I was still waiting for my new engine to arrive and I was getting used to calling the Mercedes Benz dealership outside of Salt Lake City my “home.”
I had my dog on almost every kind of pill out there to hopefully help with what may or may not be a parasite or bacterial infection, and she had just gotten a Mercedes bath.
Meanwhile, I had gone on a wonderful first date with a guy living the “bus life,” and he already wanted to make plans again. So, while my circumstances were certainly difficult, things were looking up.
During this time, one of my favorite van friends was coming through town. You can check out her page here. I love meeting people on the road, but with an entire continent to call home, it’s easy to never cross paths again.
I had seen her right before I went on my detour to Texas. We spent a cold night in Flagstaff and enjoyed a pancake and beermosa brunch while our dogs both ignored each other. It was so wonderful to grab lunch with her as she came through Salt Lake City.
I saw the bus guy again that evening. I was worried about leaving Dakota for long periods of time, especially once her nausea shot wore off, so he offered to come and hang out with me in the van. I cooked dinner and he brought over a board game, which we never even took out of the bag because the conversation never died down long enough to need something to do. In fact, we still have never played that board game.
Dakota wasn’t doing much better. Once the nausea shot wore off, she went back to getting sick and struggling to eat. She ended up back at the vet two days later for x-rays.
As I was sitting in the waiting area, the vet came in to talk to me. She said they happened to have their ultrasound tech in the office that day, which would allow us to do an ultrasound instead. It was twice as expensive as the x-ray, but it would probably provide us with more information. If there wasn’t an obstruction, the x-ray wouldn’t tell us much.
I made the choice to go ahead with the ultrasound instead. I would have hated to do the x-ray and find nothing, only to have to schedule an ultrasound as the next step. I left Dakota there for the day and they planned to get started as soon as they could.
As soon as I pulled away from the vet, I burst into tears. I had been so strong through it all, the broken van, the breakup, and now Dakota not feeling well, but this was the last straw. The thought that this might be something more serious was too much for me to handle.
I met back up with the bus guy, whose company I was really enjoying. We went for a little hike in a spot where I’d still have cell service in case the vet called. The distraction was nice, and it wasn’t long before I heard from the vet.
They told me that I had made the right decision by opting for the ultrasound because the x-ray wouldn’t have shown us anything. All of her organs looked great, but her GI tract was severely inflamed. They weren’t sure of the cause, so they wanted to treat her for a wide range of parasites and infection. We’d monitor her for a few weeks, and if she still wasn’t feeling better then they’d do a biopsy of her intestines.
I went and picked her up and my heart broke to see her newly shaved belly. It seems she can’t go too long without some body part being shaved.
The next day, it was time for some adventure. I knew how badly I needed to be outside and away from the parking lot for a bit. Our bus chariot arrived to pick us up, and we spent the afternoon having a spontaneous hiking adventure to a waterfall with both of our dogs. Dakota ran and played, and my heart nearly burst to watch her feeling like herself again.
The next few days were filled with bus adventures, hikes with our dogs, sunsets from the rooftop deck, and a new hobby: rock climbing.
One afternoon, we took our dogs to a trail for a little hike. Dakota had been feeling much better and her symptoms were nearly gone at this point, so we were back to getting in as much adventure as possible. The dogs were getting used to each other still, which meant a LOT of wrestling. His dog liked to torment Dakota while they were in the bus, so now that we were on the trail and had them both off-leash, it was time for Dakota to get revenge.
Dakota chased his dog, R2, up and down the trail, flipping him over to the ground and showing him who’s in charge. They were running back and forth until Dakota bumped R2 and I watched him fall off the edge of the trail into an irrigation system in the river.
The walls of it were too high for him to jump out and he was being pulled toward a door that adjusted the water flow. At that point, he’d either get stuck or get forced under. I yelled out and watched as this guy sprang so quickly into action, jumping up onto the wall and grabbing his dog out of the water before I could even think about what to do.
R2 balanced safely on the wall with him as we all just stood there, catching our breath. And then for some reason, I started to cry. It was probably because I was already a little unstable from everything I had been going through and watching a dog nearly die was just more than I could process. I was embarrassed to be crying about his dog, who was now completely fine, but I just couldn’t help it. Luckily, my weird reaction didn’t scare him away.
During this time, my sister also had a baby. A baby boy named Charlie. I was an aunt again (my step-brother has a child, so I’ve been Aunt Jenny for a while) and I was so excited for my sister and her little family. It’s times like these that being so far away is really hard, but I’d be meeting him in just a few weeks at a family wedding.
Soon, the news I had been anticipating finally came. The new engine had arrived. I wouldn’t be able to sleep in the van for a few days, but fortunately, I knew a guy with a bus who had some extra room. We did our best to find nice places to stay, but Salt Lake City and the surrounding areas are actually pretty awful for free camping. We spent a couple of nights at a trailhead, which offered up some great views and hiking right out the front door.
