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BBQ time :)

Local BBQ for dinner!

First lunch back in the USA

CHICK FIL A!

Nuevo Laredo, MX ---> Laredo, TX!

Goodbye MX, hello TX!

Pueblo Mágico shots

San Joaquin is a Pueblo Mágico that was really beautiful. It’s colorful, full of local life, and surrounded by mountains. I went for a trail run through the nearby villages and stumbled across a school, lots of farm animals, and wide, stretching views. Trail run friends:

Canyon Angosturas adventure

We rode a sweet off-road route through a canyon that was recommended by a friend. Most of it was riding through a riverbed so we hoped the river wasn't too deep.. Thankfully our bike crushed it and we had a fun time adventuring through river crossings and some tight sections - it was a stunning day...

Solar-powered...everything

Finca Castel de Oro is a farm/operation built and run by a German man, Gregor, and his wife and family. Gregor moved to Mexico after they got married about 35 years ago. Over that time in Hidalgo, he’s built multiple large solar-powered machines that use mirrors and concentrated sunlight to generate...

Hot Springs

We visited a beautiful hot springs in the mountains of Hidalgo. I expected just a few pools like other hot springs we went to but this place was essentially the size of a theme park "built out" with natural-looking pools and also fully natural pools. It was a massive operation and was really beautif...

Tula Archaeological Ruins

We visited some ruins outside of CDMX after crossing into the state of Hidalgo. The massive Atlantes of Tula standing on top of the pyramid were the highlight— they were massive! It gave a glimpse into the Toltec world and this site specifically was the capital of the Toltec civilization, known as T...

Mini food tour of CDMX

After eating countless tacos, we got a few recommendations from Austin's sister since she had traveled to CDMX for work frequently in the past. Yummiest churros: Guava pastry..something different to try but it was delicious:

Shakira Shakiraaaa

We spotted a Shakira concert advertisement and realized we were going to be in the same town on the night of the concert! We quickly started looking into tickets and found some last-minute ones for about $35 each. We said, “Heck yeah! Let’s do it!” In high school, I loved Shakira so much, so my inne...

Cave time

Austin found a sweet cave that was the perfect mix of wild but also very clear on where the passages are. We spent a couple of hours exploring the cave until we could no longer continue. There was a rappelling section and we didn't have any gear so we turned back. It was such an exhilarating day! Up...

Camping before crossing into Mexico!

Our little camp spot for the night: Yummy breakfast with sourdough bread and fresh avos & tomatoes:

Weaving in Xela

When researching Guatemala, I found this weaving spot in Xela (Quetzaltenango’s nickname). It’s a textile shop that teaches people how to weave using traditional methods. The shop helps local women sell their products so they can earn an income. I learned to weave from Amparo, who has been weaving f...

Daily tortilla routine

One part I loved about Xela was how easy it was to get fresh tortillas every day. Each morning, I would go for a walk in the bright morning sunshine, and at the end of my walk I’d pop by my favorite tortilla gal’s shop. I’d buy six small ones for about a quarter so we could have fresh tortillas for...

Other Antigua photos

Puppies for sale

Austin and I found a church in Antigua and ended up meeting a group of missionaries and locals. They invited us out to lunch, and we ended up spending the whole afternoon together. It was a blast and so much fun to hang out with a big group of friends! During the day, we were hanging out in the main...

Ataco - surprise city

Conception de Ataco was a surprising, beautiful town we stumbled upon!

Los Farringtons

We spent about a week with the Farringtons, who run a non-profit called Open Hearts. It was amazing to get to know them, surf together, and learn about the work God has called them to do in Nicaragua. One of their projects, Club Esperanza, is more than just a club or school. They provide hot meals,...

Volcano viewing

We were able to drive to the top of a volcano to view the inside of it. There was no lava but there was some serious gas and smells coming from the volcano. People are only allowed to be in the viewing area for 5 minutes and then are required to drive away from the viewing area. I started coughing a...

Scuba in a lake in a volcano crater?

We went diving in Apoyo lake which is located inside of a volcano crater. It was a really fascinating dive! The visibility wasn't crystal clear and we didn't see too many fish but the most unique part was experiencing the volcanic warmth in the lake floor. We felt the thermal waters flowing after th...

Chocolate workshop

We participated in a chocolate making workshop which was quite silly and fun. We didn't actually make the chocolate as we expected, rather we learned about the process and then added any toppings and mixed them with a chocolate paste and put the paste into a mold. I added sea salt and cashews to my...

Stripped splines :(

We broke down on the way to Rivas from the coast. We lost all power to the rear wheel which meant it could be a couple of things. Thankfully, it was the same problem we had about 6 months ago in Bolivia so we knew how to fix it. Do you see how the silver circle on the inside of the big black casing...

Petroglyphs

On the island, we read that there were some petroglyphs on a local farm so we hiked a bit to find them. The stone carvings were from various pre-Hispanic cultures, specifically the Chorotega and later the Nahua people.

Tow time

Broke down but thankfully there was a truck willing to help!

Moto and ATV gang hits the volcano island

After Costa Rica with Beau, we all headed to Nicaragua - Beau got the full sidecar experience, breakdown included. Once they made it safely to the next town, we dropped the bike off and hopped on a ferry to an island in the middle of a big lake. The island has 2 massive volcanoes on it and our idea...

Surf and chill

We spent a couple of days at the beach with our friend, Beau. We surfed, swam, and relaxed. The sand was so soft and the water was so warm we could swim in just our bathing suits for nearly an hour. Other times I have swam in the Pacific, it has felt a lot colder..that's mainly in California though...

La Fortuna with Beau

One of our friends from California came out to visit us for a week and a half. We met in La Fortuna, Costa Rica and explored the lush nature and animals. Nature observatory: Night tour to view animals: Sloth friend: Hot springs in the river:

Self guided nature walk

Before we made it to La Fortuna, we stayed the night at a small nature lodge. They had a jungle-dense property behind the accommodation so we ventured back in the jungle to see what we could find. We found multiple tiny (poisonous) frogs, a snake, wild insects, and made friends with the bridge guard...

Parque Nacional Cahuita

Nature walk feat. small, yellow viper, countless monkeys + pizotes, and the beautiful ocean.

Climbing in Boquete

Climbing in Boquete was awesome - climbing in the outdoors is so special compared to climbing indoors to me. Being in the outdoors makes it a rich and energetic experience. The main climbing company in Boquete was started by a German guy named Christian who moved to Panama when he was about 10 years...

Swimming in the canyon

Los Cangilones de Gualaca are natural small but deep canyons and swimming pools in that were formed by the Estí River over many years. We went cliff jumping into the canyons and floated through the canyon to the main swimming area. It was the perfect thing for after a hot day in the full sun on the...

Panama Canal

We visited the Panama Canal and also a museum about the canal. It was really fascinating to learn about since I had a very basic level of knowledge about it before. Here is a quick historical summary about the canal: The idea of a canal across Panama dates back to the 1500s, but serious attempts beg...

Picking up Domino in Panama City

Domino arrived in Panama City! Central America here we come:)

Panama City views

Run and bike days in Bogota

Bogota blocks off approximately 75-79 miles (120-127 km) of the downtown roads each Sunday so that people can use them for biking, walking, running, or rollerblading. Around 1.5 million people use the streets during this time. I loved it for running and how it promotes getting outside and being acti...

Loading up Domino

Between Colombia and Panama, there is the Darien Gap which is a densely jungle-covered large section of land with no roads nor infrastructure and it is heavily used by gangs and drug dealers. We thought about finding a fisherman to toss the bike on his boat but we have seen too many videos of motorc...

Bogota playing

We spent about a week in Bogota and did some fun, normal-life things. We went bowling, went rock climbing, saw a movie, went to a funky art museum, and Austin even got a vaccine he needed to get.

Coffee Tour

We did a coffee tour with one of our friends that is from South Africa. It was really interesting learning about the coffee process from start to finish: Harvesting: Ripe coffee cherries are picked by hand or machine - we walked around their farm and picked a bunch ourselves that we would then proce...

Donkey Sunrise

Donkey Sunrise is an adventure hub in Colombia where you can camp, relax, work on your vehicles, or stay in one of their cabanas. It is owned and run by a Dutch/Venezuelan couple. Donkey Sunrise was hosting a traveler meet up with Horizons Unlimited which is a global motorcycle adventure traveler gr...

The White City

Popayan is a town in southern Colombia known as the "White City". It is one of the oldest colonial cities and served as an important political and economic center during the colonial era since it is between Cartagena, Colombia and Quito, Ecuador. Today it is known for religious traditions, particula...

Tulcan Cemetery

On our way to Colombia from Ecuador, we passed through a town called Tulcan. The Cemetery was founded in 1932 by José María Azael Franco. He wanted to shape the bushes to honor the beauty of life, even in a place of death. José's son took over the care of the cemetery after his father passed and now...

Santa Cruz *wet* trek

There is a 3-4 day backpacking trek through the Andes called the Santa Cruz trek. This was a backpacking trip we both were really looking forward to, it looked marvelous. Little did we know, if it was gray and cloudy, you wouldn't see the massive mountains beyond the range the hiking trails were in....

Mountain roads and Pastoruri Glacier

We rode a beautiful dirt road through the mountains and had many incredible views. Along the route, we saw a big glacier, dinosaur footprints, ancient wall paintings, and many stunning sites. We took a small walk to the Pastoruri Glacier. The glacier sits at 5,250 meters (17,200 feet) above sea leve...

Torres de Vichaycocha

The Torres (towers) of Vichaycocha are these massive rock formations in the mountains in Peru. It is difficult to capture the vastness of them but they were massive!

Guinea pig for dinner

Guinea pigs were domesticated in the Andes around 5,000–7,000 years ago, long before the Spanish arrived during colonization. Additionally, the people in the Andes eat guinea pigs! It is a delicacy rather than an everyday meal for the people in the Andes, it's usually eaten on special occasions like...

Smurf Houses

Rock Forest

Choquequirao Ruins

The Choquequirao ruins site is a remote Incan citadel perched high in the Andes of southern Peru. It is called the "sister city" of Machu Picchu for its similar architecture and placement in the mountains. It was last populated in the late 1500s and was likely abandoned as the Spanish started to tak...

Choquequirao Trek & Guest House

We hiked through a beautiful canyon to see the Choquequirao ruins, we spent 1 night in the canyon so we hiked for 2 days total. On our way to the ruins, we stayed at a little guesthouse that was in a small mountain village. The only way to get to the village is by walking or by donkey/horse. The hik...

Choquequirao Mountain Huts

We stayed in a small mountain town that had mountain huts with an incredible view. The little huts were large enough for a mattress and a couple of bags so it was a tight squeeze but perfect to stay there! The view was absolutely breathtaking! The huts are on the mountainside in the distance:

Pallay Punchu Mountain

Pallay Punchu is a colorful, stunning mountain that is definitely worth visiting. The hike circuit is about an hour and it is so beautiful! The road to get there was red and curvy (last photo) and we really enjoyed this as a little pitstop during one of our drive days.

Colca Canyon Trek

We spent three days and two nights hiking in Colca Canyon, staying in tiny guest homes tucked into remote mountain villages. Colca is one of the deepest canyons in the world, reaching a depth of 4,160 meters (13,650 feet)—for comparison, the Grand Canyon in the U.S. is about 1,829 meters (6,000 feet...

Meeting (again) my friend's parents

One of my friends Bill is Peruvian and from Juliaca, Peru. He now lives in Colorado. When Austin and I were visiting Colorado summer 2024, Bill's parents were visiting also so we all met at a cafe in Denver. Fast forward almost a year later, we were able to meet them again and stay with them in Juli...

Isla del Sol

Isla del Sol is located on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca. It is considered a sacred island in Incan culture and is known in Incan mythology as the birthplace of the sun. We took a ferry to the north side of the island and trekked to the south side. The views were impeccable—the rich-colored lak...

New bearings!

We replaced some bearings in the bike with the help of this crew! We spent a couple of days at the shop working on the bike too so we got to know them pretty well. Abdiel (long hair) also invited us to church with his wife so we got to attend their church with them!

Gondolas galore!

La Paz, one of Bolivia’s capital cities, is a big city built in the mountains. Since there are so many steep hills?the city is connected by gondolas. The gondolas are their public transportation. The city itself sits at 3,640 meters (11,942 feet), phew! Just walking around and up the hills was a wor...

Huayna Potosí mountain!

Huayna Potosí is a big mountain outside of La Paz, Bolivia. It is a very high peak (6,088 m / 19,975 ft), so there is snow there year-round. It is common (and not rushed) to organize a 3-day, 2-night trip to help acclimate to the high altitude and have a successful summit. During the 3 days, we stay...

Dino tracks

Just outside of Sucre, there is a limestone quarry with dinosaur footprints and a dino park! It looks like the footprints are walking up the wall but the current day wall was actually the ground at one point before the tectonic plates shifted. They were quite incredible and beautiful to see, there w...

Potosí Mine

We had one of the most sobering and educational days visiting the Cerro Rico (rich mountain). Cerro Rico de Potosí mine is the world's largest silver deposit and has been mined since the 16th century. In 1545, during Spanish colonization, the Spanish started mining and enslaved the indigenous people...

Salt flat adventure

Salar de Uyuni was absolutely stunning and so unique! The salt flat is enormous, it covers 10,582 square kilometers (4,086 square miles). Rainy season has just ended so the salt flat was partially covered in water. We decided it wasn’t a good idea to bring the bike since salt is extremely eroding to...

Mountain biking adventure

We rented mountain bikes in San Pedro de Atacama which is a backpacker hot spot in northern Chile in the desert. We went to the Devil's Throat for mountain biking and it was beautiful. I didn't take many photos during the ride but the trail winded through red slot canyons, it was really fun. I took...

Failed border crossing

We found a border that is not popular by travelers and read that since COVID, they only let commercial vehicles through. Since it was semi on our route to Chile, we thought we would give the border crossing a try regardless. When we arrived at the border station, the officer told us there was no imm...

Red Rocks of Argentina

Devil's Desert was really stunning! We were on a red dirt road weaving in and out of red rock formations for about an hour or two. After we left this part of the desert, we (Austin, me, and the bike) were completely covered in red dust/sand; it took a couple of washes to get the dirtiness out of our...

Salty water

Ojos del Mar (Ocean Eyes) is a hyper-salty body of water near Tolar Grande, Argentina. It has a very high mineral and algae content which gives the water a reddish color. Salty walking path: Salty shore:

Tiny desert town

Tolar Grande is a tiny town (but nearly the only town) in this desert region we were visiting. It has just a few guesthouses and maybe 2 cafes. There is no formal gas station but people sell gas out of their homes. Local "gas station": Desert fox friend who we met while heading to Tolar Grande:

High Old Sulfur Mine 17,348 ft (5,290 m)

After checking out Mina La Casulidad, we still had about 20 or 30 miles on rough dirt road to Mina Julia. We drove through so many different, beautiful landscapes and it felt like we’re on a complete different planet. The road to the mine was carved into the side of the mountain and it was absolutel...

Abandoned Mining Town

Mina La Casualidad is an abandoned mine in NW Argentina sitting at 13,000 ft (approx 4,000m); it is now a ghost town. The mining town was booming in the 1940s and the primary industry was mining sulfur. The sulfur was moved from the mining town to the railway station in Tolar Grande via cable car. D...

The Unknown Shortcut

We started out the day waking up at the Cono de Arita after a very cold night. We met a German couple and Swiss couple around our age that were overlanding together and chatted with them in the morning for about an hour or so. It was really fun to meet other overlanders around our age! Before we met...

The Big Cone

We made it to Cono de Arita and camped there for the night. The sunset was stunning over the cone and surrounding mountains; however, the road was really rough(2nd photo). The cone and area is made up of black lava and salt. It is suspected by scientists that the cone was a volcano that did not have...

Rocks on another planet

Campo de Piedras Pomez is a rock structure created from a volcanic eruption. The eruption deposited massive amounts of pumice stone. It makes sense it was pumice stone because it had an extreme amount of grip when we were climbing on and walking around on the rock field.

Flamingos!

Laguna Carachi Pampa is a salt lake in NW Argentina. It is known for its' pinkish/orange water, the volcanic rock & landscapes surrounding it, and its' flamingos! While we were there, the flamingos were poking their beaks into the water and eating nearly the entire time. They eat blue-green and red...

Hot Springs and Camping

We camped near some hot springs pools, it was really nice relaxing in the pools the evening before making dinner and headed to bed.

