid our sights on planning our next big trip.
Left: Sunrise at Moraine Lake in Canada. Right: Our engagement at Toketee falls, thank you to the stranger who I handed my phone to impromptu.
In between planning our wedding, working full time, and school we took our major international backpacking trip together during winter break of 2018. Sure Canada and Mexico are international, but when you go up in the states and especially near the border, they don’t feel quite as foreign. To push us out of our comfort zone and further our horizons we settled on backpacking through Central America. We traveled through Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and El Salvador through an overland route that required some learning on the fly of how to backpack in the 3rd world. This trip felt like a honeymoon before our wedding and we reveled in our accomplishment traveling in areas that we never thought we would comfortably and confidently.
A lone launcha boat in Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.
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2019
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Before we knew it 2019 had rolled in celebrated with fireworks being blasted through the entire night as we stayed in the sleepy town of Flores, Guatemala. However, this year was not a time to sleep on life. Every month it seemed like there was a new milestone.
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March – Emboldened by our trip through Central America we set out for a 2-week trip to Spain and Morocco, our first time in Africa.
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April – We got married in Florida and set out on a roadtrip throughout the Southwest knowing that we would most likely soon be leaving the area.
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May – Tara Graduated with her PhD and accepted a job in North Carolina.
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June – We big farewell to New Mexico and began a 6-week honeymoon through Southeast Asia.
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July – We traveled with all of our possessions in our cars to Minnesota and spent time with family in the Boundary Waters before moving.
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August – Moved into our new place and started to settle into life in North Carolina.
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September – December – Every weekend was a chance to explore a new part of the country that neither of us had a lot of time in before. Coupling these trips with friends getting married and there was rarely a weekend we were home.
Left: Our wedding at Boneyard Beach. Center: Mud bathing rescued elephants in Krabi Thailand. Right: Tara making fury friends in Chefchaouen.
Newlywed life was a blast and only cemented why we were so right for each other. We were in an absolute rhythm in our life during this period. It felt like we had nailed down our system and were a fine-tuned machine whether that be during our international backpacking trips or in our everyday lives working, cooking dinner together, playing countless games of darts, and enjoying marathons of HGTV’s Love It or List It.
Left: Caving in Stephen's Gap Alabama. Right: Tara floating the canal in our backyard after the flooding from Hurricane Dorian.
2020
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This rhythm continued up until 2020 with a trip during spring break to Nicaragua and Costa Rica, when the shock the whole world felt came right to our doorstep. We were spending the better part of a week on Ometepe Island in Nicaragua when we met a woman from New Zealand at Ojo de Agua who was telling us about a strange new virus, Covid-19.
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During most of our travels our phones are mainly on airplane mode and we hardly look at them other than to take pictures or navigate, let alone to read the news. We had no idea what was going on around the world. When she told us the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica might be shut, we thought it was ludicrous. No one just shuts the borders of a country without letting anyone through! Our flight home was going out of Costa Rica, so naturally this freaked us out and we began reading the news later that night when we got back to our hotel.
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The next day we met some German travels at the pool who had told us that Germany had already stopped all inbound flights from everywhere in the world and that they were essentially stuck in Nicaragua/Central America until further notice. We couldn’t believe that this was actually the path the world was taking.
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Nonetheless we risked it. We played out the rest of our vacation exactly as we had planned and boarded a flight back home to North Carolina 2 days before the United States had done the same as Germany and effectively closed their borders. The saddest part of this entire experience to us was talking to local Nicaraguans who were devastated by the news of Covid-19, not because they feared a virus, but because they knew the result of closing borders was going to cripple their already fragile economy and likely leave them in desperate poverty. We tipped everyone we encountered very well through the remained of our trip knowing that this would likely be the result for these already impoverished areas where even a $10 tip is met with the largest gratitude you have ever received and usually many hugs and handshakes.
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This was a small reminder of just how lucky we were.
Left: Tara staring out at Concepcion Volcano. Right: Meeting sloths in Costa Rica, they are fascinating to observe.
