Utah
UT
Utah
UT

Population: 3.2 million
Capital: Salt Lake City
Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
Day 180: Travel Day | Bryce Canyon to Zion National Park, UT
Sunday, April 25, 2021Travel Day | Bryce Canyon to Zion National Park, UTODOMETER: 86,703 | TODAY'S MILES: 154 | TOTAL MILES TRAVELED: 8,493We had a tough, windy drive to Zion from Bryce this morning. Everyone was tired once we got there, so we stayed in and caught...
Day 179: Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
Saturday, April 24, 2021Bryce Canyon National Park, UTODOMETER: 86,5549 | TOTAL MILES TRAVELED: 8,339Today, we hiked the Hat Shop Trail at Bryce Canyon. This 7-mile hike features amazing balanced-rock hoodoo clusters along the trail's edge. The narrow orange pinnacles...
Day 177: Travel Day | Grand Canyon, AZ to Bryce Canyon, UT
Friday, April 23, 2021Travel Day | Grand Canyon, AZ to Bryce Canyon, UTODOMETER: 86,5549 | TODAY'S MILES: 145 | TOTAL MILES TRAVELED: 8,339In the morning, we set off for Utah's Bryce Canyon National Park. The first leg of the drive was along the rim of the Grand...
Zion National Park, UT
Day 183: Travel Day | Zion National Park to Moab, UT
Wednesday, April 28, 2021Travel Day | Zion National Park to Moab, UTODOMETER: 87,034 | TODAY'S MILES: 331 | TOTAL MILES TRAVELED: 8,824We had a long drive from Zion National Park to Moab, UT today. It took about 6 hours, but the drive was pretty stress-free and...
Day 182: Zion National Park, UT
Tuesday, April 27, 2021Zion National Park, UTODOMETER: 86,703 | TOTAL MILES TRAVELED: 8,493After school today, we went back into Zion National Park to do more exploring. The hike we planned on doing was super crowded, so we opted against it and instead found a back...
Day 181: Zion National Park, UT
Monday, April 26, 2021Zion National Park, UTODOMETER: 86,703 | TOTAL MILES TRAVELED: 8,493It was a beautiful, rainy day in Zion National Park, Utah. Zion’s geology features some of the tallest sandstone monoliths in the world. It was named “Zion” by Mormon pioneers...
Day 180: Travel Day | Bryce Canyon to Zion National Park, UT
Sunday, April 25, 2021Travel Day | Bryce Canyon to Zion National Park, UTODOMETER: 86,703 | TODAY'S MILES: 154 | TOTAL MILES TRAVELED: 8,493We had a tough, windy drive to Zion from Bryce this morning. Everyone was tired once we got there, so we stayed in and caught...
Moab, UT | Arches National Park
Day 187: Travel Day : Moab to Salt Lake City, UT
Sunday, May 2, 2021Travel Day | Moab to Salt Lake City, UTODOMETER: 87,358 | TODAY'S MILES: 240 | TOTAL MILES TRAVELED: 9,064Today was a travel day from Moab to Salt Lake City. It was about a 5-hour drive and was relatively stress-free and beautiful. We got to our...
Day 186: Moab, UT | Arches National Park
Saturday, May 1, 2021Arches National Park, UTODOMETER: 87,034 | TODAY'S MILES: 331 | TOTAL MILES TRAVELED: 8,824This afternoon, Grant Jack and I went for a run/ride in the desert. It was hot, windy and VERY dry. Some pretty tough conditions, but we made it.In the...
Day 185: Moab, UT | Arches National Park
Friday, April 30, 2021Arches National Park, UTODOMETER: 87,034 | TODAY'S MILES: 331 | TOTAL MILES TRAVELED: 8,824In order to avoid crowds, we set out for a sunset hike of Devil's Garden Trail in Arches. It did not disappoint and even though we didn't get back until...
Day 184: Moab, UT | Arches National Park
Thursday, April 29, 2021Arches National Park, UTODOMETER: 87,034 | TODAY'S MILES: 331 | TOTAL MILES TRAVELED: 8,824We visited Arches National Park this afternoon and it was truly spectacular. Arches National Park in Utah has the densest concentration of natural stone...
