There were a lot of things we were anticipating about life on the road. In the weeks, months, and even years leading up to this trip we did a lot of research and put in a lot of thought to every aspect of daily life and travel so we were as prepared as possible. For example, we got unlimited data plans & made sure we had a lot of music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, etc. stored offline. We bought journals so we could capture our experiences daily so they wouldn’t pass us by too quickly. We practiced what we called “van meals” to test out different recipes so we’d never get in a food rut. And we talked A LOT about some of the more intangible expectations. Like if one of us needed space or alone time to be OK vocalizing it. And for the other person on the receiving end to be understanding and give them the space they need without taking offense. We talked about being open to new experiences and
meeting new people. We talked about not having a routine and making sure to allot time for things like exercise, reading, catching up with family and friends, and socializing. And we talked about making tough choices. (
Quick pause to say that “tough” may not be the right word in the grand scheme of things. After all we are talking about traveling full time- not that “tough”. But let’s roll with it.) Well, we just made what felt like was our first tough choice.
We started our trip on June 8th in Southern Alabama and by July 28th we had driven up the East Coast to Maine, through Quebec, into Michigan, over to Montana and back up to Alberta, Canada. Not that we’re counting, but that’s over 7,500 miles! Aside from the few places we stopped to visit friends and family, we hadn’t really stayed in the same place for more than one night at a time- we’ve been moving quickly! And for the most part, we did this intentionally. Not only did we have a
specific date and reason we needed to be in Calgary, but we knew we wanted to spend the majority of our time in Mexico, Central & South America. So this meant that we would need to move more quickly through the US and Canada.
After dropping off Allyson in Calgary, the plan was to go up to Alaska and find a
work stay opportunity. For those of you who don’t know what a work stay is, you essentially offer labor in exchange for room & board. We looked at so many amazing opportunities in to help families on their eco farms or sled dog ranches, and even small businesses helping out at their hostels or yurt villages. What we think is one of the bigger benefits about work stays are to learn the area we’d be in with local residents and also like minded individuals who have either done a lot of traveling themselves or hosted travelers for years. Plus they’d feed us :) Anyway, that was the plan. Once we really started to line up our next move to head North there were more and more signs telling us to pause. To really think about our choice to go to Alaska. From Calgary it would be about 2500 miles to Anchorage and a week of driving if we limited it to 4-5 hours a day. And because what goes up must come down, that means it would be 2500 miles back and another week of driving. To make it worth it we’d spend at least 2 weeks and that meant an entire month dedicated to Alaska. As we were working through the time aspect, we had also been taking a look at our budget and ended up spending something like $400 extra for gas in the month of July because we drove so much and moved SO fast. So considering our time and money, the way we saw it we had two options: 1) go to Alaska and hope to get a
work stay lined up to help with our food costs & off set our gas expenses; or 2) skip Alaska, take our time driving through B.C. and the PNW (in option 1 we’d be spending about half the time through these parts), and get to Mexico a little earlier than we originally thought. While there is no doubt that the experiences we’d be gaining by going to Alaska would be 1000% worth it, we knew we had to make a tough choice. We reminded ourselves that this is what we had talked about. We prepared for this. But I didn’t feel prepared. It took me days to wrap my head around the fact that we wouldn’t be spending our time with sled puppies, going to
Liard Hot Springs, or getting to explore the wild place that is Alaska. But when I thought about it in the context of removing the stress of the budget by slowing down a little more as well as potentially having an extra month in Peru- it made sense. So we made our first official tough decision- no Alaska.
After that we have been taking our time getting through B.C. and it has been one of the most incredible places I’ve ever seen. As sad as I was to skip Alaska, I’d have to say- more time in B.C. alone has been worth it. We’ve been to Jasper National Park. We spent a few days in Golden. We found ourselves at a few different hot springs and my first ever set of “wild” hot springs. We drove through Fraser Canyon and it was every bit as breathtaking as people said it would be. We spent a couple days in the Vancouver area where we went on a
hunt for dumplings and checked out a local brewery. We hiked St. Mark’s Summit where the view at the top consisted of the Pacific Ocean peppered with islands as far as the eye could see. And we boarded a ferry to Vancouver Island where we were able to line up a work stay for the next week! So while our first tough choice is now behind us, I’d have to say that what’s come out on the other side has been pretty spectacular.
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