Luckily, Covid really didn’t change much of our lives. We were already looking at buying a house before we left for this trip and afterwards the perfect mid-century modern abode on an acre sprung up in our ideal neighborhood. We were able to get in right before the market went crazy. Some of our weekend’s traveling were then traded for home improvement projects of gutting bathrooms and clearing poison ivy off a quarter acre of woods in the middle of the North Carolina summer. However, we navigated lockdowns and restrictions as slyly as possible, crafting our travel plans at the exact moment any one state or area temporarily lifted its state of emergency. This meant Florida in May to kayak with manatees at Silver Springs State Park, the Northeast in the summer for Mount Katadhin and the vineyards in Marlboro New York, Grayson Highlands in the fall, and cragging the finest routes North Carolina had to offer in the early winter.
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Our attitude through Covid was that we couldn’t stop living our life because of a virus. It also just so happened that most of our hobbies, hiking, climbing, kayaking, and mountain biking typically involved us being in remote, rural areas in the backcountry where we rarely came into contact with others even during normal times.
Left: Our wonderful mid-century abode we loved so much. Right: Tara navigating the knife edge ridge of Katadhin.
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In the fall of 2020 it was time for another transition in our life. The Tarantula had sadly suffered a life-ending injury. The ball joint and control arm on the driver side had collapsed, damaging the axle, and the entire steering rack. The end of our era in the Pilot was rather melodramatic. The damage was done through normal wear and tear over the course of 175k miles. Luckily, the collapse of the control arm happened while the car sat idle in our garage, not while we were on the road.
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At the time we thought this might be a nice change of pace from car camping and that we might actually enjoy going back to tent camping and more backpacking trips. Boy were we wrong. It took all of two short trips before we through that idea out the window. Looking for a place to pitch a tent and then pitching said tent in the dark is not fun. Then having to break it down in the morning rather than just rolling out of bed to start a hike or climb is also not ideal.
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By September of 2020 we decided on buying Big Betsy, a 2020 Dodge Ram Promaster and began building out our dream van equipped with a kitchen, Home Depot bucket for a bathroom, and a space for yoga/pushups, all upgrades from the pilot.
Left: Tara getting the floor of Big Betsy perfectly level. Right: Exploring the best of the Linville Gorge.
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As 2020 came to a close we reflected back on our year of Covid craziness and were pleased with the results. While we did not get to do all of the international travel we had initially planned on, we were able to build a tight-knit community in a new area and staying closer to home led us to new hobbies like kayaking that we used to explore the Lumber and Cape Fear River Systems, areas we would have otherwise never gone too. This time of getting further off the beaten path strengthened our love for the outdoors and showed us that not every adventure had to be a grand peak.
Left: Kayking the Lumber River, tara at the helm. Right: High Quality Bouldering in Grayson Highlands, some V4.
2021
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While our appreciation for the East Coast of the United States had grown we were still itching to once again explore outside of the country.
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After our Puerto Rico trip was canceled from another Covid closure, we set our eyes on El Potrero Chico Mexico, a climbing paradise in Monterrey. Mexico was one of only 4 countries that really stayed opened throughout all of Covid and had lax safety measures. We enjoyed a week in this dramatic canyon and explore the little known desert region surrounding Monterrey. El Potrero Chico or EPC is a sport climbers paradise with thousands of routes, most of which are pretty moderate for the weekend or gym climber. This was our first international climbing trip, where the main focus was to literally just climb every day as much as possible and it was an absolute game changer in solidifying our ability to lead climb harder routes. Even though we were each climbing and leading outdoors years before this trip, condensing that much climbing in such a short amount of time brought our confidence to a new level.
Left: Tara coming up Jungle Wall. Center: A pitch 10 break on Estrellita. Right: Chimney's up Will the Wolf Survive.
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After returning home from this trip we spent much of the rest of winter and spring in Florida to enjoy the amazing fresh water springs, beaches, and again lax Covid rules. Every week the van was coming together more and more. Every trip was an opportunity to hone what we liked and what wasn’t working.
