WHY WE DON’T VISIT NATIONAL PARKS (road trip to Oregon)

This is something that I was really hoping we were never gonna have to talk about.

But it's something that's gonna affect our travels moving forward enough that I think you should know about it. Should I tell him about the other unfun thing right now or should we save that?

Oh, gosh.

We're Kara and Nate and in the last four years we've traveled to 100 countries. But 2020 brought us back to the US where we bought a converted sprinter van that we've been living out of full time for the last three months. In our last video, we made the six hour drive from Colorado to Salt Lake City, Utah. And today we're continuing our road trip to Oregon. We still have 700 miles and at least 10 hours of driving ahead of us. But the plan is, plan is to break it up with some stops along the way. So today we're just making the short drive to Twin Falls.

I am back in the driver's seat. I gained some confidence on the bike trip. I'm actually really sad that we're leaving Utah today because I was really looking forward to visiting some of the incredible national parks in the state. However, that's not really an option for us right now and we'll explain why later. Where are the keys? Probably in Nate's pocket.

I know the bike trip ended a few weeks ago, but I didn't do a very good job closing it out and there's been a lot of questions. So what did Nate do with his bike? I'm never getting on this bike again and I stuck to my word. Rick helped me sell it a few days later on Craigslist and I'm starting to miss it a little bit now. But we didn't have a bike carrier for the van and Kiera doesn't have a bike. So would you do another bike trail? Not in 2020 or maybe ever. The main reason, not because I don't like biking, but because it put a lot of pressure and stress on Kara. Both being the only person in the van and having to edit three documentaries back to back. I think for me it was just that feeling of accomplishment that I had at the end of every single day. I feel like that's rare in life. That and getting to eat whatever I wanted for 17 days was pretty nice. Did Sarah miss Dusty while he was gone? Hey. Hey. The Internet wants to know if you missed Dusty on the bike trip.

Yes.

You have arrived.

Wow. We have been driving through nothing but potato fields for the last hour and this place just came out of nowhere.

It's called Shoshone Falls. And I knew it was a top thing to see here, but I didn't realize it was located in a miniature version of the Grand Canyon. With that said, the pictures on the Internet did have a little more water.

The Internet did not tell me this.

What is it? Are you serious? I literally just listened to a podcast about him this morning. This is weird. We have to go. Is it this way?

I think so.

An unexpected 45 minute hike later. Look at this.

The jump is still here.

Wow.

Evel Knievel shot over the Snake river canyon at nearly 300 miles per hour. But only seconds later, Knievel's parachute deployed far too early, the wind blowing his sky cycle back to the foot of the south canyon wall. The attempt had failed, but it will forever be cemented in the evil legend and part of the Twin Falls history.

Okay, here we go. Imagine.

Up at the top and then you gotta.

Wow. So my understanding is one of the reasons that he picked this spot is because it's exactly a mile from here to the other side of the canyon. This is one of those things that happened before my time that I've always heard about, but I never really knew the details of. And I appreciate it so much more standing here right now.

So I have perfected the one pot. Ooh, one pot. Nachos. We have a Evel Knievel documentary pulled up on the computer. And we will see. See you in the morning. It's a little spicy.

Morning. We spent the night at a hot spring last night, but it was closed by the time we got here, so.

So you can either go in the regular pool. It kind of just looks like a public swimming pool, or you can pay an extra $5 to go in one of these private rooms, which we did just because, you know.

Oh, it's so hot. Really?

It's hot?

Yes. I'm so happy. It is so hot. And it's so chilly out. It's like the perfect morning for this.

I know. It is a gimmicky dying.

Not vellix started today.

All right, we just drove two hours to Boise. But before we move any further, you might remember not too long ago during the bike trip when I said we're being honest, I had to spend the last hour in the car making some really.

Un fun phone calls.

We're gonna explain what those are about.

Now.

This is something that I was really hoping we were never gonna have to talk about because it was gonna get resolved. And it was also something that I didn't want to talk about. Because I don't know how we can talk about this without just seeming like we're complaining for a really long time. But it's something that's gonna affect our travels moving forward enough that I think you should know about it.

Earlier this year, we climbed Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain national park, and we also made a video in Great Sand Dunes National Park.

So those phone calls were with government officials because someone, we don't know who they were, Anonymous, took it upon themselves to report our videos as commercial filming inside of national parks. They used our incoming expense reports that we had published for the past four years to show that we were making money from our channel. And so the National Park Service reached out.

In the middle of the bike trip, I woke up to a voicemail saying that we needed to call immediately or we would one get fined. And if we didn't call back and.

Pay the fine, if we didn't call them back by a specific deadline, they were gonna put a court order out and then there was gonna be a warrant for our arrest. It all got really serious really quickly and we had like no service for three days straight. So it was a pretty stressful situation in the moment. And then what followed was just really disappointing. We got fined over $1,000 for those videos that we filmed, which is definitely a bummer. But at the same time, it's. It's not the money.

