Into the Sun, Against the Wind

August 27, 2014

Luxurious. The last three weeks have been absolutely fabulous, dahling. For us on our nuventures, we have been living the high life! Thank you to all of our wonderful and extremely generous family and friends that have filled our daylight hours with the best company we could wish for. Highlights include: cups of coffee catching up at the kitchen counter, endless slobbery puppy kisses and belly rubs, hitting golf balls at the club, playing chicken in the pool, grabbing fresh veggies from the garden, running errands around town, and extreme mountain biking and running trails. Our nights have been spoiled with delicious meals around the dinner table, hot showers, the sweet hum of air conditioning, beds with sheets that have us cuddling up with the pure smell of Downy, and movie nights curled up on couches. We have enjoyed and cherished every moment of being in the presence of family and friends. We are so blessed!

Since we have been spoiled, today we are a bit anxious, a tad nervous to be on our own, and have a lot of growing excitement to go, go, go! We are onward ho west for five straight weeks! It's hilarious to realize that the normalcy we crave is the road, the wind in our hair, being blinded by the setting sun on the horizon, pitching the tent each night and cooking meals in the skillet on the Coleman. We never thought this would be normal.

Ahha! We finally have a plan! So, here is our tentative road map for this segment and some big spots we hope to hit:

Bad Lands National Park, SD
Mount Rushmore, SD
Black Hills National Park, SD
Glacier National Park, MT
Banff, AB
Jasper, AB
Squamish, BC
Vancouver, BC
Seattle, WA
Portland, OR
Redwoods National Park, CA
Jackson, WY
Colorado Springs, CO
Steamboat Springs, CO

We know you have lived or traveled to these spots and have had your own adventures that you are pumped to share! Please leave comments to this post with your thoughts so we can learn from you. If you are on our route at the same time, we would love to see you!

Amazing memories were made over the past three weeks. We are filled with so much love, full bellies, encouragement to keep going, and our phones are maxed with too many pictures. Enjoy!

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ACADIA!

August 7, 2014

ACADIA! Holda, holda, holda. Now, say it again in your most Trojan horsemanish voice... ACADIYAH! Yeah! Gotta get you in the mood. This was our war cry every morning during breakfast as we got pumped for the day's hiking adventures and as we cruised down the carriage roads on our bikes turning to each other and crying out ACADIYAH! It was so fun to bike to hike, to then bike to hike again. I was so excited to finally be in Acadia National Park!

We finally made it to this enchanting place after five solid years of pining over the foreseen adventure! Adam and I took a road trip five years ago during our senior year at the University of Georgia. Our final destination of the northeastern route was Maine, and we were only an hour away from the border, but due to logistics and timing we never made it. The tease of being so close and never touching a piece of the state has had me dreaming of the day I would actually be here. Since then, I have been hearing of Acadia National Park, the stunning cliffs along the ocean, and have had a visual of the park being the most spectacular place on earth that I have been missing out on all of my life! As you can tell, I am a woman of exaggeration. But really, this is how my mind leads me.

Ranger Bob took great care of us our first night in the park as we snagged the last available campsite. Whew! Heck yeah we'll take the spot between the dumpster and the bathroom just to be in the park! We were warmly welcomed by the other campers with the slam of the dumpster lid and the swooshing of the toilets all night. They loved us!

Escaping the lovely noises surrounding our site, we ventured off and got our first glimpse of the dark cliffs along the ocean in walking distance from our site. It was really what I had dreamed of!

I couldn't get enough, so the next morning we woke up for sunrise and went back to the same spot to watch the fog role in. Incredible, refreshing, peaceful moments on the ocean. I can still hear the waves on the rocks and feel the sea air gently wake us up.

Hiked around the famous Jordan Pond and devoured the Jordan Pond House's centennial tradition of popovers, strawberry jam and butter. We honestly preferred the strawberry jam and butter, no need for the popover with that lovely combination:)

We loved the hiking and quick summits of the Triad Pass and Sargent and Penobscot Mountains that we completed each in less than an hour. The short treks were refreshing from the laborious, full day, black toe nail climbs of Colorado's 14ers that we know oh, so well.

love huge roots over colorado's gravel trails

And the best part was the blueberry dessert along the trail on the hike back down!

Getting lost biking the carriage roads was a favorite each day!

Beach time, too!

We had some of the best home cooked dinners over looking the water.

And our final morning we were one of the many to be the first to see the sunrise in the US on Cadillac Mountain. Awesome! The fog didn't allow us to view the sun breech the horizon, but with my patience and not yielding to Adam's whines of not having any snacks or food, right now, we saw our sun come through the fog as a hot pink fire ball! The morning was so special and romantic with love in the air as wedding vows were shared in a sunrise wedding taking place to our right and just in front of us a cuddly couple turned into a proposal. All of the love made me turn back to our engagement and wedding day only to be pummeled by Adam's sweet whispers in my ear of no snacks and breakfast. Oh, so romantic! We are sure learning each other's hangry (hungry & angry) thresholds on this #nuventure.

Acadia is a place I am eager to experience again. The cliffs, the water, the waves, I couldn't soak in the experiences enough.

the stacked rock cairns will lead us back one day

Thankful,

Lindsey

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Oh, the Dagnabits of Living on the Road

July 31, 2014

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:(

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.

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!?!"

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!

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Making Nuventures with Gociety

July 23, 2014

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