Change of plans; here's the update 👀

plus: waging war on mice, airbag malfunctions, and mountains!

Jul 10, 2024

Hi 🤭

Last we spoke we were heading back to Oregon and getting prepped for our trip to Alaska… and since then a whole lot has changed.

Long story short, I’ve moved up my timeline for nursing school — which means I had to take a prerequisite course in person this last Spring quarter. I decided this *very* last minute (a week into the quarter) so I very suddenly had a lot on my plate to catch up on coursework and move back to Seattle.

Nursing school is still very far out (earliest I could start would be a year from now!) but I had to complete this in-person course in order to apply to the accelerated and earlier start program. My business (and this newsletter!) took a backseat for a few months as a result, but the quarter is now over and we are back on the road!

On to the other plot twist: Alaska is no longer on the books for this summer 😔 The sacrifice of 3 months now will save me 6 months to a year down the line, so my partner and I ultimately decided school was the priority this spring/summer instead of an Alaska trip. We will be going to the Yukon sometime in the future, but it won’t be this summer as originally planned (womp womp).

Instead, we’ll be teaching ourselves how to fly fish, maybe go to Yellowstone and the Tetons (?!), and relax with some mountain/river/lake views. My goal: finish up loose ends and do as little work as possible (only the fun stuff) 🤭 Ya girl is tired and needs to read a book in her hammock!!

Ahh, yes, vanlife realities hit quick this time around.

Enter: Airbag malfunctions + mice hitchhikers

We officially hit the road again about a week and a half ago, showcasing Bruce (our truck camper, fondly named after the shark in Finding Nemo) at Overland Expo. The weekend was fun (and a whole lot cooler than last year) but our airbags could no longer be sensed by the truck… meaning my partner spent two days with the truck interior removed looking for a pinched wire. It took awhile to fix, but my personal handyman got the job done 💪🏼

Fixing the airbags took a few days, delaying our departure from Oregon to our first destination. We had plans to meet up with friends in the Sawtooths and we were both ready to be sitting around our people again, so, we drove as long as we could, slept at a rest stop, and continued the final leg the next morning.

We were in the Sawtooth mountains around this time last year as well, but this time we experienced them in their full glory. A stunning campsite that overlooked the valley and the entire Sawtooth mountain range was our home for a week, with our friends as our neighbors. The dogs love these get togethers as much as we do, especially Sacha — her favorite dog ever, Bear, was there and they are in love with each other. Lots of kisses (and more 🙄) and zoomies around camp were had.

Psst — new subscribers (hi!! 👋🏼) that have a paid subscription will be receiving a postcard of the Sawtooth mountains, purchased in Stanley, Idaho! They’ll be dropped in the mail this weekend 💌

We spent the week of the 4th of July here, going on hikes, picking wildflowers, playing cards, and watching fireworks in the distance. We also learned there were a few hitchhikers that tagged along with us here. Bear (the dog) was very interested in the truck one night and out ran multiple mice from the truck (and back in through the wheels).

A quick rewind: while we were at the rest stop on our way to the Sawtooths, there was a trailer that pulled up next to our truck. They were making a bunch of noise and it looked like several people were maybe fighting inside, rocking the trailer back and forth and stomping the ground hard, but they left pretty quickly. In hindsight, they were chasing a family of mice out of the trailer — the very mice now in our truck engine bay.

This unfortunately cut our time here short. Mice in an engine can be severely pricy if they start munching on wires. So we headed down from camp a few days early to buy some traps and wage war on mice.