Table of contents for Thirty-Three: October/November 2022 in ROVA

Flossy Roxx & Syren the Step Van I'm Flossy. I've been living in a van since 2018. I'm currently building out 1999 Utilimaster Ford Step Van into a tiny home on wheels. I love working with plants, freediving and learning about marine creatures, and I am passionate about the magic of homesteading. Living in my self-converted camper tiny home allows me to do all this from wherever I happen to be! Instagram: @flossyroxx The Peñas We love full-time RV traveling, and we have been on the road for almost five years. Hiking, fishing, foraging, exploring, and vintage-jewelry treasure-hunting all over the country are just a few of the things we love to do. We often tell people that our home on wheels might be tiny, but our ever-changing backyard makes…

For many RVers and van lifers, heading out on the road is so much more than a vacation. Whether it's a quick trip upstate, a long odyssey across the nation, or a full-time gig on the road, making your RV, camper or van feel like home can make all the difference for a smooth trip. And adding a range of fun, futuristic, and helpful gadgets to your vehicle is a pretty great way to get comfortable. In 2022, it's easier than ever to get your hands on some of the most innovative technology on the market—some designed to modify your RV or van to suit your needs, some to make your life easier, and some to add an element of fun and personality to your home on wheels. With a…

As we finally reach the Conrad Kain Hut, I topple beneath the weight of my pack and shimmy my body free of the awkward, 70-pound load. A half-mile and 750 feet in elevation still separate us from Applebee Dome Campground, today's destination; but beyond a patch of distant pines, I can finally see the Bugaboos. Snow-kissed crests loom beyond granite moraines, gray against the cloud-dotted azure sky. That ice-scraped wilderness will be my home for the next week. Canada's Bugaboo Provincial Park, though a gem in the crown of the Purcell Range, has remained a mere whisper among backpackers, only visited by a few thousand people each year. My climbing partner and I won the American Alpine Club's ‘Live Your Dream’ grant to climb the Northeast Ridge on Bugaboo Spire…

A Scottish Soundtrack It's hard to settle on the perfect soundtrack to those long, windy drives—the ones where ocher leaves swirl around you, and the odd raindrop hits your windscreen. Upbeat tunes don't fit a fall mood, but a sad, slow-burn song is bound to send you to sleep. Scottish singer-songwriter Paolo Nutini has perfected the balance with his latest LP, Last Night in The Bittersweet. “Petrified In Love” is all riff-driven, twangy guitar hooks and organ-speckled choruses, while “Lose It” is impeccably gritty, yet perfectly refined. In contrast, “Everywhere” is a six-minute-long full spectrum of emotions, where Nutini's vocals—comparable to a male Amy Winehouse—belt every lyric with heart and feeling. paolonntini.com Wrap Yourself in Calm Life on the road can be crazy at the best of times. No matter…

inTech O-V-R Since 2010, inTech has focused on high-quality trailers for adventurous travelers. The company has just released an off-road range called O-V-R, with a fully welded cage and frame construction, and three sizes to choose from. The O-V-R offers plenty of space for travelers, with interiors that can be customized and the option to add a power awning, solar panels, and a slide-out kitchen. The company says the O-V-R can take you to “even the most remote locations.” We're in! intech.com Campworks NS-1 Want to chuck it all in and get completely off-grid? The compact NS-1 is fully solar equipped, so everything you need (stove, fridge, lighting) is powered by the sun. It also has an axle-less suspension and off-road tires, a cell booster, and a seamless fiberglass body…

The road beckons, and so we take to our vehicles—be they eight-wheeled, four, or two—and cross the country, answering the call that seems an inescapable part of our restless and adventurous national heritage. If we are to believe pop culture, such journeys are as liberating as they are laconic. Think Peter Fonda in Easy Rider, cruising with effortless cool, wind in his hair. All it takes, as motorcyclists like to say, is a twist of the wrist. Throttle engaged, you can simply sit back and soak in the scenery, succumbing to the whims of the winding road as it unfolds before you. Or so I thought. In spring 2013, I answered the call of the road, purchasing a motorcycle—a 1990 BMW K75C—and learning to ride with the express purpose of…

