Lexi & Chris in a Truck Camper

Always! 🫶

Man walking around a vintage truck camper in the desert

Somedays, one thousand words just aren’t enough to capture the moment.

It’s quiet.
It’s meditative.
It’s perfect.
And there’s no place I’d rather be.

#camping #sunset #camper #roadtrip

Some days, I just need to burn something.

I just hadn’t intended that it would be my hair…. #camping

⁠So, here we are, lacing up for a longish run, comforted in the knowledge that there is a shower at the end of it all.⁠

2/2

Man lacing up running shoes in a truck camper parked in the desert

Running has us relying a lot more on developed campgrounds than in the past. We don’t have to shower every day. But, trust me, everyone would know if we didn’t. And while we do have a water tank, I have yet to build out a proper shower. ⁠
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1/3 #trailrunning #hiking #camping

Woman standing on a desert hiking trail

It's shorts season on Picacho Peak: so warm out that I started wondering if it might be too hot to run. Yes, I've run races in the heat, but I just wasn't planning for these temperatures in February.⁠
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#hiking #outdoors #desert #adventure #trailrunning

Truck camper parked at an Arizona rest stop

Some days, we spend hours on dirt roads for a view.⁠
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Other days, we just need a bathroom break.⁠

Nice! We keep debating our shower build. It’s been years now. I may just put one in to have it done. 😅

Hot air balloon over the Sedona desert

Views from the road⁠
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#hotairballoon #hotair #balloon #roadtrip #roadtrippin #roadtripping #lifeontheroad #sedona #sedonaarizona

Thank you!

We can't control everything, but we can at least try not to be these people and, instead, advocate for our public lands.⁠
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These places gave us memories. Let’s not be the reason someone else never gets the chance.⁠

3/3

There are so many reasons boondocking options are lost: pressure from the hospitality industry, NIMBY locals, public land sold to private interests, bad campers who set dangerous fires, harm delicate flora, leave messes, and ruin it for the rest of us. ⁠
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2/3

⁠There is something bittersweet in visiting our old haunts across Sedona. A lot of the sites where we camped and created special memories are now blocked off.⁠
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1/3 #publicland

So, yeah, we make a stop off by some outlets to get Chris the basics. ⁠
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When he will be reunited with is suitcase...is yet to be determined.⁠

4/4

So, now we are dialing in a minimalist shopping list: in the history of our travels, what does Chris NEED?

So far, I have:
Underwear
Socks
A nice shirt
A casual shirt
A pair of pants
And *waves hands vaguely* running gear

3/4

I shake my head, "if you didn't put it by the door, I didn't bring it in.⁠

We look at each other, shrug, and go to bed. Because it is too late and we are too tired to get worked up about clothes.

The next morning, however, we have plenty of energy to direct towards fashion faux pas.

2/4

The last few days on the road have been a blur. We were winding down before bed on our first night when I looked around and asked Chris: where's your suitcase? (Yes, we still store most of our clothes in suitcases.)⁠
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Chris looks around: "you didn't pack it?"⁠

1/4 #roadtrip #packing #woops

Truck camper parked in the desert

Time to get away from all that ice, ⁠
Time for the desert and not taking easy rhymes.⁠
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Sedona is a special treat this time of year. It is technically off-season. It can snow and get muddy. But it's still so much warmer than where we were.⁠
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𝘍𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 @roamlab 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘬 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴⁠

🙌

When so many things are going wrong, there are also so many ways to show support.

Whistles are an important tool to draw attention when we are in danger.

This is about running
This is not about running

Still good eating!

Welcome!

Mundane things are magical when you make them happen. Until there is an award category for "most satisfying mod," pulling a chilled treat from our conveniently located ice chest will be reward enough. ⁠
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What can I say? It's cool.⁠

Woman carrying a board into a camper

The walls are going in!⁠
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See that board in my hand. It's going to frame our refrigerator. It's going hold that food locker in place while we bounce around dirt roads so that, when we stop for a cold one, it will, indeed, be cold.⁠
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#diycamper #diy #camper

Weather doesn't care about your holiday plans or that meeting at the beginning of the week. And we've learned not to push our luck.⁠
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What's your story?⁠

4/4

The next morning, we drove past the remains of a semi that tested its luck and came up snake eyes.⁠
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That said, we should only be facing cold this weekend. And this time, we aren't trying to cross a massive blacked out state with empty grocery shelves, like in Texas a few years ago.⁠..

3/4

But we swore we wouldn't camp that cold ever again.⁠
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The same goes for tornadoes.
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I pay a lot more attention to weather reports while driving through tornado alley these days. We don't want to spend another night rocked to sleep by gusts of wind whipping through a Walmart parking lot…
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2/4

What is the most extreme weather you have camped in?⁠
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The temperature is dropping with the leaves, and we are about to take a test trip with the latest camper renovations. ⁠
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Temperatures will be freezing. ⁠
Not the worst we've camped in…

1/4 #roadtrip #camping #weather #outdoors #nature

Step 1 is reframing the camper access⁠. Getting the fit right took a long time. But it feels good to finally be sealing the aluminum frame in place.⁠

4/4