Many people have asked why do we do what we do? Well, it really started back to me living in Iceland! I had the unique experience of living various towns over the course of two years. During that time I really immersed myself in the culture, people, landscape and the language. I tried pretty much everything to ensure that when I returned home that I would not have any regret of opportunities missed. As a result I came home with a trove of experiences and deep meteorites that now, some 30 years later I can recall tastes, smells and emotions fairly easily.
The spirit of true exploration rally started at one particular moment. That moment was during my stay in Keflavík on the NATO base and my interaction with many of the great people serving both the US and Canadian Military. I would often come in contact with either two groups of people those that loved being stationed and Iceland and those that literally couldn’t wait to return home. The difference between the two groups? Simple, those that loved being in Iceland were those that took every opportunity to get off the Base to explore and truly experience what it was to be in Iceland. This fascinated me and subconsciously to was determined to do the same, regardless where I was.
After two years I returned home, got married to one heck of fantastic woman, who shared my love for truly experiencing life. We would camp, travel and dream of grand exotic vacations! Well 10 years or so later we still would travel, but never took the big “leap” to something out of comfort zone, most of travel was limited to Alberta, British Columbia and the odd trip down to Utah. Finally we decided to take a leap and take our two young daughter and head off to Maui! This trip we got bit hard by travel bug and returned to Maui another few times and added the other Islands to the itinerary, determined to experience all we could of the Hawaiian culture. Long and short Hawaii holds a very special part in our hearts and largely in part to the time we have spent there with our girls and extended family. MEMORIES!
We got comfortable with our Hawaiian retreats, then Kyrie and I decided to return to Iceland, after 15 years of returning to Canada, so I could share with her my experiences and introduce to her my Icelandic Family. Upon arriving every memory came flooding back and thankfully so did some of the language. Now Kyrie and I have new set of MEMORIES that we talk about frequently. The trip would’ve been awesome enough, but we decided to jump across the pond and visit the country of her family’s heritage, Norway. Once again we found ourselves out of our comfort zone. New place and not knowing a lick of Norwegian, but we threw caution to the wind. The experiences and memories were jaw dropping and it has changed us to our core. The desire to travel and experience everything this world has, has become rooted deep in our souls. As result everywhere we have gone since then we’ve determined to experience everything we could by travelling the unbeaten path and to be a bit uncomfortable at times, to stretch ourselves just a bit.
Now comes the big event of both Kyrie’s and mine life! Kyrie calls me up at work, one day and says, “Hey, do you want to move to Toronto?”. Didn’t even hesitate, “Yup!” Almost three months later we had our house in Alberta rented and Kyrie was off to Ontario and I would join her a couple months later, after completing the Construction season. Now they say there are two things that will challenge any marriage moving and career changes, Well, we did both!! The thing that was key to growing more solid as couple and not falling apart due to the stresses of new careers, no family, and friends? We made sure that every weekend was out experiencing all that Ontario (and parts of Quebec and New York State) had to offer. Coworkers would tell us a place to eat and we were there, we would search out venues, drive for hours to get somewhere and at times get up early to go back to same place the very same weekend. In the end many people we knew, who lived there their whole lives said, “Heck, you guys have been places we never knew existed or never thought of going to!”. We were supposed to be out there for 3-5 years, but Kyrie got called back early. After 2.5 years living in Ontario we were both excited to return home to Alberta, but saddened that we were leaving a place we had come to call home.
So Overlanding? We did warn you it was a long story! The April before we came back I heard of this thing called Overlanding and it immediately peaked my interest. Seriously, how could it not? Going places not normally visited by others, exploring places not previously visited and camping in a Roof Top Tent! Well, that led to us purchasing a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon (no its not the only Overlanding Vehicle, but it is the one we went with and love!) and began looking for everywhere we could go in Ontario and we found them and had a blast exploring. As it is was getting closer to coming home I began connecting with others on Instagram and following other individuals back in Alberta and by the time we returned home we had a pretty solid base of people that were willing to show us the ropes on what it truly meant to get “Off Road” and put the Jeep to the test! Now deciding to just meet up with a group of people we’ve only just chatted with on Instagram was not something we normally do, but heck it was out of our comfort zone and we threw caution to the wind and they were fellow Albertans, so what the heck! They have become part of our Overland/ Off Road Family and the memories created are amazing and we look forward to getting together as often as time permits, push ourselves to try something, at times, scares the crap out of us, but it hasn’t killed us and we have come to trust those that we’ve come to know and look forward to meeting many more!
A year ago we added the Roof Top Tent to our arsenal and what a game changer to camping and traveling! No longer are we bound to having to hotel it or worrying about waking up in the middle of the night to a stream running through our tent or that missed stick poking in our backs. The only challenges we face is trying find those “Gem Spots” or finding those places that others, before us, have camped, taking the life changing detours or side trips recommended by those we have met along the way. This past year has been one exploration and really trying to #GETOUT and create the memories and experiences, either by ourselves or with others. This has also pushed us to create Sasquatch Overland Inc. in an effort to share our adventures and the beauty this world with others through Social Media, YouTube, this website and by some merchandise that will hopefully help remind you to not only #GETOUT, but share with you our adventures and experiences, maybe to push you to get out of your comfort zone and be scared just enough to to create some of your our own memories and experiences that you otherwise would not have done and in turn share them with us as well.
So return often to Sasquatch Overland Inc., tag us #squatchoverland and be inspired!