Whew! 5 days at Disneyland. It was amazingly fun, but by the end we were all exhausted. Lots of Buzz Lightyear, Mickey Mouse, Cars Land, and yummy food!!
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Category: Travel
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Airstream Meet Up: Scott Jarvie
Scott Jarvie is an amazing photographer and friend from back in Utah. We first met him at a Utah Photographers Meet-Up in Salt Lake City, and have interacted in various ways over the years. He primarily is a wedding photographer, travels a lot, and recently ran a successful project on Kickstarter called “Faith In America“. His idea is to travel to all 50 states photographing religious buildings for ALL religions. Popular ones, out of the way ones, small ones, big ones, you name it.
THE NEED FOR FAITH IN AMERICA
It’s about uniting people of all faiths together. They all have faith, they all believe in something and we can celebrate that.I will do this by focusing on the major symbols of Faith… the religious buildings. The buildings that bring all these communities together and were a vital part of American History. -Scott Jarvie
By the end of Jarvie’s Kickstarter funding period, we were in Virginia, working out the specifics of buying and living in an Airstream. Suddenly we noticed that Jarvie had a similar idea. He bought a 19′ Bambi trailer, gutted it, and re-did the inside to fit his needs. He has a huge desk with two monitors for editing (totally jealous) as well as a lot of Goal Zero battery and solar polar (also jealous). We watched him work on his trailer and get ready for travel, and then tear across the country headed for fall in New England.
He ended up in Virginia just about the time we left (November 2013), and we met up near Williamsburg for a morning to hang out, chat, see each others’ Airstreams and enjoy some local BBQ for lunch. It was great to see him and hear updates on his project. We knew we would travel much faster than he would, so it was our only chance to meet-up.
Its been fun to see where his journey takes him, as well as the amazing photos he takes along the way. Recently, he even went to church with THE Robertsons from Duck Dynasty!
The end goal of his journey is to produce two books: one of religious buildings of all faiths, and one specifically of LDS Temples. You can still pre-purchase these and help fund his journey HERE. Books are due out by the end of the year as he plans to wrap up his journey November 2014.
You can also follow him on Instagram, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, or his Blog.
February already! This week has been busy. We enjoyed our last few sunsets in Arizona before heading for the California border and Joshua Tree National Park. Being back in the west has also helped calmed my grocery shopping anxiety a bit with familiar stores (Winco! Chocolate covered cinnamon bears!), and I even shopped a sale at a Kroger store! We then immediately had problems finding where to put all my groceries. Oh well. I try.
One highlight was definitely the Gilbert, Arizona LDS temple and In-N-Out for lunch! More about that in a detailed blogpost tomorrow.
Traveling so far we have run into so many families that have sold everything for their life on the road. Whether out of necessity, or to just downsize and live simply, selling the house and everything in it is one way to fund and maintain a life on the road.
Others we have run into rent out their house or simply leave it empty if they know they will be back. Many families are out for a year or so, quitting their jobs, pulling the kids out of school and living on savings. This makes sense to keep the house since their return is inevitable.
Leaving Utah last July we never imagined we’d end up with an Airstream and want a life on the road. As such, we still have a house in Utah we need to go home and deal with. Our home exchange partners have left, so we have friends keeping an eye on it for now, but we can’t ignore the giant hole that our money is draining down.
The problem is, we love the house. Well, maybe we love the idea of our house. It’s our first one. We brought Cara home from the hospital to that house. We put a lot of love, sweat, and tears into turning it into our home. The idea of selling frankly scares me to death. Our kids are adamantly against it and I don’t really blame them. Prior to traveling, a large portion of their identity revolved around where we lived. We live around the corner from our best friends and it would be really hard to give that up. Plus, I just finished sprucing up my office and I love it. Being in there makes me happy.
Being on the road makes me happier. There’s the problem.
As a culture, why is it we become so attached to things? Even thinking of selling our dining room table that we hunted for, or the downstairs couch I agonized over and went to 5 different stores before picking out the perfect one makes me want to break down in puddle of tears. Why is that? We’ve gone over and over it. Its just stuff. Its replaceable. We never wanted to end up in Utah anyway. But why is it so hard?
So there’s our current dilemma. To sell? Or not to sell. We’ve been told the REAL estate market in Utah is great for sellers this year. If we are going to sell, now is the perfect time. And yet, we are all not sure if we can let go. We hope we’ll know when we get back there. Most of our journey so far as been by faith, and I think this will have to be as well.
Just to get nostalgic – I thought I’d share a few photos of our cute house with you. You know, because in another few months it could be on the market.
One of the reasons we chose an Airstream over a typical RV or 5th Wheel was because of the amazing Airstream community we found on Instagram. We noticed how they talked to each other, encouraged each other, and when they were in the same location they got together!
We watched a few Airstreamers converge on Arizona and the mild winter weather and knew we would be in a for a meet-up or two. We have been watching the Malimish Airstream crew for months now, and have been both inspired and encouraged by their adventures. They have been traveling for years, and have become boondocking experts. Also present, and equally experienced, was Leigh and Bryan from Aluminarium. After leaving our friend’s house in Tuscon, we headed north 30 minutes to meet the two Airstreamers at the Snyder Hill BLM land.
Boondocking is the term used by travel folks to describe dry camping – camping with no water, electric, or sewer hookups. Although we have overnighted a time or two in a parking log, we have next to no boondocking experience. They assured us that they’d look out for us, and gave us the coordinates to the boondocking spot they had found just west of Tuscon.
We had a great time, and learned quite a bit about how to make it work. Our fresh water and grey water (sink water) tanks can last for a few days without too much grief, but the battery capacity of our Airstream only allows for one or two nights, depending how cold it is. After our first night, we borrowed some solar panels from Dan (Malimish) and from Bryan (Alumanarium), and charged our batteries. It was afternoon before we got started, but we got enough charge to make it through the second night as well.
In addition to learning the first steps of extended boondocking, we really enjoyed socializing with fellow travelers. We talked technology, solar panels, projects in the works, and boondocking skills. Our kids loved playing with the wonderful Malimish kids, and we all really had a great time. After waking up to no power and a cloudy day we said goodbye and headed north, a bit sad to be leaving so soon.
Malimish Airstream
These guys are rockstars. Seriously. I think they have close to 7000 followers on Instagram and have been traveling on and off with their kids since 2007. They are one of the families that first convinced us that we could really do this. We’ve loved stalking watching them as they travel and it was great to finally meet them! They are super nice, generous, and totally welcoming of us newbies. Get to know them on Instagram or check out their travel maps on their blog.
Aluminarium
Meet Brian, Leigh, and Curtis (the sweetest dog ever!) of Aluminarium.com. These guys are amazing. They started out in an older Airstream and then upgraded to a nice, new one and have been traveling ever since. Both work during the day so we saw and socialized with them at night. Leigh does a great job of posting fun stories and people they meet on the blog, and they’ll occasionally post to Instagram. We are excited about their super secret awesome project which will hopefully debut this year! If you check out their blog posts they have a running campground total for the year. So far this year? They’ve paid $0. Pros? I think so.
We’ve heard at least 3 others coming in to join the larger group, as well as a few that just stop in to say hi. We feel like we left the party before it really got started, but Disneyland calls, so off we go! We are definitely looking forward to future meetups with these wonderful folks.