Visiting the Ruins of the Quilmes Tribe

We visited the Quilmes Ruins which have been around since 850-1000 AD. The Quilmes tribe was an indigenous tribe in Northwest Argentina that was unfortunately conquered by the Spanish during the Spanish colonization. For many years, the Quilmes resisted the Spanish but after a few years of fighting,...

Park day in Mendoza

Brunch and park day at Parque General San Martin.

Wine Tasting

We went to Mevi Winery on a stunning day! I liked this winery because it had 2 whites on their sampling menu rather than only 1 white. I don't like red wine so it was great to have a bigger variety of sampling. The wine was good; we both aren't big wine people but we enjoy tasting some and seeing th...

Live music at Viña Rock Cafe

Mark and Karina, the pastors of Vineyard Church Mendoza, have a cafe in Mendoza. Mark is a musician so he loves music! Their cafe has live music 4 nights/week and they host different bands and local musicians. The night that Austin and I joined, Mark was playing with some of his guys Beatles music s...

New bolt, again...

We have broken this specific bolt a handful of times and had a few different welders weld a new one. Welding it the same way each time has not been working (clearly) so we found a metal-smith in Mendoza and he had a great idea on how to weld and fix it. His idea is to drill out the center of the bol...

Wool shops and knitting

I've been a knitting feen since getting back from Antarctica. Many of the European women on the ship were making amazing things so it peaked my interest and I wanted to give it a shot and learn. I also thought it would be a fun new hobby and additionally a challenge since I have never knitted anythi...

Mendoza Vineyard Church

It is always a blessing to find a church when we are in places that have churches. Worshiping with other believers brings a whole new energy and throughout our travels, it has become very clear why we are created to be in community. I found Mendoza Vineyard Church online before getting to Mendoza an...

Witch's Cave (Cueva de las Brujas)

We explored the Witch's cave with our great guide, Cecilia. It was a nice pit stop on a drive day heading north. Tours have been a really fun way to be able to practice Spanish!

Parrillada experience (meat sampler platter)

Both of us wanted to try parrillada once when we were in Argentina! Parrillada is essentially a meat platter with various types of meat that are grilled over coals. We were served a variety of cuts: chorizo (pork sausage), morcilla (blood sausage), ribs, pork, flank steak, intestine, and brain. Yes,...

River campsite

We stayed at a stunning yet *risky* campsite near a beautiful river. There was a rushing river with a rich, deep aqua blue color near the site and we found a calm area that was perfect for bathing, it was so refreshing!! The campsite was "risky" because we noticed the 'death thorns' once we got a co...

Asado in San Martin

We had a really fun night of asado with some new friends in San Martin. At our hostel, we met Felipe who is Argentine and his girlfriend, Lauren, who is from France but they live and work in Senegal. We also met Josh and Alex who are Germans. Felipe is a chef so he was manning the asado (thankfully!...

Hippie town

El Bolsón is a small hippie town in the Andes with a big artisan market that it is very well known for. The market is 4 days/week and has a lot of beautiful craftsmanship. Everyone from the city comes and also anyone visiting, it was a really nice community event. We spent a couple of days around th...

Back to camping

We are north enough where the weather is warm and (rarely) rainy so I was so excited to get back out camping! The past couple of months have been very very cold and rainy so these blue skies and warm days are such a treat. Sunset at our campsite: Breakfast, oats and apples:

Cave of hands

La Cueva de los Manos (The Cave of Hands) is a prehistoric rock art site that has stenciled handprints and hunting scenes. The people mainly hunted guanacos (llama-like animals). It dates back around 9,000 to 13,000 years, created by ancient indigenous groups, likely the ancestors of the Tehuelche p...

The Fitzroy!!

Hiking the Fitzroy trail in El Chaltén, Argentina has been a desire of mine for nearly 10 years. It gives you an impeccable view of a famous mountain range that is actually the mountain range in the Patagonia brand logo. The trail was beautiful, the weather was absolutely perfect (we lucked out!), a...

Which way does the wind usually blow?

What do you think?

Museo Nao Victoria

The Nao Victoria museum is a maritime museum with 4 ship replicas, from historical voyages or events: (1) Victoria: the first ship/voyage to circumnavigate the globe (2) James Caird lifeboat: the boat Shackleton and his 5 mates used to sail from Elephant Island to South Georgia Island (3) HMS Beagle...

Argentine Ranch

Austin and I met Veky on the voyage to Antarctica. She is a local in Ushuaia and her family was one of the first 5 families to move from Europe many years ago. Her family is specifically from Croatia. Veky is so kind and invited us to her family ranch; I was so excited to go check it all out! We spe...

BBQ night

Traditional BBQ night on the ship:

Harberton - Mafu’s home

Harberton is a small settlement located on the eastern shore of the Beagle Channel in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. It is known for its historic estancia (ranch), Estancia Harberton, founded in 1886 by Thomas Bridges, a British missionary, and pioneer. One of our guides, Mafu, is 5th generation direc...

Hanging on the bowsprit

After the rigorous Drake Passage crossing, we entered the Beagle Channel which was much much more calm than the Drake. Austin and I spent a while hanging on the bowsprit enjoying the last couple of days on the ship.

Torn Sail on the Drake

Our last couple of days on the Drake Passage were very intense. We had big winds and rough waters so we felt a proper "Drake Shake". We even tore a sail! It was rainy and cold and the swells were so large that we were required to wear harnesses when we were working on deck. Everyone inside was walki...

Back to the Drake Passage!

Our time in Antarctica had to come to an end eventually. I could have stayed another month, it was such an incredible place! Leaving Antarctica meant back to the Drake Passage and our work shifts. It also meant "welcome back swells and stormy waters". The first morning, I felt really sick and ate br...

Big big glacier

Neko Harbour had the largest and most active glacier we saw on the trip. The sounds of the glacier calving were vast and loud and more frequent than others. We had about 5 minutes of silence after hiking to the viewpoint to solely listen to the sounds of Antarctica (glaciers, birds, penguins, water,...

Glacier cove zodiac tour

On a zodiac tour near a massive glacier, we listened to the sounds of the glacier calving (cracking and moving) and it sounded like thunder booming. Occasionally, we would see a chunk break off and see the snow and ice fall into the water causing a great ripple effect in the cove. The glacier's colo...

Too much ice to pass

Once we started heading further south we were running into too much ice and the change of getting frozen in without an escape plan. Captain Moritz decided that we would start heading back north to get away from the ice into nicer waters.

WHALE!

On some of our zodiac tours, we launched a 3rd boat called "Sloopie". Sloopie is a character boat with a hard body, tiny zippy engine, and a wobbly sense about em. This tour was absolutely crazy and one I'll never forget in Sloopie. We spotted a few whales (humpbacks and minkes) a couple hundred met...

Weddell Seal and landscape

The colors at this landing site were absolutely stunning. The aqua was intensely bright, the snow was crisp white, the skies were a rich sky blue, and the mountains rock was pure black. Below is my favorite photo I took on the entire trip (including the Weddell Seal!)

The icebergs surrounding Pleaneau Island

Lemaire Channel: my new favorite place on earth

Lemaire Channel was breath taking and mind blowing. I took maybe 3 photos total because it was hard not to give your full attention to the beauty. Nearly everyone on the ship was admiring the channel from the deck or from up in the yards as we motored through (there was no wind to use the sails). It...

Snowy hike excursion

One of our landings was a hike that was supposed to be to a lookout point of a beautiful mountain range but we were snowed in and had the views of the inside of a ping pong ball. The hike was still a blast and we saw many penguins per usual! At the base of the hike were a British and Argentine emerg...

Postcards on their way!

Port Lockroy is a historic site on Goudier Island in Antarctica, originally established as a British research station in 1944 during WWII. The station operated until 1962, and in the following decades, it was preserved as a museum and heritage site by the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust. It has a museum...

The Big Dalmuti!

The Big Dalmuti is a Dutch game that my ship roomie, Camilla, brought from the NLD. We didn't have a rule book but Camilla said she knew the rules and would teach us. It is a unique game since it plays to the privilege of the #1 and #2 spots (#1 is the Big Dalmuti and #2 is just 2nd place) and disad...

Snow?!

We woke up to a snowy and chilly morning. It was very stunning seeing the boat in a new way: dusted by snow. A few snowball fights broke out, a snowman was made, and even a snow penguin was crafted! Florian and Phil (both part of the full-time crew):

Shipwreck

The Guvernoren ship was a whaling vessel that wrecked in 1915, it was the largest factory ship in the area prior to WWI. It was fitted with modern engines & cookers for blubber, meat, & bone and whaling byproducts processing machines. The leftover residue from the blubber cooking was used for animal...

Evening Sunset Cruise

After dinner, we cruised around Cierva Cove and enjoyed a beautiful sunset! Camilla climbing:

Iceberg Graveyard Zodiac Excursion

We anchored the big ship near Trinity Island and unloaded the zodiacs for an excursion to the Iceberg Graveyard. Between Trinity Island and Spert Island, there is a small channel of water where icebergs get trapped thus, there are a concentrated amount of icebergs in one location. I didn't think muc...

Deception Bay Landing 2

In Telefon Bay, we did a very unique hike that felt like we were walking on a gray version of Mars. We had all kinds of weather on the hike: snow, wind, rain, sun.. you name it, we had it! Overall though, it was a beautiful hike around various crater-like land masses. It also felt amazing to get out...

Deception Island Landing 1

Whaler's Bay is a harbor in the South Shetland Islands that was historically used by men who hunted whales and seals. There were still rusty tanks, some buildings, an old airplane hanger, and a cemetery left. We first hiked to a stunning lookout that viewed a black sand beach. On the beach, we spott...

Hexagonal columns galore

Edinburgh Hill is a stunning rock formation of columnar basalt with uniform hexagonal columns formed by a magma cooled slowly beneath the earth's surface which allowed a consistent pattern of hexagonal columns to form. Over time, the columns and "hill" were exposed through the breakthrough and erosi...

Yankee Harbour Landing

At Yankee Harbour, we saw 2 large Weddell seals from the ship while approaching the bay, they were beautiful! This landing was one of our wettest and coldest but it was still incredible to be out exploring the island and seeing the animals. We saw fur seals, Gentoo penguins, Weddell seals, a huge El...

Fort Point Landing

Once we made it through the Drake Passage, we stopped working our shifts on the ship and were able to relax and enjoy the next 9-10 days of landings. Landings are excursions on land where we would leave the ship and take zodiac boats to our desired destination's shore. Throughout our time in the Sou...

Science with Camilla

One of my ship roomies, Camilla, was a guide on the voyage and is a scientist. As part of job and research, she was collecting data in a 20-30km stretch of the Drake Passage call the Antarctic Convergence Zone (the area where temperate subantarctic water meets cold polar water). Camilla was collecti...

Sailing lessons

At the beginning of the voyage, we received an overload of information, sailing training being one of the topics. This was something both Austin and I were very excited about! We learned all about the sails and corresponding ropes and rope pegs where the ropes are tied down to on deck. On our ship,...

Drake initial thoughts

Copy/paste journal entry bullets from day #1 in the Drake Passage: Steering the ship was absolutely incredible. From the stern (back of the ship), where the helm is, you can see the ship move and bob/flux with the waves and swell. It moved me to nearly tears to see the power of the sea and also thin...

Work shifts

For a little background, sailing on this ship is not a passive activity. During each Drake Passage crossing which totaled nearly 10/22 days of the trip, everyone on the boat is working. The voyage crew (us!) had rotating shifts that ranged from 2-4 hours, multiple times a day and everyone slept betw...

History of the Drake Passage

The Drake Passage connects the Atlantic with the Pacific Oceans south of Tierra del Fuego. To the south, the South Shetland Islands mark the boundary, the point at which the Southern Ocean is funneled to a channel around 900 km wide. The Drake Passage and the sailing route rounding Cape Horn played...

The climb test and safety briefings

While we were sailing through the Beagle Channel, there weren't too many waves so we were able to get "tested" for our climbing abilities. The test was quite easy; you had to do a full squat showing flexibility and either a pull up or hang on the pull up bar for 30 seconds. We both passed and were v...

Embarkment day - we are going to Antarctica!!

Austin and I decided to join this Antarctica voyage pretty last minute and looking back, we both are insanely thrilled with our decision! The trip itself was 22 days from Ushuaia, Argentina to the South Shetland Islands to the Antarctica Peninsula. In that route, we crossed the infamous Drake Passag...

Glaciar Exploradores

We ventured an hour and a half down a dirt road to hike to a glacier viewpoint. The road was really rough getting out there but it was truly a beautiful drive despite the clouds and bit of rain. The glacier itself was really massive, we couldn’t see the entire thing because it continued up the valle...

Marble Caves

In Puerto Río Tranquilo, there are beautiful marble caves shaped by water (long long ago!) along the coast. The marble is a soft marble with few minerals. In the past, miners realized that extracting it is useless since there are no minerals in it. Fortunately now, the coastline and water are protec...

Laundry day

One thing we have learned on the trip is to appreciate a washing machine and clean clothes in general. Sometimes it is difficult (or very expensive!) to simply wash clothes. This day’s problem was not the washing part, rather, there was no line to dry our clothes. Fortunately, I found a gal to wash...

Las Horquetas Trek

Four days of beautiful hiking, mostly stunning weather, jagged mountains, and breathtaking alpine lakes:

Hanging Glacier

This hanging glacier was breathtaking and overall just magnificent, our minds were blown! In person it didn’t feel real and now looking at photos again, it still doesn’t look real. Chile has such stunning nature!

Volcán Chaitén hike

Chaitén Volcano is a volcano in northern Patagonia that is still active today. The most recent big eruption was in 2008 and the ash column from the eruption was about 10 miles high! Chile’s emergency evacuation group evacuated about 5,000 people in the area during the eruption. The small town of Cha...

Full alive battery

We arrived to Chaitén New Year’s Eve so all the stores were closed the day of our arrival and the next day for the holiday. When the 2nd of the month hit, we set off to search for a battery in town. Chaitén is quite small so we were going to be surprised if they had the specific battery we wanted. A...

Fully dead battery

The morning of a big travel and ferry day, we woke up to a dead battery, ugh! Since our ferry was leaving in about 25 minutes, we decided to push the bike from our accommodation to the ferry port to sort the problem on the 4 hour ferry ride. We fortunately made the ferry and got situated with our to...

“Floating” the river

Hydrospeed was a river activity we both had never heard of and it was such an incredibly fun time!! You essentially float the river and go through all of the rapids with a small bodyboard and flippers. It was one of our favorite days and activities!!

Christmas Day adventure

We had a really nice Christmas together in a beautiful town called Pucón. There sadly weren’t any church services going on to celebrate the birth of Christ but we made the most of the day. In the late morning, we made French toast and drank mimosas (a yummy tradition we have!). After brunch, we watc...

Los Pozones Thermal Pools

Pucón is a small, touristy town in Chile that is surrounded by mountains, a huge volcano, and a big lake. Alongside the beautiful terrain, there are many thermal pools sprinkled in the mountains as well. We went to some that were near a river and figured the combination of the cold snowmelt river wa...

La Escuela Bellavista

I, Ellie, took 2 weeks of Spanish intensive classes in Santiago to refresh and learn more Spanish so I can use it while we are in South and Central America. Austin and I did an alone week and a half during this time so while I was busy in school, he was exploring the coast and riding south with Domi...

Empanadas class

We made empanadas de pino which are the classic Chilean empanada. Empanadas are stuffed bread/pastry goodies that are (usually) served hot and they are best fresh out of the oven. Empanadas de pino have a beef filling with onions, spices, one olive, and one little chunk of boiled egg. It is very spe...

Viña Aquitania

Austin found a quaint winery near Santiago right at the base of the foothills of the Andes mountains. Beyond the foothills, the mountains can reach almost 18,000 ft (5,500m). Phew, these mountains are so beautiful and it feels amazing to be surrounded by mountains again! We learned all about Aquitan...

Made it to South America!

HOLA CHILE!

Failed explosives test?!

The night before our flight, our shipping broker (Brent) called us and shared that the bike kept failing the swab test and wasn't able to be cleared for any flights. That was not the news we wanted to hear since the security screening facility had already closed for the day. Since we couldn't go tha...

Domino's crate

We are shipping to South America!! It is not a cheap thing to do but to cut away a good chunk of the cost, we built our own crate and made Domino fit quite snug inside so our dimensions were as slim as possible. We were in Melbourne just a few days before our flight and we needed to build the crate...

Sydney friend!

We met Jarrah back in Morocco in early 2023 when we were in a surf town surfing and relaxing. He and his best mate, Lee, and they were both out traveling between jobs. They both are big surfers and both are from Australia. We also hiked a big, snowy mountain in Morocco so we had quite a bonding expe...

