El Lobo Solitario

Before I get too far into this bit of rambling today, I want to clear the air. Yes it's true, we were just in our hometown of Seattle for a quick couple of days. I've already gotten enough emails, phone calls, and texts with an upset tinge to them, asking why we didn't visit, and I don't need anymore. So, just to make sure that we are on the same page here, it's not that we don't like you anymore, it's not that we don't care, and it's not that we didn't want to see you – it's because we just didn't have enough time to squeeze everyone in. Again, we were only there for a couple of days. Sorry. Get over it.

The other thing I want to mention is that even though we are in the great US of A, the land of the connected, we have actually had the same or even less phone and internet access as we had in Mexico during our road trip, so updates will probably be a little behind the times. Again, sorry, and get over it.

Why did we come to Seattle then, if it wasn't to see all of our family and friends? Well, there were 3 simple reasons.

1. Spruce up our Home-on-wheels.

Since most of the places we are trying to see for the next few months involves getting off the beaten path, our newly acquired SUV needed to get jacked up. Even though our rolling residence has 4 wheel drive, ground clearance hasn't quite been up to snuff. In trying to get to some of the natural wonders and hiking trails we've been craving, we've already drug bottom, scraped our way up rough roads, and even had to turn around when the roads were too gnarly. As you can guess, turning around doesn't always make us too excited, especially when we've already driven miles out of our way to see a sight. Since we get our mail in Seattle, we ordered a lift kit to our mail box, we went to a friends house and borrowed his tools, muscles, and driveway, and then made our little SUV a little bit taller with a lift kit and big ol' tires (and yes, it now looks a little bit more hillbilly). And because we are now jacked up, I am writing this bit of nonsense as the sun is rising on the tippety-top of Black Mountain in southeastern Oregon (a place we couldn't have gotten without a little redneck style 4wheel driving with our big ol' tires and lift kit).

2. Pick up the Wolff at the airport in Seattle.

No, Wolff isn't a big hairy dog that lives in the woods (although he is hairy and sometimes smells like a dog). Wolff is our German friend who has flown into Seattle to join us on our road trip for a few weeks.

I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again – the best part of our big adventure has been the people we've met along the way. And Wolff is one of those people. If you've watched our YouTube video series, then you've undoubtedly seen Wolff in a handful of episodes. We met the solo sailor (el lobo solitario) in a Mexican anchorage somewhere on the Pacific side of the Baja Peninsula and quickly became friends. We spent a few months buddy boating around and eating tacos before parting ways when we decided to go to southern Mexico last winter and he continued north into the Sea of Cortez.

Wolff stored his boat and flew back to his home country for Mexico's unbearable summer season and to find a bit of work to re-stock the cruising kitty. When we found out he had a few weeks to kill before his job started, we offered up a spot in our rolling adventure wagon. A quick couple of hours after we made the offer, a text popped up on my phone with a picture of a plane ticket from Germany to Seattle in a few days, with a caption that read “be careful of what you offer!” That meant we had to get our butts in gear and get to Seattle, take care of item number 1, figure out how to fit him into our adventure wagon with all of our stuff, and then take care of item number 3, which is this:

3. Visit Mom.

It probably comes as no surprise that I'm a Momma's boy, so, If I am in Seattle, I'm going to see my Mommy. It's important. And if she was sitting here next to me right now, she would make it perfectly clear that if I'm in Seattle, there is really only one person that NEEDS to be visited. You guessed it, it's dear ol' Mom. So, those of you who have been whining that I didn't make the effort to stop by and say hi, take it up with my Mom...and good luck with that.

After those 3 simple things were taken care of, we were outta there. Seattle is now in our rear view mirror and we are off to see new and exciting things with El Lobo Solitario in the back seat of our rolling residence.

Where are we heading you ask? Well, that's a pretty good question. We are first heading southeast to get a good view of the Lunar Eclipse, hopefully on top of some mountain in the middle of nowhere. After that, we are shooting for Glacier National Park with stops along the way at anything and everything that catches our eye. Glacier is one of the few National Parks in the western half of the United States that we missed during our last big road trip, so it's high on our list of must see's this time around. Even though we really want to get there, we really have no agenda or time frame. We don't have anywhere we need to be and we have no time we need to be there. We are planning on returning to the boat this fall and making our way to Central America, but at this point, we have no return ticket. We'll get there when we get there.

UPDATE: We came, we saw, we conquered. The 2017 Eclipsagedan is now officially behind us. We watched from somewhere in the Sawtooth Mountains in Southeastern Idaho and couldn't have had a better view. It was definitely worth the drive.