Oh, the Dagnabits of Living on the Road

We keep sharing the awesomeness of life on the road, driving into the horizon, the freedom with our hair blowing in the wind, the delicious food we’ve indulged in and new, spectacular places along the way. However, we haven’t been sharing the major bummers we have bumped into, yet. It feels like so many have happened, that today is the day to share reality because now we are to the point of just laughing them away!

1. Sleeping woes

Adam has been spending the last nine nights sleeping with a pad that he wakes up five times a night snuggling the ground to have to blow it up again and again and again and again. Major bummer! The new and improved one arrived in the mail. Thank you warranties!

adam searching for the holes in his sleeping pad

2. Home Sweet Home Tragedy

We survived another storm in Maine and woke up to find that one of our tent poles had snapped. You know what we did, wrapped that sucker in rags and duct tape. Now, we are eagerly tracking our new pole shipment. However, Duh, Duh, DUH!!! Our friend Ben came to the rescue and let us borrow his 2 man tent while we wait for our new poles to arrive. YES! Thanks, Ben! Wait, wait. Low and behold, the poles and stakes to his tent were forgotten leaving camp at 4 am from the last camp site. Summary, we have two legit tents with no poles. Bahahahoohoo:(

noooo!

this isn't quite right...

can't find the poles to ben's tent

making the best of it

3. Pick me ups turned to downers:

Our French press became toast today as I was rummaging in the car and organizing everything. My fast twitch muscles just weren't fast enough to save this guy. Adam heard the crash, covered his eyes and sulked away. No words said.

no more coffee!

4. Continued bicycle bumps and bruises:

Looks like Adam won't be mountain biking anytime soon. Like I said, tantrums and cries have turned to passive laughter and to sighs of, "Isn't this crazy!?!"

Ouch

Nuventures isn’t just the good, the amazing, the stellar and the spectacular without the major bummers and disappointments. But, we only have the choice to turn back to our mantra, the only thing we can control in life is our attitude and there are so many things to be thankful for! So, with less caffeine... Forwardho! Onto more nuventures!

Making Nuventures with Gociety

3 pics

We are so pumped to share about our partnership with Gociety with ya'll! We have learned that traveling is so much more fun when you adventure with community and that is what Gociety is all about. Gociety’s mission is to get folks together and go be awesome outside. You can “create” a Gociety event whenever and wherever. Want to go on a three mile jog and get beers after? Create a Gociety event and see if someone in the area wants to join in on the awesomeness. Want to do a century bike ride followed by three scoops of ice cream at a local joint? Chances are there is someone in your area wanting to do the exact same thing. Gociety is wanting to bridge the gap for adventurers and travelers.

We have big hopes for Gociety’s growth. Our vision is for folks to be able to travel around the world and use Gociety to meet adventurers in the location that they want to have a memorable event outside. Imagine if you book a trip to Italy and a local has created a Gociety event that tours the Tuscan wine country! All you would have to do is join the event, saddle up and meet all of these awesome, like-minded adventurers!

Currently, Gociety is featuring us on their blog as we travel around the country. We are doing our best to spread the potential that this platform will provide in connecting folks and creating community. Check out Gociety's first blog post about us here.

So, get excited with us and create a Gociety event in your area. Don’t be nervous and don’t get frustrated if no one joins the first event that you create.  This is a chance to be a part of something new and creative!

Tootles,

Adam and Linds

So far out yonder

The first two weeks have been a whirl wind! Here's an update on what our trip has looked like so far as we've been out yonder. Home sweet home:

home sweet home

view each morning waking up

Road trip mobile: Toaster, our 2008 Honda Accord

Toaster in Blackbird State Forest, Delaware

Our route: We vowed never to take interstates and only county roads and highways to experience the charm of small town 'merica

countless farms

little towns of 'merica

1940's tractor pull competition

road side stands

Highlights: Our first destination was Royal Family Kids Camp. The kids and counselors treated us like good ol' fam and we were spoiled with getting to play with the kids and sharing in the family meals. And, we were so thankful to see so many of friends off! Our first night tent camping in Concannon Fishing Lake, Kansas, we survived three lightning storms throughout the night. We sat there wide awake all night scared to death. Our two options that night were to either get fried or survived. So glad we survived!

The next morning at Concannon Fishing Lake, Kansas

All of the rains from the storms produced floods in Missouri and we came upon one on 116 that rerouted us:

Flood waters on 116 Kansas

Meet our travel mascot, Toaster. We met this girl during one of our side of the road breakfast stops in Missouri. I immediately fell in love with her. Her coloring was like a toasted s'more, so Toaster she became! With all of our stuff jammed in the car, there was no room for lil' Toaster, so we named the car after our girl.

