2022: The highlights

2022 was a great year full of several wonderful and memorable experiences.  I feel like we really hit our stride with living on the road full-time.  Our business really seemed to hit it’s stride as well after a 2 year long overhaul of its identity and mission.  We kicked off the year with our first ever Baja California road trip and on December 30th were back in Mexico for a second winter traversing the phenomenal Baja landscape.

Since I love having this website as a record of our experiences, I figure I’d take this opportunity to share a list of highlights from 2022.

Here we go!

6 weeks road-tripping around baja california

Not only did we have the experience of a lifetime but we also got to share it with some of our dearest friends.

Moving the rest of our stuff back to colorado

We finally emptied our storage unit in Idaho and moved all our excess stuff back to Colorado.  Got to see some good friends in the process.

switching Back to Canon

After two years trying out Fuji gear, we switched back to Canon.  Hallelujah for Canon’s mirrorless system.  Thanks to the R6 I fell in love with my work all over again. 7 months later and the 28-70 f/2 is still blowing us away.

hosting some of our favorite people

Our friend Beth and our niece Mackenzie each took us up on the offer to use our “guest bedroom” aka the truck camper this summer.  One of them said that coming to visit us was like going on an all-inclusive nature retreat. (best compliment ever)

10 days in maine

I’ll never forget getting up at 2:30am to photograph a sunrise ceremony at Acadia National Park.  Our amazing friends & hosts treated us to several phenomenal seafood experiences that we would never otherwise have.  And we got out on the water to experience the many islands off the rugged coast of this beautiful state.

I READ 33 Books!

By far an all-time record thanks to a library card and e-books.  Did you know libraries let you borrow e-books?!  A few stand-out faves were The Impossible First, Think Like a Monk, Born A Crime, and Four Thousand Weeks.

Anniversaries

We celebrated our 2nd year living on the road, 20 years of living together, and 18 years in business.  Three things I’m insanely proud of and grateful for.

Hot Ones

Mark buying the Hot Ones hot sauce collection and roping our guests in to the Hot Ones challenge.  If you’ve never seen Hot Ones on You Tube, we highly recommend for some light-hearted and unique entertainment.  This interview with Paul Rudd and this interview with Scarlett Johansson are two of our faves.

Driveway surfing

While we love being out in the wild, parking in friend & family’s driveways for a week or two at a time gave us the chance to spend some quality time with people we don’t otherwise get to see all that often.  

Daily photos

I completed my third 365! (Taking a photo every day for a year)  I talk about my experience with this wonderful project in a podcast here.

chasing fall

We spent three glorious, internet-free days touring backroads of Southwestern Colorado and soaking in one of the longest and most vibrant fall seasons we’ve ever seen.

Sedona retreat

In 2020, right as lockdown was going in to effect, my wise and wonderful friend Kristyn decided to connect four of her closest photographer friends on a text thread so that we could all support each other while trying to keep our businesses afloat during the pandemic. We’ve kept the conversation going, almost daily, for nearly 3 years now. In October we rented a house in Sedona for four days of bonding and co-working. Until that week, I’d never met Kate or Carolyn in person. It was a truly, truly special week.

adding Preston to our team

For many years we’ve wanted to build a team of photographers that we could book out and send to weddings but the right person proved to be incredibly difficult to find.  Preston has been everything we’d hoped for and more.  We’re so excited to see where this relationship takes us.

Camping with friends

We get so much more quality time with friends now than when we lived in a house.  This is one of the most unexpected and joyous outcomes of living on the road.

Committing to a regular yoga practice.  

Apparently this is how you cure the aches and pains of being in your 40s.

Upgrading the screen on the toy hauler. 

I get the greatest amount of joy from the simplest things and this is one of them.  

Spending two whole months in the spring and fall on our land and falling deeply in love with the property itself and the surrounding area. 

It’s really starting to feel like home.

Loving every single location we lived at. 

We towed our home on wheels around to 18 different locations this year plus another 25 places in just the truck camper.  Every single place was a great experience.  I’m always simultaneously sad to leave, yet excited for where we’re headed.

What a year.

Of course there were plenty of lows too, you can’t have the highs without them, but all-in-all, we reached the end of the year feeling profoundly grateful for the life we get to live. I hope your 2022 also brought you moments of peace, happiness, love, and laughter.

Thanks for being here,
Michele

12 Comments

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  • So happy to hear of your travels. Just wonderful you have found such an adventurous life together. Linny

  • Hi been a bit. Cooon a happy 2022.
    The shot a day is an interesting scrapbook. You do take some beautiful shots.
    Looking to see where 2023 goes for us all.
    Russ

  • Thank-you for sharing your adventures. I too have a four wheel camper and have enjoyed my travels for the last 6 years in it. I’m on the road for 3 months a year and a little jelous of your commitment to live full time on the road. I truly appreciate your posts. Keep living the dream…

    • Thanks so much for reading and following along! 3 months on the road is still quite a commitment in such a tiny home! I’m not sure we could do it in just the FWC, we love the spaciousness of our 21′ trailer that we live in when not traveling in the Four Wheel.

  • Always love looking at your pictures. You both look so happy. What a wonderful life you live. Enjoy your time in Baja!

  • I got really excited when I received an email that there was a new post 🙂 Looks like you guys had a great year! We also LOVE listening and reading books through Libby – probably one of the most used apps on my phone. I hear you on the aches and pains of 40+…I always feel better after doing yoga but never commit to continual practice :\ Thanks for the post and glad all is going well!

    • I always love seeing your name pop up in our comments! I’m so glad after all these years that you still enjoy reading our posts!

  • I love this!!! It helps me realize how truly happy you two are. 20 years??? Seriously??? I still think a book is in the future. Love you both…mom

    • I know, I can’t believe it’s been 20 years either! I love that you’ve always thought I should write a book and I’m starting to get a few ideas : )

About

We’re Mark & Michele, modern-day nomads perfecting the art of slow, full-time travel.  Our tiny home on wheels and slow-paced travel style allows us to minimize our expenses while maximizing our freedom.  May our unconventional way of life inspire you to design a life that you love.

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