Bear Grills Saved My Life
It sounds crazy, but it’s somewhat true. I have been dealing with something traumatic for the last 10+ years. I don’t want to go through it again, but you can read more about it here.
While we were still in Texas I stumbled on Bear Gryll’s show Man VS. Wild. I became enamored with it, which was strange because my life to date had been almost the complete opposite. I was a city boy. I had never gone camping, never slept in a tent, and while I have always had a fondness for nature I never spent much time in it.
But I couldn’t stop thinking about it, I became addicted to the show and just felt in my heart that this is what I needed to do. So we decided to go camping, and I loved it! We started to go every weekend that we could and I couldn't wait for more. As great as it was, it wasn’t until we visited Gila National Forest in New Mexico that everything changed. There was wildlife everywhere, we saw bears, bobcats, and a ton of deer. This is where we fell in love with dispersed camping and it changed everything. The ability to explore miles of trails in our truck (or Jeep when we were lucky enough to have one) was heavenly. We craved remoteness and to this day challenge ourselves to find places even more remote. It truly changed me, and I still hold a special place in my heart for Gila.
This was the happiest we had been in quite a while. It was around this time that I stumbled on Overlanding and the overland community. I couldn’t get enough of it. I kept reading and learning more on sites like Expedition Portal. Camping and Overlanding became my escape. This was the reason that we moved to Colorado after we left Texas. We never wanted to leave but were forced to by my work. While we still camped and explored whenever we could, it wasn’t until we moved to Maine that we were able to do it extensively again. It became so obvious that we wanted, no need, to do more of it.
I watch a lot of youtube channels for adventurers and full-time overlanders, and while I enjoy them I also would become incredibly jealous. This past summer one weekend when we were out camping my wife said why don't we do this full time as she saw how happy it made me. This made my head spin and I couldn't stop thinking about it. But how could it work? We have four dogs, a cat, and her mother living with us.
So I said the only way it would work is if we sold the house, bought an RV, and lived in it full time. Letting us travel where we wanted, work during the week, and explore in our Jeep during any free time. And she said let’s do it! I was floored, thankful, and so excited. The rest is history, hopefully!
We have been planning ever since. We are saving every penny that we can and plan to buy a Class A motorhome. I can work from anywhere and will work from the road. We will be documenting our journey and adventures, through our blog, Instagram, and youtube. If we can figure out a way to make a living doing it, great, if not I will work from great places and we can spend all our free time exploring.
August 2022 is our goal to leave. We even made and paid for our first reservation to make it even more real. We can't wait and will do everything we can to make it happen.
We would love to have you follow along as we look to turn our dreams into reality.