Our girl, Toaster

Adam has always wanted to see Land Between the Lakes, Kansas ever since his road trip moving out to Colorado. It just so happened to be on our route heading to Virginia. Best part, we had a sunrise breakfast on one of the shores... spectacular!

sunrise on land between the lakes

Most spontaneous night thus far: Wachapreague, Virginia on the 4th of July. We were looking for a  camping site as the sun was starting to set. Adam was on the lookout for churches we could camp out in their parking lot, however, I was not so pumped about that. I was hard core researching and found a spot! Thirty minutes later, we were pulling into Mr. George and Ms. Mary Anne's place, a horse farm with no camp site. Through chatting and Ms. Mary Anne's extreme generosity, they let us camp on their land behind their house. So awesome! That night, we went into town and saw the Atlantic for the first time on our trip, went to the fair, played some mean bingo and had a blast! This was the most beautiful place we have camped thus far! Thanks, Mr. George and Ms. Mary Anne, for taking a chance on us!

first glimpse of water

water's edge

the fair

bingo

game face on

morning light on horse farm 

Adam's keen nose for a natural grocery store led us to meeting the owner who had done a similar cross country road trip like ours 37 years ago with her husband and they landed and never left Mountain View, Missouri. She was excited to share memories with us, give us a commentary of the local politics, and point us to the local watering hole Blue Spring. It was incredible! Caves all along the shore and the clearest blue water. We thought we discovered a new treasure!

Blue Spring, Mountain View, Missouri

I had my first meltdown of the trip on the 10th day at Woodland Beach, Virginia from those daggum green headed black horse flies. These bad boys will rip your limbs off, I swear! Adam and I were taking a romantic stroll down the beach, then three started swarming me. I was hyperventilating quite a bit, started swatting and mumbling profanities. I know the bites of horse flies! Then, one took a bite out of me and I went sprinting, screaming and cussing down the beach as they continued to take me out! Beautiful spot though, huh? I took these before the misery started.

woodland beach sunset

woodland beach

Adam celebrated his 27th birthday in Boothbay Harbor, Maine! What a spot to start a new year! The day started out strong with making an incredible frittata for our family then playing soccer with Will and Mia (my cousins' kiddos). Adam's one goal for his birthday was to ride hard all day on some trails next to the Kennebec River. He had just gotten his mountain bike fixed after a month and a half of waiting to ride. Two miles in to his glory ride, his chain broke, then his seat snapped. This guy was heart broken. But, an awesome dinner my Uncle Joe whipped up, beers, chocolate ice cream, family stories and laughter around the table, and tons of love from family and friends turned the day around to an awesome birthday!

frittata happiness

adam's bike finally fixed!

overlooking kennebec river

heartbroken with bike troubles

Our where abouts now... Maine! My aunt, uncle and cousin and his family live in Boothbay Harbor, Maine and have welcomed us with open arms. We have been completely spoiled with loving family, my cousins' kiddos Mia, Henry and Will, a bed, showers, a washer and dryer and my Uncle Joe's delicious cooking! It's been so nice! I have been dreaming of coming out to see the great state of Maine for five years now to visit and we are here! We have been introduced to the incredible lobsta, Maine's own Giffords international award winning chocolate ice cream, intense soccer games with Will and Mia, tons of laughter and stories around the dinner table and my cousin Matthew has shown us the Washburn & Doughty tug boat building business. It's fascinating!

aunt janet, uncle joe, mia

maine lobsta, ya'll

rockin' the bibs

mia thought we looked so silly

matthew showing us the tug boat ship yard

More to come soon! Next foreseen adventure ahead: Acadia National Park!  

How did we get here?

How did we get here?

A dream, a plan and guts.

A dream

There is an unquenchable desire in Adam and I to go, see, and experience new places, cultures and peoples. It’s just in us. Our biggest fear was for this dream to never come to fruition. So to make this a reality, we made a plan.

A plan

First day of #nuventures

Adam is a thoroughbred accountant, so before we were ever engaged, Adam would share daydreams with me of what our budget would look like once we were finally together and sharing our incomes. So, saving for this trip has always been a part of our plan for the future. A week after being married, we rallied and built our budget solely from one of our incomes and intentionally placed the other income into our savings, so we couldn’t touch the money. Then, we began implementing the envelope system to only use cash for expenses. This was extremely effective and kept our expenses in check. Six months later, friends of ours took a trip to Mexico solely on credit card points. Adam’s accounting genius and determination led him to start travel hacking with credit card points. Our resources for this journey consist of our savings and credit card points with airlines and hotels.

Guts

It took guts. Guts to decide to do it, to leave security blankets, to set a departure date, to end our jobs, tell family and friends, to pack the house, to load the car and drive the first mile. With the encouragement of other travelers like, Never Ending Voyage, Nomadic Matt, and Wondering Earl, we knew we could take a swing at it!

Mission

Meet new folks. Explore the world. Adventure. Be aware. Learn.

Where are we going?

Not sure! One of the goals we have set for ourselves is to not have a plan. The best part of traveling is the random, spontaneous happenings of meeting the locals, hearing their favorite spots in town or even better, getting to tag along with them. However, we do want to see our family and friends and have extreme adventures with our gociety folks, so we will be giving a heads up to what region we are heading towards as we know.

When can we see you?

The best part of traveling is sharing our experiences with people, hopefully you! We are firm believers in the more the merrier! Please, please leave comments and stay in touch so we can see you soon!

Follow us here and at #nuventures!