Surfside Shop

The main Ural dealer in Sydney was at Surfside motorcycle shop so we planned to meet the owner and the gang at the shop. We also planned to pick up a couple of extra parts and do an oil change. We met Trevor (the owner) and Tommy (main mechanic) and really enjoyed chatting with them and their help/e...

Small Town Christmas Festival

Uralla is a small town that reminds me of a Hallmark movie. What of the nights that we were there, the town was having their first ever Christmas festival and it honestly felt like we were in a movie. The whole town came together to put on the Christmas festival evening. There was a live nativity sc...

Ural Australia HQ

Ural headquarters in Australia is located in a town called Uralla, funny coincidence! Uralla sits in between Brisbane and Sydney so it was 100% on our list to go to! We met Clare and Matt, the two who run Ural Australia, and spent about a day and a half with them once we arrived to Uralla. One of ou...

Visiting Austin’s extended family

A few distant relatives on Austin's Dutch-Indonesian side live in the Brisbane area and we stayed with some them (Jo and her husband, Barry) for a few days and got to know them well! Jo and her family, many years ago, moved from Indonesia to Australia so her sisters also live in the Brisbane area. S...

Museum of Lands, Mapping, and Surveying

On one of our alone days, I visited a museum that I thought would be educational and found intriguing. I have always loved maps (global and topography) so when I saw this museum online a few months ago, I put it on my list to check out when we were visiting Brisbane. It was neat to see all of the ol...

Australia vs Pakistan Cricket Match

We have never been to a cricket match and both want to go to one after realizing how big of a sport it is in Australia and also internationally. The late afternoon of the match, it was dark gray and stormy out and the guy at our hotel told us: "hope the game doesn't get cancelled because of the rain...

Visiting Ellie’s extended family

I have always known that we have some distant relatives on my side that live in Australia. My grandmother connected us with him once we made it to Australia so we planned to meet them for a visit. Bill is my deceased paternal grandfather’s half brother. My grandfather did not grow up with him, rathe...

Rum Distillery and Bundaberg sodas

We had a full day in 'Bundy' and visited both the Bundaberg Rum Distillery and also the Bundaberg Brewed (soda tasting room). On the rum tour, we learned about the entire rum creation process at the distillery. The sugarcane used in Bundaberg rum is locally grown and is carried from the farms by tra...

Great Barrier Reef

We *delayed* celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary and went to Heron Island for a special few days of snorkeling, diving, beaching, and learning about the animals that live on the island and in the water. Heron Island is in the southern part of the Great Barrier Reef and goodness, it was absolutely...

Eungella National Park

We spent a couple of days in Eungella National Park. The park is known for their river where platypuses live so you can try to spot them early in the morning and around dusk. We spent one afternoon and evening watching for platypuses and ended up watching 2 swim around for almost an hour. They were...

Beach BBQ

Australia has BBQs (like these) throughout many parks, along the beach, and in cities. They are free to use and I think it is such a great idea, we see many families and groups of friends are out using them; we have loved using them, too! We camped near the beach this evening and BBQed some sausages...

Billabong Sanctuary

Australia has such unique, incredible animals on the continent. We found an excellent animal sanctuary to visit outside of Townsville and it did not disappoint at all. We learned all about koalas, cassowaries, snakes, crocs, meerkats, emus, dingos (wild dogs), wombats, a variety of small to medium-s...

Middle of nowhere town

Camping in the outback

We are camping our way through hot and humid weather on our way towards the east coast covering ground through the Northern Territory and Queensland. The days are over 100 F and humid and the nights get down to mid 80s F. We thought we would wild camp at random pull offs throughout our drive but hav...

Pub and servo

Daly Waters pub was recommended to us by a friend who grew up in Australia. He mentioned it’s a pretty funky place so we were excited to check it out. I didn’t quite know what to expect for the town the pub was in but the pub and gas station (servo) were the entire town, ha! It was a place with a lo...

Wedding Anniversary: 3 years!

We celebrated 3 years of marriage on October 3rd, yahoo! To celebrate, we had a fun day planned together. We had a delicious homemade breakfast including fresh squeezed OJ (the tropics have the best oranges, wow!). After breakfast, we were off to see jumping crocodiles on a formal river tour, some o...

Australian bush adventure

We headed off for some off-roading and camping with our mechanic, Maurice, and a few of his buddies over the weekend. In our vehicle crew, we had an old Land Rover, a Ford Ranger truck, and an old, run-down Toyota Camry. The Camry was purchased as a junk car and the owner, Kam, wanted to try to take...

Movie night at the outdoor cinema

We were recommended Deckchair Cinema by some friends in Darwin which is a quaint outdoor cinema near the coast in downtown Darwin. We saw a funny film called “Thelma” which was about a grandma who got scammed and ended up hunting down the people that scammed her. It was an artsy film filled with all...

Off-roading during our alone week

Austin and some of the guys at the motorcycle shop all went off roading one weekend. Maurice, the shop owner, and his girlfriend, Renee, were in his old Land Rover that has so much character and Austin plus a temporary copilot, Kam, were in the sidecar.

Made it to Australia

We spent most of July and August in the USA visiting friends and family while Domino (our motorbike) shipped from the tiny country of Timor Leste to Australia. Austin first flew into Darwin in the Northern Territory where Domino was shipped to. I stayed in the USA for about 1 week longer. We typical...

Shipping from Dili to Darwin

After we decided to start island hopping through Indonesia, we ultimately decided (and committed) to ship our motorbike from Dili, Timor Leste or Darwin, Australia. There wasn't much information about shipping but we had heard of a few people successfully shipping. The shipping companies were not ve...

Made it to Timor Leste!

Entering Timor Leste (East Timor): Timor Leste flag gate: Poor pup, we think he was going to be someone's dinner later (they eat dogs):

$4 haircuts

We needed to freshen up before heading back to the USA for a wedding, haircuts were a necessity in this process. Thankfully we found a solid salon with a very reasonable price for us, $4. We will take it!

Bena Traditional Village

We visited the Bena Village known for their traditional houses and ancestral shrines. Many people were still living in the village and selling weaves, bracelets, and other homemade trinkets. The village is near the base of a volcano as you can see hiding behind the clouds in the 3rd photo below.

Live aboard boat

We went on a 2 day live aboard off the coast of Flores island in Indonesia, it was magnificent and so beautiful! We stopped at a few different places along the way for beach exploring, snorkeling, sight seeing (including Komodo dragons!), and more. We didn't take any photos on the boat but we had a...

Stressful morning

Oooof, what a stressful morning! To start, we were told that the ferry to the next island would launch on Saturday so we showed up Saturday morning bright and early just for the port workers to tell us the boat is not here and to come Sunday. Ugh. We already had a tight timeline because we needed to...

Swimming with whale sharks

I found a spot where we could swim with whale sharks and it looked incredible! Both of us were so excited but we also questioned the ethics of the tour since the fishermen use food to attract the whale sharks which can throw off their migration patterns and weaken their natural hunting skills. Befor...

Indonesian rodeo

We stumbled upon an Indonesian "rodeo" game on one of our drives days and pulled over after seeing a big crowd watching an event in a field. The name of the game (we think) was to ride behind the two cattle and have them split the post at the end. If you could control the cattle and guide them to sp...

Friends in Lombok!

Our German friends, Mat and Chichi, from our China crossing group connected us with a Swiss family (Leo and Nadia) that lives in Cambodia who then connected us with another Swiss family that lives in Lombok. Mat, Chichi, Leo, and Nadia all told us how incredible Lombok is so Austin and I were very e...

Prawn dinner

Fresh prawn feast, yum!

Ijen Crater

The Ijen Crater is a big tourist destination in Java and it is known for its' blue flames. The crater's blue flame is extremely hot sulfuric gas (~1,100 degrees F or 600 degrees C) igniting when it meets the air. Gas masks are "needed" when you get close to the flames but local miners don't wear the...

Volcano

Mount Bromo is an active volcano in East Java. Sometimes the national park has to close due to dangerous volcanic activity but thankfully it was safe for us to visit when we went. To get into the park, there is a mile long patch of sand called the “sea of sand”. We were a bit skeptical that Domino w...

New weld job

Our sidecar fender has been having trouble the past few months. Last summer, we broke a bracket on the fender and have has it welded in three different countries but they have all broken. We also noticed a new crack in the fender and it grew from 1 inch to 3 inches in a week so we figured we should...

Borobudur Temple

We visited a Buddhist temple called Borobudur Temple in Central Java. It was pretty interesting because the temple has no rooms, it is solely a structure with different levels to walk around and spend time on. We had to wear special shoes since our street shoes may damage the rock, it helps with pre...

Border crossing into Indonesia

We crossed into Indonesia from Malaysia and it was quite a fluid border process, both sides combined took us 1 hour. In the past, some borders have taken us up to 8 hours so we were stoked about our 1 hour. Our next target city is Pontianak, Indonesia where we will hop on a 36 hour ferry to Java, In...

Open Door Ministries 5k

Open Door Ministries is an organization in Denver that helps a lot of homeless people, people growing out of homelessness, and more. Austin and I have been involved there the past few years, even before we were married. They have an annual 5k fundraiser race and our friend, Ben, signed up to be a te...

Domino made it to Borneo!

We shipped Domino from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ---> Kuching, Malaysia which is on the big island of Borneo. The shipping took a few weeks so we backpacked Borneo without the bike and just picked up the bike in time to cross into Indonesia. Kuching is known as "Cat City" but it is funny, we didn't...

River safari

The Kinabatangan River is known for its' diverse wildlife and came highly recommended to us. We ventured off for a 3-day river safari that included 2 afternoon boat rides, 1 night boat ride, 1 early morning boat ride, and a jungle trek. On the river, we saw so many beautiful and incredible animals b...

Orangutans

Borneo is one of two places in the world to see orangutans in the wild. We went to Sepilok and there was an orangutan sanctuary and rehab facility there that takes in orangutans that have been injured, rescued from the pet trade, or others that no longer have a home because of deforestation. These p...

Sun bears

Also in Sepilok, there is also a Sun Bear conservation facility. Sun bears live in SE Asia are very endangered mainly from poachers and also people wanting to trap them and keep them as pets. The bears reminded us of small black bears but had a unique body shape compared to your typical black bear....

Clearwater Connections Cave

Austin found a really incredible caving experience for us in Mulu National Park. We started in one cave's large cavern and made our way through tight squeezes, massive openings, steep paths, and a river to enter a separate cave's large cavern. It was a truly spectacular day! There were 3 "tight sque...

Pinnacles hike

The Pinnacles are beautiful rock formations at the top of a mountain range in Mulu National Park. The first day, we took a long boat for about 1.5 hours up the river to a junction called Kuala Litut. When I say "junction", I mean the boat man pulled over along the bank and told us to get out. I thou...

Flying to the jungle

We jetted off to Mulu National Park which is a national park people access by plane in East Malaysia. The rivers are essentially "roadways" in the jungle that connect small villages. Although you cannot see any in the aerial shot, many people have their homes/shacks along the river. Can you spot the...

Local fish market

Kota Kinabalu is known for their affordable fresh seafood and their seafood markets so we decided to visit one our first night in KK. Similar to other coastal cities of the world, you get to pick out your own fish and other seafood items. The 'restaurants' have an open air grill and kitchen right ne...

Beau in Malaysia

One of Austin's friends (Beau) from California came out to travel with us for a couple of weeks, it was so much fun having him here! Beau flew into Kuala Lumpur so we met up with him in the city. Our plan with Beau was to spend a few days in KL, fly to Kota Kinabalu for a couple of days, and then he...

Meeting Tim and Marisa

We "met" Tim and Marisa on Instagram (@2upandoverloaded) prior to actually meeting up with them in person in Kuala Lumpur. They are fellow motorcycle travelers also from the USA and YouTubers; they have been on the road since 2017! We went out to dinner and drinks with them and also walked around th...

KL BSF ladies!

I am part of an international bible study called Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) and since my group is online and international, I have been able to meet some of the women from across the globe. 4 women in my group live in Kuala Lumpur so I have been looking forward to visiting Malaysia for a very long...

Church and the X Challenge

Since we were in George Town over a weekend, we found a local English-speaking church for a Sunday service. Little did we know, the church had a big sporting event afterwards called the X Challenge so we signed up not knowing what it really was but anything sports-related, excites us both. For the c...

Penang

We spent a long weekend on the island of Penang specifically in the city of George Town. Penang in a huge island and in order to drive there, you take one of two bridges. One bridge is about 8.5 miles (13.5km) long and the other is about 15 miles (24km) long! Phew those were big bridges. Penang is k...

Walking island

We visited our final Thai island called Koh Lipe. The island is a small blip west of Malaysia. It’s a walking island so there are no cars and you navigate by foot. We were so excited for the walking island and the scuba diving it offered. The scuba was so beautiful; there were vibrant pink and purpl...

Made it to Malaysia!

Made it to Malaysia!! Greeting committee: [youtube=XbDEPq4-vrw]

Alone day on Koh Lanta

We spent a few days on Koh Lanta. This island is known to be very family friendly with not much nightlife, that’s fine by us! Every week or so, we make time to have an alone day and we had one on Koh Lanta. Austin found a secret beach to lounge at and I found an eclectic coffee shop to read at durin...

Cheow Lan Lake

Cheow Lan Lake is part of Khao Sok National Park, it was a place both of us were excited for and it lived up to the expectations. The water was a stunning, deep aqua and the prominent rocks and mountains were gorgeous as they met the waters.

Scuba day

Both of us have been extremely excited about scuba diving in SE Asia for a long time and we made it! We had our first couple of dives at Sail Rock. Sail Rock is known for its' large schools of fish and occasionally whale sharks. We saw all kinds of schools of fish but no whale sharks unfortunately,...

Ferry time

We are heading to a few different Thai islands for some beach days and scuba diving, yahoo! Loaded on the ferry: Almost to the first island, Koh Phangan: Leaving the boat and entering the island:

Baby octopus snack

We went to the night market and sampled all sorts of snacks for our dinner when we were visiting Hua Hin. We got these baby octopus', a chicken wrap, a mango smoothie, and some fresh mango, pineapple, and pomelo which is like a yellow grapefruit.

ICF Church

ICF church (Swiss planted church) has a whole campus and puts on outreach programs for the local youth and is a well known campus throughout Siem Reap. One of their facets is providing clean drinking water so they have a big filter system that provides free drinking water for anyone who comes to the...

Wake Park Cambodia

Our friends that we crossed China with (Mat and Chichi) put us in contact with their friends, Leo and Nadia. Leo and Nadia are a Swiss couple that moved to Cambodia with the Swiss church (ICF) and helped build a church and wake park. Long story short, they ended up taking over the operations of the...

Angkor Wat

We grabbed a flight to Cambodia since we needed to refresh our Thailand visa. Both of us wanted to visit Angkor Wat and also Wake Park Cambodia so Siem Reap, Cambodia was the perfect place to spend a few days. We rented some mountain bikes to bike around the Angkor Wat ruins and it was a blast! The...

Sukhothai Ruins

Between Bangkok and Chiang Mai is a small town called Sukhothai. It is known for its' ruins from the Sukhothai Kingdom that was booming in the 13th and 14th centuries. Our accommodation that we stayed at had bicycles to rent so we hopped on the bicycles and jetted off for the day exploring the ruin...

Thailand-Burma Border Market

We went to the border of Thailand and Burma to see the border market and also to see the border in general. Right on the other side of the Thai border fence (razor wire) starts the "no man’s land" area which is the land between the two country's formal border crossings. Currently and since the 1940s...

Burmese cooking class and market

I found a cooking class in Mae Sot and thought that would be a fun date night idea! I expected to cook Thai food but we ended up cooking Burmese food..I didn't do thaaaat much research after reading awesome reviews so it was a surprise to us both, ha. For the cooking class, we were with an Australia...

Tham Nam Lang (the coolest) Cave

Austin found the cave on a hand written map that was at the guesthouse we stayed at for the Tham Lod Cave. We decided to venture off to find the cave the next day. Hiking to the cave took a bit over 3 hours since we got lost a few times with multiple river crossings, a mountain traverse, many scramb...

Tham Lad Cave

We visited the Tham Lod Cave and it was a guided tour. There were three main caverns within the big cave itself and for part of the tour, we hopped aboard a bamboo raft. There were also tons of bats and swifts (black birds) clinging to the cave ceiling. ^^^ Snakes that can cross the cave ceiling? YI...

Fish belt

I spotted a group of locals fishing in the river and it was not your typical fishing that you may be thinking of… the group was walking up the river with their spear guns spotting fish and then shooting and grabbing them. If they succeeded, they would string their fish to one of the guy's wire "fish...

