Well, what better time than sheltering in place during COVID-19 to bring our blog up to date. It is a bit shameful to realize that we have been home for 16 months and have not updated you all on our adventures Stateside.
The one over arcing question we got before, during and after our two years in Africa was “what are you going to do for jobs when you come back?” Both literally and figuratively, it was the money question! It was almost always on our minds and quite often part of our conversations with each other.
While in Africa, we received an email inquiring about our interest in purchasing an existing and profitable business in the States. As we got closer to returning to the States, the offer still stood and we made arrangements to visit the business first hand to decide if we wanted to proceed. Long story short, we pursued this opportunity for almost a year, writing a business plan, navigating the funding process, etc. In the end, it did not pan out. No worries! It was a great learning process for us!
We also spent the year seeing quite a bit of the Western United States. We attended quite a few Overland shows where we participated on panels about traveling through Africa, Jared led some classes on building an overland vehicle and towing a trailer. I shared my experience about food storage and prep. We had a great time connecting with old friends in the overland community, making new ones and visiting parts of the Western US that we had not previously explored. There is so much to see! Now that we were back in the US we could also resume some of the annual fun with family and friends. Christmas 2018 was our first Christmas back home with family. It was so great to see everyone, though we were still experiencing a bit of culture shock and a bit uneasy in crowds and larger cities.
**Now for the photos to tell our story since arriving back to the US. Please note, there are comments to explain the photos, just hover over the photo or click on it to read the details.**
We arrived back to the States a week before Christmas (2018). After catching up on sleep and spending some time with my parents, we borrowed a car and headed to Pendleton for Christmas, as Jared’s siblings were coming home for Christmas.
After Christmas with family in Pendleton, we headed back to Portland. We were excited to see friends and visit some of our favorite restaurants. One of the foods we missed in our adventures through Africa was a proper sandwich.
After trying to see EVERYONE within about a three week period, it was time to go see about a business for sale and then get to Houston, Texas where our Jeep and trailer would be arriving from Africa. We wound up spending 3 months in Houston, with friends. We worked on our business plan and other business related research and financing, Jared helped our hosts grade school daughters with homework, I cooked dinners and gave cooking lessons to the girls and we just enjoyed spending time with our friends and being a part of their family.
It was finally time to leave Texas and head to Arizona for Overland Expo West, the first of many outdoor, off-road camping shows for the summer, where we participated in round table discussions about Africa, Jared lead some classes on Overlanding with a Trailer, How To Build an Overland Rig and I lead discussions about Food Storage, Prep and Safety. Our journey started off with blooming cacti in New Mexico, a peek at the Very Large Array and 4 days of dirt roads with 40 other vehicles and a lot of new friends with the Overland Adventure and Four Wheeler Magazine.
Once in Washington, after the NW Overland Rally, we headed back to Eastern Oregon. One last visit to the wheat farm that Jared grew up on. It was a bittersweet visit, saying good bye to the only home he’d ever known growing up, and excited for what not running a wheat farm would mean for retirement for his dad.
From Eastern Oregon we made our way to Colorado for another overland show. Along the way we stopped to visit our friends in Hailey, ID for a few days, talked of our time together in Africa and played Bao that we all learned in Malawi. As we left Hailey and headed eastward, we were having a hard time with overheating and actually changed our route for one with less hills to avoid overheating and would later have the stock radiator (13 years) replaced in Pocatello, over a days drive for us. We took advantage of our America The Beautiful Pass and visited Craters of the Moon National Monument. Then on to have our radiator replaced.
Onward we traveled towards Colorado for an overland show. Along the way, we connected up with our friend, Dan Grec of The Road Chose Me. We have enjoyed connecting up with him at the shows and speaking together about Africa, but our favorite times with Dan is when we are all just able to meet up and camp without the crowds and commitments.
After the show in Colorado, it was time for some serious National Park time! We had made arrangements with our Houston friends in the spring to meet up for a week of camping at Glacier National Park. To get there, we would also visit Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park. It was beautiful! All of it! I want to give a little plug for America the Beautiful Pass for a second. It was well worth the $80! It is good for one year. It allows for you (up to 4 people per vehicle) to enter the park for free. Camping fees are most usually NOT discounted, but in some instances we found that they were. It also offers for some discounts at other parks and BLM lands, including camping discounts at times. This pass has paid for itself 4 times over, at least, and hopefully we aren’t done using it (COVID-19 quarantine dependent).
Finally, the true test of our trailer… The Owyhee! I have been going to this area of souteastern Oregon since I could barely walk. It is one of my most favorite places on earth, and excluding some spots in Namibia, the most remote. We spent a week with my parents, uncle and cousin out on BLM land enjoying the beautiful landscape, the cool reprieve of the river and the smell of the desert. Then on to the rodeo in Pendleton!
Now it started to feel like we should be getting serious about figuring out what we were going to do for an income. Our plans to buy the business we had been offered while in Africa had now fallen through. But just because we weren’t going to buy that specific business didn’t mean we couldn’t buy a different business. We tackled this by looking at places we might like to live. Sedona, AZ popped up as an option and we went to look at a coffee shop and from there, random other areas of Arizona and other businesses. In the end, we opted out of these ideas.
Around Christmas 2019 we decided to start our own company and take an opportunity to do Dealer Development for a small off-road trailer manufacturer, Boreas Campers. This would allow us to continue to live on the road, see more of the United States, keep us in the overland community and earn some money. The down side to this specific job would be that we would need to store our Conqueror and travel around in a much smaller trailer. We have down sized before, so we decided to we could do it again. We signed a contract with Boreas Campers to setup new dealers across the U.S., maintain current dealer relationships, and provide assistance at shows when requested. We lived out of the Boreas for about a month, thus far. It is a great little trailer, perfect for a cross country vacation on the back roads or weekends out. This trailer is well thought out in the kitchen, uses space very wisely, and has tons of storage space throughout. We were enjoying working in the camping and off-road arena and it was great to be bringing in some income, and represent a well crafted product.
And then COVID-19 came to the States. We are on pause, with the rest of the world, as we shelter in place. We look forward to when our world can get back to more of what we all know as normal and resume our work and lives.
We hope that you are all well and healthy, keeping busy in your own way, and staying safe.
