High-school-sweethearts-turned-full-time-travelers Katie and Ben seek adrenaline rushes, good food, authentic experiences, and adventures off the typical tourist path. Originally from Minnesota, they admit to having an incurable case of wanderlust.
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What a weird week it has been. . We left Oregon to go on a long-planned road trip to Washington to celebrate our 7 year anniversary. And we’ve been mostly off-grid the whole time, but the glimpses of news we’ve gotten every so often have not been good… . The fires on the West Coast of the US are absolutely devastating, and our hearts are hurting big time for the people who have been evacuated and the land that has been destroyed. . It’s easy to lump these wildfires into a “F*** 2020” mindset. (I’ve kind of been doing that the last couple of days.) But the truth is these wildfires aren’t anything new, really. . Sure, in some areas, they’ve been worse than previous years. But just like many of the things that we’ve all *noticed* and *talked about* a lot more this year — systemic racism, an underfunded education system, lack of resources for those who need them most (just to name a few!) — wildfires been here before 2020 and they’ll be here even when we all turn our calendars to 2021. . The planet and its people have been speaking to us all, and now that we’re hearing these messages more loudly, will we listen? Or will we forget once thing settle down and let it get even worse? . I would love to end this caption with inspirational words, but I just don’t have them right now. . So instead, here’s a picture of us from last week, celebrating 7 years of marriage (& 16 years together) by literally doing nothing. Sitting in the river. Drinking beer. And *not* checking our cell phones because there was no service.
A post shared by Katie & Ben | Vanlife (@twowanderingsoles) on Sep 13, 2020 at 6:01am PDT
But oddly enough, they didn’t start out that way. In fact, neither had set foot overseas until they were in their twenties. It was only after getting married that they decided to quit their comfortable jobs, book an absurdly cheap flight to Colombia, and leave behind the things that didn’t fit into their backpacks.
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This summer is W I E R D, no doubt about it, but campervan travel has been kind of amazing. We’ve been able to basically avoid as much human interaction as possible (which I never thought I’d intentionally do, but here we are). We can cook for ourselves. We don’t need to stay in hotels. We can avoid most public bathrooms. It’s kind of perfect right now. . And we’ve still found ways to do things we normally would on trips… — 🍻 We love going to breweries, but instead of ordering beer on site, we got 6-packs to-go from a couple different breweries in Jackson Hole and taste tested from our van! — 🦀 And when we were on the Oregon Coast we really wanted to sample the famous clam chowders and fish and chips along the way, so we ordered takeout and enjoyed the local specialties from inside our perfectly cozy “dining room”. — ☕️ We’re obsessed with morning coffee, so we’ve been brewing it ourselves in the van and finding pretty spots to park where we can enjoy it. . The kind of crazy thing is we bought our van in early February, back when life was “normal”. And we had been planning the purchase for about a year before that. But serendipitously this is the only way we’ll be traveling for the foreseeable future it seems. . I read somewhere that some 25 million Americans have bought a campervan or RV this summer. And if you’ve been thinking about it, let us know what questions or hesitations you still have… We’re happy to help because we know it’s a big decision. — P.S. Swipe to compare our fancy kitchen in Pearl to the one we had in our previous build. Same cute chef 🥰 but now he doesn’t have to sit while he cooks!
A post shared by Katie & Ben | Vanlife (@twowanderingsoles) on Aug 19, 2020 at 4:57am PDT
Traveling since 2014, their adventures have taken many shapes and forms: from living in South Korea, where they taught English for a year, to a year-long round-the-world trip. When the money ran out, they relocated to the United States and spent the summer months traveling down the West Coast and living in a campervan they actually built themselves.
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☀️HEY 20K!☀️ . I’m going to be honest; we’ve had a love-hate relationship with Instagram over the years. Algorithm changes, slow growth, and comparing ourselves to others are all big bummers. But the truth is, Instagram isn’t a big part of our business. We don’t usually monetize this platform, so most of our efforts go elsewhere (aka to our website which requires so.much.time). . Over the last year, I kind of decided that I’d try to just let Instagram be fun. A place where we could share more about our day-to-day life and just *connect* with people. Once we took away the pressure it became, dare I say… enjoyable…?! 🙃 . When you think about social media with a bigger picture in mind, it is actually a pretty cool thing… . Until the last decade, the vast majority of voices being heard were from people in power. Politicians, media, celebrities. And it still kind of boggles my mind that today any regular person (like ourselves) can have a platform to speak up. The past few months have shown us all how powerful this platform can be for enacting change. For voices to be uplifted and heard. For important issues to gain attention. For ideas to gain traction. For likeminded people to connect and collaborate. For friendships to form (yep, we’ve actually had some really good friendships start through Insta!). . I guess this is all to say that we’re grateful to have this teeny space and we’re super thankful for you (yes, YOU!) 💜
A post shared by Katie & Ben | Vanlife (@twowanderingsoles) on Jul 20, 2020 at 5:06am PDT
In other words: travelling is what they do best. “We’ve been through a lot together,” they write on their website, “awkward teenage years, college, long-distance, traveling together 24/7—and at the end of it all, we still sorta like each other,” they joke.
“This summer is W I E R D,” they admitted in a recent Instagram post, “no doubt about it, but campervan travel has been kind of amazing. We’ve been able to basically avoid as much human interaction as possible (which I never thought I’d intentionally do, but here we are). We can cook for ourselves. We don’t need to stay in hotels. We can avoid most public bathrooms. It’s kind of perfect right now.”
You’d want to join in!