Pad Thai in an omelet, yummm

Pork dip?

We stayed at a guesthouse in a small town that had 1 restaurant so we headed there for dinner. When we got to the restaurant, we couldn’t figure out the menu (even with Google translate) so we asked the waitress (over translate) what her favorite dish was and what she wrote back translated to “Pork...

Other Domino maintenance

The front wheel was a bit wobbly so Austin checked the wheel bearings and the bearings seemed all fine. We then got the idea of checking the spokes, balancing, and tire tread. The spokes and tread were all fine so we decided to go get all of our wheels balanced to see if that would fix the problem....

New tattoo ;)

We have debated on making Domino a sticker bike but always were hesitant and took off stickers that other people had put on the bike themselves; however, both of us loved the idea of having a stick of the map of the world to display and then we could also draw on our route! We always love seeing map...

Back in SE Asia!!!

After a couple of months visiting family and friends back in the USA, we are now in Thailand ready and excited to be back on the road. We had a "quick" flight to Thailand from LA with a 1.5 hr layover in Taipei, Taiwan. It was a super fluid route! Once we got back to Chiang Mai, we spent the weekend...

Wedding Reception

The wedding reception was another big bash of celebrating after the actual wedding ceremony took place earlier that day. There was dancing, live music, food, drinks, and a lot of photos taken with family and friends. We were honestly very exhausted at this point but still had fun hanging with some o...

Wedding Ceremony

The wedding ceremony was a long event that is meant for mainly family. The entrance of Utsav and Megha separately and the beginning of the ceremony is what the majority of guests stay for since the Hindu wedding ceremony steps take a couple of hours. Everyone was in their most formal (and colorful!)...

Utsav's Baraat

A baraat is a parade/processional for the groom and his family & friends that involves Indian drums, brass instruments, dancing, and escorting the groom to the actual wedding ceremony. The procession was about 2 hours of dancing and listening to the live music. The guys got traditional head scarves...

Sangeet Party

The Sangeet party is the night of dancing! Not only dancing on the dance floor, but 17 choreographed dances performed by friends and family of Utsav and Megha. We had about 17 of us in our dance crew coming from the following countries: USA, Germany, Estonia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and India. There we...

Mehendi Party

The Mehendi Party is a colorful bash where people get henna drawn onto their hands, women can get the tops of their hands and palms done while guys typically only get one hand (palm or forearm). When a women would get her hands done, there would be two artists each working at the same time drawing d...

Dance practice

The night following the Ganesh Pooja party, we went to Utsav's home for a big Indian meal, dance practice, and hanging out. We weren't sure how serious this dance practice would be, but when we showed up, there was a legit professional choreographer ready to teach us the steps! We spent about an hou...

Ganesha Puja Party

The Ganesha Puja kicked off the wedding celebrations and is traditionally a "good luck" party for the bride and groom as the wedding week commences. This was the first event we wore our Indian attire and we both were very excited! The night began with delicious cocktails and appetizers, I loved the...

Variety of Delhi shots

Eating with our hands like locals in Old Delhi Four wheeled scooter Red Fort Huyamun’s Tomb India Gate

Taj Mahal

Indian Wedding Preparation

One of Austin's old roommates (Utsav) from college is from Delhi, India and he invited Austin and me to his wedding in Delhi! Both Austin and I were so stoked to celebrate Utsav and Megha and also experience an Indian wedding. If you don't know much about Indian weddings, they are multiple days full...

23 hour layover

We had an overnight layover in Oman and were able to see a little bit of the city. We went to their main market since we both enjoy people watching and looking at what the market offers. We have been to markets throughout Northern Africa and Turkey but none on the Persian Gulf so we were excited! We...

Scooter cruisin’ and more

We traded in Domino for a couple of scooters to mob around the island on. Just kidding, Domino is still resting in Thailand. It was such an epic day on the scooters seeing the island and all of the small villages and farming. The beaches on the north were absolutely stunning: white sand and crystal...

Wine country

We visited a couple of wineries in the wine country of South Africa, it was a really beautiful area! The first winery called Somerbosch wines was in the flatland area and felt more like a bistro/nice farm whereas the second winery, Hidden Valley, was more so nestled on a bluff towards the mountains....

Movie at the garden

Austin found an outdoor movie night hosted at the botanical garden that was perfect for a date night! It was a really great setup where they provide backrest chairs, blankets, and a few vendors for food, drinks, and snacks. The movie was a family classic, Finding Nemo. We haven't seen that in years...

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden

The botanical garden is in a beautiful area of Cape Town, it is nestled up alongside a mountain range so there are beautiful views in all directions. Everything is so lush and a stunning shade of green. My favorite part of the garden was the fragrance garden..in this garden you were allowed and enco...

Total Ninja!

We spent the day playing like kids at Ninja Park that had all kinds of obstacle courses (blow up/bouncy house types and more extreme types). We had the most fun on the obstacle courses that strung together 5-6 different stints that challenged our balance, strength, and athletic ability. My favorite...

Camps Bay beach day

Cape Town has been surprisingly chilly throughout our time here and even the locals are surprised by the cold weather as they are now entering summer. One thing Austin and I were excited about was having some warm beach days..something we have not had within nearly a month of being in South Africa,...

Penguins!

We spotted the penguins that are famous for the Simon's Town area. They were awfully cute and hung out all together on the rocks of the beach. We also saw some seals in the area too! After we watched the penguins for a bit, we found a little cove to try to get out of the chilly wind and dipped our f...

Peter's Plants

We got connected to a mutual friend named Peter who lives in the Cape Town area. He is a plant maniac and has some incredible plants. He specializes in carnivorous plants which was fascinating to learn all about when we met him. Some of the plants eat flies, some eat fungus, and some even eat mice!...

Devil's Peak hike

We hiked to the top of Devil's peak which was a really fun scramble/hike involving some climbing and exposure. Little did we know, this is a peak that you can spot from all areas of Cape Town so it has been fun to see it from afar throughout the rest of our time in Cape Town. I am a couple of weeks...

Springbok Parade

When we arrived at the Cape Town airport from Durban, it was absolutely chaotic..we weren't sure why but quickly figured out why when we saw a bunch of huge, athletic-looking guys dressed in green and yellow. It was their national rugby team flying in for their Cape Town victory parade after just wi...

Safari

We won a 6-day safari in South Africa (Zulu Nyala Reserve) from a charity auction hosted by Open Door Ministries in Denver. We have game drives every day from 6:00-8:00am and 4:00-6:00pm. We have seen all kinds of animals throughout our drives: giraffes, white rhinos, black rhinos, warthogs, cheetah...

Meeting my BSF gals, Grace and Titu

We spent 1 day in Singapore as we traveled to South Africa from Thailand since Austin found a great direct flight deal from Singapore to Johannesburg. During our day in Singapore, we met two women who I have know for about 5 years from an online bible study we are all part of. Five or so years ago,...

Cooking class

During our solo week of travel, I took a cooking class for some of my favorite Thai dishes. At the beginning of the day, we set off to a local market and learned all about new veggies, fruits, spices, and sauces thai cooking uses. We then went to the kitchen’s garden at their farm and learned about...

Friendship Bridge

We crossed the Friendship bridge between Laos and Thailand. We actually got to cross it three times… Leaving Laos took about 20 seconds and we got our bike paperwork sorted for exiting and thought we were set! Once we got to the Thai side, they were looking for our exit stamps from Laos and we said...

Bye bye, China!

We successfully crossed out of China into Laos, yahoo! The border crossing out of China took a lot of time because we arrived at the border at the beginning of the border control's 3-hour lunch break so we got to wait for them to have their 3-hour lunch, ha. Once we exited China, the Laos side was s...

Final dinner with our group

This photo is from our final dinner together during the last evening of our China trip, it was a really great group to be part of. Our group in order from the bottom left: Ellie & Austin (USA), Momo & Christian (Germany), Simone & Florian (Switzerland), Chichi (Germany), Alex & Edward (our Chinese g...

Lunch break

I swapped spots with Mat today during our drive so Mat was in the sidecar with Austin and I rode with Chichi. When we paused for lunch, we had homemade oat milk cappuccinos, smoothies, and PB&Js (with Nutella). Mat and Chichi have their espresso maker and a blender in their car and we supplied the t...

Three Pagodas & The Chongsheng Temple

Other random photos

Karaoke night: Domino’s colorful friends: Funny sign…no wheelchairs on the expressway downhill: Alpaca at a random store:

Flat tire

Woke up to a true flat tire…at least we found the culprit so we confirmed what popped the tube and drained the air.

Gargoyles of Lijiang

Funny English translations

Enjoy….

Old town

Lijiang has a beautiful old town to walk around and explore.

Chicken passenger

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Cliff village

We did like the locals do this day and by that I mean, climb a lot of elevation on ladders to see the cliff village. There is a village that sits 800 meters (2,624 feet) upon a clifftop in southwest China and we got to visit! We climbed up the opposite side of the mountain to be able to view the act...

Pandas!!

Chengdu is known for pandas! There are multiple research centers around the city that have teeny, tiny baby pandas, giant pandas, and red pandas. We went to an enormous center and explored for nearly half a day. We could have spent many more hours there but we had more to do in the city that afterno...

Surfing Chengdu

Some friends in our travel group are obsessed with surfing so they found an artificial wave to surf. Part of our crew went and said it was an absolute blast! [youtube=o_-XhdVBVEo] Mat going over safety Party wave New way of entering the wave, haha!

Terracotta Army

We visited the Terracotta Army and they were very impressive! The Terracotta Army was built to protect the first emperor of China (Qin Shi Huang) in his afterlife. There were three pits (sites) and the main pit had 6,000 soldiers in it! They are still excavating the grounds and finding many more sol...

Maijishan Grottoes

These grottoes were really neat from afar. The large sculptures etched into the mountain were stunning and huge! This was a Chinese Buddhist temple.

Night time in the city

We made it to Xi’an and it was beautifully lit at night. For dinner, we found a night market for noodles and octopus, it was delicious! All of the food in China has been incredibly tasty, wow!!

Colorful temple

This temple was so beautiful and so colorful! It’s not quite original coloring but was still stunning to see.

Mati Temple

We went to a temple that was built into the mountain. There were many rooms for praying and some steep stairs to access all of the inner grottos.

Jaiyuguan Great Wall

We visited a fortress that was part of the Great Wall of China.

Night market

In Dunhuang, they have a bustling night market with an endless variety of foods. All of the food we tried was so delicious! We went here with some friends from our travel group and enjoyed an evening out.

Devil City off-road adventure

Our group drove an off-road track through some beautiful landscape. The rock formations and canyons were amazing to see and reminded me of Utah!

Random shots

Night market: New haircut: Wild grocery store finds:

New steering head bearings

It wouldn’t be an adventure without a big repair, haha! We replaced our steering head bearings before they completely went bad. Austin noticed that they were starting to break so instead of waiting for them to bust, we replaced them. It was quite an adventure and took most of the day during our last...

New documents

Austin’s new Chinese license and Domino’s Chinese registration - we are ready to hit the road!

We made it to China!!

We are crossing China with an overlanding group for the next month. In China, as a foreigner, you are not allowed to drive your own vehicle alone so you have to hire a government-approved tour guide to guide/escort you throughout the country. Since that can be quite expensive to hire a guide, we hav...

Last night in Kyrgyzstan

On our final night in Kyrgyzstan, we camped with our overlanding group that we are entering China with. There are 9 vehicles and 16 people total (all Europeans except us!). We will enter China as a group and drive all of the way to Laos!! Wish us luck, ha!

Wakepark

We went to the wakepark in Bishkek with two of our friends Mat and Chichi (travelers from Germany). Mat is nearly a professional at wake boarding and Chichi is super good too - going to wakeparks is their #1 favorite activity so throughout their travels, they have been to so many throughout a lot of...

Checkmate!

Austin stumbled upon a chess park in downtown Bishkek so we went there after dinner one evening. After observing and watching some games for about 30 minutes, Austin decided to try to crack into a game. We don’t speak Kyrgyz or Russian so it was tough to communicate with full sentences but Austin pu...

Surprise yurt adventure

We met a semi-nomadic herder after we set up our campsite in the hills of rural Kyrgyzstan. When I say semi-nomadic, I mean that during summer the couple spends time in the high alpine mountains caring for their animals but during winter they move to a lower elevation to maintain their lifestyle. He...

Broken (now fixed) frame and sidecar mounting strut

First things first, Domino needed a bath desperately...so we cleaned him up prior to fixing him. This is the broken bolt: The guy at the shop welded a bolt to the end of our broken piece so now we have a longer bolt with threads, yahoo! Good enough fit for now - we will get a new official part back...

Pamir Highway: Days 8-9

Day 8: We have been talking with another couple (@Uralistan.roadtrip on Instagram) that is traveling on a Ural on Instagram and following their trip from France to Mongolia and back to France. Our timing for the Pamir Highway overlapped so we kept an eye out for them on the road! We ended up spottin...

Wakhan Valley: Days 5-7

We entered the Wakhan Valley which is an offshoot of the Pamir Highway that runs further along the Afghanistan border. Day 5: The bolt to the windshield broke and we lost a piece of the mounting hardware so we strapped the windshield to the back of the bike on top of our camp bag. I (Ellie) recruite...

Pamir Highway: Days 1-4

Day 1: Permits are needed for the Pamir region of Tajikistan so after we secured the permits, we hit the road and were off to the mountains! Day 2: We continued the ride on the Pamir Highway which included the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border. Across the river in the photo is Afghanistan! Can you spot...

Pamir Highway Overview

The Pamir Highway is a mountain "highway" through Tajikistan into Kyrgyzstan. Many people drive the rugged road from Dushanbe, Tajikistan to Osh, Kyrgyzstan. The border between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan has been closed since 2020 due to a border war between countries but about 2 weeks before we star...

Pamir Highway prepping

We are about to embark on a couple week trip in the Pamir mountains riding part of the M41 road. We are both so stoked and have been spending time in Dushanbe researching, prepping the bike, grocery shopping for food, washing clothes and gear (hotel bathtub style), and more. We met some new friends...

Church and visiting an old USA friend

I have a friend from the USA that has been living in Dushanbe for the last three years, her name is Claire. She invited us to her house church the first full day we were in the capital city (Dushanbe) and we were so excited! People gather in homes rather than formal churches since it is very frowned...

Registan Square

This beautiful square was a commercial center that had a bazaar/market and was used for public announcements. One of the buildings was also an education center where men (at the time) would study many different topics. We walked around the historical site with a couple of locals (Fanil and his wife)...

Goodbye Turkmenistan

This is a shot of us with Merdan (guide) and Mohammed (driver), we all had a blast throughout Turkmenistan together and we learned a lot about the country’s history and present day life.

Ancient Merv

We visited the ancient city of Merv which was a major city on the Silk Road. There were some incredible sites to see but our favorite was the “ice box”. The ice box was a building that stored ice and snow throughout summer after prepping during winter. The people would fill the inside of a building...

Horses

We visited some of their elite horses that are called “conquering horses”. They were quite impressive when they would jump!! Horses are like family to them so they do not eat horse (unlike other Stans we have been to).

The White Marble city

Ashgabat, the capital, honestly felt like the “Capitol” from the Hunger Games: futuristic, oddly clean and manicured, uniform buildings, and it overall had a unique feeling. All of the buildings are white marble (mainly imported from Italy); the buildings are all new and spaced out evenly which gave...

Darvaza Gas Crater and the journey there

In the 1970s, the ground gave way when the Soviets were drilling for gas. To get rid of the accident, they tried to set the pit on fire and it has been burning ever since...so crazy. This is a big attraction in Turkmenistan and many people try to get a visa to see it! To start, the journey from cros...

Hello Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan is an ex-Soviet country that has been controlled by dictators since the fall of the Soviet Union. We wanted to see the country with our own eyes since we have heard some wild things about it. The country is known for the white marble capital city called Ashgabat and the Darvaza Gas Crat...

Hot hot hot!

The weather has been insanely hot, meaning a real feel of 47C (116.6F) - phew! Thankfully we had booked a guest house that had AC for a couple of nights to do a motorcycle maintenance and laundry. We have not been doing too much outside because it is quite unbearable out during the day. We have been...

Entering Uzbekistan

The Uzbekistan border had the most friendly and helpful border control! One of the workers asked if Austin speaks another language and Austin responded with “yes, Spanish”. The border guard asked him to say different things in Spanish because he thinks the language is beautiful to listen to, haha. A...

