Our trip has officially begun

Well, after about a year of dreaming and scheming, our trip has finally begun. We are currently on Day #4, having a coffee shop morning while escaping the rain in Roanoke, VA.

Misa came home from her Sivananda Teacher Training course in the Bahamas on February 20th. A few weeks of flustered barn and truck packing followed. Our date of departure got pushed back a few times but eventually everything came together and we set off on March 3rd. On our first day, headed to Washington, DC to visit Kristen, Rick, and Maddie. We had a great time with them. It was fun playing with Maddie (our 7-month old niece) and noticing the changes she has undergone since we last saw her at Christmas. We picked up a cargo box (courtesy of Kristen and Rick) for our roof rack, which opened up lots of room for us in the back of the truck.

Ok, let's back up a bit more. Who are Misa and Colin (Tucker too!), why are we going on this trip, where are we going, and how are we getting there?

We, Misa and Colin, are a young married couple, and Tucker is our dog. We have both lived in New Jersey (only the nice, relatively green parts, of course) for most of our lives. We got married in July 2010 and are using this trip to start our new life together. Both of us want to find a place that is quieter and a bit more rural than New Jersey to settle down in--somewhere that we can have some land to stretch out in, some mountains to play in, and lots of wildlife for Tucker to chase around. We are both drawn to the mountains and wilderness, but we also need some way to make a living. Colin dreams of tractors, big mountains, lots of snow, and building our own house. Misa dreams of trails starting in our backyard for running and xc-skiing, hot summers, big flower gardens, and a peaceful place to deepen her yoga practice. Tucker hopes for deer to chase, warm, sunny spots for napping, and loose piles of leaves or dirt for digging.

Where are we going? Well, we don't know where we will ultimately end up, but we sure are going to enjoy ourselves on the way. Right now we are headed to Baja, Mexico to wait for some warmer weather in the northern states. I am sure we will have no problem occupying our time with surfing, swimming, and relaxing on the beach. After we tire of the sun, we will head north and start exploring small towns and areas that we might want to consider home, while also searching for jobs we like. We are going to spend time in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and California.

Now for the last question: how are we going there? Well, for the people who know us, you are probably smiling right now because you know how many different versions of transportation we have gone through before arriving on the truck we are driving now. After we came up with the idea for the trip, Colin got really excited and started geeking out on different traveling/living combinations. Unfortunately he is slightly impulsive and we have had a number of options in our driveway before settling on the Tundra. First Colin bought a truck camper from a great couple in Minnesota. He and Jim (our New Jersey housemate) drove out to pickup the camper in our Ford F350 thinking that surely a one ton truck would be big enough to carry this Corsair Excella 10-8 truck camper. Once it was loaded it on the truck, we were very excited to start planning our dream of this trip. Unfortunately, there was one glitch. The Ford ran on waste vegetable oil and had a veggie oil tank in the back of the truck so the camper couldn't slide all the way forward and be centered in the truck bed. So Jim and Colin did 1,300-mile wheelie all the way home to New Jersey. After the scariest driving experience ever, Colin decided we needed a bigger truck to handle this massive camper. So we sold the Ford F350 and bought ... a bigger Ford F350. Surely this was the answer for the ultimate road trip vehicle. It was a F350 with dual rear wheels and a 11' flatbed. He then installed another veggie oil system in this truck with a 115 gallon veggie oil tank.
Isn't it awfully good-looking? It was going to be perfect... What could beat a truck that runs on free fuel, a camper that has hot running water, a queen size bed, a heater for any climate, a shower, toilet, and 4-wheel drive? Well unfortunately, the truck was a complete beater, having lived a very hard life before we got to it. Colin actually bought it off ebay, and when the guy who sold it said it was in great condition, he lied. We spent an unfortunate amount of money trying to get the truck in tip-top shape for the trip and just when Colin thought he had it running perfectly, it began to have trouble starting. Frustrated with the expenses and also the size of the truck, Colin sold it. He decided that the simpler our travel vehicle the better. And Misa (not a truck gal at all) knew that no trucks are worth that many gray hairs. They decided to look into a Toyota Tacoma (Colin's most reliable truck in the past). The question was, would it be big enough for Colin to work out of (Colin is a carpenter) and big enough for us to live out of for a few months while carting around all of our recreational toys? We started looking at Tacomas and realized that Toyota Tundras were selling for about the same price as Tacomas. After a bit of thought we ended up with a 2008 Toyota Tundra Dual Cab with a longbed. It seems like the longest truck in the world but it is perfect for our needs. We bought a pickup cap for it and spent a few weeks designing and building a storage/sleeping system for us and Tucker. It is decked out with a refrigerator, a separate sleeping area for Tucker, some sliding drawers for all our stuff, a full-size bed, and a nice little electrical system for all our power needs. Finally, we are set.

Colin still dreams of a 4x4 Sprinter van decked out for traveling, but Misa has finally put her foot down. It is time to stop spending money on vehicles and hit the road, happy with what we've got.

-Colin & Misa