Notes from the road #26: working, traveling, and unexpectedly falling in love with public speaking
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I knew August was going to fly by. It went by so fast though that I’m not even sure exactly what we did over the last 30 days. This is precisely why I take photos as often as possible. When you live a life that involves constantly being on the move, you often find yourself wondering where you were a week ago, a month ago, a year ago; among other fleeting experiences. Photos are a source of recordkeeping for me more than anything. And so, with that, I’m going to let August’s photos lead the way as we look back on a very blurry and busy month on the road.
Work work work
Our commitments this month are a prime example of why we own a second, more economical vehicle. In August we were all over Colorado from Grand Junction to the Front Range for work and other commitments. When all we need to do is commute from one place to the next, we like to give the truck a break. And so many miles were added to our Subaru’s odometer while we drove around the state for weddings, senior portrait sessions, and more.
Summertime living on public land
While the summer is always a busy time for us with photography jobs, it’s always such a joy returning home at the end of a long work day to our tiny home on wheels parked in one beautiful location or another. This summer we’ve maintained our habit of staying in one place for the entirety of the 14 day limit that exists on most public lands, which limits the amount of time and effort spent moving from place to place. And we always plan our moving days on a Tuesday or Wednesday so that we don’t have to compete with weekend crowds for an available spot.
It’s a funny way of life to spend our Saturday’s photographing luxury weddings at Colorado’s ski resorts and then driving an hour down a bumpy, dilapidated dirt road at 11pm to return to our home parked in the middle of the forest, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Overland Expo Mountain West
I think the most unexpected thing to transpire for us over the last few years is our love of Overland Expo. For many years we didn’t even consider attending because of the sheer size of the event (turnouts exceed 15,000 attendees) and well, it’s no secret that we’re introverts. Finally in 2024 my curiosity got the best of me and we applied to be presenters. Mark looked at me cross-eyed when I broached the idea and at our inaugural Expo we felt like fish out of water. But then we gave our hour-long presentation on traveling to Baja and the enthusiasm that filled the room fired us up in a way we never expected.
There are five Overland Expos across the US every year and last weekend’s event in Loveland, CO marked our fourth Expo since that first foray two years ago. While the crowds and cramped festival style camping can be a bit overwhelming at first, it’s turned into an experience we really look forward to. Never before have we had the opportunity to meet so many awesome and like-minded people all congregated in one place. And, on top of it all, we’ve come to genuinely love giving presentations. I think it’s safe to say that our experience as presenters at Overland Expo is part of what’s fueling our fire to grow this website. We absolutely love inspiring and empowering people to pursue an alternative lifestyle.
Overland Expo: the only time you’ll ever find us camped in such close proximity to other humans.
The festival-style camping offers a great opportunity to walk around and scope out a wide variety of rigs.
We won the camp neighbor lottery and had an awesome time sharing stories with the guys from Crawlagon3D.
Shoutout to Riley, Lars, Seth, and Dirk for being awesome camp neighbors.
Check out our members-only podcast on Patreon
We absolutely love sharing our unconventional lifestyle with you here on the website, but if you’re looking for an even deeper dive, we’d love to welcome you over to our Patreon. Our members-only podcast gives us a space to be completely candid and transparent about life on the road. Plus, since I do all the writing here, the podcast is the only place you’ll get to hear Mark’s unfiltered take on our adventures!
This month we dive into our decision to make a major career transition, the importance of auditing our media diet, what Overland Expo has taught us about building a lifestyle brand, and more.
You can join here for as little as $2/month. Learn more about member benefits and why we’re choosing Patreon over social media here.
6 responses to “Notes from the road #26: working, traveling, and unexpectedly falling in love with public speaking”
linda devries
love the wedding photos, especially the last one, open space trees on the sides, mountains behind.
so great to hear about your adventures, not for me at all but love it for you. take care Linny
We attended a couple of your presentations at Mtn West. Your story resonates with us so much. I’ve been reading everything you have written since. Thank you so much for the insights and sharing your story. You guys are truly inspiring!!
We absolutely love hearing that our story resonates with you. Thanks so much for attending our presentations and reading our articles. We’re so glad you’re here!
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