This is us – reimagined and redesigned for Life 2.0!

After reexamining a lifetime marked by traditional, safe, and sensible priorities, we are now exploring a new fate and lifestyle. A way of life where money, career choice, possessions, and social status matter less, and experiences, adventures, discoveries, growth, and connections matter more.

This is us re-discovering ourselves as a couple in our older, wiser, and more seasoned and achy bodies and souls. We are climbing those epic mountains and stepping outside of our comfort zones each and every day.

So why the blog…?

1. Wanderlust. I love to travel, adventure, and experience new cultures. Okay, who doesn’t? Duh
2. My gratitude for life, this planet, and especially those who occupy and wander upon it is boundless and inexhaustible! I want others to have similarly epic experiences of their own. And if not their own, then maybe, at the very least, I can offer a tiny escape via my own exploits and adventures. Ready to climb that next fourteener with me yet?
3. Making connections is my jam! Since sharing my travels, adventures, and challenges on social media, I have connected with many like-minded souls. I had no idea this alternative lifestyle existed and with so much fervor and prevalence. I have found my people. Hello you Crazy Cats! Meow
4. I enjoy writing but rarely make the time to do so. Welcome to my accountability pet project!

How we arrived here:

In 2019 our youngest daughter (I’ll call her “Audrey” ) left the nest for college. After perfecting my ugly cry face for five straight hours on what felt like the longest flight of my life home to CA from her university in Chicago, we made some crazy lifestyle changes.

We began by outfitting ourselves with a teardrop trailer, bringing our backpacking gear into the 21st century, purging too many years of stockpiled matter, working remotely (and less), and ultimately selling our cherished family home of 20 years!

Most importantly, we let the adventures, along with the uncertainties, begin! Our new empty nest was nothing AND everything to fear all at once.

With this blog, I hope to expose you to our new, little bit of crazy… our Life 2.0, where the goal is to – wake WANDER repeat – our way through the precious time we have left on this planet!

My goal is that you will want to tag along through this journey with us, reexamine your own priorities, and create your own unique adventures along the way.

Hopefully, it will inspire you to hike (and like!) a hike you’ve never hiked, attempt your first backpacking trip, or maybe even summit your first fourteener!

And maybe, just maybe, you will become inspired to live a less conforming and more active and minimalist lifestyle filled with wellness and nature.

If just one person, after reading my blog, thinks, “Yeah, this lifestyle could be for me,” all the self-doubt, late-night writing sessions, and internal struggles over which word to use will become 100% WORTH IT!!!

You in?