Giving Thanks!
Everywhere, USA | November 2015 |
The irony of the painfully plain and boring brown sign that indicated we were Leaving Colorful Colorado was overpowered by the electric excitement that pulsed through our bodies as we eagerly set out with a blank map and a mission. Over the next 8 months we would embrace vanlife and the open road on an adventure that would lead us to ever changing landscapes, allow us to uncover thriving communities of passionate locals, explore environments all over the U.S., and create lifelong friendships.
VanLife
VanLife for us is the ultimate expression in leading a life with simplicity and exploration as a foundation. A life where experiences are more important than possessions, new friendships are more important than manicured lawns, shared memories are more important than career paths, and appreciation and immersion in the natural environment are more important than convenience. Our van, Sir Royal Ellingwood, was more than a van. It was a safe haven, a tool to access adventure, a kitchen to cook and share meals, a roof over our heads to offer refuge, and a small place in this big wide world to call our own.
The Open Road
An empty road stretching into the horizon, its yellow lines leading into the unknown evokes an emotion of wonder and fosters a sense of excitement specific to itself. We came to understand and connect intimately with the curves, the bumps, the climbs and descents, the hum of rubber against pavement felt through the bottoms of our bare feet, and the subtle rolling undulations of an open road. Dirt, pavement, concrete, mud, snow, grooved, potholed, washboard, rocky - each road a distinct personality waiting to express itself and share the wonders it allowed access to.
Ever Changing Landscapes
Dry heat emanating off the eroding sandstone towers of the southwest. Glacial carved valleys of inconceivable immensity in the Sierras. Monstrous volcanoes of the Cascades exploding out of the earth in the Pacific Northwest. Craggy peaks stacked on top of one another creating the endless skyline of the Rockies. Forever stretching plains of waving wheat and corn in the Midwest. The extended horizon of deep blue waters of the Great Lakes. The rolling green hills of the ancient Appalachian, exposed granite faces, and rocky coastline of the Northeast. The lush forests of transforming colors, flowing rivers, and crystal waterfalls of the Southeast. The primordial swamps of jurassic creatures, ferocious mosquitos, white sand lined beaches along turquoise waters teeming with life in the southern peninsula of the States. A collection of land as diverse and beautiful as the people that inhabit it.
Thriving Communities
Defined by the specific features of the landscape surrounding them; the communities we engaged in created a strong bond of friendship and support through shared adventures and their common love and respect for the land. Groups of people that had embraced fully the unique weather patterns, curves, folds, and wrinkles of their particular terrain. Communities that live and breathe to paddle down the moving systems of water cutting and shaping the land, to glide down the powdery and snow laden inclines of the mountains, to embrace the wind in their kites as they are pulled along the waters surface, to challenge gravity as they dance up the thin and technical faces of rock, to feel the burn in their lungs as they climb the rooty and rocky surfaces on their bikes, and to sense the subtle tug of a rainbow trout on the end of a line.
Passionate Locals
The People were the life blood of our mission: to seek out passionate locals, explore their backyards with them, and capture their stories. The faces, the personalities, the passions, the drive, the knowledge, the compassion, the love! The people were the electricity that lit up the whole house. It’s impossible to put into words the fiery passion of a local sharing their favorite spot, the bellowing laugh shared on the side of a trail, a spark of kindness hidden in a new friends eyes, or comprehending the vast knowledge of the landscape contained in a native’s mind. It’s these experiences that we try our best to put down on a page to share with others but we’ve learned that nothing is a sufficient replacement for experience. We are forever grateful for the characters that allowed our travels and our hearts to come alive.
Exploring Environments
The profusion of varying and diverse environments in this country are simply mind numbing. One can study for a lifetime all of the intricacies and variety of environments. But to fully understand them, we must taste the salt in the air, feel the thin air in our lungs, smell the fragrance rising from a sagebrush steppe, feel the pull of an acacia’s thorn on our skin, gasp from the icy touch of glacial melt in an alpine lake, and scratch at the itch of a bug bite. We approached this study of environment very seriously. Observing ancient ruins in the labyrinthian canyons of Utah, climbing granite spires in the Sierras, shredding down hill on the dirt trails of Mt. Hood, watching mountain goats climb cliff faces in the Cascades, pulling fresh blackberries off the bush in the Selkirk Mountains of Idaho, listening to the rustle of cornfields in the Iowa wind, breaking trail through thick vegetation on the coast of Maine, breathing in a sunset over the folding blue ridges of the Appalachians, watching in awe the power of falling water in North Carolina, and examining seals and dolphins playing in the deep blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico. A study in experience that is worthy of a lifetime of study.
The Story
8 months ago we left with a purpose to capture the stories of locals in towns all across the U.S. and in the process began writing another chapter in our story. Through the stories that we listened to, hiked along, wrote down, shared meals with, captured in the lens of our camera, and swam in clear waters with - we were able to incorporate the lessons we learned into the telling and creation of our own story. Lessons of connection to the land, support of a tight community, lives lived fearlessly, passions chased admiringly, simplicity and awareness carried out purposefully, and friendships held together by unbreakable bonds. We bow our heads in sincere gratitude to the land we crossed, the communities we engaged, and the people that passed along their wisdom.
Stories float like dust in the air, some we capture in the palm of our hands and we call our own and others slip between the cracks of our fingers continuing on but leaving their possibilities with us. We must always be living with hands outstretched in praise to the stories all around us. There are whispers in the cold breeze rustling through the pines and we will continue to listen.....
Lots of love to all!
∞ RAD