This trailhead was a crowded spot for teens to come and park though, so one night after falling asleep, I awoke to loud banging on the door of the bus and then footsteps running off, laughing in the distance, and then a car peeling away. We managed to get “doorbell ditched” without even having a doorbell.
After my heart stopped racing, I fell back to sleep. It wasn’t too long though before I woke to another knocking at the door, this time it was a cop. Even though we had already slept here 2 other nights, he came to tell us there was no camping allowed in this lot (it’s hard to not appear to be camping when you have a gigantic bus). Apparently, there had been a sign on the other side of the lot indicating that the nearby park was closed overnight, and that was enough reason to not allow us to park here. We didn’t argue of course and drove the bus away at 2 am to find a different place for the night.
During his stay in Utah, he had been parking at a friend’s house, which wasn’t far from the trailhead we had been kicked out of, so we had a nearby place to stay.
The news on my van was that it would take 2 days to get the engine done. We had plans to travel to Idaho for the weekend for a trail race that he (who from here on out, we’ll refer to as my boyfriend) would be running. I hoped to have the van by then, but the day before we left, I got a call saying it was taking longer than expected and they needed to make sure it passed all inspections before they could hand it off to me, so there would be no rushing it.
So, the next day, we set off for Idaho in the bus. The race was near Pocatello, which is actually the only spot in Idaho that I’ve spent time in before.
His mom, who is an incredible ultrarunner as well, was running the race too. She joined us for some hiking adventures and we all enjoyed cooking dinner in the bus together.
On the day of the race, I dropped them both off at the start line and watched them take off. The race had 3 distance options: 21, 50, and 100 miles. Shortly after they began their 21-mile journey, the first 100-mile finisher was getting close to finishing, so I stuck around to watch him wobble across the finish line.
I’ve done a lot of racing in my lifetime, and it isn’t often that I’m the spectator, so I was feeling an immense amount of race envy. Feeling inspired by my boyfriend and his mom, I set out with Dakota for a short trail run.
Not too long into our adventure, Dakota jumped off the trail and immediately rolled on the ground. Before I could do anything about it, she stood back up and came running back over to me, covered in a green, smelly substance. As soon as she ran past me, I could smell the foul odor that all too often accompanies my dog after she has rolled in something.
This is always unfortunate, but it’s extra unfortunate when you’re staying in the bus of someone you’re still trying to impress. Luckily, he was out racing so I had some time to figure out my plan before he’d be finished. His bus has a shower, but I couldn’t put my poop dog in his shower, let alone in his bus at all. I also knew we were running a bit low on water and I wanted them to have enough for showers after their long day of racing. So, I filled a bucket with water, took her outside, and did my best to scrub the poo out.
Several hours later, it was time for me to head back to the finish line to see my boyfriend come in. When I pulled up, it looked like a war zone. Many of the 100-mile racers had crossed now and they were in rough shape. People were puking, sleeping on the ground, and hobbling around as if they had just run 100 miles (haha). I’ve crossed many finish lines and seen lots of limping, but ultramarathon finish lines are on a whole different level. My boyfriend and his mom both finished and both had a great race.
The next day we began our journey back to Utah, but we decided we didn’t have to be in a hurry, so we wanted to find a short hike to stop at along the way. We picked one that led us down a long, dirt road where, unfortunately, we missed a turn. We needed to turn around, but when you’re in a huge bus, you can’t just do that in the middle of the road. We followed the road for a while, hoping there would be a spot we could turn around in, but eventually, it just came to a dead end. My boyfriend attempted to back the entire way down the road, but it was steep and had sharp curves and was too risky to go down backward. We found a road that we could turn onto to flip around, but it had a giant mud puddle in the middle of it and we’d risk getting stuck. We didn’t have any other options though, so my boyfriend maneuvered the bus through the mud and got us turned around like a pro, without getting stuck.
When we finally made it to the trailhead, it started to thunder and rain. We waited it out a bit, then put on rain gear and headed out for a short wander.
We overnighted at a truck stop on our way back and then drove straight to the Mercedes dealership in the morning to pick up the van.
I handed over all my money and the service guy handed over my keys. He had become such a good friend over the three weeks that I was there, and we had spent quite a bit of time chatting each day. He had been there through the ups and downs of heartbreak and a new relationship, through my dog getting sick, and was now the reason I would be back on the road. He made an unfortunate situation a lot less awful, and I’ll always be grateful for the kindness he showed me during that time.
He walked around from behind his desk as he handed me the keys and pulled me in for a hug. I fought hard against the tears that were ready to fall. What an emotional journey the last three weeks had been.
“I’m going to miss seeing your smiling face around here each day,” he said.
And believe it or not, I was going to miss seeing his too.
But I was certainly not going to miss living in the parking lot!
I walked out to the van, put the key in the ignition, and turned it. The sound of Forrest coming to life again made my heart soar.
Over the next week, my boyfriend and I did the best we could to find interesting places to camp, but ultimately, we ended up camping at his friend’s house. Although we’d both rather be out in nature, it is really convenient to have a place to park for free, with no worry of an overnight visit from the cops.
