Edwin, Author at Here and Now

Jackson Hole

Posted on May 24, 2018Helena, Montana

This morning starts with some blogging and working again. I’ve come to realize that when I do it first thing in the morning and just a few hours that I don’t mind it so much. I have to work a bit, because the Dutch or European government came up with some new rules for websites and now some adjustments to be made on few of the websites that I maintain. It annoys me a bit, because I think governments shouldn’t make rules for the internet. Like the plans they have to monitor it all, I’m strongly against that. The internet a free place and it should stay that way. I think the problem with many governments is that they want to control everything. This has not so much to do with traveling, but I feel I had to get that out there. Anyway, not to get into trouble I’ll try to follow the rules and make the adjustments. After a double espresso and a cappuccino I’m ready to start driving around eleven in the morning. It’s about 4,5 hours driving to the town Jackson, which is in the South of Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Park. My plan is to go there today and travel through the National Parks back to the North to end up with my family in Montana as final destination for this journey.

It’s beautiful to drive through Montana. A little less spectacular than Washington state, but also here the views are very wide and endless.

Travel

Driving in Montana

Posted on May 23, 2018Jackson Lake Lodge, Wyoming

I don’t know if it was the excitement of the long road trip or the lack of physical activity today, but somehow I can’t sleep. It’s quite annoying when you’re tired and cannot sleep. Fortunately that doesn’t happen often to me, but I don’t sleep much this night. Fortunately Starbucks opens at 5.00AM here and I’m in the Colorado timezone again, so it’s one hour later than on the west coast which makes the night an hour shorter anyway. I get up and start the day with catching up on e-mails and doing some work. It feels nice to catch up with things and being up to date again.

At noon I drive to Downtown Missoula. I can feel that I didn’t sleep much last night and decide that I’ll take it slow today.

Nature

North Cascades National Park

Posted on May 22, 2018Butte, Montana

When I wake up it’s already starting to become light. I open the back door of my car while I stay in my bed. Now it feels even more like camping, because I can hear and smell nature from my mobile home. The visitor center opens in about an hour, so I have to wait a bit if I want to go there. Since I’m on a campsite I realize I can my my own coffee on the stove. That’ll be a good start of the day. It’s nice to be in adventure mode again, but it just takes some adjustment from waking up surrounded by loving people to waking up alone. I remember what my grandma often tells me: you are never alone. And that’s true. I’ve got many friends back home in the Netherlands and here in America. The other day I realized that I don’t feel like going back to the Netherlands yet, though it will be nice to see my friends and family again.

While making my coffee this morning I suddenly start to see how someone like Ana can travel around for three years. Of course it’s not an easy life, but it’s a free life. No office you need to go to every day, no obligations at all. You work for a while to get some money and then you travel further.

Travel

Seattle

Posted on May 21, 2018Missoula, Montana

It’s Saturday morning and I start the day with watching the highlights of the marriage of prince Harry and princess Meghan. I wish I had seen it live, but I didn’t think about it last night. Still it’s nice to see this real-life fairy tale. I check the ferry times to Seattle and update my blog. Angie makes a breakfast for me while I pack my bag. When the kids come out we play some more chess and watch television. I really don’t feel like leaving, but I know this time has to come. It reminds me of when I visit my family back home, I almost always take a train later than planned. So also now I check the ferry schedule, but then decide to forget about it and just hang out a bit longer. I plan to leave at ten thirty later this morning. I shouldn’t make it much later, because I still want to spend some time of the afternoon in Seattle. As I drive away, they yell at me “See you tonight!”. I laugh and wave goodbye. It’s really hard to leave again. I really wish I could come back tonight or just could stay longer, but this journey has to go on.

As I drive to the ferry I eat one of the cookies that Eva baked last night and they gave me for the drive. I think again about all the wonderful people I met during this journey and for a moment wish I could go back in time and do it all again. Then I remind myself that it’s not over yet and that I have one-third of the journey left in front of me.

Nature

Olympic National Park

Posted on May 20, 2018Newhalem, Washington

For the second time in two days I say goodbye to Darin’s family and start driving again. Today in the direction of Olympic National Park. I head West first back to my favorite road, Highway 101. I stop by one of the beaches, but after Secret Beach earlier this week the beach here fails to impress me a lot. I’ve noticed that I’m dealing with what I would call nature satisfaction. I remember that from my first trip in America. After having seen the most beautiful places the last couple of weeks it’s just harder to be impressed by new nature. It’s still great, but that wow-effect can wear off. At some point you can just get used to beautiful nature. Having that written and being aware of this fact, I enjoy the rest of the ride. Especially when the road goes by a big mountain lake.

