Back in 2017 when Mark was offered the job he has now, it took us a year to decide if it was the right move for us. We knew that no longer being business partners would change everything. And it has. Last year, more times than I can count, one of us was walking in the door from a work trip just as the other was on the way out of town. What made it all okay was knowing at the end of the year we would have two uninterrupted months…just for us. When Mark finally accepted the job, this little winter migration of ours, that we’ve done every year for more than a decade, was the one thing we weren’t willing to let go of. Knowing that this time was ours and could not be taken away from us was what made all the nights apart worth it and the weeks on end without a day off a little easier to swallow.
For 8 weeks we traveled around Arizona, camping at some of our favorite spots and adding a few new ones to the list. Every minute of this trip was spent soaking up the freedom we’d afforded ourselves and feeling so damn grateful for it.
Our trip started in Havasu, staying at my dad’s shop so that we could catch up on truck maintenance and chores. 
From Havasu we picked up our niece, Mackenzie, in Phoenix. She joined us for 5 gorgeous days camping around Sedona. 
We revisited the difficult yet thrilling hike to the top of Picacho Peak. 
We spent two nights in the overflow lot at Catalina State Park in Tucson. 
We had two options on this particular day… 1) A two hour trip, including driving across the entire city of Tucson. 2) A four hour trip, primarily on dirt roads, avoiding the city altogether. Can you guess which was the obvious choice? 
A few rainy days made our tight quarters feel even tighter but they soon came to pass. 
It felt so good just to be together again. 
An all-time favorite spot of ours, in the Dragoon Mountains. 
Our favorite quote that has traveled many miles with us. 
What the inside of our little home looks like when we stay put for a few days. 
One of our favorite Arizona towns…Bisbee. 
A quick overnighter at La Cienegas National Conservation Area. 
We met up with friends, and made some new friends, in Ajo. 
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. 
Our new friend Ann sharing a great camp spot with us in Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. 
We stopped in Havasu, on our way back North, for a little more family time. 
And did another favorite hike of ours, this time to the top of Cupcake Mountain with my brother & sister-in-law. 
The long drive back to pavement from the trailhead. 
While in Havasu we did a little spontaneous photo shoot with our newly engaged friends. 
One of the few times we weren’t entirely certain if we were camped legally or not, but we’d arrived after dark and were fried. With that, we packed up and left as soon as we woke. 
Our second-to-last stop, before heading home, was Lake Mead where we met up with our friends Claire & Brandon who had just recently began living on the road full-time. 
The highlights of these last two months spent on the road have been the friends, old and new, that we’ve gotten to share it with.
Life out here on the road, where we have so much less than we have in a house, I’m reminded what’s important. I don’t need makeup and stylish clothing to feel accepted. I don’t feel judged off the size of my home or year of my car. Out here water and showers and laundry are limited and yet my contentment abounds. I sit beneath the stars each night and am reminded how small we are. The wilderness turns down the volume on the chaos in my brain and opens up my senses to the awe and delight of how lucky we are to simply exist in this world at all.
Tomorrow we’ll return to life inside a house and while I’ll appreciate all the comforts it offers, I’ll be counting the days until i can return home…to the road and the wilderness that makes me feel whole.
[…] As if everything you just saw wasn’t enough, Mark & I aren’t far from embarking on two glorious months on the road. No matter where we are or what we’re doing, when we get in our truck it still feels more […]