By the time Mark and I hit the road in Zesty, the end of July, summer had progressed a lot and I felt in a rush to reach our main destinations. Yet, we also needed to wind down, relax and forget about our stress and issues from before making this lifestyle switch. My blogging break helped a little bit, but our days were filled to the brim, either with driving, sightseeing, translation jobs, or catching up with internet chores (research, emails, …) Soon, I realized that I needed to let go of this internal pressure to get everywhere as soon as possible. That attitude allowed for spontaneous events and encounters to happen. If it would get too cold or rainy without reaching our sightseeing “goals” this summer, so be it!

Taggart Lake – photo from Mark’s phone to wish our twin nieces a happy 5th birthday

Upon arrival in the Grand Tetons area, Wyoming, Mark and I were in search of a free campsite, something that had been easy to come by the first weeks of our adventure. While driving in and over deep grooves and potholes on the dirt road, needing to back down a steep, bumpy hill and turning around a couple of times bottoming out, Zesty got pretty beaten up the first day. We swore to never do this again, as we settled in a dusty, shady spot for two nights. The last one in miles that was unoccupied.

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