Boundary Waters (Aug 23-27)

We spent four nights camping on Ensign Lake in the Boundary Waters canoe area with my parents and a family friend. It was a good time canoeing, exploring and fishing but the "highlight" of the trip came on the last night when i awoke to my dad and Mike yelling about something going through our food. Then the flashlight turned on to reveal a momma bear and two cubs. After yelling, jumping, and cursing at the bears in the end all we could do is make a big fire and watch them chow down on a good portion of our food. It wasn't a big deal since we were leaving the next day and they only went through one of our two boxes of food.

Here we are getting ready to go:


Paddling with dad:

Around our site:

Madison to Beaver Bay (Aug 22nd)

Our first day of solid driving in the Astro! We left Madison around noon and drove straight up to Duluth. We found an overlook of the town, which is built on large hills, and ate dinner.


We drove up the Lake Superior Coast and found a rest area to sleep at a few hours from the Boundary Waters. Unfortunately, we forgot to take a photo. Bummer.

We're off!

goodbye kamp kretchmar!

ASTRO mods

Here are some modifications we did to the van to make it the greatest ASTRO ever. Lets start with the ASTRO chillin' in the bushes

fuzzy dice compliments of dinner night. stuffed duck compliments of beth ditter.

jams.

the bed is made out of some closet doors i found on the side of the road. yay move out days. the rest of the stuff was made from crap in our apartment. I think in total it cost about $18 in wood and screws to make all the stuff.

T-Minus 2 Days

Greetings from Kamp Kretchmar!

Today Chris and I added a hood ornament to ASTRO van.




Who needs a security system when you have jaguar protection?

Leaving Madison

Ok. Blog time. Since we are moving out of Madison and doing a bunch of traveling it's the easiest way to keep you informed with what we are up to.

If you aren't up to speed here is the abridged version of our recent life.
1. Kate was accepted into a Masters program in neuroscience at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. Because of this we are packing up and moving to New Zealand.
2. We purchased a teal 1994 Chevy ASTRO van.
3. We will attempt to live in said ASTRO van for 12-ish weeks. Before moving to NZ.
4. We love and will miss you all.

Here is the rough itinerary, most of it subject to the health of ASTRO van.

Aug 14 - 22: Kamp Kretchmar
Aug 22 - 27: Boundary Waters, MN
Aug 27 - 29: Drive to Denver
Aug 30 - Sep 06: Costa Rica
Sep 07 - Oct 07: In CO, drive via south & east coast to Montreal
Oct 07 - 21: Montreal Kino Kabaret
Oct 21 - 30: Montreal to Portland
Oct 30 - Mid Nov: Hang in OR, drive to Wisconsin
Mid Nov - Dec 03: In Wisconsin
Dec 05 - Jan 13: Australia comeback tour
Jan 13 - Feb 01: Arrive New Zealand, make our way to Dunedin
Mar 01: Kate starts class