I got to spend time visiting friends and taking care of all the things I needed to get done while I was back “home.” We found adventures when we could, and I found time to return to all my favorite places.
It was time to step up our adventure game though and I was dying to go backpacking. Before vanlife, I had spent all summer camping up in my favorite place, the High Uintas Wilderness. Whether it was car camping or backpacking, I could be found up there almost every weekend. I so badly wanted to spend some time there while I was back. Over the past year, I had slowly accumulated everything I’d need to go backpacking since I had always gone with a partner who had the gear I was lacking.
I had recently purchased a 1-person backpacking tent so that I’d be able to have adventures on my own. My boyfriend, who had never spent much time backpacking, was excited to go with me. I hadn’t used my new tent yet so I told him I’d be exchanging it for one that we could use together. He wouldn’t let me.
He knew how badly I wanted the experience of backpacking solo, and he wanted me to still have that opportunity someday. If I returned my tent, I wouldn’t be able to do that.
I have a 3-person tent that is perfect for car camping but it’s not ideal for backpacking. He insisted that we take it anyways.
“Someday when we have all the right gear, we’ll look back and laugh about that time we carried that big, heavy tent,” he said. And he was right, of course. So we carried the heavy tent and headed off into the woods without all the “right” gear, but that only added to the adventure.
The hike we planned was 7.5 miles to a lake where we would set up camp that night. Due to a crazy winter in Utah, there was still snow at most of the backpacking spots I had been to before and river levels were raging. We found many patches of snow on the trail and the dogs thoroughly enjoyed rolling in, running through, and eating the snow. We crossed several bridges as we climbed higher and higher through gorgeous forests. Soon we came to another river crossing, but the bridge had been destroyed. With the river levels as high as they were, there was no way we were going to be able to cross with the dogs.
We turned around and set off back down the trail to find a spot to camp. Soon we came to an open area near the edge of a cliff and decided it would be home for the night.
There are a few traditions that I’ve kept for myself while camping. My favorite one is that as soon as I find a spot to camp, I set up my chair and pour a glass of wine. I don’t set up anything else before I sit down to this ritual glass of wine. This has been my way of slowing down. When I’m camping, I don’t have to be in a rush. There is no reason to hurry and set up my tent right away. So I sit down, pour that glass of wine, and take in my surroundings.
After our glass of wine, we set up the tent and cooked dinner. We needed to get some more water before bed, so after dinner, we took the dogs and hiked down the trail about a quarter-mile to the river. As we headed down the trail, we came upon a fire pit in an empty campsite with a spectacular view that put our rocky, unlevel campsite to shame. We both looked at each other.
I immediately told him that we weren’t moving. We had already committed, and our spot would be just fine. But we had been worried about camping so close to the cliff with his accident-prone dog that Dakota had nearly killed once already, and this spot was clearly much nicer than the one we were in. I started second-guessing my decision to stay put. The sun was starting to set, and we’d be pressed for time if we moved, but this spot was enticing.
We decided to divide and conquer. He’d head back to camp, tear everything down, and start moving sites while I went to the river to filter water.
As I came back up to our new camp, I found EVERYTHING set up. The tent with sleeping bags spread out inside, our backpacks and clothes, and chairs positioned nicely around the campfire. I was convinced he must be a superhero because I hadn’t been gone that long and he managed to tear down, pack up, move, AND set up everything before I returned. I was in awe.
I showed off my campfire skills that evening as we sat chatting and watching the stars. It was a cold night up at that high elevation, but I loved every second of it.
We got up the next morning and started boiling water to make some coffee. He had the coffee in his bag, so he went to search for it. Soon I saw him emptying all the contents of his bag, moving things over and over again. No coffee. We had stopped to eat on the way up, so we figured it had fallen out at our picnic spot and we’d make coffee when we got back down there.
After a lazy morning and a mid-morning nap (I was extremely sleep deprived from the combination of my crazy work schedule and trying to have a social life), we packed up and journeyed to our picnic spot for coffee. But the coffee wasn’t there either.
We continued back down on the trail with the dogs leading the way when suddenly my boyfriend called the dogs and turned around towards me saying we needed to back down the trail. I saw a glimpse of a big brown head and thought it was maybe a horse since they’re allowed on these trails too.
It was not a horse. Instead, two moose were heading down the trail towards us.
I’ve had one other moose encounter on a trail and it was not good. Moose are mean and territorial, and they DO NOT like dogs.
I got both dogs down the trail while my boyfriend slowly walked back towards the moose to see where they were heading and if we needed to keep moving away. They looked back at him and then continued up into the trees. We were lucky that these moose didn’t seem to care about us.
Eventually, we got back to the van. As soon as we opened the door, there was the coffee. He had taken it out of his bag when he rearranged some stuff before we left, and now I’ll never let him live it down.
He loved backpacking with me, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to have found someone who seemed to be such a perfect fit. We started making plans for our next trip as soon as we returned home, but this time I’d be the one in charge of the coffee.
You are gone but thank you for all those soft, sweet things you have left behind in my home, in my head, in my heart.
Nikita Gill
