We spent a lovely evening with Mary and Craig in Lake Country, BC, the couple we hosted through Airbnb. We first visited Kangaroo Creek Farm, per their recommendation. We saw and pet some amazing creatures. Most interesting was the Patagonian Cavy, which is the third largest rodent in the world. I also enjoyed the capybara, which are vegetarians and were enjoying a special orange slice treat. We learned the kangaroo gestational period is only 28 days, although the Joey will then hang out in the pouch for a few months. One albino wallaby at the farm was currently carrying a 5 month old Joey. All we could see where a few big feet sticking out! David had to practically drag me from this place as I could have spent way longer scratching kangaroo heads.

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In addition to exotic farm animals, the area is also known for cherries and wine. On the drive in we saw a couple helicopters flying low over some cherry orchards off the highway. While we had a few theories on what they could be doing (watering? inspecting the crop? wine tasting tour by helicopter? manhunt?) we learned that they were actually helping to dry the cherries. Water that pools on the top of a cherry may cause it to split. It took me four days to eat the three pounds of cherries I bought – David was no help.

The wine industry is growing rapidly in this area and has contributed to a boom in population growth in Kelowna. Mary told us that one of the other reasons many move to Kelowna is for the milder winters and four seasons. The area is more expensive as a result, termed the “sunshine tax.” We visited two wineries recommended by Mary – Intrigue Wines and Gray Monk.

After wine tasting, we returned to Mary and Craig’s house and were greeted by clean laundry (so kind of them!) and their two amazing cats. They invited us to stay for dinner and we passed the evening discussing their recent travels, our upcoming route, our careers, van modifications, etc. We talked about doing Airbnb and they told us about Home Exchange, which they’ve used to take some really neat trips. This prompted a discussion about trust and the amount of trust it takes just in a typical day and even more so when you are traveling or renting your home. Like us, Mary and Craig are willing to trust others far more than the average person. They welcomed us for dinner and gave us access to their home, laundry, and bathroom after briefly meeting us through Airbnb. Kindness like this feels so good because it is a choice and unexpected. When we chatted with them a year ago during their stay in Portland, they could have easily just given us a couple recommendations in the area and left it at that. Instead they chose to make a connection with us and help us feel at home so far from home. Already on this trip we’ve been shown generosity by a number of strangers, acquaintances, and friends. For me, this is a big part of what traveling is about. I definitely enjoy some solitude and the ease of not interacting with others (self-checkout line at the grocery store, mobile banking, online shopping), but the rewards of making the effort to engage with others can’t be matched.

I’ve always been a very trusting person, putting an incredible amount of trust in near strangers quite often without a lot of worry. I’ve found some of my best friends as roommates on Craigslist. I once had someone I’d run with a few times through a club stay at my house to watch my cat while I was traveling and came home to a happy cat and spotless place. I went to visit David in Boston for a long weekend after spending a few hours together over the course of two weekend trips of his to Portland to visit a mutual friend. David has had significantly more bad luck than me, from car break ins to bicycle crashes. He takes care of his things with the utmost attention. I was surprised when he agreed to do Airbnb after we bought our house in Portland and showed little concern about the trust required. He quickly became the more engaged Airbnb host between the two of us, spending hours chatting with guests, giving restaurant recommendations, and gushing about Portland. We both loved meeting people from all over and have so many stories of amazing guests who treated our home better than we do. When I talked about our van trip to my coworkers, I told them that I’m excited to meet people and trust people to be good. We aren’t completely naive and know the world isn’t all sunshine. I’m sure we will be wronged by others on this trip and be let down by the rottenness that can exist in people. But for now we are still basking in the kindness of others.

We spent the night at a picturesque farm in Okanogan, Washington thanks to Harvest Hosts (a website that provides information on wineries, breweries, farms, etc. happy to host RVers for the night). Although we might experiment with some more rugged boondocking in the future, we are finding we enjoy being in a place we are clearly allowed. The green beans, peas, and honeycrisp apples we purchased at the farm made the stop even better! To counter our local shopping, we paid a visit to Walmart to stock up on some groceries. Strategizing grocery shopping with limited fridge and cabinet space is a lot of fun. We are trying to start doing more meal planning so we don’t end up out of milk while we still have a full bag of carrots and six cans of beer. While we got stuck in the RV section for awhile finding lots of things we didn’t even know we needed (or at least Kelly didn’t know we needed), we managed to make it out without too many more things to fit in the van. We already feel like we have too much stuff so that it is near impossible to find a place for everything. A lot of our belongings are stored in four bins under the bed stacked two bins high. The bottom bins require some gymnastics to access which is particularly difficult after a day of hiking. We’ve decided we’ll give ourselves a few weeks and then revisit our organization and weed out anything we haven’t used.

After confirming our phones would work in Canada (they do!) we headed north on Highway 97 towards the border crossing. We were pleased to see the line only included a few cars and a couple cyclists. This was especially helpful since we had to go through the line twice. We learned that US firewood is not welcome in Canada. Also, if you are looking for any firewood, try gas stations near the border. This seems to be a popular drop off spot.

