Us
In 1973, when I was just 2 years old, my mom and dad loaded me up in a VW pop-top camper and drove 2000 miles of gravel road on what was then known as the Alcan highway for a summer adventure in Alaska. That trip set the stage for many more adventures in a string of used VW pop-top campers.
Jennifer got the travel bug at the age of seven when her family including her three younger sisters piled into a Chevy Impala station wagon towing a pop-up camper and drove from their home in Philadelphia to Phoenix, Arizona, where her dad had a 6-month temporary work assignment. They had many adventures along the way there and back, including side trips to the Grand Canyon, the San Diego Zoo, and Carlsbad Caverns.
I met Jen in 1997, sharing an office, which led to the typical workplace romance – lots of time spent talking about travel and other topics of mutual interest, and not very much time working – all the while thinking naively that we were hiding our mutual attraction from our co-workers. We tied the knot a few years later in a small ceremony near the Portland Head Lighthouse (the first trip to Maine for both of us), but not before biking from the Canadian border to there with a group of fabulous friends, and then following it up with an outdoor lobster-bake reception and a sea-kayaking honeymoon in Acadia National Park. It was so much fun!
Besides traveling, Jennifer and I share a love of the outdoors – hiking, skiing, mountain biking, camping, and (formerly) whitewater kayaking occupy most of our weekends. We’ve also taken long vacations together to New Zealand, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, France and Switzerland.
After nearly a year on the road, we arrived at the southern most point in Africa
Throughout high school my friend Graham, who was born to British parents in Lesotho, talked about driving from London to Cape Town. In 2004, both now married, we made that dream a reality, shipping two Land Rover Defender 110s to England and spending six months driving to South Africa. Jen and I continued to travel for 6 more months exploring the amazing offerings of Southern and Eastern Africa.
We moved back to Denver after that trip, and settled back into normal lives. Our son, Quinn, was born in 2009, and that pushed thoughts of future trips to the back of our minds – but once ingrained in your psyche, the travel bug cannot be repressed for long. We started talking about another trip, and South America seemed like a logical destination. In 2012 we bought a Ford cargo van and started converting it into a camper in preparation for our next adventure.
Thanks for visiting our site, and we hope you enjoy following us on our next adventure!
Hey, Jen. It was fun working with you (Noble Elt). You guys are my new heros. Have a great time.
Received your test OK SPOT location beacon message at 7:28 this morning. It will be fun following the progress along your amazing journey. Happy Trails! ~ Tom
Hi Sparks!
Loving following your adventures, thanks for sharing! Serendipitous camping beside you guys in Mammoth, we returned to Seattle, sense of adventure still high and ready for the next journey, your blog helps fuel the fire.
🙂
Lina, Scott and Jesse Rose
Seattle, WA
Cool, thanks for checking in!
Hi Sparks Family:
You do not know me but we ran into your van at the Visitors Center in Denali. Kept checking to see who the van belonged to because my son Derek owns Colorado Camper Van but missed you. We were also staying at Savage Campground. Looks like we are somewhat following the same path. We were also coming from Fairbanks. I have been posting on Facebook when we get access. Unfortunately we will be headed home after the Aleution Islands. You have quite a dream trip going and gifting your child with the best education possible, to learn about the world and the people who live in it. I am so envious! Have a great and safe trip. Pam
Thanks for the comment on our Denali Highway post! We love your website and have a lot of questions for you! We’re on the AK panhandle now, island hopping as we take the ferry south. We love the ferry! You will too!
WOW!! I can’t believe I missed that you guys were on this incredible journey! Our place is available if you need somewhere to rest on your way south! We would love to have you again and hear about your journey so far! You are really an inspiration!! Good luck….we will be rooting for you and vicariously living through you!
Best,
Katie, Mike and Eleanor
Hey! I wanted to tell you how wonderful your family looks. You look like your completely relaxed!
Hi Lori! Thanks for checking out our site! We are all very relaxed these days! 🙂 Hope that you are doing well!
Great to “meet” you all online! Always awesome to see other families traveling with kids. We are dreaming of our next vehicle and were thinking of converting a Ford cargo van too! We’ll have to pick your brain 🙂
Happy travels and hopefully we can meet in the middle!
Nice to meet you too! Would love it if our paths crossed. We’ll keep tabs on you and see if we can make it happen!