Exiting Kazakhstan

Here we are at the border of Kazakhstan trying to exit. It’s quite funny…their building says “good luck” as you can see (photo at the bottom). I say it’s funny for a few reasons.. First, exiting the country is usually the super easy part where they check your passport and stamp it saying, “you’re th...

Supermarket crepes

The supermarkets here in Kazakhstan have fresh crepes and Belgium waffles! It smells like heaven when you are shopping, wow. This gal was slinging the crepes!

New u-joints

We have spent the last few days in Atyrau, Kazakhstan getting new tires, replacing 2 u-joints, and picking up a couple of other spare parts. The Kazakh people have been extremely kind and helpful overall. While we were working on our tires, we met Dmitriy and he connected us to his buddy, Max, who h...

New tires!!!

I never thought I would be so excited about new tires, haha! We hunted throughout Bulgaria and Turkey for tires and the estimated ship times were 3-4 months for the tires we needed, that did not work for us. We quickly realized that finding the right tires was more complex than we expected. We have...

Horse meat, would you try it?

There are so many wild horses in Kazakhstan and so horse meat is a staple in Kazakhstan cuisine. We tried it our first night in Atyrau and it was actually pretty good! It tasted like beef but was a bit tougher texture but overall pretty good! Wild horses (this is the one green part of western Kazakh...

We made it to Central Asia!

Hello Kazakhstan (hello bumpy roads, wind, and flatlands)!

Moto shop and local lunch out

We think that a couple parts on our bike need replacing so we stopped at a motorcycle shop to see if we could find them or if they knew of an auto parts store to search at. The guys that worked there ranged from 17-22 years old..that made me feel old after hitting 30 this year, haha! They didn’t hav...

Hotel and bike work

We keep hearing a squeaking noise from the sidecar wheel so we popped the wheel off to see if we could find the problem. After some investigating and chatting with a friend, we pinpointed that our universal joints may be going out. It has been fine to drive on and we hope that it will continue to be...

Random Russia photos

Here are some interesting, random photos we collected through our time in Russia. Ironic.. Taking this photo was when I felt like I was really in Russia: “Texas” restaurant:

Culture surprise

One of the regions we rode through was predominantly Muslim and the people did not look like what is typically portrayed as “Russian”. We quickly realized that Russia spans many cultures and has diverse regions. Russia has also had some of the most friendly people we have met on the trip. We usually...

Georgia-Russia Border

Austin and I successfully received a transit visa to drive from Georgia through Russia to Kazakhstan. We picked up our visa a day or two before crossing the border and drove close to the border for our last night in Georgia. Many people have been using this transit visa to overland through Russia to...

Laundry day and last day in Georgia

We needed a little refresh on laundry before heading through Russia to Central Asia. Thankfully the sun was out to dry our clothes quickly!

Russia-Georgia Friendship Monument

The Russia-Georgia Friendship Monument was built in 1983 to celebrate the Treaty of Georgievsk and the “ongoing friendship” between Soviet Georgia and Soviet Russia. I am not sure what the “ongoing friendship” really means since Russia has been trying to occupy different regions of Georgia (nearly 2...

Rafting and camping

We camped and went rafting with our friends Mat and Chichi on the Rioni River with a local company. The company had a plot of land on the river so we all camped there as well! Austin and I met two German bike-packers (Andrea and Wiebke) at a guesthouse the day before and they joined for camping too!...

Biggest mountains in Georgia

We spent a couple of days in the Svaneti region of Georgia which has the biggest mountains in the country. The region borders Russia and the mountains are in the same range as Mount Elbrus. They mountains did not disappoint, they were breathtaking! We found a beautiful camp spot and enjoyed the view...

Zagari Pass

We rode another epic road of Georgia called Zagari Pass. It had some stunning views and also some challenging rutted roads but Austin and Domino crushed it. This was the main road to get to Ushguli which is a mountain village in a pretty remote area. We took a lunch pit stop at the base of the pass...

Random Tbilisi shots

We found this sweet street art on the side of a brick wall:) We ordered a lemonade to share at a restaurant and the waiter asked if we would like Georgian Lemonade instead and we said, "sure - that sounds fun to try!". Little did we know it is tarragon (licorice) flavored which is something I in par...

Russia transit visa appointment

We formally applied for the visa at our appointment and now can pick up our passports/visas in about 1 week! We gave them our applications, our translated bike documents, and passports at the appointment - it was fairly straightforward!

Friend on the side of the road

We met Gio, a Georgian guy, on the side of the road. He was pushing his motorcycle since he had ran out of petrol. We always carry extra with us so we dumped some of our petrol into his tank to help him out. He’s a DJ in Tbilisi (the capital city) and invited a to hang out with him next time we are...

Watermelon man

When we were camping, we heard a honk from a truck and it ended up being the watermelon man. I waved him down and we started the dance of figuring out how to buy a watermelon from him. We figured out the price per kilo and I hopped into the back of the truck to pick ours out. When I found a good one...

Wild mountain pass

We drive one of the most stunning (and scary) roads of the trip, it was absolutely incredible! Abano Pass is a road built in the Soviet era in the late 1970s. The highest point is 2,826 metres (9,272 ft) and sits in the Caucasus mountains. At the very top of the pass, there was a Georgian woman sell...

Puppies!!

We camped for a couple of nights at a campground that a UK couple has on their farm in the countryside and base of some beautiful mountains. At their farm, one of their dogs just had 5 puppies about 3 weeks ago so I was in HEAVEN! I love puppies so much so I spent quite a bit of time holding and snu...

Mat and Chichi

We met up with some fellow travelers (Mat and Chichi) that are in the same group as us for crossing China in September. They are a German couple traveling for 1-year in their overlanding vehicle. They started in Oman and spent some time in the Middle East (until it got too hot) prior to Georgia.

Consultation for a Russia transit visa

During our first trip to Tbilisi, we had a consultation to get a Russia transit visa to drive through Russia to Kazakhstan. During the consultation, we were able to fill out the application form and set our formal appointment. They also pointed us in the direction to get our motorcycle documents leg...

1980s Soviet Wine Barrels

We stayed at a unique airbnb in the mountains in Georgia, it was beautiful! Georgia is so lush and green, it's incredible. The host family and volunteers built rooms out of 1980s Soviet wine barrels on their property. Some French friends we met on Instagram (also traveling on a Ural) spent all winte...

Turkey-Georgia Border Crossing

The border was the first border where passengers crossed separately from the drivers. I spotted Austin in the pouring rain as I trotted through on foot with the other passengers (sad day, sorry Austin!). The last photo is of Austin (it's hard to see him back in the dark) dealing with some paperwork...

Büyük Lake hike

I found a glacial lake hike in the Kaçkar Mountains. The road to the trailhead was rigorous and we rode in 2WD nearly the entire time. Austin and Domino crushed it! When we got to the trailhead, we had chai at a local cafe and then hiked to the glacial lake. We jumped in the lake (coldest water eith...

Dinner time

We had a nice walk to dinner and a delicious dinner too! Turkey is all about any meat on a skewer- some are very spicy and others are a bit more mild. This spot in particular was our favorite for the skewers. The meat was so tender, juicy, and flavorful!

Karanlık Kanyon off-roading

We drove a pretty epic road in the Karanlık Kanyon. Both Austin and I found this awesome road separately while planning for this trip and were stoked to check it out! We were able to drive the majority of the road but there was one section where a bridge had fallen into the river so we had to turn b...

Cappadocia hiking

We found a beautiful hike in Cappadocia. The first half of the hike was beautiful and sunny but the second half was a rainy downpour! We still enjoyed the nature! The big rocks are typical cave homes and people still live in them. They also still farm the land around the rocks as you can see in the...

Turkish breakfast

This was our Turkish breakfast for 2, wow.

Attempt to see Cappadocia hot air balloons

We thought camping on the edge of the valley would be perfect for viewing the hot air balloons launching the next morning at sunrise. Little did we know it would be a super windy night and morning so no hot air balloons launched, sad day!! It was still a beautiful campsite and morning:) Our view pea...

Bike maintenance

We spent a few days in the capital of Turkey, Ankara. I thought the capital of Turkey was Istanbul but I was wrong, oops- I’m still learning new things about the places we are traveling to, ha! During our time there, our main focus was the bike maintenance. We spent nearly 2 full days working on th...

Burj Al Babas

This is Burj Al Babas in Turkey: an eerie ghost town full of castle-looking half-finished homes. In 2014, the residential development started construction and eventually went bankrupt leaving all of the identical, castle-like homes abandoned. You technically are not supposed to be able to walk aroun...

Days in Istanbul

We spent a few days in Istanbul with our friends Haley and Batu after arriving back from Paris. We also saw friends that we met at their wedding and spent time volunteering with a couple of weeks ago when we were in Istanbul before the Athens/Paris trip. One of the evenings, Haley and Batu had plans...

Last dinner in Paris (we will be back!)

We wrapped up our time in Paris with a BBQ at Isabelle and Bertrand’s home with Dorothée and Benoît, Diego’s mom (Claudia), and another couple they are friend with. It was a super fun evening with them and many hugs and kisses were given out! Their friend group just spent the weekend in the champagn...

1 year on the road!

We have been on the road for 1 year, yahoo!! 🌍🌏🌎 Over the last year, we have visited 29 different countries in total (26 with our bike, Domino, and an additional 3 via flying) and have driven a total of 27,740 km (17,237 miles). We have learned so much about world history, our bike, new (and old)...

United Nations BBQ

We met Diego (originally from Bolivia) last summer during our time in France and spent time BBQing and biking around Paris with him. He invited us over for a BBQ with his girlfriend who is Parisian, their friends that are Spanish, and his mom who is from Bolivia. She is visiting France since Diego j...

Paris Saint-Germain football match

Ben (our Denver friend) is a big football fan so he mentioned that Paris' team, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), was playing a game on Saturday. We looked into tickets and ended up snagging some. The game itself didn't really matter since PSG just won the French league championship but it was still really...

French adoption

When we were in Paris 1 year ago, we spent a lot of time with the Acker family (Isabelle, Bertrand, Martin, Diego, the list goes on)! We also helped another family (Dorothee and Benoît) capture some geese in the lawn of their countryside home which was such a hilarious day. We essentially have felt...

Brunch with an old friend

Austin knows Constanza from past travels to Peru. He is friends with her family who live in Lima but Constanza is currently in Europe studying. She has a couple of weeks left in her program in Paris and then will be back in London to finish her studies so we caught her at a great time! We got a deli...

Ben visiting and the Sacré Coeur

One of our friends from Denver (Ben) came to visit Paris and see us for a week! It’s been so refreshing and “homey” spending time with someone who knows us well and from our “past” Denver life, ha. We have shared many many laughs and can’t wait for more adventures to come during our time in Paris to...

China visa application: check!

We flew back to Paris to apply for our visas for China. We currently have residency in France since we have a specific French visa so it made sense to apply here rather than back in the USA which is much further and more expensive to get to. It has been so much fun being back in Paris and seeing the...

Weekend with Hayley and Kayne

We spent the weekend with Hayley and Kayne. Hayley and I have been friends since we were both 4 years old and now we are both 30! Phew, that is a long time!!:) Hayley and her husband were visiting Greece for vacation and we were Istanbul (pretty close) so we planned to meet in Athens for the weekend...

Volunteering with our friend, Haley

At the end of last year, Austin and I visited Istanbul for a wedding. Haley, our friend, is from Colorado and she married a Turkish guy named Batu. Haley has been working with refugees and living in Istanbul for nearly 4 years. Now that we are back in Istanbul, we were excited to see them both post-...

Meriç Bridge

Hello Turkey, Asia here we come!

We made it to Turkey!! The border crossing was very straightforward and pretty easy, thankfully. You never know with borders so it’s always refreshing to get through with ease. Cheers to our last couple of days in Europe and now we are off to Asia!

Museum of Illusions

We visited the museum of illusions and it was pretty neat! Some of the illusions were more simple and playful and some were quite scientific and detailed. The more scientific ones were harder to capture on camera but quite fascinating in person!

Fresh teeth!

We went to the dentist for a cleaning today and we both have healthy teeth/gums, yahoo! I snagged a pic of Austin in the dentist chair and me & my new tongue scraper, ha!:)

Belated Christmas gift

Austin and I have been eyeing some incredible travel/outdoors pants from a Scandinavian brand that produces really great items. I was about to buy a pair of their pants in Norway but couldn't justify it since I already had some great hiking/travel pants. As time went on, my clothes started to wear o...

Saeva Dupka Cave

We stopped and explored some really interesting caves on our way to Sofia (the capital of Bulgaria). Some of the big tube/columns were nearly hollow (I think). One of the guides hit them with a stick and each different sized tube would be a different pitch, it was really neat! The main cavern was HU...

MotoCamp Bulgaria

We had heard of MotoCamp Bulgaria from many adventure motorcyclists. Everyone said it was an awesome spot in the Balkans so we decided to visit during our time in Bulgaria. The spot hosts around 15-20 people indoors and has a little cafe/restaurant and also a bar. There is plenty of space to camp an...

30th birthday weekend

We found out about a Balkan adventure traveler meet up weekend which aligned with my 30th birthday! We decided to pivot from our original plans and head to a small town in Bulgaria to check out the event. We met people from all over Bulgaria and also a few others from Western Europe and the UK. Ther...

Founders of the Bulgarian State Monument

This was a wild monument to visit, it was much more grand in person than we expected! It was built in the late 1970s and early 1980s to celebrate the 1300th anniversary since the establishment of the Bulgarian state (681). Can you see the cross between the buildings in this one below? That was inten...

Passport issue, ugh

During our initial stop in Bucharest, we applied for an additional passport called a travel passport. These passports are valid for four years and they are for people that are applying for visas out of the country or need an additional passport in general. We were all set to pick them up and went to...

Mountains! And snow!

After volunteering at the church in Slatina and UBC’s camp, we spent a few quiet days in the mountains. The mountain town we went to is actually a ski resort mountain town but ski season is over. Despite ski season being over, there is still a lot of snow in the mountains and it was so beautiful. I...

Helping out at UBC22’s camp

Austin and I were able to spend a couple of days helping at UBC‘s summer camp. The church bought this camp when feeling called to but were not sure of the plans God had for it. All they knew was they were being called to purchase it. Quickly after they purchased the camp, the war broke out between R...

Peleș Castle

We made it to Transylvania, yahoo!!! It is much more mountainous here and so beautiful. There is still snow in the mountains but everything is looking so lush from the start of the snow melt. I had found Peleș Castle online and thought it looked fascinating to check out so we did! It was a very beau...

After school program

We visited an after school program in one of the villages which is led by a couple from the church. Nicoleta is so passionate about loving her local community whether it is children or adults. During the program, the kids play a big group game (outside of it is sunny!), have a time of singing songs,...

Happy Birthday, Alina!

We celebrated Alina’s birthday one of the days in Slatina. Rebeca and some other women decorated a room at church and we had a pizza, games, and cake birthday party for Alina and one of their closest friends. Alina is so easy to celebrate - she is down to earth and so kind but has a quick tongue for...

Scripture reading

I had the privilege of reading the passage of the week (Acts 3) at church and thankfully I got to read it in English rather than attempting it in Romanian 😅 They had the Romanian translation on the screens for the majority of the church body so everyone was able to “follow along”.

Youth Group

At youth group, Austin and I led the game and chose fishbowl. The kids were laughing throughout the whole game so we thought it was a success! David (one of the leaders) spoke on why knowing the Bible is important and his wife, Rebeca, translated into Romanian. After the evening was over, we drove...

Awana

During our first evening in Slatina, we were able to help out at Awana. Awana is a children’s organization that focuses on teaching about the bible. We noticed that it also creates a safe and fun place for the kids in these Romanian villages to come and get loved on by great examples of role models....

Connection in Slatina

We are connected with an incredible organization that started in southern California called Children's Hunger Fund. They focus on sharing the gospel through helping meet the needs of local churches all over the world. I reached out to CHF and asked if it would be possible to spend some time voluntee...

UBC'22

Austin had met a new friend during our solo week in Italy named Jaia. Jaia's next stop was to go volunteer with an organization called UBC'22 in Bucharest and we had shared that we were interested in hearing about her time and about the organization in general. After her time of volunteering, she co...

US Embassy in Bucharest

We made an appointment at the US Embassy in Bucharest to order a 2nd travelers passport. This is another US passport that is valid for 4 years. It should be handy to have as we apply for our China visas in France (since we need to submit our passports to the China Vista Center) and also to have in c...

Hiking above the Danube River

We caught a day of sunshine on a no-drive day so we hit the trails and hiked above the Danube River, it was so beautiful! This section of the river is actually the border of Serbia so across the water is a different country! There were countless lizards running around on the trail and throughout the...

