Overland Meetup...

Sometimes the timing just works out...  A couple months ago, Todd emailed his best friend from college and his wife, Scott and Heather, to let them know that Shonah and he had started travelling full time.  If you've read our blog from the beginning, you'll recognize that Scott and Heather (heatherandscottsadventures.blogspot.com) are also full time adventure travelers and part of Shonah and Todd's inspiration to take the plunge.  They started travelling 5 years ago and have travelled over 3 continents, starting in Australia, then New Zealand and have been doing the Pan-American highway from North America to the tip of South America for the last couple years.  When the email was sent, Scott and Heather were in South America, but were planning a trip back to the US and would be staying in Portland (their former home) for a few weeks in June.  It's been about 8 years since Todd and Shonah have seen Scott and Heather, so this was a fantastic opportunity to visit over a couple days, catch up on things and get some valuable insight from more experienced travelers.

Todd, Scott, Shonah and Heather

Shonah and Todd not understanding the full concept of "silly face" picture quite as well as Scott and Heather

California...

 

Leaving Palm Springs behind, we decided to head up the West side of the state of California.  Looking at a map, you can almost travel the entire length of California without ever leaving a National Park or National Forest, which makes for some spectacular scenery (and a lot of curvy up and down roads).

One of our stops as we traveled North was Bass Lake, California.  Bass Lake was made famous in the movie "The Great Outdoors" starring John Candy and Dan Aykroyd and is your quintessential small mountain lake resort area.  We ended up camping in the parking lot of the "Pines Resort" (which is also featured in the movie) after having dinner in their restaurant overlooking the lake and politely asking if we could park overnight in their lot.  We spent the next day stand up paddle boarding around the lake and enjoying the pool and Jacuzzi at our free host resort.




Todd paddle boarding on Bass Lake in front of the "Pines Resort"

Shonah on the dock of the "Pines Resort" on Bass Lake



A "Stellar's Jay" bird

A "Great Horned Owl" in a tree along the road North

Our EarthRoamer isn't so big among the giants...  (Sequoia National Park)

The "General Sherman" Sequoia tree, the largest tree (by volume and weight) in the world at Sequoia National Park
The small person at the bottom of the tree is Todd with his arms raised

A "Marmot" in Sequoia National Park

Todd and Shonah at "Tokopah Falls" in Sequoia National Park

Dinner at one of our dispersed campsites in Sequoia National Forest



"Weaver Lake" in Sequoia National Forest

Shonah enjoying "Weaver Lake" in Sequoia National Forest

A "Jenny Train" (made by Ford) on the "Sugar Pine" Railroad in Yosemite National Park



Narrow gauge steam locomotives on the "Sugar Pine" Railroad in Yosemite National Park

Todd in Yosemite National Park (with famed "Half Dome" in the background)



Three of five Corvettes that passed us in Yosemite National Park
This picture is especially for Shonah's Mom (who loves Corvettes!)

"El Capitan" mountain (famous for rock climbing) in Yosemite National Park

"Bridal Veil Falls" in Yosemite National Park

"Yosemite Falls" in Yosemite National Park

Beautiful scenery in the valley of Yosemite National Park



Views from high above in Yosemite National Park

"Tenaya Lake" in Yosemite National Park

An "Osprey" at Mono Lake



An "Osprey" in the sky with the moon as a backdrop at Mono Lake
(No, this picture is not photo shopped)

"Tufa" formations in Mono Lake

"Tufa" formations in Mono Lake

"Tufa" formations at Mono Lake



Sunset from one of our camping spots in the Toiyabe National Forest



Sunset in the Toiyabe National Forest





A "Black Bear" heading down the slope toward the river where we were sitting in Toiyabe National Forest
Of course this happens the one time we don't have our camera and we need to use the iPad to take a photo





A "Black Bear" (yes, it is actually tan in color) in Toiyabe National Forest
"Black Bears" can actually be a multitude of different colors

 

Fields upon fields of wildflowers in Lassen Volcanic National Park




Wildflowers in Lassen Volcanic National Park





Shonah loves getting butterflies to rest on his finger

"Mill Creek Falls" in Lassen Volcanic National Park



View of Upper Klamath Lake



Sunset in our camping spot above Upper Klamath Lake

Palm Springs Surprise...

