A month in the life: Back to the mountains

Roosevelt National Forest, Colorado //

We’re both zombies this morning after four straight days of Overland Expo.  Any remaining campers are supposed to be off the premises by 11am but I can tell none of us are moving fast.  For our last night, we moved the truck to be closer to friends and ended up parked right next to the largest tent at the show.  It was the hub of the event,  where each evening’s happy hour was hosted.  While Mark and I sit in our camp chairs drinking our coffee and tea, a crew of guys works on disassembling the tent.  This scene reminds me how accustomed we’ve become to living our daily lives just about anywhere.

As we’re saying our goodbyes, our new friends Dan and Marlene and Ben and Rebecca ask where we’re headed for the night.  When we tell them we’re looking for the closest, easiest-to-access place in the nearby national forest so that we can spend a day resting and recharging, they decide to join us.  Since they all have errands to run and we’re getting a jump start on finding a place to camp, this means we can send them coordinates when we find a place, and they don’t have to put out any effort to do so.  Sometimes in this lifestyle, meeting up with someone who has already secured a camp is a real treat.  No research has to be done to find a place; you can simply drive straight there.

Everyone arrives about an hour after we’ve set up camp.  Mark and I are uncertain we’re up for more socializing, but there’s no pressure, everyone is in the same boat.  We all had the same long, eventful weekend and all share the same look of exhaustion.  When rain starts to fall at 7pm it’s an easy choice to say goodnight and retreat to our campers. By 9pm the lights are out.

Making new friends at an event like Overland Expo is so much fun.  But when we leave the event, I can’t help but wonder if we’ll ever see these people again.  For one, we all travel far and wide, and crossing paths can be difficult.  Two, for people like Dan & Marlene and Ben & Rebecca who have tens of thousands of followers online, I imagine us being one of thousands who would love to spend time with them.  To get to actually share camp and bond over our similar lifestyles is so fulfilling.  

You move onto the road to see new places and have new experiences.  And yet it’s the people that have made this nomadic life of ours so rich and rewarding.  There’s nothing quite as satisfying as finding your people.  And here we are, adding new names and faces to the long list of nomads we’re lucky enough to call friends.