Summer Plans

I just wanted to pop in to share my summer plans.

I quit my job and am going to spend as much time as I can hiking and sleeping in a tent this summer!

Wait, What?

Yeah, I quit my job! Today is my last day working at noosa yoghurt. It’s weird. I’ve been working there as the demand planner since March 2015. Over the last 2+ years at noosa I have learned a lot, worked with wonderful people, and ate a lot of bloody good yoghurt. While I enjoyed my job I often felt stagnant sitting behind a desk staring at numbers. Don’t get me wrong I love a good Excel spreadsheet with pivot tables and vlookups galore, but sometimes it’s just not enough, you know?

So. I quit.

Back Up.

Last summer was pretty rough. The issues I had with my heart turned out to be scarier than I ever imagined they would. I had to cancel a lot of fun plans (14er hikes, camping, a trip to Banff, a wedding in California, etc) and instead spent my time going to hospitals, visiting with doctors, and doing a whole lot of nothing/watching TV/reading. I dragged Michael (among others) through the mud with me.

Since we share a love of the outdoors we decided to have a different sort of adventure this summer.

Summer Plans

We are road tripping and I am pumped!! On Thursday we start the adventure with a trip to Yellowstone. We’ll car camp, go on day hikes, do touristy things (hi, Old Faithful) and hopefully see lots of bears and wolves. Since it’s still unclear if my heart is at 100% we’re going to take it pretty easy.

After about a week we’ll head back to Denver and I’ll do my treadmill stress test. Hopefully nothing happens and I get piece of mind that everything is a-ok. It’d be the best present ever.

On July 19 we’ll head to my family reunion in Grand Lake with the Dummer clan.

Then the real road trip begins. Like all good road trips, we don’t have an exact plan. We’ll probably spend some time in Missoula and Glacier National Park. Maybe we’ll go up to Banff and Jasper. Maybe we’ll go to Minnesota and spend some time on the Superior Hiking Trail. Maybe we’ll do it all! Maybe we won’t. We’ll decide along the way and just do what we want.

Whatever we actually end up doing, we’ll make our way back to Denver by mid-September to catch a plane to Germany with a couple of friends. We’ll drink beer at Oktoberfest in Munich, take a train to explore Rothenburg ob der Tauber, and spend some time in the Rhine Valley.

Turns out our road trip includes some planes and trains too.

And Then…

And then we’ll figure out our lives.

One of my objectives for this time away is to do some reflection and self-discovery. What do I want my “and then” to be? I don’t know. I hoping some good, quality time with nature (and my awesome boyfriend) will help me figure it out.

So That’s That!

I am super excited about it. People keep asking me if I’m scared, but I’m not. At all. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing? But we’ll see how it goes!

What are your summer plans? Also any podcast, playlist, or audio book recommendations? Tell me!!