Day 183: Travel Day | Zion National Park to Moab, UT
Wednesday, April 28, 2021Travel Day | Zion National Park to Moab, UTODOMETER: 87,034 | TODAY'S MILES: 331 | TOTAL MILES TRAVELED: 8,824We had a long drive from Zion National Park to Moab, UT today. It took about 6 hours, but the drive was pretty stress-free and...
Salt Lake City
Day 192: Travel Day | Salt Lake City, UT to Idaho Falls, ID
Friday, May 7, 2021Travel Day | Salt Lake City, UT to Idaho Falls, IDODOMETER: 87,573 | TODAY'S MILES: 215 | TOTAL MILES TRAVELED: 9,388Today we traveled from Salt Lake City to Idaho Falls, ID on our way up to Yellowstone. The drive was 215 miles and we got to Idaho...
Day 191: Salt Lake City, UT
Thursday, May 6, 2021Salt Lake City, UTODOMETER: 87,358 | TOTAL MILES TRAVELED: 9,064Today was another school/work day, but we went out into the mountains in the afternoon for some fresh air, sunshine and nature. Jack took some photos and drone footage, it was...
Day 190: Salt Lake City, UT
Wednesday, May 5, 2021Salt Lake City, UTODOMETER: 87,358 | TOTAL MILES TRAVELED: 9,064After several days of long work hours and a lot of screen time, I was in desperate need of a run/ride today. We had a great time running up big hills with beautiful views of Salt...
Day 189: Salt Lake City, UT
Tuesday, May 4, 2021Salt Lake City, UTODOMETER: 87,358 | TOTAL MILES TRAVELED: 9,064Today was a school and work day. We also ran some errands and I washed the dogs as they were getting very stinky!instagramfacebookyoutubetwitterTravel...
Day 188: Salt Lake City, UT
Monday, May 3, 2021Salt Lake City, UTODOMETER: 87,358 | TOTAL MILES TRAVELED: 9,064Monday means school day and a very early wake up call for us all, given the time difference between the East Coast. Since we spent a few days boondocking in Moab, we didn't have a good...
Day 187: Travel Day : Moab to Salt Lake City, UT
Sunday, May 2, 2021Travel Day | Moab to Salt Lake City, UTODOMETER: 87,358 | TODAY'S MILES: 240 | TOTAL MILES TRAVELED: 9,064Today was a travel day from Moab to Salt Lake City. It was about a 5-hour drive and was relatively stress-free and beautiful. We got to our...
Our Trip
Trip
Our Trip
Trip

Travel Diary
Travel
Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Leg 4: Fiji to Brisbane Passage
Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Leg 4: Fiji to Brisbane Passageinstagramfacebookyoutubetwitter A Long-Awaited Departure After having waited in French Polynesia for two and a half months, we excitedly sailed out of Bora Bora around 7:30 am on Saturday, September 4th....
Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Leg 3: Bora Bora to Fiji Passage
After having waited in French Polynesia for two and a half months, we excitedly sailed out of Bora Bora around 7:30 am on Saturday, September 4th. Like the rest of French Polynesia, Bora Bora was in COVID lockdown, and we had spent the last week waiting for our departure paperwork to go through all the requisite bureaucratic channels. This required multiple trips to the local gendarmerie (police station), where Grant quickly befriended the two kind and helpful officers, Alex and Bruno.
Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Leg 2: Mo’orea to Bora Bora
It took us about 24 hours to get from Mo’orea to Bora Bora on August 28 2021. Like the rest of French Polynesia, Bora Bora was in COVID lockdown, and we spent a week there waiting for our departure paperwork to go through all the requisite bureaucratic channels. This required multiple trips to the local gendarmerie (police station), where Grant quickly befriended the two kind and helpful officers, Alex and Bruno.
We made trips to get water, fuel and provisions, but apart from that we had to stay on the boat. We passed the time snorkeling (saw a giant moray eel!) and inventing new water sports.
