we’re the mortells
how it all began and then escalated quickly
Our joint story began in 2017 when Mike and I met at a happy hour info-session hosted by a local nonprofit in Atlanta. Once we started chatting, we quickly discovered we had a lot to talk about. I was on the network deployment team for Google Fiber at the time, and I had coincidentally met Mike’s boss and uncle the week before in a work meeting. He was working for a telecom engineering firm that was beginning to do contract work for us.
Once we exhausted the topic of work, the conversation kept flowing. At the behest of my friend who was at the happy hour with us, we found ourselves encouraged to continue the conversation over dinner, just the two of us. Sparks were obviously flying all over the place.
We went to dinner. A few days later, we went on our first date–or at least our first planned date. On a whim, we celebrated our three month anniversary in Europe. Around six months, we took a three week trip to Nepal to hike to the base camp of Mount Everest, quickly followed by moving to Colorado together.
Hiking down towards Lobuche Base Camp on our descent from Mt. Everest Base Camp.
What instantly attracted us to one another and ultimately laid the foundation for our relationship was everything that we had in common. We had both spent time living in different African countries (Mike - Kenya and Uganda, Dani - Senegal). We both had a passion for photography. Both of us grew up in rural communities, went to Big Ten universities (Dani - Ohio State, Mike - Penn State), and loved cheering on our football teams. Due to our careers, we both moved around every couple of years after college. Through his previous job, Mike had lived and worked in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, and though I didn’t have similar work experiences, I desperately wanted them. We were both crazy for travel.
From the beginning, two things were clear:
we loved a lot of the same things, and
we both wanted more of those things
So on May 24, 2019, we got married!
Photo by Kathryn Kim Photography
pandemic, remote work, rig upgrades, and new travel companions
Our goal for moving to Colorado was simply to experience more of the raw natural beauty of this part of the country and to do more of the things that we love: hiking, photography, camping, etc. And for the past four years, we have taken full advantage of our locale, exploring much of Colorado and its neighboring states.
Taking in the views at one of our favorite campsites in Colorado.
We stumbled into the realm of truck camping and overlanding when Mike got the bright idea to convert our truck into a camping rig with a simple drawer system and sleeping platform. I didn’t realize this was a thing that people did, but it sounded fun. We began weekend-warrioring and taking the occasional longer trip. This was my first glimpse into wild camping, understanding public lands, and getting out to remote places. We were loving it–and of course–wanting more.
When the pandemic hit, we were both working from home and quickly realized that we could take our work to the outdoors. This got our minds reeling and resulted in upgrading our camping setup to a Scout truck bed camper, which would allow for easier remote work and extra room for a couple of additional travel companions.
Enjoying lunch with Walker inside the Scout.
Inspired by the legendary Luna from @bound.for.nowhere, we were determined to transform our cat Walker into an adventure cat. Thankfully he was a willing participant. We also finally gave in to my puppy fever and welcomed our dog Granger into the family around the same time we got the Scout camper.
fast forward to today
After spending about half of 2021 on the road with our little travel crew, we’ve once again decided that we want more. So we’re in the process of downsizing all of our stuff and renting out our house so that we can move into our current rig (version 3) full time! Unencumbered by full-time jobs, we plan to live off of savings and perhaps make some money along the way through freelance gigs and other passive income streams.
We have high hopes for our imminent travels, but our plans are loose. We don’t know how long we’re going to do this for, and we don’t really know where we’ll end up. No matter where this path leads us, we invite you to follow along our journey and promise to do our best to document it every step of the way!
Watching the sun set behind the mountains in Montana.
