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Worst Moments Entries

Barn's Burnt Down, Now I Can See the Moon

Tuesday, August 27th, 2019

I cannot tell you how many times I have tried to write about this in any sort of succinct way. Every single time, words fall short. Perhaps one day I will succeed in telling this story, but for now, here goes attempt number 856069: You know whe...

Learning to Fly: Day Three at BlackHawk Paramotors (Tara)

Wednesday, June 1st, 2016

Today was rough. It began with not nearly enough sleep (4 hours to be exact), and being so sore and battered from the previous two days of training that it felt like I'd been run over. The only good part about the morning was getting towed a few mo...

Winter Water Setbacks

Sunday, February 14th, 2016

When I first started writing this post a few days ago, I was going to talk about how wonderfully forgiving and resilient our house is. How even when it gets really cold, our cottage is cozy, snug, and easy to heat. How our straw bale walls and R40 ...

Despair

Saturday, July 25th, 2015

I recently unearthed this gem from our stack of filed journal entries. I wrote it a little over a year ago, in May of 2014, but we never published it, instead posting a very abridged version. I think it was, as my brother would say, "too real" for...

Life is Horrible

Monday, October 20th, 2014

We are exhausted. Bone-achingly, depressingly exhausted. It feels impossible to have a full time job and build a house in time for winter, as Tyler is trying to do. It feels impossible to have a full time job building a house, as I am trying to do,...

Here I Go, Here I Go, Here I Go Again

Saturday, October 11th, 2014

Whenever it's time for a new step in the process—another batch of plaster to be mixed, another giant job to be tackled, learning how to do yet another thing we don't know how to do—I have to get myself geared up, like a boxer preparing for another ...

Manic Monday, Part One: Solo Plastering

Monday, August 11th, 2014

This morning, Tyler starts a couple batches of plaster going in the mixer, then heads down to the camper to program for the day, leaving me to tackle plastering by myself. I'm reeling from the sudden change of pace: Tyler took the last couple days ...

A Freak-Out Kind of Day

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2014

Lately, building a home feels impossible. Even so, I keep slogging along, not out of hope or excitement or joy, but because I feel shackled to the task. It doesn't feel like I'm living out my wildest dreams, it's more like my life is being held ho...

Building a House is Hard

Sunday, May 4th, 2014

I am so tired of fighting to keep things dry on our land… It's a never ending battle, and we pretty much always lose. I have forgotten what it is like to see a forecast for rain and not be filled with dread. I know that everything...

Fear is the Mind-Killer

Monday, November 4th, 2013

Over the past few weeks, we've been lucky to last more than two or three days without one of us having some kind of emotional breakdown/explosion. With night falling sooner and sooner each afternoon, it feels like darkness is descending upon us. M...

Gloom

Wednesday, June 12th, 2013

This morning, like every other morning in recent memory, I awake to the sound of rain splattering on our camper and the chhhhhhhhh of wet leaves on branches that sway in the wind. Outside our 16-by-8 foot travel trailer, the world is wet and lush, ...

Struck by Lightning

Sunday, May 26th, 2013

During one of the storms last week, a particularly close lightning strike took out our cheap, walmart-purchased inverter. With a resounding POP, it pushed its final electrons into a low-voltage alarm squeal that warbled for a moment, then dropped ...

Border Crossing from Hell: Part Two

Monday, January 14th, 2013

Several hours later, we've made it through Canada, to the USA border. Half hoping for a warm welcome from our fellow countrymen, we receive anything but. We're greeted with a huge array of creepy, over-the-top surveillance cameras, followed by a ...

Border Crossing from Hell: Part One

Monday, January 14th, 2013

Stuck Truck Update: A cold front rolled in last night, answering Tara's silent plea to Mother Nature. As we slept soundly, the rain stopped, the temperature dropped, and the rutted, muddy ground where our camper was stranded froze solid. As a res...

Stuck in the Mud

Sunday, January 13th, 2013

We're three days late, but we've finally made it to Deanne's place. Before we motor our lumbering circus down her sloping drive and onto the large clearing she uses for parking, we hop out of the truck to scout the safest route. After a bit of de...

Freezing in a Bamboo Shack

Sunday, January 30th, 2011

Tara: "Tyler," I whisper, trying not to wake our friends. "I can't feel my toes. Let me in!" I'm trying to squirm my way under his legs for warmth, but he's enviably asleep and his leaden body refuses to budge. I let out a huge sigh and stare...

Race to the Station: Part Three

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

Tyler: Headlights fly by, momentarily blinding us, adding a hefty dose of disorientation to this impossibly hectic ride. At last long, we pull into the bus station, a crowded, chaotic parking lot, filled to the brim with motorbike touts, taxis a...

Race to the Station: Part Two

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

Tyler: Hanoi's traffic is worse than Ho Chi Minh City and Phnom Penh combined. It is manageable only because it moves slowly, a seemingly inevitable consequence of the complete anarchy which composes it. Still, riding safely in this unholy mess...

A Long Cold Night

Sunday, January 9th, 2011

As the sun sinks into the horizon, coloring the sky a rusty shady of red, the temperature plummets with alarming speed. Crap. Why oh why did we send home our tent, and why oh why did I just send home our long underwear as well? Just a few days a...

Chafed into Phnom Penh

Thursday, November 18th, 2010

I'm not concerned about the onslaught of chaotic traffic as we approach Phnom Penh. I'm not bothered by the dust clouds swirling around the unpaved road construction projects we're riding through, or how the green fields and Cambodian countryside ...

Into the Jungle: Part Three

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

Arriving at an intersection, at what we hope is the top, we're unsure of which way to go. Just then, a man in a truck pulls up to see if we are lost. We ask him about accommodation, and he tells us there's a campsite about four kilometers up the...