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By the time summer of 2021 had rolled around we had finished our van build out and were ready for a long roadtrip across the United States. We landed on a five week trip across the interior of the country that focused on a lot of the lesser known hidden gems that are under-appreciated by those who aren’t locals. This took us from Charon’s Garden Wilderness in Oklahoma to Scott’s Bluff in Nebraska and even the Maah Daah Hey Trail in Teddy Roosevelt National Park. We still were able to hit some of the more well known parks such as Badlands National Park and climb Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park, but still it was fun to see a different side of America that is typically not shown on the front page of Alltrails. If you’re from the United States you should really think about traveling through more of your own country. After visiting all 50 states, we can truly say there is no such thing as a fly-by state, they all have gems and incredible areas if you know where to look.
Left: The cliffside trail of Scott's Bluff in Nebraska. Right: Overlooking the majestic Cirque of Towers in Wyoming.
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This trip marked another special milestone in our relationship as we had just found out that we were expecting our first child! You might think pregnancy would slow Tara down through the rest of 2021, but you would be mistaken as she was still multi-pitch climbing in Rumney New Hampshire at 6 months pregnant.
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We spent a couple more weeks in the Northeast and many more weekend trips out to the Outer Banks to round out most of the fall of 2021. During this time our house was finally coming together from all of the remodeling we had undertaken, making it ready for a successful home birth.
Left: Tara rappelling off a multi-pitch route in Rumney, NH. Armed and Dangerous Wall. Right: Fall colors from Elk Knob State Park
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2022
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Once winter of 2022 had come we were seasoned veteran parents. We completed our first major road trip from North Carolina to Minnesota to visit family for the holidays and felt pretty comfortable navigating our way as first-time parents. However, something was missing. We had loved the last 3 years in North Carolina and exploring the east coast, but it wasn’t where our hearts were. We had a fantastic affordable house, had great jobs, set down roots with a group of some of the most amazing people we had ever met, but North Carolina didn’t feel like home. We longed to return to the Southwest and the regular big mountain trips we grew to miss so much. Moving for the sake of your hobbies seems crazy to some, but for us it is such a big part of our life that we didn’t want to comprise.
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We set out a plan for our move and in the meantime wrote out our bucketlist of everything we wanted to do on the east coast before we left. That meant a few more trips out to the Roan Highlands, the Florida Keys, Celestial Point in Linville Gorge, and a surprise birthday trip out to the Pacific Northwest to climb some of the famous cascade volcanoes. During this time Tara had received a job offer in Las Vegas cementing where we would move in the Southwest.
Left: One of Atlas' many Florida adventures kayaking in Indian Key Historic State Park. Right: The summit of Mount St. Helens.
I also had 8 weeks of paternity leave that I needed to use or lose. Spring/Summer of 2022 was still a strange time. The world was re-opening, sort of. You could travel to Europe or Asia, but risked a 2 week quarantine if you tested positive in the airport or at a border. The Canadian border was still closed entirely to all travel. We really just wanted a long, care-free international trip with little risk of hassle. After tireless research and after reminiscing on how much we loved going to Monterrey Mexico in 2021, we settled on a roadtrip through Central Mexico from North Carolina all the way down to Chiapas. We timed this leave with Tara’s summer and set out with the perfect timing to move once we returned home.
This trip was more than we could have ever asked for. We sometimes take Mexico for granted because it is right in our backyard and maybe not as “exotic” as other international destinations, but through all of our travels Mexico has become our favorite country outside of the United States. The geography of the country is incredibly varied, the culture in every region is different, the food and drink is as good as anywhere on the planet, and the people really touch your heart here. A 2-month van trip with a 5-month-old in a foreign country may sound intimidating, but we all 3 quickly settled into a rhythm and enjoyed every minute of it strengthening our family unit with few distractions.
Left: Atlas on top of the Paricutin Cinder Cone Summit, loving life in tummy time. Right: Cascada El Aguacero in Chiapas.
The months flew by and before we knew it we were back home closing on the house and jamming a 10-foot U-haul trailer to the gills for a cross-country move.
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Las Vegas immediately felt like home we were longing for. The dry summer days were paradise at the pool and we made it a priority to do a hike every sunset to get our bearings around the area.
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When we were car camping in New Mexico, the pilot was great, but now that we had the van it felt like our world was even broader than before. We could easily extend our trips and felt much more comfortable being able to tough out unideal weather when we could actually change clothes standing up, rather than while laying down in a bed in the back of the pilot 2 feet from the ceiling.
