Picking cranberries and learning to fish

Morning by the fire and picking blueberries at Kusawa Lake, YT

Are we poor?

That’s something the girls asked us a few times when they were younger. In the eyes of little girls, poor meant something scary, the people we saw living on the streets, the possibility of not being able to have 3 meals a day or to fix the bus if it broke down somewhere - and be stuck.

Knitting in the Westy and harvesting grapes

We had our children young and we chose to do things differently because we wanted to be together, even if it meant that we both worked at a real job for only a year before becoming parents. Choosing for me to stay home with the girls also meant we accepted a big income drop.

Now, we’re 45 and empty-nesters.

A very cold night and a soak in the hot springs in Yellowstone.

We travelled with a full-sized piano, a guitar and a violon for a few years. And lots of bikes. Forever.

Sunset at camp - Gooseneck State Park, Utah

Today, as I am even more aware of how fleeting time with our children is, I have no regret about the choices we made, even if at times it meant a lot of financial stress.

Learning to mountain bike in Moab. No wonder they fell in love with the sport!

I am proud of our stubbornness to create a life we feel is worth living for.

Waiting for the shooting stars on the dock, Kager Lake near Burns Lake, BC

Oregon and California Coast sunsets with friends

Cooking dinner in a rest stop is a great way to save money on campings on long drives. We stop in a (free) beautiful spot to stretch our legs and cook dinner and keep driving. After that, it doesn’t matter much where we spend the night.

Exploring a beautiful free campsite just outside of Lake Superior Provincial Park

The start of the Cadet expert girls at Horseshoe. Mara got stuck at the very back…

So, how do we deal with the heat when relying mostly on solar? Even with 750 Watts of panels, we can’t run the AC in the bus. We could pay for a 55$+ campsite, but we try to find public beaches where we can spend the day and sleep in free spots. We haven’t paid for a campsite since we left the Yukon. Actually, we very rarely pay for campsites anymore since it is so easy to find free camping spots, and since at this time of year you need to make reservations in advance to have a good campsite (and in our book, if you pay for a campsite, it better be a good one).

When we cover a lot of ground like we are doing this summer, our go-to strategy is to stop during the day (and often for dinner) at beautiful spots along the way, stretch our legs, bike, swim, and keep driving afterwards. By then, it’s dark and it doesn’t matter much where we spend the night as long as it’s not too noisy. It allows us to save money (since we are spending a lot on gas during this time) and not worry about making reservations in advance.

In Canada, iOverlander is the best app to use to find free camping spots. Be aware that most users are in vans or 4 x 4 vehicles, so scout out the recommended spots in advance if there is no information about vehicle length in the comments to avoid bad surprises.

The XCO Mountain Biking National Championship was a bit of a bust. Aïsha crashed during her first preride and got a concussion, so there was no racing for her. She is still healing and focusing on the Western Summer Canada Games at the beginning of August. Mara felt strong and ready, but the crazy hot weather at 42 C with humidex was really rough for a Yukon kid. She battled hard, but crashed near the finish and lost 3 positions, finishing 14th over 21 strong girls. It was not the results she was hoping for and she was quite disappointed.

Mathilde is still too young to compete at National level, but took part in the Ontario Cup the next day. The weather was a bit cooler, but there was A LOT of traffic on the course. She’s still quite happy with her race.

The girls are now on Instagram and they will share their own race reviews (and lots more) there. Give them a follow if you want:
@aisha.roldan
@mathilde.roldan
@mara.roldan.mtb