Into the Jungle: Part Two

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

Tyler: At the entrance of Khao Yai Park, we fork over a whopping 400 baht ($13 US) each. Normally, there is fee for bicycles too, but the guards waive it for us with a wink, a friendly smile, and a bemused look about our choice of transport. It...

A Guitar String, The Jimny Saga: Part Nine

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

Over dinner we discussed options. We're not going to leave Richie and Freddie out there in the desert, but the question of what to do for them still remains. For now, we're thinking that one of the teams could go pick them up tomorrow, or at leas...

Into the Great Wide Open: Part Two

Thursday, September 16th, 2010

Being free of this sand pit lasted roughly five minutes. While we were able to maintain humor and perspective the first time, this is too much for both of us. Composure is lost. Curses fly. We are exhausted and upset but it doesn't matter. The...

Further Afield: The Jimny Saga, Part Three

Sunday, September 12th, 2010

I am barreling over the sandy terrain as fast as I possibly can. I am so pissed about being separated from Tyler in the middle of Mongolia, him having no idea where I am, that I secretly hope some of the bumps will cause Freddie to hit his head. ...

Driving at Night in Mongolia: Part Two

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

Green, blocky numbers glow faintly from our digital clock above the tape deck; the time reads 11:30 PM. We know better than this, why on Earth are we out here? We are lost in a maze of barely-lit tracks, exhausted, stupidly driving over the alrea...

Driving at Night in Mongolia: Part One

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

It is already wearing on us that we can't get anything accomplished with our writing. This doesn't bode well; we've only been in Mongolia for three days. Even though we've decided to throw ourselves into this new adventure without writing about i...

Exhausting

Sunday, September 5th, 2010

I knew the roads in Mongolia would be bad. I've seen pictures. I've heard first-hand accounts. I've even watched documentaries about people traveling over them! I was prepared for river crossings, giant potholes, deep ruts, car-eating sand, hug...

Fire on the Border

Friday, August 20th, 2010

I messed up when publishing our previous entry, Racing Through Russia's Heartland. It is fixed now! Tyler: While making our way back to the highway leading into Omsk, we spot a grey plume of smoke in the distance. I'm excited, because Russ...

Sick in Lapland

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

It must have been the questionably old chicken I had on my sandwich. Or I suppose it could have been the sweet, tangy addition of lingonberry sauce (like cranberry sauce). Either way, not long after we left the Amethyst mine, I began to feel sick...

Where is the Wallet!?

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

Why, do you think someone is going to leap in through our window while we sleep? That was Tyler's response to my concern about opening our street-level hostel window last night. I eyed the two-foot-deep window sill dubiously, and, with the sligh...

No Bikes Allowed: A Train Story, Part Two

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

12:29 AM Four hours since our train left us behind, we're back on platform three, waiting. A train whistle sounds in the distance, and people start filing across the rails to join us. The station agent who promised to help us is nowhere in sigh...

The Universe Provides

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

There are times on this trip when I question my abilities. Am I really capable of doing this? What are we even doing here? Why am I doing this? What is the value of this? These thoughts generally make a pronounced appearance when we are somewh...

Mud

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

I spent the bulk of the morning giving our bikes a rare and thorough cleaning. The muddy excuse for a bicycle path we'd pushed and ridden along yesterday had left them several pounds heavier, comprehensively caked with gloopy dirt which had dried ...

Bad Day to Belgrade

Friday, April 9th, 2010

While Tyler was completely zonkered out this morning, I cooked breakfast. It was a last-resort sort of meal, using the remains of an age-old bag of rice. While I cooked the white grains, he slept peacefully. As I stirred in vanilla, butter, hone...

Wet and Cold

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

A sickly drizzle of freezing rain patiently waited to receive us this morning. As we stuffed ourselves during our last continental breakfast at the Grand Hotel in Potenza, we were blissfully unaware of this fact. Another detail pleasantly among t...

Sandstorm

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

In central Tunisia this morning, it felt like spring was in the air. Tara was excited, snapping photos of the delicate little buds in celebration of the coming season. Here is her first "flower hour" of 2010. Shortly after 2PM, the o...

No.

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009

It is good to be on the road again. Everything has quickly fallen into sync: we had crepes for breakfast before breaking from our secluded free-camp this morning, saw a giant spider and then made our way down the road. Par for the course! ...

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

Most of the day wasn't bad. We narrowly escaped some rain while packing our olive grove free-camp and then had a lovely uneventful ride along the coast. Cycling just feet from the crashing waves, we occasionally felt salty spray from particularly...

Tuscan Thunder

Monday, September 14th, 2009

The morning began with a series of short but brutal hills; a not-so-gentle reminder that the Po River Valley is well behind us. The moment we reached the top of our first 200 meter climb the Tuscan sky opened up, ruthlessly hurling down heavy shee...

Ascending & Descending

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

We said farewell to Chur under overcast skies, thankful for the gray cloud cover that would hopefully stick around and protect us from the sun. A long sweaty day of climbing is a lot more enjoyable when the sun isn't beating down on your back. ...

Logistics

Monday, May 18th, 2009

This morning was really, really trying. The sky looked promsing as we hauled everything out of our wooded free-camp into the field we had sneaked into last night. Things quickly took a turn for the worse as we packed, when a front of dark clouds ...

Expedia's Awful Customer Service

Thursday, April 2nd, 2009

We booked our tickets on October, 31st 2008. In December of 2008, Iceland Air discontinued their direct flight from Reykjavik to Glasgow. Expedia contacted us and offered to refund our money or re-route us through London. When we looked up new f...