Spain bike tour in spring 2019!
Traipsing About chronicles the life, adventures, and (some) thoughts of Dakota and Chelsea. We’re a husband/wife team exploring the world by bicycle, Sprinter van, or backpack.
When we’re not roaming, we’re digging into intentional living, community building, and sustainability. Always a balance between adventure and connection to a place! In that vein, after three years on the road, a desire for community prompted us to land in the outdoor playground of Bend, Oregon in late 2016.
To get to know us, check out the “Meet the Team” page! You may want to check out the archives.
I (Dakota) write about topics ranging far and wide, so click around! Recent fun includes bicycle touring in Spain and Portugal, bikepacking 700 miles on the Oregon Timber Trail, climbing in Hells Canyon and the City of Rocks, and running the Enchantments Traverse in the North Cascades on a van trip!
Since launching this blog in fall 2013, together we’ve cycle toured for 11 months and 8,000 miles through 18 countries and spent over 2 years road tripping in our van, plus volunteering for extended stints and living in places like Santa Cruz and New York City. Dakota enjoys solo van travel and bikepacking as well, so there are plenty of stories about that too!
I think of this site as two parts:
- A practical guide to living an intentional, streamlined life aimed at pursuing dreams and developing new passions (like piano and gardening in 2020, the most random, crazy year ever).
- Insights, helpful resources, and stories from our travels to help (and inspire) you to explore the world or your backyard.
Intentional Living
These are practical posts discussing how I run a business and keep track of our lives from afar:
- How to prep your house and rent it while you travel
- How I built my business (which fuels our lifestyle) plus how to create a strong financial foundation
- Tools and tips to work remotely, plus essential road trip apps.
- How to escape the busyness trap, decrease distraction from social media, and simple tools to make it a reality
- The Secret Weapon, my Evernote-based time and task management system that helps me manage my life.
- Protecting your ass(ets) with legal documents
For my philosophy on life, plus pursuing adventure and your passions, check out these posts:
- Downshifting from van life, or why we hung up the full-time travel spikes.
- Spinning into the unknown, or why new trips and challenges are good for us.
- Volunteering with refugees in Salzburg or at a farm animal sanctuary.
- My rationale and path as an athlete to adopting a vegan lifestyle
- Advice to myself at 23.
- My approach to staying fit, plus my GarageFit setup and workouts.
Chelsea cruising through the Rockies! Weeping Wall in Glacier on Going-to-the-Sun Road.
Bike Touring
When we aren’t traveling in the van, one of our favorite ways to travel is via bicycle. We always have two mountain bikes and two touring bikes in the Sprinter, and sometimes we park the van and head out on bicycles for unsupported tours.
In 2014, we rode 4,000 miles west to east across the U.S. In 2015, we toured a few thousand miles through Europe. 2019 featured two months riding in Spain and Portugal. Some posts in this realm include:
- Advice for a new cycle tourist
- Resources for launching a cycle tour in Europe.
- Total stats for our 2014 U.S. tour and 2015 Europe tour
- The nuts and bolts of touring and bike touring FAQs.
- Bikepacking: 700 miles on the Oregon Timber Trail and an adventure in the Chilcotin Mountains of Canada.
- Sick of reading? Here’s all the posts with videos from our bicycle tours.
All the Van Posts!
Here’s a list of all the posts about DIY Sprinter camper van, which I built out in 2013:
- Main van build post
- Detailed in-process buildout photos
- How to install solar panels on a camper van
- How to install an Espar heater
- Favorite upgrades to our van (Part 1 and Part 2)
That’s enough reading to make anyone nod off. Want to follow our journey? Plug in your email below and get my weekly newsletter. Thanks for stopping by!