We're home – with some big news!!!

HINT: We left as three, returned as four.

Hey! 👋 It’s been a minute.

We last posted from Missoula, Montana in early September.

In the two months since, we traveled an additional 8,000 miles, completed our loop of the country, and have already begun settling back in to life in West Virginia.

If that sounds a bit quicker than planned to you – well, that’s because it was.

Turns out, from the very start of the trip, we had a precious, teeny tiny stowaway on board. . .

This ^^ is us finding out in the early hours of the morning at a campground in Maine during our second week on the road. Yes, we’re pregnant!!!!!

💙 Ankur & I are so so so excited to share that we’re expecting a baby boy in April! 💙

As you can imagine, this piece of news led us to reconsider how we’d approach the rest of the trip. We promptly scheduled a tele-health appointment with our OB in Charleston, and, with her blessing, agreed to continue tent camping our way across the country, making adjustments here and there as necessary.

At first, those adjustments were small: i.e., choosing shorter distances to hike, prioritizing afternoon naps, increasing my caloric intake. But, after the nausea and fatigue hit hard (~5 weeks into our trip, 7 weeks into pregnancy), we decided to scale back a tad farther. This meant swapping an occasional night in the tent for a stay indoors, or me taking a rest day with Finn while Ankur went for a bike ride. Ultimately, it meant cutting our trip just a couple weeks short.

At the encouragement of our home OB, we made calls to doctors in various states along our route to be seen for our first and second prenatal visits. We’ve now had 3 appointments with 3 OBs in 3 states – Montana, California, and West Virginia.

From left to right, ultrasounds from Week 7, Week 10, & Week 16 of pregnancy.

So far, Baby is doing great. 🤞 I like to think that some of the fresh mountain and ocean air we breathed in over the past few months found its way to him, giving him strength and perhaps even an inborn sense of the world’s possibility for beauty.

Although recent events have served as a sobering reminder of the many ways the world is of course far from beautiful, Ankur & I encountered over and over again on our trip examples of its loveliness and kindness. As I’m sure all parents and expectant parents do, we worry about the world we’re bringing this child into, but we hope that we can raise him with the tools he needs to seek out and create beauty in his own life and the lives of those around him.

In another blog post, Ankur & I will recap the second half of the trip (now that we don’t have to keep the baby news hush hush) and share our favorite pics and memories throughout. There’s so much more to be said, but for the time being, I hope this will do!

Sending love, strength, and hope to you all.

~ Sam (& Ankur)