Rock Sculpture of Decebalus

We drove past this rock sculpture heading towards a village we were planning to stay at in Romania. The sculpture is 55 m (180 ft) high and 25 m (82 ft) wide so the photo doesn't quite do it justice! It was pretty close to the Iron Gates border between Serbia and Romania; the border is the Danube Ri...

Stopica Cave

We visited the Stopica cave in Serbia. We were told that it has one of the deepest limestone pools in the world and that National Geographic was there about 6 months diving in it. After looking into it, the divers found an abundance of coins (sad day) and an opening/new channel of water that led to...

Surprise horses!

We were unloading the bike at our accommodation and started to hear trotting…we both looked up and saw this: [youtube=PgvuK6ZtL3g]

Exploring Sarajevo

One of Austin's sisters has a coworker in Sarajevo so we got connected with him, his name is Adnan. We ended up spending a couple of days walking around and exploring the city with him and we learned SO much about the country and city itself, wow. There is so much dense and heart-breaking history th...

Monastery

This is a monastery that we went to visit since it was on our route but also looked interesting with the placement in the mountains. I think the monastery has been rebuilt since it looked quite new though, ha. Regardless, the placement under the big rock wall with a river flowing out was beautiful....

City on the river

We stayed a night in Mostar and it ended up being a really really cool gem. It is a town built on a river and the main area of town is their Old Town which is all stone buildings, cobblestone walkways, bridges, and overall was a surprisingly enjoyable little city to walk around! We are loving Easter...

Splish splash

We ended up finding some big puddles on a little off road sections within a Bosnian valley. [youtube=9AX7pO7YLIU]

Bang for buck

Austin is a wiz with credit card points and finding the best deals! Selfishly, I’m sure thankful for it since it allows us to have some special occasion stays sprinkled into our trip:) The place we are staying at in Dubrovnik for one night is a pretty killer deal (we think!). We were able to use $14...

Time consuming border crossing

We had a big day of crossing the border from Montenegro to Croatia but to begin, a quick recap/reminder that we just got our bike stolen and found in Bari, Italy before heading to Eastern Europe. Italy is part of the Schengen Area and Croatia is too. Since we were crossing into Croatia, our license...

Kotor, what a sweet surprise!!

We didn’t know what to expect for Kotor but it has blown us away - phew, it’s so beautiful here! We ended up staying at a guest home of an older couple who have been married over 60 years. We didn’t speak much of the same language but ended up showing each other photos of our families and shared a l...

Domino’s service

Domino needs a service pretty frequently, about every 5k km (3k miles) so we spent the afternoon at a motorcycle shop working on the bike. The motorcycle shop was super kind and let us borrow their oil pan and they also helped us dispose of the dirty oil, that’s super helpful instead of trying to fi...

Domino has been found!

Holy smokes, it has been the most insane few days of our lives - wow. For some background, our bike, Domino, got stolen in Bari, Italy, the morning we had planned to take the ferry to Albania. We immediately took action and went to the local police, started talking with local business owners, puttin...

Domino was stolen

We wish this was an April Fools’ joke but Domino got stolen on Monday morning. We had planned to take the ferry to Albania from Italy that evening but now we have been working with the local police and looking for the bike in Bari. We are talking with locals & business owners and handing out flyers...

Caves of Castellana

The “Caves of Castellana” is a big underground system of karst caves. Austin visited the caves on his drive to Bari.

Old city

Little ferry ride

Domino taking the ferry to mainland Italy!

Gole Alcantara

The Gole Alcantara Botanical and Geological Park is a river within a volcanic gorge in Sicily.

Horse riding adventure

I met a gal named Marta on an app called Couchsurfer. It is an app where local people open up their homes to host you and you become new friends! There are references and you get to chat before so I was very excited to meet Marta after learning about her and talking with her briefly. Marta is a doct...

Wind galore

Strong winds snapped a bolt to Domino’s windshield / handlebar while riding. It took longer to find the pieces along the road than to fix it. Austin is definitely a handy man!

Valley of the Temples

Austin visited the archaeological site that had ancient temples and ruins of the Akragas city. Being able to walk around so many different ruins (predominantly Roman) on this trip has been incredible!

Camping in Sicily

Austin’s campsite for the night - seems like a perfect spot for a bonfire and night's rest!

Bath time

Domino got a deep clean bath after spending 3 months of Africa backgrounds. After the wash was complete, the bike nearly looked too nice to travel on, ha!

Gelatoooo

The gelato here is magic, I don't know how they do it but it is life changing! We got hazelnut and pistachio, both were incredible. We walked by this cute painting after getting gelato:)

Goodbye Tunisia, Hello [again] Italy!

We are about to embark on an overnight ferry from Tunis to Palermo on the island of Sicily! Once we land there, we will spend the next week or two solo traveling through Sicily and southern Italy eventually meeting up in Bari, Italy to take a ferry to Durres, Albania. Each 3-4 months, we spent a wee...

Roman ruins

We walked the streets and explored the ruins of an old Roman city with some friends that we had met in Morocco (they were visiting Tunisia). It was very built out and included their capital building, many bathhouses, an amphitheater, multiple temples, and more!

Tunisia Independence Day

Tunisia celebrated Independence Day on March 20. We were in the capital city and it was insanely busy! Currently, there is turmoil between the people and the current government since the president is making changes to their constitution that are trending towards a dictatorship. The people are protes...

Hello Algeria

We made it to Algeria, ha! After visiting some of the canyons in Mides, we saw a dirt road that pointed in the direction of Algeria. We were already so close to the border that we decided to check it out! There was no fence not border control so we hiked a little into Algeria and left Domino in Tuni...

Off-roading adventure

We did a little off-roading through a riverbed to a campsite. We only got stuck once but made it out just fine once we threw it in 2-wheel drive and gave Domino a little push! At the campsite, there was also a restaurant where we met Clemens and Tim, a couple of German guys visiting Tunisia for a de...

Outside of Luke Skywalker’s home

We also visited the location of where they shot the outside view of Luke Skywalker’s home. It was placed in the middle of the salt flats with nothing around it for at least 2 miles in each direction. The last photo displays how remote the placement is. If you cannot see it (I have to zoom in on my s...

Mos Espa

We visited another Star Wars film site. This was in episode 1 and 2 as Anakin Skywalker’s home, Watto’s shop, and where the podrace was held.

Camel excursion in the Sahara

We decided it was our time to take camels into the desert for a night in the Sahara. We chose not to do it in Morocco so we thought it would be fun to do in Tunisia! It was actually way more fun than we both expected. The camel ride itself was not the highlight (shocker, ha!), it gave us very very s...

Inside of Luke Skywalker's home

We visited and actually stayed at Luke Skywalker's home (at least the film site they used for shooting)! We stayed in the Hans Solo room, each room was named after a character. I am new to Star Wars - as in just finished watching the first 6 films with Austin last week, ha. We have been watching the...

Home of young Anakin Skywalker

We wanted to visit some of the Star Wars sites since many were filmed in southern Tunisia. Ksar Ouled Soltane was one that looked sweet from photos online and once we got there in person, there were many more homes than we even expected! This was young Anakin Skywalker’s hometown. We explored and wa...

Crocodile Park

On our final day in Djerba, we visited an adventure park that included a crocodile and reptile park, an imitation historic Berber village, and a museum of the Northern Africa people. The croc and reptile park was our favorite but the historic village was educational to walk through! We met a woman t...

Abandoned hotels

One thing Djerba is known for is the abandoned hotels on the island. In 2015, there were a couple of very unfortunate terrorist attacks in Tunisia which wiped out their tourism industry. Djerba was a spot where it was clearly displayed, I have seen nothing like it. It was known for its beaches, reso...

Hollywood and Making Brik

We stayed at an airbnb that was one of the most interactive airbnb experiences we have had! It was a Tunisian family with 2 parents, 3 daughters, and 1 son. We had tea with Mohamed when we got there and got to know the rest of his family at the dinner hour. I ended up making a veggie pasta dish whic...

Amphitheater

We visited the Amphitheatre of El Jem which is an oval amphitheater in the formerly known city of Thysdrus in the Roman province of Africa. We were able to walk through all of the tunnels and rooms, nearly no places were off limits! It was so much fun to explore and also very sobering learning about...

Lablabi

We tried a Tunisian dish called Lablabi with some of our friends in Mahdia. Lablabi is a chickpea soup poured over pieces of bread and then a bunch of toppings are added. The main toppings are harissa (hot chili pepper paste), olive oil, garlic, green olives, an egg, salt, and capers. It turned into...

Texas Family in Mahdia

We got connected to an amazing family through the new friends we made in Tangier, Morocco at church. The amazing family currently lives in Mahdia and is originally from Texas but have been living in Tunisia the past 1.5 years and Jordan 4 years before Tunisia. They were a family of 7 total with kidd...

Domino's 2nd African country

We made it to Tunisia after a bumpy 24 hour ferry from Genoa. Getting out of Genoa was an expensive nightmare because the ferry people made us pay for a car rather than a motorcycle for the ferry cost. We had called the ferry company in the past to get approval that Domino is classified as a motorcy...

Lisa, our new Italian friend

We met Lisa on the Couchsurfing application and she agreed to host us for two nights. It was absolutely an incredible time with her! The first evening she made a delicious meal for us and we talked for a few hours pretty late into the night or should I say, early into the morning. She has such a pas...

Simplest border crossing

We made it back to Europe for a quick pit stop between Morocco and Tunisia. Customs to enter Italy was the most simple and straightforward process. They stamped our passports (booth in photo) and we drove into the city. There was no check of our vehicle registration nor title, it was refreshing how...

Leaving Morocco

Goodbye, Morocco! We are taking a 3-day ferry from Tanger Med (where we entered Morocco) to Genoa, Italy. Leaving Morocco was very straight forward and getting on the ferry was very organized and on-time unlike our trip here so we were already excited! Domino got another X-ray as you can see in the...

Tangier Church

We found an English-speaking church in Tangier where we ended up meeting a lot of Americans! The world felt a little smaller as we started to get to know one of the couples we met. We started talking with a couple there and ended up going out to dinner with them after church and we even got brunch a...

Fes time

Here are some shots from the Fes market. Notice the camel heads in the first photo, that was a surprise when I first saw them, ha. They do sell camel meat and you can order camel on menus throughout various parts of Morocco. Fes is known for their tanneries where they dye all kinds of hides. It is q...

Staying with a Moroccan Family

Austin and I met Mohamed one afternoon in Imsouane which was one of the surf towns we spent time in this past December and January. We all spent time together in Imsouane and also in Taghazout. Mohamed invited us to stay with him (and his family) if we were to stop by Taza, Morocco in our travels. T...

Domino and the desert

We met the four boys in our second photo on our way out from the desert. They all ran up to us when we parked and tried to sell us spices. Austin has figured out kids love receiving anything from travelers so we now keep gum handy and after we offer that, the kids are our best friends. They wanted i...

Walking through the dunes

The Gateway to the Sahara

We made it to the Sahara this evening - can’t wait to start exploring!

“Old” friend, new place

We met Jolan the day we were leaving Taghazout and he joined us for the Mount Toubkal hike. We all had an epic time together and knew we were traveling in a similar direction after the hike. We ended up meeting up with Jolan in the Todra Gorge area and he spent the evening with us and Andre. The nex...

Todra Gorge Adventure and Climbing

Austin and I wanted to explore the Todra Gorge since it looked beautiful and everyone online seemed to love it. I am so thrilled we went, it was an incredible time. When we showed up to town, we found an accommodation near the gorge. The guy that ran the guesthouse mentioned there was a Portuguese g...

Catch up day

Today we played catch up on laundry and some research! It was a beautiful day out and we were thrilled for all of the sun for drying our clothes. We also made a veggie pasta dish for dinner since we had access to a kitchen and got the veggies right in town at a local market.

Aït Benhaddou

Aït Benhaddou is an old city made of earthy clay. It’s an UNESCO World Heritage Site that we visited on our way to Ouarzazate.

Mosque

Marrakech Insiders

Marrakech Insiders is a tour company that does sidecar tours all over Marrakech, the desert, and Atlas mountains! They have about 15 sidecars and are always slammed with tours. We first heard about them from Sidecar Simon in Paris and we also heard about them from Rob and Zayne at Gusto Motorbikes i...

Hiking Mount Toubkal

We hiked Mount Toubkal which is the highest peak in Northern Africa sitting at 4,165 meters (13,665 feet). The total hike is about 34 km (21 miles) with an elevation gain of 2,500 meters (8,200 feet), phew it was a slog. We did the hike over two days and stayed in a mountain refuge for the night bet...

Goats in trees

When we drove from Essaouira to Marrakech, we stumbled upon these goats in a tree. The photo below is actually unnatural and sad. We drove by about 5 trees like this and what is actually happening is the shepherds tie the goats to the trees and then charge people money if they park and get out to ta...

Doors of Essaouira

”Doors of Essaouira” by: Austin The fifth door has the regional language characters, Berber, on it.

Big fish market

Essaouira is a coastal town that is know for the wind so kitesurfing is prevalent but before kitesurfing was an activity, it was know for (and still is) for all of the fishing, shocker- ha. The fish market was huge compared to Imsouane which makes sense since the city size is drastically different t...

Surf Hostel and other Taghazout Memories

We spent about three weeks in Taghazout and stayed in a private room at a surf hostel during our time there. It worked out perfectly because our private room was in a separate apartment unit so it was very quiet and peaceful but we could always go to the hostel to be social and hang out with friends...

Trip planning

During our downtime in Taghazout, we were able to plan for the next leg of the trip. We have a lot of exciting activities we want to do in Morocco! We are off to hike the tallest peak in Northern Africa soon, visit Marrakech, and see the desert. We plan to do a full service in Marrakech at a mutual...

Morocco sunset

Favorite sunset so far in Morocco

Dinner out

We typically leave our phones at our hostel so photos are very scarce; however, we brought them to dinner out and captured this little shot (see the photo at the end of the post). Today, we had a yummy breakfast out. Austin had a Berber omelette (egg, tomato, and Moroccan spices) and fresh squeeze o...

Little fish market

The surf towns we are staying in are all small fishing villages. After lunch one day, we spotted a man selling his fish in the fishing beach area. The beach is used for the fisherman to access the water (with the help of the tractor) and also store the boats so it’s not the main beach to lay out or...

Surf and yoga galore

We decided to take a break from driving for about a month or so. We have posted up on the west coast of Morocco spending time in small fishing villages that have a lot of great surf waves and yoga. The first spot is Imsouane. We brought in the new year here and have been surfing and enjoying the war...

Merry Christmas!

We spent Christmas in Casablanca and found a church to go to Christmas morning. We ended up meeting some very kind South Africans who were having a big Christmas lunch at their home and they invited us! We were able to spend the day with them and had such an amazing time getting to know them. There...

God’s Bridge hike

The Blue City

Border crossing

Our border crossing experience was very uneventful and low stress despite an approximate 4 hour delay. We are very grateful for it being uneventful and low stress to say the least. The ferries out of Algeciras going to Tanger Med often times have delays so we prepped for a potential delay and alas,...

Camping at ToroTrail

Our friend, Lorraine, from Switzerland connected us with her friend in the Malaga area named Lyndon. He runs an adventure riding company and we were able to spend a great evening with him and his clients.

Cliff city

This city is built inside the cliffs and on top of the cliffs, it was really neat to check out!

Sweet Seville

We spent a few days in Seville which was a blast for me, Ellie, because I studied abroad in college here! The city was a lot smaller than I remembered which makes me chuckle thinking back to my time in the city. The “tinto de verano” drinks were definitely as yummy as I remember and I had them with...

Gusto Motorbikes saved us!

While on the way to Portugal, we broke down on the border of Spain / Portugal after hearing a lot of clunking and screeching noises. We were on our way to Rob and Zayne’s place (Gusto Motorbikes) to get new tires but ended up spending a lot more time with them due to the breakdown, ha! Thankfully, R...

6 months on the road!

6 months on the road, can you believe it?! For me, it feels like yesterday we were packing up in Colorado to start our drive across America but it also feels like a lifetime ago after reflecting on everything we have accomplished in the past 6 months. We have visited 20 countries in total (16 with o...

Tourist in London

I was able to spend a few days in London with my sister, Madison, exploring the city and surrounding areas! While she was working one of the days, I took a walking tour and learned many fun facts about London. I learned all about Larry the cat, the taxi drivers and their knowledge of every single Lo...

