Our Story.
It started in Colorado in 2012. I had just just graduated from High School and was taking a gap year before college to work in Steamboat Springs, CO for the ski season. On a trip to Vail, Colorado Kelly sat next to me on a ski lift. I asked her if she wanted to ski a run with me and she reluctantly said yes.
10 minutes later, I was blown away. I considered myself a good skier but she made me look like I was walking down the slopes. I thought to myself: “I have to get this girl’s number!” but she only gave me her Facebook. We went our separate ways and did not reconnect until late 2016.
Christmas, 2016. My timing was horrible… I sent Kelly a message asking for a “skiing rematch” and she responded that she was moving to New Zealand in 5 days. Before I knew it, she was boarding her plane for NZ and I was sure she was someone special I needed to pursue.
I asked her on a first date via Skype. Her internet connection was horrible and we could barely hear each other but when the zoom call ended, I knew what I had to do. I told her “I am coming to New Zealand to take you on a real date.” Of course she did not really think I was going to do it.
A month later, I boarded a flight to New Zealand to have my first date with Kelly. That first date turned into an adventure filled week where we skydived from 15,000 feet, rafted the largest commercially-raftable waterfall, hiked into the famous glow worm caves and mountain biked in Rotorua.
She returned from New Zealand six months later and moved to Los Angeles. She became a travel copywriter for a Kansas City based firm, while I was a Mergers & Acquisitions Analyst at the middle market investment bank named Houlihan Lokey. Our adventures were almost non-existant for a little under two years as I worked 90-100 hour work weeks, spending 7 days a week at the office.
As the typical Investment Banker story goes, I was quickly burned out. It was my time to move on from the grueling hours, take some time off, and go get my MBA. This is when our adventures picked back up. We spent a month and a half backpacking South East Asia, a week in the Philippines and did a few large hiking backpacking trips including the Salkantay Trail in Peru. Right about then, we purchased Larry, our Land Rover Discovery 5 and started getting into camping.
It just so happened that we got into camping in the late fall, so we basically started with winter camping. 5 degree camping in Mammoth, CA, buried by 3 feet of snow in June Lake, CA, and countless trips in central and southern California… we were hooked.
Since then we have done some amazing Overlanding trips: Anza Borrego State Park, CA, Baja Mexico, Mammoth Lakes, CA, Flagstaff, AZ, Sedona, AZ, Big Sur, CA, Joshua Tree, CA, and trips that covered the states of Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah.
As we continue on this adventure, we are always searching for new and cool places to visit. As we explore more of Colorado, since we just moved here, other trips are on the horizon including Montana, BC Canada and Baja Mexico again.
If you want to follow along on our journeys check out @Dirty_Discovery on Instagram. Since there is so much going on, that is usually where we end up posting the most updated stuff!