Winter West 2022
CONFESSION:
Up until Ruby life, I have not really been a big road trip person.
I live by efficiency…mostly - except I love SE Asia which is most definitely the opposite of efficient - so hey, we all have exceptions. :p But who wants to spend hours and hours driving when they could just mindlessly fly and let someone else get them from point A to point B? I consider Ruby an exception because she offers so much more than a vehicle; we can literally pack up everything we need to work, sleep, and eat and have it with us at all times - no suitcases, no janky motels, no uncomfortable nights in a reclined passenger seat, and no Belgian waffles for breakfast.
But this Holiday season, we planned Christmas out in Washington state with Jake’s family as that’s where his brother’s fam lives. Flights were high (obviously), COVID was rampant (what’s new?), and it was winter. So Ruby was out due to winter driving and only being gone for a couple weeks (it’s 1,600 miles, EACH WAY - the kinda diesel expenses Ruby can’t even make up for), so Jaker's talked me into driving. And we hopped in the truck for a solid TWENTY FOUR hour drive ahead of us, may I remind you, each way.
[CONFESSION: the last time I did a 24 hour road trip was for college spring break to Panama City Beach - PCB, baby! I sat bit** seat in a tiny car with 4 big dudes.]
Once we hit North Dakota, we ran into winter weather conditions. The story of the trip was mostly this - low visibility, unknown pass closures, lots of snow, and likely storms rolling through ;D But it’s fine, it was only for 1,600 miles, each way. I can’t complain too much because Jake did all but maybe 2 hours of driving. I’m not confident on winter roads and let’s be honest, would have added hours to our ETA. We did the one-stop method on the way out - 2 long-ass 13 hour days on the road. But we made it safely & pulled into a yard LOADED with snow.
Contrary to typical “Decembers in Washington”, there were LOADS of snow on the ground. It was beautiful, but also extra-uncommon for snow to stick around in the Seattle area for more than a few hours. Lucky us had it with us the entire visit, with it all to melt within 4 days of leaving :P
I have to say it was gorgeous and added a really magical element to the trails. It also made some of the trails pretty treacherous - on one trail, if you stepped off trail, you’re entire lower half of your body got buried. CRAMPONS REQUIRED. Especially with all of the falls trails we did, there was a good amount of ice where crampons were definitely worth having.
We spent our time off hiking various trails in the area (HEART the Cascades so much), eating good food, playing elf dress-up, and even made it into the city for some tourist things like riding the Big Wheel (where I even got a glimpse of my FAVORITE mountain of all time - Rainier <3)
We decided to do a slow trek home (partially due to work) with some stops in the Montana mountains which we also love. We ended up leaving a bit earlier than planned because (no surprise) some storms were rolling in and the pass out of the city was getting worse and worse conditions. We dodged through in our #boss 4WD truck after it opened up one evening and made it across!
As you can expect, we booked a couple tiny houses to check out and have a cozy place to work from. Yes, yes, I know we are lucky we get to call these views work days. We got lots of #inspo for our own tiny house & lots of hours of our drive home was spent searching for land and planning our future dream cabin! <3
Working, mixed with puzzle building, walks through the woods, and cozy cabin nights <3 We also got another measly 10 inches of snow while we were in Spokane. Ain’t nothing we can’t do!
Even though the weather was GNARLY in Washington while we were there, it has a special place in our hearts and this trip was no exception <3 Can’t wait to go back, minus the white-out conditions :) It felt so so good to be out in the wild again.
Peace, love, and run with the wind,
yo’ girl Jen