Catching up with an old friend

Hello from London! Madison and I were able to have breakfast with a long time family friend, Tanner. He grew up golfing with our brother, Hank, and our families were friends for many years when we all lived in the same area. He has been living in London for 4+ years and loves it. It was such a blast...

Busted bearing

After we left Salamanca, we were on our way to Portugal to beef up our tires prior to heading into Africa. We had communicated with a Ural dealer in advance to order the specific tires we wanted so the tires we’re waiting for us at the shop. On our drive out, we started to hear some clunking in the...

First time Bunk a Biker

There is a neat website called Bunk a Biker where people have the opportunity to open up their homes for travelers and bikers. We had learned about it from a friend in Switzerland and decided to give it a shot since we saw somebody in the Salamanca area. We ended up meeting Bruno and his girlfriend,...

Austin built a code reader

Today, this man with wild hair built a code reader for our bike! The code reader connects with a 3rd party app on his phone and it allows us to read/clear fault codes, monitor sensors, and read other diagnostics.

Happy Thanksgiving from Spain!

Happy Thanksgiving from us! It is sure looking and feeling like fall in Salamanca and we are trying to flee to warmer weather soon. It is raining all today so we tried to squeeze in a walk to check out the city and fall colors before the heavy rain came (and I wanted a photo with the pretty leaves:)...

Vaccine vacations (in the future)

We needed up get the second dose of the hepatitis A vaccine six months after we got the first so we had to get it abroad. I found a spot in Madrid that had appointments during our time there. Once we got to the vaccine center, we checked in, filled out paperwork, and immediately met with the doctor...

Playing tourist

We have been exploring Istanbul (both the Europe side and Asia side) throughout the week. Here are some photo highlights from the trip so far:

Turkish Wedding

We are in Istanbul for Haley and Batu's wedding! We first went to their Turkish wedding on Sunday which was about 5 minutes of them signing papers and saying "I do" - but in Turkish. During the short ceremony, there were funny traditions happening that we didn't even realize until after the fact whe...

Camping night

We started to head towards Madrid from Valencia since we have a flight to catch to Turkey for a wedding! During our drive, it rained and rained so we pulled off to a gas station that had a great sitting area and sipped on hot cocoa and a cappuccino while playing cards to wait out the rain. Once the...

Paella time

We had a paella party after a beach day in Valencia - it was rabbit and chicken paella (Valencia's specialty).

Domino's first motorcycle rally

I (Austin) met two bikers Hernan and Nico at a gas station who told me about a motorcycle rally happening this evening. They invited me to join and I didn't have anything else going on so I figured why not! Well, Domino was quite the spectacle rolling up and most people spoke Catalan, not Spanish, s...

Barcelona

Wow what a wild morning. I (Austin) wake up at 6am in southern France after sleeping on the beach to the start of some rain. I check the forecast and it looks like a massive storm is heading this way so I frantically pack the bike and get on the road while it's still dark. My attempt to outrun the s...

Ural service with the Brits

I (Austin) spent the past few days with a wonderful British couple living in southern France who own a classics bike / Ural shop. Neil and Sarah were kind enough to not only host me but also teach me all of the mechanics and maintenance for the bike. Neil explained how and why everything works the w...

Hiking Cinque Terre

Arsery from Russia

I stayed at an Airbnb last night that had two rooms that were private; I was in one room and an individual was in the other he ended up being from Russia and fled from Russia a month or two ago when there was a military call for men. His name is Arsery and he has a family in Russia still - he has tw...

Hiking Mount Sinai

We hiked Mount Sinai for sunrise and it was beautiful despite the long day/night. We left our place in Dahab at 10pm, drove the Saint Catherine’s monastery with multiple checkpoint stops, and started hiking around 1:30am. The sky was completely full of stars during our hike up, it was breathtaking....

Seafood dinner

We had a yummy seafood dinner out where we picked out our fish from their fresh catch of the day section and they grilled them up with spices and veggies! It was fantastic despite both getting bones stuck in our throats, ha!

Scuba and snorkeling galore!

Dahab has been absolutely amazing, wow!! The Red Sea is so clear, warm, salty, and pretty perfect. We have spent quite a few days here diving, snorkeling, meeting other travelers, eating bone-in fish, hiking, and more. As I sit down to write this post, I am realizing I have not really been taking my...

Beautiful sunset

Pyramids

We visited many pyramids even outside of the main pyramids in Giza. We saw the Red Pyramid, the Bent Pyramid, the Black Pyramid, the Step Pyramid, and the Great Pyramids of Giza. The Red Pyramid, the Bent Pyramid, and the Black Pyramid were all in one area about an hour from Cairo. We ended up actua...

Market day

We spent nearly a full day exploring the Khan el-Khalili market in the daytime. There is so much to see and explore! We first started at a delicious coffee shop called Naguib Mahfouz. Kayla and I had Turkish coffee with a spin of new spices to turn it Egyptian and then we also had all sorts of dips...

Night Tour

We took a night tour of Cairo and it was such a blast to be shown around the city by a local. We learned about the history of Cairo and a few neighborhoods and also walked around the famous Khan el-Khalili market. The first photo displays our guide on the far left, our crew including Kayla (Austin's...

Quick stop

After our time in the Preveza area with Austin’s extended family, Austin, Kayla (Austin’s cousin), and I planned to head to Egypt for a couple of weeks all together. We spent about 24 hours in Athens prior to flying to Cairo. As expected, the ruins were absolutely stunning. We loved walking around k...

Yoga and the sea

The home we stayed at had a huge platform with yoga mats so we were able to do yoga daily. It was so stunning - occasionally we would see a ray or turtle swim by. It was a blast to massage my yoga instructing skills since it had been a few years since I had taught.

Margie's 85th Birthday celebration

Austin has extending family in Holland and his grandmother's sister, Margie, turned 85 years young recently. To celebrate, the Dutch family planned a holiday to celebrate in Greece. During our time in Greece, we swam our hearts out in the salty water, basked in the sun, paddle boarded and kayaked en...

Mag and Robby

We met Mag and Robby on a Facebook group and they generously opened up their home to us if we were passing through Geneva. We were very excited to meet them because of their passion for adventure! They both have Ural motorcycle-sidecars and just left for a trip (October 14th) from Montreal to Alaska...

Fall time in the alps

It is absolutely stunning in the alps this time of year. The mountains have a dusting of snow and the leaves are changing colors, nothing more beautiful than that!

Murren Via Ferrata

We found a sweet via ferrata in the Swiss alps and were both looking forward to it, mainly for the exposure. It was alongside a massive wall so the drop was nearly 3,000 ft to the ground. The climb made my tummy flop at times. During the climb, we walked across two tightropes and a big swinging brid...

First Wedding Anniversary

We celebrated our first wedding anniversary in Interlaken! It was a perfect day; we had a relaxing morning and had breakfast in bed, explored a sweet mountain town and glacier canyon, and had a delicious Swiss dinner at a nice restaurant. The restaurant knew it was our anniversary so we arrived and...

Glacier Canyon

We explored a huge canyon that was formed by a glacier many years ago. The glacier is melting tremendously (sadly) but what it has created is quite impressive. There was one section where you could walk onto a big net over the rushing glacier water river (photo of Austin).

Youth group

Leandra is a youth pastor at a state church in Switzerland. I did not know much about the religious system in Switzerland so I'll share an overview of what I learned: At birth, parents can designate their kids Catholic, Protestant, or neither. When kids are designated as Catholic or Protestant, they...

New/old friend

Austin and I met Leandra originally in Oslo a couple of months ago at the International Church of Oslo. She was on holiday with her boyfriend but he was sick so we were able to spend an evening out to dinner and drinks with her. Leandra lives in the Lucerne area and is a new youth pastor there. She...

Visiting Lorraine and Jørn

Austin met Lorraine and Jørn a few years ago on a Europe holiday through a motorcycle group. They kindly opened up their home to us this trip and we had an absolute blast with them. Lorraine has done a huge amount of travel herself all over the globe and Jørn has too so it was really fun to share st...

Italian Fam

We spent a relaxing weekend in Brunate, Italy with my uncle Andrew, aunt Monica, and their pup, Max. It was a bit drizzly over the weekend but we made the most of it. We went out to a delicious Italian restaurant with a couple of their friends our first night there and enjoyed pizza, polenta, wine,...

Switchbacks galore

Jagged Dolomites

More mountain photos

Ice bath

We stayed at a much fancier hut (Rifugio Pederu, which I mentioned in the previous post) than before, I’m not sure which one I prefer more between the simple hut the first night and fancy hut the second night, ha. I loved the remoteness and simplicity of the first but having a steaming hot shower is...

Snow, oh my!

Well..I woke up early and peaked out the window and it was completely white/foggy. I decided to crack our window to see what it was really like and it was a white out and the mountains were covered in snow. LOL I knew there was a chance of snow but didn’t think it would actually happen since we have...

Let the hut trekking commence!

We started at Lago di Braises which was so beautiful but quite packed with people. Our trek is 5 days and 4 nights in the mountains. One common theme we noticed was there is no moderate hiking in the alps, it’s only straight up or straight down, ha! We got to Rifugio Biella around 5pm and dinner sta...

Rest day

We had a nice rest day where we didn't plan anything and could play the day by ear. I ended up taking a day hike to a hut and Austin relaxed back at our airbnb / walked around the village. On my hike, I hiked to the next village and then up into the mountains to a rifugio to check it out. It was a b...

Via Ferrata Trincee

Austin and I agreed that today topped the best day of the trip so far. We had such an incredible time scrambling in the Dolomites on a via ferrata. A via ferrata is "an Italian term which means ‘iron path’― is a protected climbing route, built with a steel cable rail fixed to the rock, metal steps,...

DOLOMITES!!

We made it to the Dolomites, wow!!! I have been trying to make it to the Dolomites the past couple of summers. Coronavirus unfortunately shut down both trips but alas, we made it! It is just as beautiful as I expected and the mountains take your breath away, wow. We can’t wait to explore more!!! Cor...

Adventure park

We found an intense adventure park right outside of Innsbruck that looked liked a complete blast. They have all sorts of climbing, rafting, caving, motor cross, a high ropes course, a water park, and everything in between. We decided to book the high ropes course and give it a go. With the booking o...

Hello mountains

Our first evening in the alps was stunning. Wow --- I am SO excited to be in the mountains, I have missed them an insane amount and it feels like home. The past 5 summers, I have spent 2-3 consecutive weeks in the mountains for holiday in Colorado and that fills me up so much. Most of the areas in E...

Carmen and family

We spent a few days in Munich walking around the city, spent time with Carmen and her family, and visited the Dachau concentration camp memorial. I met Carmen at a cafe in Berlin and we chatted for about an hour. It was during one of our "alone days" so I had found a cute cafe to sip on a cappuccino...

Grandpa on the farm

I got the news of my grandfather (George) passing away and was quite paralyzed. He was such an incredible man and I am so grateful to be his granddaughter. He is now reunited with our God after a peaceful passing. Grandpa on the farm was a very hard working man, sharp as a whip, and a family man. I...

Picnic lunch and swim

Sound of Music tour

The Sound of Music tour was incredible, we spent a few tours visiting the sites where the movie was filmed and sang nearly all of the numbers from the musical. I met a couple of new friends (Jo and Izzy) on the tour who loved the film maybe more than I did, which is crazy, ha! After the tour, Austin...

Swiss Fondue and Adam's Wedding Concert

Leandra introduced us to another pastor at her church and his wife (Jonas and Janine) and they were incredible. They invited us out to a concert one evening and after having us over for a Swiss fondue dinner. It was a great night with them. During dinner, their kids all came in to say hello to us an...

Bear moat

We visited a really neat little town in Czech and one of the castles had a moat with bears in it so we HAD to visit. Bears are my favorite animal so it was so nice to sit and watch them for a few minutes.

City shots

Prague was a beautiful city where we were able to spend a few days. We stayed in a hostel for 2 nights and enjoyed not moving around, ha. We met so many different travelers ranging from all walks of life. The city is sooo beautiful, wow. I would say it is one of the most beautiful we have been to on...

Highest peak in Czech

We hiked to the top of Czech to help warm us up for the Alps. We stayed in a beautiful, little mountain town at a chata which is a mountain hut/chalet. When we got to the trip of the peak, we were nearly in a cloud so we had the views of "inside of a ping pong ball" but had some glimpses of surround...

City center

We trotted around the city for a couple of hours until it started pouring rain. I was shocked with how colorful and beautiful the city area was, what a sweet surprise!

Wrocław International Church

We visited the international church in the city and there were 14 unique countries represented there. We were among 6 other first time guests and the church community was very welcoming and kind. We initially met Michele who moved to Poland over 25 years ago with her husband to become missionaries....

Fountain show

We saw a beautiful fountain show our first evening in Wroclaw. The show had multiple movements around earth, water, fire, and wind. During the fire movement, one of my favorite pieces as a child played in a very dramatic way (In the Hall of the Mountain King, composed by Edvard Grieg)..it gave a lit...

Christ the King

We visited the world's tallest statue of Jesus, who knew it would be in Poland!

Camping

We found a lake to camp by our first evening in Poland. Little did we know, that was THE spot for an annual reunion, "bunker party", for many Polish people. Near the lake, you can access some of the tunnels that were built around WWII. We found out that throughout the years, groups of friends would...

Bunkers and Tunnels

We toured a 32 km network of tunnels that led to multiple bunker sites, we were not able to walk all of the tunnels but we still got to walk quite some distance in them with our guide. They were built by the Germans but not used in the war for battle. In the area, there were ~100 fortified structure...

Pergamonmuseum

We visited the Pergamonmuseum on Museum Island in Berlin. We were able to explore Greek & Roman collections, collections from Mesopotamia, Syria, and Anatolia, and Islamic art.

Walking Berlin

Beautiful castle

Jakob, Therese, and Otto

We met Jakob on the Soviet Steeds Facebook page. He kindly extended an offer to us to stay with he and his family in downtown Copenhagen so we met up with him right outside of the city and were greeted by Jakob, his sidecar, and his son, Otto, in the sidecar. The first evening, we spent the evening...

Sightseeing photos

Hanging with Peder

We met Peder at Kent's moto shop and he invited us out to lunch and to stay at his place for the evening. Peder has a son around our age and they had just gotten back from a 2.5 week moto trip around the Alps so it was a blast hearing about their trip. Peder started a really neat organization called...

Moto service

We just got a refreshed service at a shop in southern Sweden with our new friend, Kent. It was awesome, he let us stay and watch him complete the service and ask questions. We learned so much from Kent and are very grateful for him letting us stick around during the service!

Ales Stenar

We visited Ales Stenar which is a rock formation / monument created by Vikings quite some years ago. According to wikipedia (lol), the Ales Stenar is "generally believed to be a grave monument or a cult center, but another theory is that it is a sun calendar". Regardless of what it was, it was a stu...

Hot day

It was quite a toasty day in Halmstad so we decided to go to the beach with Stefan and his wife, Birgitta. We walked around the coastline and eventually ended up in a cove with a dock. We swam for a bit to cool off and goodness, it felt incredible! After swimming, Stefan made Swedish meatballs for l...

Tough day

We ended up getting our helmets and jackets stolen in Gothenburg, it was quite an expensive mistake. We are now rethinking our plan on locking items to the bike when we are away from it. It really was a bummer but we met a moto shop owner, Charles, at the shop we went to for new gear and he was so k...

BBQ in Halmstad

When Austin first moved to Denver, he lived with a couple: Jessica and Chris. Austin became great friends with them both and eventually I met them and we have all had some great evenings together. Jessica is from Sweden and has quite a bit of family there so she connected us to her brother, Stefan,...

Sauna time!

We ventured towards the water to an island that has no cars in it. On the island, we booked a sauna near the ocean so we could sauna, jump in the ocean, sauna, ocean, and repeat many times. Wow, talk about the best day ever. I never knew I needed a sauna and brisk ocean water near me, but now, I thi...

Martin from Soviet Steeds

There is a Facebook group called Soviet Steeds where many people who have Urals (the bike we have) can communicate through helping with fixes, ideas, or anything else. We posted in there that we are taking our Ural on a big trip and a Swedish man part of the group named, Martin, spotted us in the Uc...

The Thistle Inn

Austin met Andy and Magda in Norway as they were hitchhiking for vacation around the country. Andy is from Scotland and Magda is from Sweden. They now are married, have a 3 year old named Rory, and a sweet 4 month year old named Shona. They live on an organic farm, run a 3-unit B&B (Thistle Inn), an...

Padel

When we met Kristoffer in Belgium, he mentioned the game Padel and we said we have seen the courts earlier in the trip and that it looked like a lot of fun! He also plays so he booked time for us to all play with one of his friends, Pau. I think Padel is somewhat of a mix between racquetball and pic...

