It's a non-stop adventure on this party train!
Hey there, Kayla here. I am the female half of @WhereToExploreNext, and I am so excited to begin our blog and start sharing our life and adventures with you!
I am embarrassed to admit that we've had this website for over a year now, and it has taken me this long to write our first blog post. Truthfully I love writing and I always seem to have a lot to say; what's held me back for so long is the question of, "Where to begin?" because there are a lot of layers to who we are:
- For starters, we live in a tiny house on wheels (IG: @HomeIsWhereHankIs) - a dream we'd been working towards for several years, that is now a new adventure for us and we're dying to discuss it!
- Whether camping, hiking, or off-roading in the Jeep, we love nature and we love to explore - hence our name.
- We travel when we can and we feel that we have tips to share from time to time too, like some of our favorite campsites, or amazing lesser-known places to explore.
So you can see that finding the right topic to start our blog on has been difficult for me to decide. Today I've decided that the question of where to begin has kept me frozen for far too long, so I'm beginning by introducing us and giving you some background information as to who we are. Where this blog takes us from here will just happen naturally, I suppose...
As I mentioned earlier, I am Kayla and my better half is Daniel. We are a couple currently living in Nevada near Lake Tahoe. We have been together for about 4 1/2 years. It's fair to say that neither of us had any clue to the adventure that we were embarking on when we first met! The Universe has a way of aligning us with our hearts' desires and now here we are - madly in love and living our dreams! Daniel proposed to me last September and we are currently in the process of planning our adventure elopement in Yosemite this fall. Every single day together has been one of a love adventure!
Daniel is a full time professional photographer - he just transitioned from working solely for himself for nearly 5 years, to now shooting as a staff photographer for a Kitchen and Bath company during the week and his own projects in his spare time; he's absolutely loving it! I on the other hand, just accepted a job as a train conductor - really, yes really! It has been a rigorous application process from background check, to drug tests, to DOT physical exam, to strength test... but I finally begin training in a couple of weeks and I couldn't be more excited! I cannot wait to see where both of our new careers take us in the future!
One thing you'll quickly learn about me is that I am one of the most positive people you'll ever meet - maybe annoyingly so. I live by the Law of Attraction and I firmly believe that we can have, be and do anything our hearts desire, if we just trust, have patience and believe! I am an extremely goal focused individual and as such, I am constantly working towards our next achievement - whether it's scoring impossible permits to an epic location, manifesting my dream job, or moving to our dream location. I have countless evidence to prove we can manifest our desires - For starters, last year we accomplished two huge goals of ours: moving to the Lake Tahoe area (from Sedona), and transitioning to Tiny House Living! In October we had the unique opportunity to purchase an M932A2 military truck tiny house conversion, which we made a few renovations to and have been living in full time ever since.
Currently our tiny house on wheels (Handsome Hank) is permanently parked where we have access to shore power, water, sewer and internet. Hank has everything we need: a tiny kitchen, full bathroom with composting toilet, a small closet, pantry, wood burning stove and loft sleeping area. It's approximately 160 square feet of living space, which is perfect for two people in love, and much more space than if we were living traditional 'vanlife'. One day we plan to take Hank on the road for some of our adventures but we have some projects to take care of first. In the meantime we enjoy traveling in the bad-ass Jeep Wrangler Daniel built out, and we take along our rooftop tent. If you'd like to learn more about our tiny house check out our page for Handsome Hank.
One aspect of our adventures that we really enjoy is being able to partner with some amazing brands that fit with our active lifestyle. We only work with brands we love and we're honest about our collaborations. We have been able to partner with dozens of brands for everything from apparel, to shoes, to mattresses, to camping and outdoor gear, to appliances and everything in between. We love collaborating because it stretches us creatively, and we don't just take pretty pictures, we LIVE the lifestyle! If you're curious about some of our past collaborations you can check out our Brand Collaborations page here.
So that's us in a nutshell. You'll learn overtime that we're silly and quirky, and we just don't take life too seriously. From our very first date, which was enjoying some wine in the mountains under the stars, adventure has been at the forefront of our relationship and our lives. We have so much we want to share with you, and cannot wait to bring you along on our journey! I will be posting a new blog post every Friday so check back soon. Also, if you don't mind, drop us a comment below so we know you stopped by, and so that we can get to know you too!
Your friends,
Kayla (and Daniel)
P.S. Let us know if there's anything in particular you'd like us to discuss or talk about here let us know. We look forward to your comments, suggestions and interaction!