Good friends of ours from Chicago, Jeff and Sean, have been celebrating Memorial Day in Palm Springs, CA for the last many years.  We have joined them a couple of times and other friends of ours, Jerry and Kevin, have been attending for the last two years.  It's always a fun time as Sean likes to encourage a variety of games while we are enjoying our time by the pool before heading to our traditional "Wangs in the Desert" happy hour bar and then on to one of several local establishments.  Jeff, Sean, Jerry and Kevin had been planning to spend Memorial Day Weekend in Palm Springs for months and had no idea (neither did we) that we would be in the area at the right time to join them for the long weekend.   We surprised them by arriving at their resort early on Friday and after paying for a weekend pass to the resort, the manager agreed to allow us to camp for the weekend in their (rather limited) parking lot. 

We didn't realize until we spent time with them, how much we missed the "boys" from Chicago.  It was really great to see and spend time with them again!  We even managed to meet some new local friends of theirs from last year who invited us to a private house pool party on Saturday.  It was sad to say goodbye to the "boys" on Monday as they headed to the airport and we prepared to continue our journey North.

Many thanks to Jeff, Sean, Jerry and Kevin for a Great Weekend!  We miss you guys.



Todd, Shonah, Jeff, Jerry, Sean and Kevin

The "boys" with our pool party hosts, T.K and Dan

Shonah, Sean, Kevin and Todd

Shonah and Todd enjoying the pool party

 

Overland Expo 2014...

On our way to the Overland Expo near Flagstaff, Arizona, we stopped in Tempe to visit Todd's Niece Stephanie, her husband Tony and their son C.K.  Though it was just a short afternoon and evening visit, we enjoyed just hanging out at their condo, playing with C.K., and devouring a delicious lasagna dinner prepared by Stephanie.  We missed the opportunity to take a nice family photo, but do have a quick candid photo of Stephanie and C.K.

Stephanie and C.K.

The "Overland Expo" is an international event that educates and inspires people to get out and explore the world by motorcycle or vehicle.  It is held twice a year, once in the western half of the US and once in the eastern half.  It's an impressive gathering of "people like us" that like to travel off the beaten path, many of which are also full time travelers.  As we entered the Expo camping area, we noticed several other EarthRoamers parked together and thought, even though the space around them was full, that we would drive by.  As we approached, Craig, one of the EarthRoamer owners, asked if we wanted to join the rest of the group which we did.  We had yet to meet other EarthRoamer owners and were now part of our own "Camp EarthRoamer".  Everyone contributed to a spaghetti dinner on our first night, which resulted in us picking up the nickname "meatball guys".  In addition to a large variety of vendors with expedition gear and vehicle accessories, the expo also includes several seminars and classes, and an "off-road" demo course.  We took in some of the seminars on places we wanted to travel to or topics that were of interest, including a few cooking seminars.  One of the best experiences of the weekend, however, was just meeting our fellow EarthRoamer owners and hanging out together.  It's quite an eclectic group of people and we learned more from them than from the seminars we attended.  We look forward to crossing paths with many of them at some point in the future.

"Camp EarthRoamer" at Sunset

"Camp EarthRoamer" during the Day - Can you figure out which one is ours?

Shonah enjoying conversation with someone other than Todd :)

Alan's EarthRoamer on the Off Road Course

Alan's EarthRoamer also had "air-ride suspension" which helped "lift" him out of a few tight spots

Taking a recommendation from Chris, one of our fellow EarthRoamer owners, we headed to the Mogollon Rim part of the Tonto National Forest following the Expo.  The area is a maze of forest roads that surround what looks like a smaller version of the Grand Canyon draped in pine forest.  After 2 failed attempts to reach the Rim and a small argument, we finally found the following great spot to camp.

The view from our first camping spot along the rim

Todd trying to capture a photo reminiscent of Western paintings he enjoys

Camping on the rim

Another sunset photo...