In a canoe on a lake in Yellowstone National Park, things were not going as planned. The sky was bleeding into darker shades of sunset, and I was gripping my paddle so tight I could hardly feel my fingers. My partner and I weren't exactly singing each other's praises, because relentless winds kept shifting our floating vessel toward the shoreline to our right—not where we needed to go—and I'm sure we each thought the other was to blame. Our friend, solo in another canoe, was overcoming his own battle with a defiant headwind, drifting further and further from us. We had yet to cross the ever-darkening, increasingly choppy expanse of Lewis Lake, and it looked like a daunting task. I kept telling myself that cliché about adventure being at its…

Kansas comes to the average person's mind on two occasions: March Madness, and when telling a figurative Toto that they're not there anymore. Other than that, it's a wash of waving wheat and sunflowers, with the occasional house landing on top of unfortunate women in striped socks. What does not come to mind? Sizzling carne asada. But head to the far eastern side of the state and Wyandot County—on the Kansas side of Kansas City—and you'll find perhaps the highest concentration of authentic taquerias anywhere in America. No, that's not an official statistic, but in this city of just over 150,000, you'll find more than 50 taco shops along Kansas City's official Taco Trail, making this city of Latin American immigrants a must-visit destination for any self-respecting taco lover. A…

I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I don't love a dirty fast-food burger from time to time on my travels—quite the opposite. But it's rare that I feel good after eating it—both from a physical perspective (hello, greasy mouth and regret), and from a social perspective (not to get too political, but the worker exploitation, environmental impact and animal cruelty of the fast-food industry don't leave me feeling particularly virtuous). The ubiquity of fast-food restaurants around the country is undeniable; however, look past the giant neon beacons and familiar, oil-drenched menus (no shade—again, I do it, too!), and you'll find a plethora of amazing local food and beverage options. Roadside produce stands, farmers' markets, orchards, honey farms, wineries, breweries… there is so much good stuff to be…

Anxiety sucks. Depression, too. They both hit me a few years ago, but up until then I'd never experienced either. It felt like the walls were closing in on me; there was a vice grip around my throat and a heavy blanket on my back. I was conscious that my world was shrinking; I was spending more and more time on the couch with the blinds drawn and going to bed before the sun went down. Oddly enough, my mind kept mulling over the idea of traveling west. There was something very appealing about going to a place with big skies and where no-one knew me. It wasn't long before I'd plotted out a course along I-70, headed west, and embarked on a solo cross-country road trip, spending the entire…

A few years ago, I had just begun my sophomore year at the University of Oklahoma, and I was miserable. I loved college, but I was living with strangers, and I was very uncomfortable. I wasn't spending very much time with friends because we were all feeling the pressure of our classes, so I was feeling isolated and out of place. One Saturday, I had to get out of the house. I studied a few maps of Oklahoma and chose a road in the southeast of the state that I figured I'd go drive. The sun was high in the sky. I packed a lunch and hit the road. I cued up a handful of podcast episodes and drowned out everything but the road, driving for hours across flat, rural…

The sun is just beginning to rise as I steer away from the Atlantic Ocean toward the wetland-dotted Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula. It's a Thursday morning and there's little traffic. In the rearview, sunlight is spreading over groves of loblolly pine, and along the road, snow-white egrets are browsing the marshlands cradling the Roanoke Sound. The landscape rapidly dissolves into water as I cross the Roanoke Sound and then the Croatan Sound on Route 64, heading west toward the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). After the small town of Manns Harbor, the landscape instantly becomes wilder, the road edged with sawgrass marsh and studded with spindly ghost trees, claimed by encroaching saltwater. I'm hoping to get to the refuge early enough to spot one of the region's red wolves—one of the…