Letters From the Road Podcast

LFTR Episode 56 - We’re back home but now have a big shiny object in the driveway (and a new friend or two living with us). The OG LFTR recording studio (Flo the airstream) is back! We review the rest of our time in Lake Tahoe and the drive back, and discuss the idea of living (or wanting) two different lives.

Highlights include:

* Heavenly in Lake Tahoe pt. 2

* Moguls are my nemesis

* Skiing in two states

* We had to stay in Tahoe til Saturday (darn)

* If anyone wants mens 11 snowboard boots hit me up

* A beautiful and semi-sketch drive through northeastern Cali on narrow mountain roads in the snow

* A missing piece

* Our refueling habits

* “We were so high in front one time”

* Dump at rest areas in Washington

* Where does Flo go?

* Our little friend

* Quiet country life vs small town life

* “Our valley”

* Jamie’s always a little spooky and had an albino rat

* Having a house and RV is right for now

* RVing is just easy (especially with kids and dogs)

* “We were going into debt for travel long before we had an RV”

* We wouldn’t be where we were without doing full time travel

* The many lives of… basically everyone

* I just don’t want to be stuck

* Pet rattlesnake area

* “The Palm Springs of Washington”

* Jamie and Clay complain about taxes

Links:

* Heavenly Ski Resort (and a trail map if you want to follow along)

* DIY Home Center (California)

* Over The Edge Taphouse (HH in Crooked River Ranch, OR)

* Washington Rest Areas

Thanks for listening! As always you can find LFTR at http://lettersfromtheroadpod.com, and you can email us at [email protected]. Find us on socials @lettersfromtheroadpod! If you feel like kicking us a few bucks because you like what we do you can Become a PenPal and chat with us and others in the PenPals Discord.

LFTR Episode 55 - We did it, friends! We got back into the Airstream and took it to Lake Tahoe! We discuss the timely topic of Turning Chores into Adventures and being ready for adventure anytime.

Highlights include:

* KOA Cabin review

* Pineapple Chicken Recipe

* Hey friends - most of Nevada is mountains!

* Midnight bathroom needs

* Flo is good to go!

* The drive from Vegas to Tahoe

* Our first Tahoe ski day

* Are we just easily distracted, or do we stop to smell the roses?

* Finding the fun in our daily activities

* Stop in the pull off, take the detour!

* Tacking adventures onto family and work trips

* Don’t go to the Corn Palace

* Chore Stacking

* All the parking lots we’ve squeezed into

Links:

* Bachan’s Japanese Barbecue Sauce

* Kelty Tru.Comfort Doublewide 20

* Shoshone Falls

* Cathedral Gorge Miller’s Point Overlook

* Goldfield Miner’s Camp RV Park

* Heavenly Ski Resort (and a trail map if you want to follow along)

* Rock House Discount Ski and Snowboard Rentals

Thanks for listening! As always you can find LFTR at http://lettersfromtheroadpod.com, and you can email us at [email protected]. Find us on socials @lettersfromtheroadpod! If you feel like kicking us a few bucks because you like what we do you can Become a PenPal and chat with us and others in the PenPals Discord.

LFTR Episode 54 - We’re back in travel mode and we’re ready to go! On this official, for real, actual one year anniversary episode we’re talking about our favorite LFTRs from our first year. We also can’t contain our excitement about our city weekend in Seattle for oldest’s birthday, and we bring you the highlights.

Highlights include:

* You’re not obligated to chat with us if you become a PenPal (but please do)

* Who wants maraschino cherries?

* Parking the dually in downtown Seattle

* Did you go to Seattle if you didn’t ride a ferry?

* Food and fun in Seattle

* Cherry Blossoms at UW

* LFTR is… an exvangelical, outdoorsy, post-pandemic mid-life crisis?

* How LFTR came to be

* The next year of our travels and LFTR

* Getting silly with bears, wind and pants off dance off

* Just go and see / It’s ok to like things

* Heavier things

Links:

* W Seattle

* Spot Hero

* VAIN Capitol Hill

* Mighty-O Donuts

* Proper Fish

* Fay Bainbridge Park Campground

* GameWorks

* Ooink

* Salt & Straw

* Shultzy’s

Thanks for listening! As always you can find LFTR at http://lettersfromtheroadpod.com, and you can email us at [email protected]. Find us on socials @lettersfromtheroadpod! If you feel like kicking us a few bucks because you like what we do you can Become a PenPal and chat with us and others in the PenPals Discord.

LFTR Episode 53 - This week Jamie’s a little sick, but it couldn’t keep us from talking into your ears through our microphones, whether you like it or not. We look back on our time in Vegas for Thanksgiving 2022, dropping off the Cougar and buying the Airstream. Then we bring the feels back in force with Always Leaving - the bittersweet reality that with every new adventure the previous one is history.