Once we received our exit paperwork, we were finally free to leave for Fiji.
Reflections
Reflections
Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Leg 4: Fiji to Brisbane Passage
Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Leg 4: Fiji to Brisbane Passageinstagramfacebookyoutubetwitter A Long-Awaited Departure After having waited in French Polynesia for two and a half months, we excitedly sailed out of Bora Bora around 7:30 am on Saturday, September 4th....
Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Leg 3: Bora Bora to Fiji Passage
After having waited in French Polynesia for two and a half months, we excitedly sailed out of Bora Bora around 7:30 am on Saturday, September 4th. Like the rest of French Polynesia, Bora Bora was in COVID lockdown, and we had spent the last week waiting for our departure paperwork to go through all the requisite bureaucratic channels. This required multiple trips to the local gendarmerie (police station), where Grant quickly befriended the two kind and helpful officers, Alex and Bruno.
Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Leg 2: Mo’orea to Bora Bora
It took us about 24 hours to get from Mo’orea to Bora Bora on August 28 2021. Like the rest of French Polynesia, Bora Bora was in COVID lockdown, and we spent a week there waiting for our departure paperwork to go through all the requisite bureaucratic channels. This required multiple trips to the local gendarmerie (police station), where Grant quickly befriended the two kind and helpful officers, Alex and Bruno.
We made trips to get water, fuel and provisions, but apart from that we had to stay on the boat. We passed the time snorkeling (saw a giant moray eel!) and inventing new water sports.
Once we received our exit paperwork, we were finally free to leave for Fiji.
After one year and ten days, we were finally reunited with our puppies, 10-year-old Labradoodles, Mackie and Paigie, and 4-year-old Great Dane, Phoebe.
We are greatly enjoying regular trips to the Sunshine Coast to visit our family. The Queensland weather continues to be beautiful and allows us to spend time outside every day. The beach is always one of our favorite places, and when you see a creek running into the ocean, you have to build a dam!
This is our neighborhood in Brisbane, about 300 meters from the Brisbane River. After 5 days of sustained heavy rain, areas of Brisbane are under water. The water levels are very close to our house, but if the forecast holds we should be ok.
In the summer of 2020, as COVID was raging through the world, we decided to sell our home in Virginia, move into a 40-foot motorhome named "Thelma," hitch our Jeep "Louise" to her and hit the road.
We had no idea where we were going or how long we'd be traveling. Our kids, Jack, then 16, and Ellie, then 14, were doing school virtually and us parents were working remotely. Mackie, Paigie, and Phoebe had lived their whole lives on our property and we had no idea how they would fare in a "tiny house on wheels" living situation.
We traveled 10,000 miles through 21 states, visited 11 National Parks and spent 3 months over the winter living on the beach in Mexico. It was a trip of a lifetime and we loved it.
In June 2021, we sold Thelma and Louise and bought Hanavave, a 38-foot 2002 Fountaine Pajot catamaran in Tahiti. We decided to relocate our family to Australia, but at the time the only way to get there was by boat.
The puppies had to stay in Washington State and begin the long and cumbersome importation process into Australia. The minimum period is 6 months since the first test and since we had begun the process two months before, we figured that we were saying goodbye for a maximum of four months. It was a very difficult decision, but their caretaker, Colleen, is an amazing lady and we knew that she would take wonderful care of them. Saying goodbye to the puppies was one of the hardest things our family has ever had to do.
Little did we know that it would be a year and ten days before we'd see them again.
Our sailing trip was complicated by the fact that as soon as we arrived in Tahiti, all ports in the South Pacific closed due to the quickly-spreading Delta variant of COVID. This meant that instead of island hopping, we had to make long passages to Australia and there was a lot to be done on Hanavave to prepare her for that journey. We made it to Brisbane in mid-October, but it would take another 8 long months to get the puppies to Australia.
They arrived on June 1, a year to the day we left them.
📷 @jack_gamble_shoots
TRAVEL WITH US!
We are currently sailing the South Pacific to Australia.
Thank you for joining us, have a great day!