Meet Dakota and Chelsea
Short Version
We like fun and adventure, frequently in the form of bicycling. We intentionally wander, laugh and play a lot, volunteer as we travel, and try not to take life too seriously. I write about travel, my thoughts on work/life balance, books and people we meet and share pictures from our lives.
Here’s how we met for a first date in Prague. This podcast interview best explains our approach to life.
Where have we been? Since the fall of 2013 when I launched this blog, we toured for eight months through the southwest U.S. and Rockies in our Sprinter van, then for 3.5 months and 4,000 miles on bicycles across the U.S. to Maine, capped off by big-city living in NYC, then exploring Mexico and Belize.
Spring 2015 featured two months mountain biking in Utah and California, followed by cycle touring from London to Prague over 3.5 months. The adventure continued into 2016 in SoCal and Santa Cruz, followed by volunteering at a Farm Sanctuary. Summer 2016 was an adventure exploring Iceland and then traveling the mountains of western Canada.
Feeling uprooted and seeking community, we downshifted from van life and landed in Bend, Oregon for connection and outdoor fun. We still travel a few months a year (Spain and Portugal in spring 2019 for a bike tour, six weeks mountain biking in BC in summer 2019), but it’s awesome to feel connected to a wonderful community in Bend.
Want to join the fun? My weekly newsletter highlights shenanigans ranging from learning to play piano to van life to self-employment to living a vegan lifestyle to outdoor adventures to ridiculous drawings of T. Rex’s failing at everything.
Long Version
Are you sure you want to read more?! Fine, fine.
After years of rooted living – buying property, both of us building a business – and almost going down the road of staying put and raising a family – we decided to cast off the lines and head out.
At the end of October 2013, we rented our house as a furnished short-term rental and hit the road to traipse about. Initially, the plan was a four-month road trip. That shifted to an open timeline and a totally new lifestyle of travel, pausing in places we like, bike touring, volunteering, and whatever strikes our fancy.
In no particular order, we like to explore new places at a slower pace than overnight stays, goof off, dodge plastic disposables (C’s our anti-plastic crusader), laugh, wear dorky visors sideways, listen to podcasts, meet wonderful new people, cook and eat delicious plant-based food, and ride bikes all over the place and run or hike when we’re not on two wheels.
We challenge ourselves with projects like not buying anything new for a year, or doing yoga every day for a month, or living in a van and sharing 75 square feet. How do we do it? A good sense of humor and lots of laughing.
Chelsea brought the custom-made FUN shirts above to our first date (<–full story). Nine years later, the shirts are a little ragged, but we’re still going strong. (The shot above is from our wedding, an elopement to Kauai.)
What are we up to? Pretty simple really: we can travel or live anywhere with an open timeline since Dakota remotely runs a small business. All the writing here is Dakota’s, and so are most photos, but Chelsea contributes brilliant editorial help and pictures of Dakota doing dangerous things, plus emotional support.
What do we talk about on the blog? Intentional living underpins all that we do. D’s writing is, in the words of a blog reader, “insights into life.” It draws on Dakota’s experience building a company, plus our travels, books, people we meet, and anything that seems interesting.
We also talk about how travel can transport us to new personal realms and transform us into different people, all mixed in with fun stories and pictures from the road.
Rolling cross-country! Going-to-the-Sun Road in the early morning in Glacier.
Want to read more? Start here or check out all the posts and read from the beginning.
We love hearing from readers and meeting you during our travels. As the blog has grown, we have been lucky enough to connect with many insightful, adventurous people along the way for a meal, hike or bike ride. Drop us a line here!
See you on the road,
Dakota and Chelsea
Our vision board for 2014. Chelsea did most of it 🙂