Highlights include:

* End-of-the-semester sick

* Drinks that are snacks

* Vegas is actually pretty ok

* Fixing the Cougar fiasco

* Airstream purchase woes

* We love no slides

* Airstream “wind tunnel” test

* The peace of embracing change

* Leaving a memory in the past honors it

* Saying yes when you can

* LFTR is really just a way to make friends!

* Is our whole life a cruise?

* Why? Why not?

Links:

* Enchantment Park Trails

* Rhein Haus Leavenworth

* Red Rock Canyon Las Vegas

* Valley of Fire SP

* Lone Mountain Trail

* Cirque du Soleil KÀ

* Meow Wolf Omega Mart Las Vegas

* Oasis Las Vegas RV Resort

* Las Vegas KOA Journey at Sam’s Town

* Wingspan and the Wingspan computer game

Thanks for listening! As always you can find LFTR at http://lettersfromtheroadpod.com, and you can email us at [email protected]. Find us on socials @lettersfromtheroadpod! If you feel like kicking us a few bucks because you like what we do you can Become a PenPal and chat with us and others in the PenPals Discord.

LFTR Episode 52 - On this 1 year anniversary of LFTR we take a break from feelings and talk about all our favorite clothes and gear for road life. Nearing the end of our 2022 travel flashback we talk about the strange but beautiful Lake Havasu, AZ. The letter this week was Clothes where Jamie reveals the dirty secret that she loves clothes.

NOTE: Not a sponsored episode. We’ll link you our favorites here because we like them and you might too, but we are not getting any of it free or getting paid referrals. If you want to support us, Become a PenPal and then you can join our Discord too!

Highlights include:

* 52 freaking weeks of this show!

* Is Campari good at all? Maybe with Oreos.

* Preview of our route to pick up the Airstream and staying in Tahoe

* Make sure to have your own things

* Friends to push you and friends to push

* The cheesiness that is Lake Havasu City, AZ

* Arizona’s trails are top notch

* Our favorite clothes and gear for getting out on the road

Places:

* Cattail Cove State Park

* modern Laundromat Lake Havasu City

* London Bridge (Lake Havasu City, AZ)

* SARA(’s) Crack Trail

Clothes:

* Patagonia - Baggies, Fleetwith Jumpsuit, Barely Bra

* LL Bean - Mountain Classic Anorak

* Vuori

* REI - Kids Sahara Pants

* Title Nine

* Weber’s Resupply

* Chacos

* Lowa Boots

* Prana - Stretch Zion Pants

* Eddie Bauer Favorite Flannel

* Coalatree Trailhead Pants

* Outdoor Research Snowcrew Bibs

Gear:

* Woods Mammoth Chair (Canada only now!! - Canadian Tire, not Discount Tire like we accidentally said in the show)

* Mountain Summit Gear Rolltop Tables

* Kelty Low Loveseat, Bestie Blanket

* CGEAR Sand Free Camping Mat

* NEMO Victory Blanket

* Solo Stove Bonfire

* YETI Tundra 45 Cooler, Replacement Toggles, Rambler Mugs

* Gazelle G6 Gazebo

* Gorilla Grip Moisture Absorbent Door Mat

* Gold Case Turkish Towels

* Husky 12 gal waterproof storage container

* Store your Starlink Dishy in a Husky bin

* Melitta Thermal Pour Over

* Coleman Cascade 222 Camp Stove

* Ignik Gas Growler

* Wealers Camping Cookware Set

* Barebones Enamelware

Truck Build:

* Yakima OverHaul HD System, Tonneau Kit, SkinnyWarrior Cargo Basket, HighRoad Bike Mount, FrontLoader Bike Mount

* RetraxPRO XR Tonneau Cover

Thanks for listening! As always you can find LFTR at

http://lettersfromtheroadpod.com

, and you can email us at [email protected]. Find us on socials @lettersfromtheroadpod! If you feel like kicking us a few bucks because you like what we do you can Become a PenPal and chat with us and others in the PenPals Discord.

LFTR Episode 51 - We’re embarrassing ourselves this week. Well, we always do that but this time we acknowledge it. We pick up our 2021 travel flashback where we have a brief haunted interlude in New Mexico before kicking back in Tucson at the KOA where we celebrated birthdays and visited Saguaro NP. The letter this week was Embarrassment where we discuss what it takes to embarrass us, and how embarrassment has changed as we have.

Highlights include:

* Why oh wye?

* Deming, NM is haunted, complete with dolls

* Tucson KOA is an RV Resort that actually is

* Saguaro NP is so pretty every time we’ve been

* It takes a (RV) village to find a lost chihuahua in the desert

* Jamie fails to get ON the ski lift prompting this episode

* Everyone’s watching you back into your site

* Clay will (never) be the guy popping up to help you back into your site

* It isn’t embarrassing being new at stuff! You’re out there trying new things!