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We took advantage of our situation spending weekends in St. George, Zion, Prescott, Sedona, Grand Staircase Escalante, John Muir Wilderness, Death Valley, Phoenix, Great Basin National Park, and Cathedral Gorge just to name a few.
Left: Atlas is a huge fan of slot canyons and the poco, pictured here the Cottonwood Canyons Narrows. Right: Summit of Wheeler Peak, just under 14k feet, Atlas was a trooper on this one.
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We were even able to road trip along the California coast in the van to visit my parents for the winter holidays, a nice break from always having to fly across the country with connecting flights. We love Las Vegas and how central it is to some of the best nature in the country. Our decision to move on a whim was one of the best we have made and can’t imagine our life any other way now.
Left: Lands End Trail and the Golden Gate Bridge. Right: Atlas doing his first real hike solo in the Lady Bird Johnson Grove amongst the redwoods.
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2023
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It was 2023. That meant it had been almost 3 years. Was Covid finally over yet? It seems as though when the calendar turned to the new year, it was in fact for the most part behind us. Travel was normalizing. Testing, quarantining, and even vaccine requirements were being lifted and the risk of spending your international vacation trapped in a hotel room was fading with every passing week. With so many international travel plans having to be put on the back burner, we were ready to make up for lost time.
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This meant that Big Betsy would get a break to rest her weary wheels as we had put 50,000 miles on here in less than 3 years. We turned our sights to Europe for 6-weeks hoping from Iceland to Northern Europe down to the alps, and ending with a roadtrip through Italy. It was a trip 3 years in the making hit all of the major sites we had been fantasizing about. What made this trip even more special was the fact that we were able to do Iceland with Tara’s parents, Tuscany with my parents, and we found out we were pregnant with baby #2 in Venice!
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This trip was everything we had hoped for and it really finally felt as though the world had returned to normal.
Left: Who is this model and how did he grow up so fast? A perfect day at Villa D' Este. Right: While the dolomites gets all the crowds, we would argue Gran Sasso National Park is just as good and you might go the whole day with only seeing a handful of other hikers at most.
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Upon returning home to Las Vegas, we rounded out 2023 with van trips closer to home spending time camping with friends both new and old, in some familiar places and others previously undiscovered. Tara suffered more during this pregnancy than her first and it was not a great time to be traveling every weekend. We enjoyed the occasional weekend trip once a month or so, but mostly nested further into all of the world-class gems just minutes from our apartment in Southern Nevada.
Left: Multipitch climbing up Blade Runner in Red Rock Canyon. Right: Intensely preparing for the limbo at our baby shower with a watermelon attached.
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2024
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For me the winter of 2024 was action-packed filled with playdates with Atlas in Pittman Wash and multi-pitch weekends on many of the famous routes in Red Rock Canyon. For Tara this time was filled with nausea, pretty much just constant nausea. Although, through it all this only strengthened her resolve and she persevered to the end having a second home birth to our beautiful daughter Hazel.
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We certainly won’t downplay having two kids, especially one being a new born and the other a toddler. It certainly is tougher having to switch from a zone defense to a constant man on man coverage. However, we are lucky enough to have a great support system and grandparents nearby. This means we still get plenty of weekend days to multi-pitch climb and mountain bike for day dates.
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​After enough weekends at home nurturing Hazel, we were ready to expose her to the great outdoors and van life. Our first inaugural major trip as a family of 4 was a roadtrip out to Temple of the Sun and Moon in Capitol Reef National Park. Spending a week galivanting across Utah was easier than we had thought. The kids both have pretty synced sleep schedules and we strategically timed our travel around those sleepy hours whenever possible.
Left: Hazel's resting grumpy face in The Grand Wash. Right: Atlas ready to cruise around the Temple of the Sun.​
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As a family of four we were emboldened.
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We soon found ourselves in the midst of planning a 3-week trip up to Idaho and Eastern Oregon, as well as a two week trip mixing urban life in Kyoto and Osaka on bullet trains with a roadtrip through the mountainous countryside of Kyushu Japan.
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Stay tuned for these trip reports as our family travels continue to expand across the globe.