Solo Day and Mini Golf in Oslo

We spent a few days in Oslo walking the city and spending time with friends. We first dropped our items at our friend Kristoffer’s place and then headed into the heart of the city. We met Kristoffer in Belgium a month or so ago and he said he would love to host us in Oslo! We were so excited. The fi...

Coffee at Tim Wendelboe

We did do a couple of different activities during the solo day and one I did was visit a famous coffee shop, Tim Wendelboe. The coffee was absolutely unreal there. It was quite a hot day and they had an iced cappuccino (Cappuccino Al Fredo to be exact), so I decided to try it since hot coffee didn’t...

Church

We went to Oslo International Church for a Sunday afternoon service. The church hosted a “coffee and conversation” after church where they provide a space for the church community to connect and get to know each other better. We met Leandra, a new friend that lives in Switzerland, while chatting wit...

Gjendesheim Hike

We explored a stunning trail today. The hike was a point to point hike so we took a ferry to one side of the lake and hiked around 9 miles to get back. The journey back was stunning. We saw multiple lakes, the main one being the bright turquoise lake highlighted in our photos. We spotted some glacie...

Beautiful alt route

We decided to take an alternative route (recommended by the pastor we met at church last Sunday, Espen) rather than driving through a huge tunnel today and despite the drizzle, it was absolutely breathtaking...I nearly forgot to take any photos since I was looking around so much but here are a coupl...

Campsite

Mountain and fjord views from our campsite

Tvindefossen Waterfall

Viking Valley

We visited Njardarheimr in the viking valley and learned all about the viking history. In the village there were multiple homes where people live for a few weeks at a time and help work in the village. We learned all about their boats, weapons, turning sheep wool into thread and eventually into clot...

Birthday dinner

Today is Austin’s 27th birthday. We had an incredible day biking and walking around the city! It was sunny and beautiful out which is a rarity in Bergen. We had dinner at the fish market in the harbor and it was absolutely delicious. We tried whale, king crab, lobster, scallops, shrimp, salmon, and...

Salt Church

We found an amazing church in Bergen called Salt Church. It was mainly in Norwegian but they had an English translation for the message and announcements which was helpful. Espen, one of the pastors, spoke passionately on the international community and our call to integrate Christianity between cul...

Exploring Bergen

Camping views for the evening

Beautiful view from our tent for the evening. We walked the beach and enjoyed the morning sun the next day too. We have lucked out with incredible weather for Norway, praise the Lord!

Hiking Preikestolen

Hiking Kjeragbolten

Made it to Norway!

Relaxing days in Aalborg

We met Nikki when she and a few others were looking at our bike as Verdenskortet was closing. We started chatting with her and picked up quickly she loved traveling, too; she has lived all over the world! After talking for about 20 minutes, she invited us to stay with her, her husband (Per), and the...

Map of the world

We stopped by Verdenskortet which had a stone-created map of the world. It had all of the associated flags placed and was fascinating to explore and walk around. Shortly after exploring the map, realized the grounds were more tailored towards children but we loved many sections of the grounds. Ha! T...

Nazi Bunkers

We explore about 15 different Nazi bunkers on the coast of Denmark that were used in WWII. The Germans took over and used the location in Denmark since it was further north and on the sea in case they needed to attack Norway. The beach was a absolutely huge, it reminded us of the Normandy beaches in...

Men by the Sea

Big guys we found at our lunch spot during a drive day.

Dialog in the Dark

Dialogue in the Dark is a tour unlike any we had done before. It was an experience that helps non-blind people, experience blindness. Sounds odd, but it was fascinating. Our tour guide was blind and we actually never saw his face. The simulation rooms we went through were pitch black, you could see...

Cathedral memorial

We visited the original cathedral in Hamburg which was actually bombed and burned in WWII. The entrance and main steeple were still present and the bombings did not harm those too much but it was scorched black from the flames. The remains of the inside were bare but we could still walk through the...

City walking

We just spent about 5 days in Hamburg and it was a quite nice to stay in one spot, not travel for a few days, and enjoy getting to know a city well. My middle and high school friend Megan lives here and we actually had not talked much since high school but about 6 months ago I noticed she lived in G...

Garden camping

Today, we set off to explore the city of Bremen, Germany. We met Claudia about 25 seconds after parking our bike for the day in Bremen. She was quite curious about the bike so we chatted for 15-20 minutes talking about the trip and Bremen, her city. In the conversation, she asked where we typically...

The Bremen Town Musicians statue

Mini-Camping

We decided to find a formal campsite this evening which is out of our norm of typically finding wild camping in a national forest of some sort. I am so glad that we did! I found a campground online, De Kleine Heerlijkheid mini-camping, that had a few reviews saying that it was family owned and a gre...

Dinner at Stadsrestaurant

After spending the day climbing, we ventured off for dinner and stumbled upon a very unique restaurant. We originally had a different place in mind but their kitchen closed right before we got there, thankfully! ;) When we got to Stadsrestaurant, it was quaint and very homey. We were greeted by the...

Excalibur Climbing Wall

Today we climbed up the free-standing Excalibur climbing wall. It is the tallest freestanding climbing tower in the world! It was absolutely incredible and a bit nerve-racking when climbing the last few meters since the wind was blowing a lot harder at the top. The gym also allows people to camp on...

Lunch at De Geschilde Aardappel

We had lunch at De Geschilde Aardappel which is a spot on a river/canal that typically boats would pull up and have lunch at but we were one of the few in their parking lot driving by land. It was a cool spot that had picnic tables out, bonfire rings, and delicious food. We spent a couple of hours a...

New spokes!

On our journey across America, we broke a spoke along the way on our custom back wheel, dang. It took a lot longer than we had hoped to get on the same page with the custom wheel shop but they were able to send a few extra spokes to a Ural shop in the Netherlands so we could replace our broken spoke...

Time with Margie

We traveled from Amsterdam to Bussum, approximately 45 minutes, to see Austin's grandmother's sister, Margie. She prepared a delicious lunch for us and we spent the afternoon getting to know her better and learning more about Holland. She is a big reader so we chatted about books and I now have a lo...

Poffertjes

We went to the Pancake Bakery since it was recommended by a friend that lives in Holland. It additionally had the best ranked poffertjes online. Austin loves poffertjes; poffertjes are essentially little baby sweet pancakes with butter and powdered sugar on them. The last time Austin had these was 5...

Van Wonderen Stroopwafels, yum!

Today, we had a self-guided food tour of Amsterdam...it felt like a tour of sweets, ha! One of our stops was at Van Wonderen Stroopwafels and goodness, our stroopwafel was incredibly delicious. It was perfectly warm and gooey on the inside and part of the outside was dipped in chocolate with some or...

Drinks with Zoe, Austin's cousin

One of Austin's cousins, Zoe, lives in the heart of Amsterdam so we planned to meet up with her for drinks on our first evening in the Amsterdam area. She took us to a neat cafe that had patio seating right by a canal and additional seating on a boat that was floating in the canal. It was jam packed...

Noah's Ark

We visited a full-scale interpretation of the biblical Ark in the Rotterdam area. It had animal models poking out through each of the windows that you may be able to see in the photo below. It was challenging to capture the full side and magnitude of the ark but to attempt to display the scale, can...

Cheers!

Cheers with Belgian beer! I, Ellie, prefer Sprite over beer as you can see in the bottom of the corner, haha:)

Kasteel van Zellaer

Fairy tale castle much?

Belgian Chocolate, yes please!

Today we toured the world's largest Belgian chocolate museum, it was fantastic to learn all about the history of Belgian chocolate. We also got to sample nearly a dozen types of chocolate, phew - Has anyone heard of ruby chocolate?! We just got introduced to that today on the tour and it was phenome...

Church...or not

We were very excited to go to church since we were going to Red Rocks Church Brussels. I, Ellie, went to Red Rocks Church in Denver for about 5 years and they have a campus in Brussels. We were but stoked but when we showed up, no one was there sadly. We double checked their website and it stated th...

City walkers

Ghent was beautiful to walk around, we loved exploring all over the city! We ended the evening with drinks on the river and then dinner at a different spot on the river. We didn't snag any photos of drinks or dinner because we forgot technology was a thing, but it was a lovely time in a great city!

Jesus' blood

Today, we went to the Basilica of the Holy Blood in Bruges. In the basilica they show a preserved cloth with Jesus' blood on it. Was it actually Jesus' blood, we aren't certain but that's alright, it was still a nice experience. The church was beautiful, quiet, and everyone was respectful of giving...

Belgium waffle with Belgium chocolate, yum!

Hill 62

The Hill 62 museum was very real and educational. We were able to walk through the trenches and tunnels that were used in WWI. You'll see Austin in one of the photos below looking into a machine that projects 3-dimensional photographs, there were nearly 20 machines with about 25+ unique photos in ea...

Wellington Quarry

Explored the underground world at the Wellington Quarry. The Battle of Arras during WWI took place in Arras, France and the British used the quarry.

Domino's first service

Domino got his first service today! Ural motorcycles (our bike) recommend a service every 5,000 km so this was our first. During our service, we met up with a new friend named Simon. We initially were introduced to Simon via Dorothée and Benoît a couple of weeks ago and it worked out that Simon was...

Dinner view from our table

Mont Saint Michel

We visited Mont Saint Michel today via walking the bay from Genêts. In order to walk the bay, you have to hit the tides right, otherwise you may be swimming back or you may get munched by quicksand! Austin is a tides king and helped find the tides chart to ballpark when to start our journey there an...

Views from the top

Alabaster coastline

WWII Sites

We visited a few different WWII sites along the coast specifically ones pertaining to D-Day and the Normandy landings. We learned more about la Pointe du Hoc and how the US Army Rangers successfully scaled the cliffs to attack the German bunkers and artillery storage bunkers. There were many large b...

Jardin Étretat

We stopped at the Gardens in Étretat which are a neo-futuristic garden that extends over the cliffs of the Alabaster Coast, one of the wonders of Normandy with a view listed as a World Heritage by UNESCO. For those of you who have been to any location of Meow Wolf, this felt a bit like an outdoor ve...

Vintage Boats and Fish Market

Today we went to Fecamp with Martin and a few of his friends. They were having a vintage boat show there and had some great seafood we planned to have for lunch. We also popped by the shore to check out the stunning coast. The couple of beaches we have been to here have been all rock and the coastli...

Beautiful flowers from our hike

We went for a hike along the coast and passed by a few towns during the hike. We ended up pausing for a lunch break at a picnic table overlooking the sea and coastline for some lunch: bread, cheese, and meat. Their cheese here is unreal, so so delicious! I, Ellie, couldn't help but take a photo of t...

Low tide and big cliffs!

The day in Aizier

Chapel ruins

Picnic dinner with a new view

We are having so much fun traveling together and enjoying each day! We have been driving along the Seine River and it has been so beautiful and the people are so kind. Our simple picnic dinners usually consist of a fresh baguette, new type of cheese, cured meat, a salad, fruit, and maybe some dark c...

Abbaye de Jumièges

Hi Monet

Camping at the chateau

We were able to camp on the property of Isabelle's sister. They have a beautiful garden (yard) and home. We spent the morning having breakfast and piecing together French and English to communicate about families, our trip, and everything in between. It was a sweet time! The 3rd photo below shows a...

Beautiful little village

We walked around this village for a bit before having lunch and found that it was beautiful. The homes were nestled into the mountainside with streams running between them and most of the side streets (not shown in the photo) were older stone. I liked the church in the back of the photo, it looked s...

Castle and Watch Tower

This castle has a secret passage stairway that leads to the watch tower on the top of the hill

Paris time coming to a close...for now

Since arriving in Europe, we have spent all of our time in the Paris area. As I mentioned in a few older posts, we have a service for our bike scheduled for July 7th and are additionally waiting for a spoke being shipped from Colorado to the bike shop. We have a custom back wheel and broke a spoke s...

Trinity International Church

This Sunday afternoon, we found a Christian church (Trinity International Church) to attend, we have been excited to check out local churches in whatever area we are currently in. The service was mostly in English but had some worship songs in French. The pastor spoke on a couple of the miracles in...

Geese-catching extravaganza

Today, we caught 7 geese. Austin and I were pretty excited for the adventure because 1. it felt so far out of left field and 2. we were both pumped to join French folks our parents' age catch geese. Dorothée invited us which I shared a little bit about in the "New friends" post. In the late morning,...

Sightseeing

We walked the city for a couple of days and explored multiple areas! [youtube=knOSo8jpat4]

New friends

Upon our arrival in Paris, we headed to a Ural-certified moto shop to get a maintenance prior to heading north out of France. When we stopped in, we found out their first available slot for a maintenance was in 2 weeks so we decided to book it and then start looking around at other Ural-certified sh...

Cargo is in!

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Boxes and Tape and Bike, oh my!

After we packed up at the hotel, we headed to a Uhaul store to grab large moving boxes for cargo shipping our items with our bike rather than checking them separately. Once we grabbed our boxes, we were off to the Cargo and Customs near the airport to drop off our bike and items. The process took so...

Night out

After we got settled in our hotel for the night, we showered up and went out to have a belated celebration of our house closing. We went to a delicious Italian place in Old Montreal near the water. We both agreed that Old Montreal looked very European and our waitress even expressed that the area do...

Entering Montreal

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Camping with bears

Jacob booked a perfect campsite for us near a stunning lake in Vermont. After riding into the campground, we set up camp, gathered wood in the day light for the campfire later that night, bear proofed our campsite, and headed to dinner. We were warned that a momma and 2 cubs were lurking around the...

Puppy Dog Route (PDR) and camping with Jacob & David

We met up with Jacob (one of Austin's best friends) and David (Jacob's father) to spend a couple of days riding and camping. We rode most of the PDR which is an off-road route that runs north and south in Vermont. It was absolutely stunning! It meandered through the countryside, up mountains, and ev...

Beautiful, peaceful evening

We found a fantastic campsite walking distance to Lake Erie. We played in the water right when we got there and attempted to skip rocks but who knew Lake Erie would have such large waves which made skipping rocks pretty challenging. For dinner, we kept it simple and whipped up some turkey sandwiches...

Corey, Emily, and Carmen

We originally met Corey at Subway on our second day of riding the trip when we were passing through Kansas, he was also passing through. We chatted with him for only about 10 minutes and got connected before parting ways. I remember we both pulled out of the Subway parking lot at the same time but h...

Meeting Rich and Jim

We met Rich through emailing CMA (Christian Motorcyclists Association). Rich said he could drive down from the Chicago area and bring us to the Ural shop. The morning of the tow, Rich came down with Jim, another CMA member. They showed up with the trailer and matching CMA T-shirts. Rich and Jim were...

Flower Farm and CMA

We were in St. Anne, IL and it was over 100 degrees and humid outside. We broke down on the side of the road, and no more than 2 minutes later, we met Bob. Bob drove up from across the street, where he was working at his large shed. He offered us the use of his huge shed to work on our bike, which e...

Grandview Church & Thyme Square

We visited Grandview Church in Quincy, IL today. We met around 10 different people, and each one of them was incredibly welcoming, kind, and hospitable. We got invited to a woman’s home for lunch with her family and friends, but since it was about 30 miles southwest and we were heading northeast, we...

Camping on Hunnewell Lake

Hello from the Silvius farm

We had a sweet, sweet time with my (Ellie's) grandparents on their farm in Missouri. Thank you for hosting us, we love you!

Hello from KC with Grandma Frame

We had a lovely catch up lunch with my (Ellie's) grandma in Kansas City. It was such a great time catching up about life! Thank you, Grandma, we love you!

Rex and Rhonda

We met Rex and Rhonda randomly at a gas station. They asked to come bless our bike, which led to a few minutes of chatting with them about life, faith, and our trip. We learned that they are part of the Christian Motorcyclists Association and that it is a global organization, so we are excited to ch...

Camping at Rocky Pond Campground

See you later, Colorado Ural shop!

Big shout out to our Colorado Ural guys for all of the help getting the bike ready and for teaching us all about the bike.

We are off! Catch ya later, Denver!

The house is on the market!

We picked up the bike!

Today we picked up our motorcycle sidecar! We finalized all the bells and whistles we need (e.g., storage racks, light covers, a windshield, etc.). Huge shoutout to our favorite guys at Colorado Ural for helping us create the bike of our dreams and for teaching us a thing or two about it!

Preparation Galore

There are so many details we have sorted through (and will continue to sort through throughout the trip), so we wanted to share a few logistical details for those who are curious: What’s the general outline of the trip? To start, we have a target we are aiming for, but we are very open and flexible...