The worst part of the whole thing is in addition to getting fined, we are no longer allowed to film in.

National parks without getting a commercial use permit.

Which seems, it sounds really simple, but this permit you have to pay to apply.

Again, the money's not necessarily the issue, but it's $300 and then it's $150 for each day we want to film.

If you get accepted, your application and.

The permit itself is obviously made for somebody who wants to film a feature length film inside of the park because they want to know how many animals we're bringing, how much stuff we're going to be blowing up. And so I understand that our channel is commercial. I'll be the first, first one to admit that. But we also fall in like this gray area where this form and this process is just kind of ridiculous. For a YouTube channel that's going to bring a handheld camera into a park and film their experience and encourage other people to go explore these places. On top of everything else, these forms take two to four weeks just to be reviewed, which if you know us, we don't even know where we're sleeping tonight. That's asking for a lot of pre planning. And on top of that, we have to give a detailed report on where we'll be in the park each day, exactly what we're doing, exactly what we'll be filming.

We don't know. We could never.

It's not the type of videos we shoot.

It wouldn't be worth it. The rest of our year was going to be in national park. So, like, even if we were willing to go through that, there's just no way that we could do that for the rest of the year.

I think that's the really frustrating part. We kind of like got stuck in Colorado for a few months and hung around there doing like the bike trip and stuff. But, like, after that, the plan was to go explore all these incredible national parks out west. So we're kind of finding ourselves feeling a little lost for what to do next.

And we knew as we make our way across the western United States, if we weren't visiting these incredible places, people would be wondering why, you know, we're driving right past Yellowstone and Zion and all these places that were on our bucket list. And this is why.

So we're not banned from visiting national parks. Technically, we could go if either we got one of these permits or we could just go and not film.

But that's also a weird place for.

Us at this point in our lives that just doesn't have a lot of appeal to us. And I've been trying to figure out a simple way to explain why. And as I was thinking about it on my run yesterday.

Just bought this Sharpie at the gas station to do this illustration.

There's like two things that make us really excited in life right now, and those are new travel experiences and then sharing or capturing those experiences and then being able to create a video that we're proud of to share on YouTube. And all of this space in the middle where these overlap, this is what makes us the most happy right there. So we could go to national parks and we could have those new experiences, but that would still leave us feeling like something was missing.

We really feel like most fulfilled when we're capturing it. Like it adds to our experience at this point.

So we're trying to get it worked out, but it's the government. I don't expect that this is going to get resolved anytime soon. So for the foreseeable future, we. We won't be visiting national parks. That's the short of this very long story. While we're giving you the bad news, we might as well go ahead and get it all out of the way. Whoever took it upon themselves to report us to the National Park Service also took it upon themselves to report us to the ffa, the Federal Aviation Authority. So around that same time, we also got a phone call from them, and our drone flying is now considered commercial drone flying, which requires a permit, which, from what I understand, is essentially a test that needs to be taken. That's almost equivalent to the same test that pilots have to take. You just don't have to do any of the actual flying. That's pretty straightforward. I just need to carve out quite a bit of time to study for that test, take the test, and then get it reviewed by someone who can give me the permit. But that's why you haven't seen any new drone footage in our recent videos, and you might not see it for a while.

There are so many worse problems to have, and we are aware of that. We really. We feel like we're living the dream, but it's just. We haven't been able to shake the frustration that we felt from those phone calls.

This is why I didn't want to talk about this, because I did. Like, I feel like all we've done is complain for the last few minutes. But it has had a big impact on our life as far as what we were planning to do in the future, and it's having an immediate impact on this video that we're making. We've passed 12 things that I've wanted to drop. Like, Idaho is incredible. And there's just, like. I think a drone is a crutch to a lot of filmmakers and one that I lean heavily on. Like, especially when we're in nature. Like, one of the best ways to share that, without a doubt, is with a drone. And I feel so confined with just a handheld camera. It feels like we're taking a step back in terms of content and in terms of video quality. Yeah.

We'Ll get it figured out.

So.

So we've ended up somewhere very unexpected. We are at a Basque restaurant, and apparently Boise is a hub for Basque culture, which is a people group from the northern border region of Spain and France. For one reason or another, a large population of Basque immigrants ended up here, and their food has become famous in the.

So we have ordered pochettas, one of my personal favorites, and patatas bravas. Because we're in Idaho. Idaho potatoes. We thought this was, like, a fusion of Idaho culture and Basque culture. Plus, they look amazing. Both of these remind me of Spain. And we haven't traveled internationally in so Long, so I'm currently traveling through food.

I don't even know what's in here.

Here we are with salamari and guillentia aioli.

Gracie.

Yes. Enjoy.

We also got fried calamari. I don't think we.

Should have ordered when we were this hungry.

Even just being behind the camera filming this food makes me feel like we're in another country. I miss this. It's probably just because it's been taken away from me, But.

I'm not gonna lie. We came here for the croquetas, just to relive our time in Spain, and they did not disappoint.