At the beach I discover that I can’t find my favorite vest. For a moment I think it’s a bummer and then I have to laugh.

Nature

Mt Raineer National Park

Posted on May 19, 2018Olympia, Washington

Today it’s time to pack my bag again and travel further. I’d love to stay longer with this lovely family, but there are more places to go and more people to see. I say goodbye to the children when they go to school and then hang out with Darin for a while longer and talk more about life. Darin is good in reading people, seeing how they really are. I ask him what he sees when he looks at me. He tells me the exact same thing as another spiritual man told me on the ferry from the South Island to the North Island of New Zealand. Things about my character and the path I’m on in life. I’m impressed and keep things in mind. In some way this is again an adventurous journey as also a spiritual journey. That’s one of the things I love about traveling, you learn a lot about yourself and life as you travel to new places and meet new people.

I say goodbye to Darin and hope to see him soon again in the Netherlands.

People

A nice day in Olympia

Posted on May 18, 2018Olympia, Washington

When I wake up and walk into the living room, Darin is about to drive to Starbucks, his morning ritual. I’m happy to join him on that morning ritual and so a bit later we’re getting a coffee and drive back home. While the rest of the family leaves home to school and so, we sit down at the couch and have great conversations about life and God. Darin has some revolutionary ideas about believing, very different from what they teach in church and we find a lot of common ground. In church it’s often about doing all the right things, where as we agree that believing is all about love. We talk about a lot of things this morning, too much to write down now, but it’s an interesting conversation and time flies by.

In the afternoon we drive to town to pick up the kids from school and we also make a stop at an outdoors store where they sell everything you need when you go camping and also a lot of hunting gear. For someone from Europe it stays a bit strange to see all those guns in the store, but we also have fun shooting some play guns in a shooting gallery where you can shoot for points. I manage to get the same score as Darin does, so I think I’m qualified to live in the Midwest. We have lunch at the outdoors store and then drive back home.

The rest of the afternoon I hang out with the children. We play volleyball in the front yard and some video games at the Wii. It’s a nice relaxed day and I enjoy staying with this family. Another nice thing is that Darin used to be a chef in a restaurant, so we get very nice food here. Tonight we have pasta carbonara for dinner, delicious. We have fun times together and it’s also a good change from traveling all the time. Even though I would love to stay here longer, I think I’ll hit the road again tomorrow to visit some of the National Parks here. There is Mount Raineer and Olympic National Park, both must be beautiful nature to hike, so I’m curious.

Travel

Portland

Posted on May 17, 2018Olympia, Washington

I learned my lesson yesterday and don’t check my phone when I wake up. Instead I walk into the Walmart store and do some groceries. I’m out of clean socks and don’t know when I can do laundry yet, so I’ll get some new ones so that I’m covered for another week. When I’ve done my groceries Ana is sitting behind her laptop at a table by the food corner to upload some pictures. I get my laptop from the car and join her to update my blog. Then we drive to a campsite and have breakfast again at the backside of my car.

Starting the day by having breakfast with a friend is a great start of the day. We continue driving along the coast until the point where we planned to go east again in the direction of Portland. I decide to make one more stop at the ocean and we walk together at the beach for a moment.

People

Camping and eating sushi

Posted on May 16, 2018Olympia, Washington

I’m not sure if we’ll see much of the beaches today, because it’s misty outside. I go outside and do my workout. I do that every day for the last few years Occasionally I miss one workout, but my grandma had a good solution for that: do a double workout the next day. So that’s what I do and after I’ve finished my sit-ups and pushups, I grab my book about the National Parks to see which route I will follow today. The local guy had some good tips about places with waterfalls and I’m thinking I might adjust the route a bit. The places he mentioned though are more land inwards and I prefer to follow the Oregon coast.

When Ana wakes up we make coffee and tea and make plans for the day. First we drive to a place called Secret Beach, only a few minutes from where we camped. It’s a beach that Dan pointed out to us last night.

Nature, Uncategorized

Redwoods National Park

Posted on May 15, 2018Newport, Oregon

It’s Sunday morning and I like to start the day with some creative things. When I was at the Barnes and Nobles about two weeks ago I bought a book about calligraphy and some brush pens. I figure that this morning is a good time to practice a bit with that. I also update my travel bullet journal and practice my drawing skills. These creative things are a bit out of my comfort zone in sense that I still have to learn it all, but I really enjoy doing it. Time goes by very quickly and it’s already eleven o’clock when I start driving to Redwoods National Park.

Just before noon I arrive at the visitor and get a permit to drive to Giant Trees trail. I ask why you need a permit and the lady tells me that’s because it is about an hour driving to get there and they want to sure there is enough parking space for the people visiting. I also ask her about the bear warning sign I saw yesterday.