Who are you guys?
Dawn is a landscape architect, trained at University of Illinois.  Stephen was an embedded software engineer, trained at Purdue University.  We met the summer of 1978 when we both took a summer class at Purdue.  After dating long-distance for 18 months we drifted apart, married other people, had 2 sons each, and marriages of 18 and 20 years.  In 2002 we found each other again, Dawn in Portland, Oregon and Stephen in Coral Springs, Florida, at opposite ends of the continental US.  We married in May 2003.  Unfortunately, partly due to the stress of the trip, we separated in April 2005.

Why call yourselves "Twigs In Our Hair?"
Our original intent was to hit the road and go camping for 2 years (before we realized that even living in a tent left us with a lot of expenses.)  Stephen's 11-year old son Harrison commented that when we got back, we would be speaking our own language, dressed in rags, and have twigs in our hair. :-)

Why take this trip in the first place?
As a contract engineer, Stephen found himself "between jobs," as we say.  Dawn wasn't too happy with her new job in Florida.  We both love the outdoors, and felt we were getting older without seeing enough of America's natural beauty.  However, we suspect most of our friends and family thought we were having a mid-life crisis.  A second reason is that Stephen wanted to go into full-time residency at a Zen center, and the trip gave us a way to explore living situations where we could each pursue our interests, and yet remain together.  That was the idea, anyway.

What kind of RV do you have?
Ummm, we have a tent.  But it's a pretty nice tent, really it is!  Most of our clothes, food, and camping gear get packed into 10 big plastic storage boxes and loaded into our Buick Rendezvous.  We can set up camp in about an hour, and if we hustle, we can be on the road 1 1/2 hour after getting up.

Do you live in that tent all-year round?
The longest we've actually spent sleeping in the tent is 16 days in a row.  We like to stop and visit friends on our travels.  But when we are on the road, all our belongings are packed in the car.  We last lived out of the car from Labor Day until Thanksgiving 2004.  Our next leg of the trip had us on the road from Valentines Day until Memorial Day 2005.  Stephen spent the summer camping with his two sons, and after Labor Day is on the road again, ending up at Kanzeon Zen Center in Salt Lake City.

Who makes and sells the greeting cards while you are traveling?
While Stephen and Dawn were traveling during August through November of 2004, Stephen shot approximately 6000 images.  We put quite a few on our weblog while we were on the road, and starting December we processed the 6000 photos down to the 50 or so available as greeting cards.  In January Stephen built this website, and his sister Judy makes and sends out the cards.

Where are you now?
The best way to keep up with us is to check the weblog at www.TwigsInOurHair.net  We also email our friends whenever we update the weblog, so you might want to ask for some optional email.

It takes two to write a letter
as much as it takes two to make a quarrel.
-- Elizabeth Drew, 1964

All text and photographs Copyright ©2005 TwigsInOurHair.com