Wow.

Boise. I don't know if it's just that we haven't been to a city in so long, but that was a really cool place.

Morning. I started using this app called Ioverlander to find free places to park when we're on a road trip. So last night, we ended up in the cracker barrel parking lot, and this morning, we're hitting the road and continuing west as soon as I can get someone out of bed.

Today, we are finally going to make it to Oregon. So since we're going to be in the car for a while, I'm going to answer a few more questions. If you would have built the van yourself, what would you change? We really like the overall layout of this van, which is why we chose it. And we've already made all the little changes and upgrades that don't require tearing the whole van apart. But if we were going to go to that next level of renovations, I think our biggest change would be our bed desk situation. At this point, I think we'd go with something more like Eamon and Beck's new bed setup.

Is the van bed comfy?

Unfortunately not. The way that these cushions have to go, there's really no way to sleep without being on a crack. And we've considered getting, like, a mattress topper, but we can't figure out how to store one without taking up half the van. Is Nate ever gonna fix that drawer that won't stay closed? Probably should, because this thing is so.

Annoying.

But it's kind of one of those things. Like Rick explained in his van tour.

The other day, we're always balancing. Do we put the kitchen in, which we desperately need to do?

This is where it'll go.

Or do we go on that raft trip or go on that bike trip or go on that climbing trip or do any of the other amazing, adventurous things you can do in Colorado?

We had intentions of getting it fixed when we Were living in that mechanic's garage for a few days. But we had to prioritize the safety issues over little things like this, which is super annoying. But if Covid wasn't a thing, do you ever think you would have explored the option of van life? No. Or at least not in this place of wife. We'd always kind of pictured ourselves traveling the US in an rv or something, either when we had kids or when we were old. And even earlier this year, when we came home due to the pandemic, we were still kind of in denial that this would still be going on the rest of the year. So buying a van really wasn't on our radar. And it kind of took us quarantining for a whole month in a cabin alone to realize that this wasn't going away. And here we are.

Our first stop in Oregon was this tiny town called echo. For no other reason other than a winery. In town offered free overnight parking.

We went inside for a quick tasting, but ended up becoming fast friends with the owners, who we hung out with, Swapping travel stories out by the fire until midnight.

Probably our favorite thing about van life Is the flexibility it gives us.

We were just planning on passing through this small town, but one night turned into two when we got invited to the local corn maze right down the road. This wasn't just any corn maze.

Thank you very much.

The local wineries head hidden tasting stations inside, which just added to the challenge of finding our way out.

All right, here we go. See how long it takes.

Isn't there some crazy, like, rule like, always grow last?

You pick left.

You chose wrong. Look at this.

Where did that end?

Maybe we should start going right. I feel like the train makes it more creepy for some reason. Are we only going right now?

I'm just gonna choose it that way. I think it's gonna.

No, it's a thing.

It is.

I hate this.

I hate this so bad. I actually feel like I'm in the shining right now, Running from my killer.

Hey.

Nate.

That's you.

Hey.

I see. I think I.

Oh, my gosh.

I want him feeling the whole time.

That's good, right? Been working out.

Boy, I'm so happy you're brain. Your flashlight going Pretty easy to follow you. Will you take me home, please? I don't know how to get home. I'm still going, right?

I just thought it was brave that you went off on your own.

No, I think it's this way.

No.

All right. It is now completely dark. We are back at where we started. Renee scared me.

And we're still not back. So I'm going to continue my strategy of going right.

Here, people.

3:00Am they haven't eaten in hours. Chop down the stock with my bare hand. Whoops. Did chop down the stock with my bare hand. They liked light at the end. Day of the.

Did we do it?

One hour and four minutes.

My gosh.

And we had to use the map. We'd still be walking around in circles if it wasn't for the map that we took a picture of.

We've been circling for an hour.

Highly underestimated that corn is.

Oh my gosh.

I just nailed my knee. Ow.

Ow, ow, ow.

E.

N, C E. Wait, what's that line? Experie.

I make that an E. No.

Look, I do know how to spell. I just got distracted.

Autocorrect has not been good for you spelling. With over 70 different stunts and a world record 433 broken bones, he miraculously survived all his daredevil Attempts.

What?

The X2 Sky Cycle was meant to be a high powered motorcycle, but transformed into a rocket due to design technicality. Motorcycle rocket.

Also. How cool is this? For some reason I'm fascinated by the Oregon Trail. And the immigrant's diary entry from July 28, 1851 recorded the three miles down river brought Salmon Creek Falls where good water, moderate supply of grass. That's definitely where you press hunt on the game. Could probably hunt it right here in computer class in elementary school. And then we got and it was.

Only $10 a person.

The sign said five and I paid 26. So I'm still confused about that.

The sign said $5 in price. And she was like that'll be $26. And I just like.

I didn't know that.

It's too early to argue.

It's making the corners a lot more fun.

This is not the same thing.

You can't scare me again, mate. I know you're there.

I'm not gonna move until you.