Forks in the Road: Recipes from Overlanding the Pan-American Highway

Forks in the Road: Recipes from Overlanding the Pan-American Highway

{jcomments lock}It's our pleasure to finally introduce our latest work, Forks in the Road:...

Download our Free ebook: Overlanding Mexico & Central America

Download our Free ebook: Overlanding Mexico & Central America

{jcomments lock}At long last, our crowning achievement is finished after several days of nonstop...

Budget Recaps

Budget Recaps

The links below will take you to our detailed per-country budget reports. We’ve broken...

Carretera Austral: Cerro Castillo to Villa O'Higgins

Carretera Austral: Cerro Castillo to Villa O'Higgins

Start: January 4, Parque Nacional Cerro Castillo{jcomments lock}Finish: January 15, Puerto GuadalFish Caught and...

Expedition Tongs

Expedition Tongs

{jcomments lock}About 10 years ago I bought a pair of typical South African tongs for...

Introducing iOverlander: Find & Share your Next Destination

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Hi friends. It’s been a long time, hasn’t it? I know you’re wondering what we’ve...

How to Host Your Own Badass Bariloche Bovine Bonanza

How to Host Your Own Badass Bariloche Bovine Bonanza

Start: February 28, Bariloche{jcomments lock}Finish: March 4, BarilocheNumber of Overlanders Gathered: 24Pounds of Meat...

  • Forks in the Road: Recipes from Overlanding the Pan-American Highway

    Forks in the Road: Recipes from Overlanding the Pan-American Highway

  • Download our Free ebook: Overlanding Mexico & Central America

    Download our Free ebook: Overlanding Mexico & Central America

  • Budget Recaps

    Budget Recaps

  • Carretera Austral: Cerro Castillo to Villa O'Higgins

    Carretera Austral: Cerro Castillo to Villa O'Higgins

  • Expedition Tongs

    Expedition Tongs

  • Introducing iOverlander: Find & Share your Next Destination

    Introducing iOverlander: Find & Share your Next Destination

  • How to Host Your Own Badass Bariloche Bovine Bonanza

    How to Host Your Own Badass Bariloche Bovine Bonanza

Blue, Jessica, Kobus and Jared

Technology gives us the ability to work remotely. Curiosity, wonder and boredom drive us to the far reaches of the world. Put the two together and you have Life Remotely.

We've spent the past fifteen years traveling and working around the world. In October of 2011 we left our home in Seattle and headed south. Our goal: drive to Patagonia and spend the night in Antarctica. From there, who knows.

Read more about us.

 

forks in the road the cookbook

tongs.liferemotely.com

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  1. Quick facts
  • Total days on the road: 586
  • Currently in: USA
  • Miles Driven: 36821
  • Countries Visited: 17
  • Days Camping: 389
  • Days Indoors: 202

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Confessions of a Desert Rat

Written by Jessica on October 26, 2011

Road leading out of Death Valley
I love the desert. I love everything about it. Some can’t stand it, these God-forsaken places. I worship them, like a lizard worships hot asphalt. We spent less than 24 hours in Death Valley National Park. It was barely long enough to remember what I love so much about the desert. 

The heat.

Desert landscape in Death Valley

The scorching unrelenting heat. The kind that makes your lips crack, your hands sweat and your heart slow down. Heat that makes moving difficult, sleeping harder and working impossible.

The sun.

Bright sun in badwater- Death Valler
The massive white blinding sun. The light that cooks anything in its view from dusk to dawn. It makes your skin tight and rough and eventually – like leather. The sun whose power blackens the rocks, wilts the plants, and forces even the smallest creatures to cower.

The dry.

Dry salt at Badwater in Death Valley
The quenching, dusty, barren dry. Sand dunes, salt flats, arid tundras. They sweep miles without a sight of water. The absence of humidity. It sucks the water from your throat, from your skin, from everywhere it can. The constant battle for the last drop, the last fleck of moisture from the air.  

The silence.

Devil's golf course in Death Valley
The long haunting fragile silence. The lack of the typical -- water running, leaves ruffling, animals calling. There is nothing here, only muffles of the growl of the wind, the rattle of snakes, the crackle of the heat.

The emptiness.

Badwater salt pans in Death Valley
The vast, desolate, emptiness. Long stretches of nothing, followed by more nothing. Eternities of blank space, baked into oblivion. There is no one, nothing, just harsh unforgiving landscapes.

Until next time... I'll be somewhere else, missing the desert.

Comments

 
Jim McCaffree
#4 Jim McCaffree 2011-10-28 00:54
Impressive use of language! Give me a few miles of cornfields!
Dad
 
 
Jim McCaffree
#3 Jim McCaffree 2011-10-28 00:46
Pretty impressive use of language! I still just need a few miles of corn fields!!
Dad
 
 
Scott Shore
#2 Scott Shore 2011-10-27 20:26
Great photos! I'm getting thirsty just looking at them. - Scott (colleague de Jared)
 
 
Jonathan Barr
#1 Jonathan Barr 2011-10-27 00:25
Awesome and beautiful!
 

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