We wove our way through a myriad of wineries and green hills, which David enjoyed scoping out from the roof later. Those few extra feet of height can really enhance a view!

After remembering we didn’t have any Canadian dollars and luckily finding an ATM in a small town, we arrived at our destination for the night, Hydraulic Lake Recreation Site southeast of Kelowna, BC. We picked the spot to have direct access to the Kettle Valley Railway Trail. We found this trail with a quick Google search and were immediately intrigued. Along with a few other trails in the area, it creates a nearly 400 mile network off largely off road, gravel bike trails. Although tempted to alter our plans to do the whole thing, we settled for about a 30 mile out and back section from the campground through Myra, which includes several railroad trestles and tunnels. While on the ride, we started daydreaming about the future Salmonberry Trail planned through the Oregon Coast Range. While we love road riding, we are finding gravel riding to offer a little more excitement from the trail and significantly less excitement from cars. This ride also helped confirm we are happy with our bike choices for the trip – we were pretty tempted to bring both our mountain bikes and road bikes.

Next stop is Lake Country, just north of Kelowna. We will be enjoying the driveway of a couple we met theoguh Airbnb when they stayed at our house about a year ago. They built out a Sprinter van and we quickly bonded over travel and van tips.

We kicked off the “real” beginning of our trip with a visit to North Cascades National Park. While we left Portland a few days ago, our first two stops (Seaview and Seattle) felt more like typical weekend trips. We recharged for a couple of days at our neighbor’s condo in Seaview and visited several friends and family in Seattle. We left Seattle Saturday evening and, as we think will become typical on this trip, started to make things up as we went. Soon after making our first dump station stop (thanks Washington for the free rest stop amenities!), the Tulalip Casino provided a mostly-quiet place to spend the night. We were entertained by a nearly two hour fireworks show that we figured must be practice for the 4th of July.

We got an early start to the North Cascades, eager to get into the wilderness after several weeks focused on van prep and packing. We made an impromptu decision to backpack after stopping at a Ranger Station and learning a much coveted permit was available for Sahale Glacier. While potential thunderstorms were in the forecast, the sun was shining and our hopes were high. The hike to Sahale, starting with the Cascade Pass hike, immediately wowed us with the grand peaks and vibrant green foliage. Unfortunately, after a few hours of hiking, the sunny day gave way to impending storms that chased us back to the car, a little wet but glad for a warm van and shower. We choose to view this setback as an opportunity to do a longer hike the next day and explore a different part of the North Cascades. The next morning we continued east farther into the park and decided to hike Sourdough Mountain, after a few recommendations from other hikers. The 5,000 feet of elevation gain were well worth the blisters and sore legs, as we were blown away by the views at the top of the hike. We tried to decide if the hike was better than our previous top spot (Goat Rocks), but couldn’t come to a conclusion. David started making many plans to return to the North Cascades with friends and family, as he loves to do.

Next stop is a quick night in Okanagan before heading to Kelowna, BC. More from Canada!

Best Parts of Van Life So Far

• iOverlander, AllTrails, and MAPS.ME. It is amazing how much we rely on these apps that really let us plan as we go. So far we’ve tried to stay one night ahead on accommodations and plan enough to do awesome things without spending half our day planning. A quick google search reveals dump stations, camping locations, top hikes, tasty restaurants, and more. The internet is really an amazing thing.
• Quickly made plans that work out. It is a great feeling when you whip together an agenda for the day or randomly pick a spot to stay and all goes smoothly. Sunday night we got the LAST spot in a 93-spot first-come-first-serve campground. Even though the sign said full, we tried our luck and snagged a great spot that allowed us to have a campfire and quiet night.
• Meeting people and making connections. One of the things we’ve worried about for the trip is feeling lonely or a lack of socialization. We’ve already been surprised by how easy it is to strike up a conversation with people we meet and actually feel a connection after a 10 minute conversation. Favorite meetings so far are a fellow vanner we chatted with on the top of Sourdough Mountain who will likely stay in our driveway when passing through Portland, and a motorcyclist at a viewpoint who gave us some great map recommendations.
• Positive van interactions. Neither of us knew how we and the van would be perceived while traveling. We realize we are extremely fortunate to be able to take time off from work and step away from our daily lives for a whole fifteen months. While I’m sure we’ll end up with a mixed bag of reactions, so far we’ve had so many thumbs up from other drivers, “cool van” yells, and huge smiles.
• Van homeyness. The van already feels like home and provides a sense of comfort and familiarity. It is incredible to be able to keep routines from home (daily smoothies, bedtime chocolate milk, lunch salads, crafts, violin) regardless of whether we are deep in the forest at a trailhead or on the streets of Seattle. We hope the van will stave off too much homesickness and grow even more comfortable as we continue to customize it.
• Lack of things to do. One of the biggest struggles in daily life is how many things there are to do, especially with a house and yard. The to-do list can be controlling and it is hard to relax when there is always something you should be doing. It takes about 7 minutes to clean the van and, especially when we don’t have cell service, there aren’t many things that need doing. We are hoping this helps us (especially Kelly) get better at focusing on the present and relaxing.