* “You too”

* You are not defined by the one thing you mess up

* Clay’s embarrassing holey robe

* Is RVing embarrassing?

* Spend time with people who leave you lifted up not put down

Links:

* Tucson KOA

* Saguaro National Park

Thanks for listening! As always you can find LFTR at http://lettersfromtheroadpod.com, and you can email us at [email protected]. Find us on socials @lettersfromtheroadpod! If you feel like kicking us a few bucks because you like what we do you can Become a PenPal and chat with us and others in the PenPals Discord.

Welcome to episode 50 of LFTR where we discuss the singular joy that is a mountain road, and some of our favorite mountain roads from our travels. Our travel recap this week continues with our time in City of Rock State Park. Highlights include:

* A surprisingly delicious cocktail that we are LTTP for - Aperol Spritz

* Tips for choosing campsites you fit in (and City of Rocks fail)

* Sometimes giving up is the right choice

* Racing the sun in the Monongahela

* Monarch pass was our first mountain pass with the big rig

* How Jamie learned to love big trucks

* Surprise snow and how to handle it

* New Priest Grade near Yosemite NP even freaked us out a little, but it’s GORGEOUS (no pun intended)

* Next time we drive Kancamagus we’ll do it with a smaller rig and in the fall

* The difference between fine and fun

* Eff fog (and wind)

Links:

* Aperol Spritz

* Bavarian Bakery

* City of Rocks SP, NM

* New Priest Grade Road, CA

* Kancamagus Highway, NH

Welcome to episode 49 of LFTR where we’re talking about what it means to be stationary, our new home base, why we chose to have a home base again, why we chose this home base, and how it enables our continued adventures. Our travel recap this week continues with our time in Alamogordo, New Mexico and White Sands National Park. Highlights include:

* Waking up to roosters

* Everything is better with hatch chili

* Closing down White Sands National Park

* We’re not getting off the road, we can’t. The road is part of us

* But we like having a home town again

* If you have a window to do a thing you want to do, just do it!

* It’s surprisingly hard to stay active while traveling full time

* Road fatigue is real, especially when your travel is indefinite

* Is it easier to deep clean your RV, or just get a new RV?

* The PNW especially in the mountains is where all of us road/van lifers end up staying for a reason

* We think we actually need cold winters for our family

* Is the rat race over post-COVID?

Links:

* Oliver Lee Memorial Park

* White Sands National Park

* Osha trail

* World’s Largest Pistachio

* Old Apple Barn

* Cloudcroft Brewing

LFTR Episode 48 - We’re gonna make you confident! Confident at least that we started this show three times and the third time's the charm. We start with a tangent about the Wicked movie (apparently movies?), reveal our unsurprising news that we got a “sticks and bricks” in Leavenworth, and jump into how freaking amazing New Mexican food is as we continue our review of our 2022 travels.

Highlights include:

* What’s in the second half of Wicked anyway?

* It’s already IPA season and we’re not mad

* The perfect Leavenworth Sunday morning includes coffee, biscuits, pastries and alpenhorns

* We’re getting a house in Leavenworth (but still RVing!)

* Mountain town shit (like blowing up boulders at 7am)

* Meow Wolf is trippy interactive art exploration where you go into an alternate universe and solve puzzles

* The infamous night of three dinners in Santa Fe

* Confidence is built on uncertainty

* Giving a speech is awful (unlike doing a podcast)

* Do it scared

* “Bingo energy” and making friends is hard

Links:

* Argonaut Coffee and Biscuits

* Bavarian Bakery

* Meow Wolf Santa Fe

* Mac Santa Fe

* Hervé

* The Shed

* Elyse Myers - Just do it… anxious

Thanks for listening! As always you can find LFTR at

http://lettersfromtheroadpod.com

, and you can email us at [email protected]. Find us on socials @lettersfromtheroadpod! If you feel like kicking us a few bucks because you like what we do you can Become a PenPal and chat with us and others in the PenPals Discord.

LFTR Episode 47 - We reminisce about running wild (now and as kids) and what that means for our family today. We also talk about some birthday fun and start into our amazing Oct. 2022 in New Mexico with our trip to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.

Highlights include:

* Gin & Tonics - does the gin matter?

* Littlest’s birthday weekend

* Working nights at the ski resort

* Mimosas on the roof of the RV at the Balloon Fiesta

* Other Albuquerque highlights (see links)

* Responsibility and independence with age appropriate freedoms

* Grown ups can play together too

* Our wet hot midwest summer to come

* Letting kids take smart risks

* Alex Honnold and “kids like that”

Links:

* Gill St (lol)

* Stevens Pass

* Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

* Tin Can Alley

* Stone Age Climbing Gym

* Valles Caldera National Preserve

* Bandelier National Monument

* Albuquerque KOA

* Sandia Crest

* Santa Cruz Redwoods RV Resort

* @coleyraeh on Instagram