Hi! We’re Rose, Jeff, and Goldie and we like to travel. Follow us as we embark on our next adventure to Europe starting in Split, Croatia.
Travel has been a core part of our family for the last decade. Rose and I started out living in Suburbia, Maryland taking weekend trips deep into West Virginia and longer trips out to Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado and the Wind River Range, Wyoming.
In 2014, we moved to Eppstein (near Frankfurt), Germany and spent the next three years exploring lots of Western Europe. There, we discovered trail running, enduro mountain biking, and matured a lot as climbers. We also drank our fair share of Euro-beer and enjoyed cities as tourists.
Just after moving to Colorado in late 2017, we quit our full-time jobs, sold most of our stuff, and started out Van Life. We spent a year driving around the West before moving into a home in Boulder, Colorado.
While based in Boulder: we learned to sail, became sport climbers, traveled to Ecuador and Slovenia for longer than a month each, adopted Goldie and saved her life, and got excited about our next adventure.
I love traveling. Well actually, I love arriving at a destination. Traveling itself (whether by car or plane) can be stressful. There are crying babies, phones that die, wasteful bottled water to buy, and endless hours of sitting around waiting. Through years of flying internationally and driving all over the American west, I’ve developed a list of 5 travel accessories […]
Rose, Goldie, and I made it! We survived 20 hours of travel and eight timezones changed with a cat and are in Split! Our flight It was actually all quite painless. We booked through Lufthansa using Air Edelweiss as our carrier. When we checked in at the Denver airport, the helpful assistant at the counter gave no notice to Goldie […]
Quito, the capital of Ecuador, is located in the heart of the Andes Mountains at 9,350 feet above sea level. It’s surrounded by snowy volcanic peaks, long ridges, and volcanic craters. Thousands of miles of hiking trails criss-cross these mountains and pass through the most spectacular scenery you can imagine. Rose and I spent a month in Quito, Ecuador in […]
On August 15th, Rose, Goldie, and I are relocating to Croatia! We are applying for the Digital Nomad Visa so that we can stay longer than the normal 90-day tourist visa allows. The plan is to be out of the States for anywhere from three months to several years.
While spending two months in Ecuador this winter, one of the highlights was our hike of the Quilotoa Loop!
Activity: Hut-based Hike
Country: Ecuador
Start: Sigchos, EC
End: Quilotoa, EC
Distance: 21 miles
Elevation Gain: 7200 ft Recommended Duration: 3 days
Pet People Rose and I love our pets. They are more than animals that keep us company – they tend to quickly become full-on members of our family. During our time in Europe, Mama and Yoda came with us. Mama wanted all the cuddles and Yoda did her best to control Eppstein’s field-mouse population – often bringing home “presents”. Due […]
“We’re about to hit another patch of wind” Emmy, our crew-mate with two Atlantic sailing passages and years of sailing instruction under her belt, announces matter of-factly. “What, how can you possibly tell that?” I say, scanning the instruments for clues. “Oh, you can see the wind” she responds casually, channeling her inner Yoda. She was right, you can see […]
We are one week into Van Life now and I want to provide some details about Van Life: What is it? Why do it? What are my thoughts (good and bad) one week in? Van Life is a movement to reduce housing expenses by nearly 95% and live a mobile, adventure-based life. Why Van Life? There are two main reasons […]
Climbing Mt. Alice. 5.8, Grade IV. 13,300 ft. 9 pitches. Unholy loose rock, lichen fest with some quality climbing mixed in…but I’m getting ahead of myself. Approach We approached Saturday afternoon after having decided that morning that we would attempt a route on this rarely visited peak in RMNP. The approach, a little under 9 miles and ~3,400 ft of […]
The day before yesterday, Kiran and I climbed the Aiguille de la Republique via the Voie Normale. Opting to rappel an adjacent route rather than down-climb the route, we were 16 hours camp to camp from our comfy bivvy under a huge boulder 25 minutes from the base of the route. The Aiguille de le Republique is the most curious looking […]