If you want to get to know me, you’ve come to the right place! And if you don’t really care to get to know me (which is okay, too!) and just want to know what this website is all about, you can find out on my “About” page, here.
Anyway, in case you haven’t heard, I’m Kristin – the creator behind Reckless Roaming. I come from humble-ish beginnings. In fact, I’m very much average.
(Wow, I can already tell this bio is going to be reeeaaallly interesting…)
I grew up in a town in The Corn Belt (yes, that’s a real thing) where our claims to fame were “#5 Largest Party School in the USA” and “#1 Export of Douchebaggery”. (I’m wondering how many of you just opened Google and typed in “5th largest party school”… or the latter.)
Needless to say, in a town surrounded by corn and filled with people competing for village idiot, there wasn’t a lot of opportunity for adventure. The biggest “adventures” I had were float trips and swimming in a lake that was frequented by murderers dumping bodies. I wish that was an exaggeration. It is not.
But despite the lack of experience and severe out-of-shapeness (too much corn, probably), I always dreamed of travel. So one day, in a fit of non-complacency, I decided I was going to “save the world” by signing up for a 12-month, 11-country mission trip. I’ll admit, my reasons were probably anything but selfless. I kind of just wanted to free myself from my Midwest bonds and experience the world. But nevertheless, my mind had been made up.
Or so I thought.
As if by design (I actually believe that it was) I just so happened to meet somebody amazing within weeks of my life-changing decision. (Cue the groaning). I know exactly what you’re thinking:
YOU’RE GOING TO GIVE UP YOUR DREAM FOR A MAN!?
Well, yes and no. Just keep reading and relax, before you pop a blood vessel.
It just so happened that this amazing person had his own 12-month plans that would be taking HIM international, too. Even then, as a couple of new friends just talking, I felt a hint of little-girl-ish sadness. Like come on, I finally meet somebody I click with and we’re both leaving. But I decided I may as well enjoy it while it lasts and get to know this very interesting, hilariously funny, man-bun-having dude.
And thus my fate was sealed. But the dream was not dead. Cue dramatic line break, symbolizing the passage of time…
From the moment Francis proposed to me (while trespassing – but that’s a whole different story) the drawing board was out and the dreams that we put on hold were back at the forefront of our minds. We shared a mutual dislike for our town (aww..) and a mutual desire to see the world, so why not get married in Hawaii, move to Idaho, and then travel the world for a year? Seems easy enough on our combined income of less than $40,000 per year!
But we did it. We got married in, arguably, the most beautiful place on Earth (see video below), moved to Idaho (arguably, the second most beautiful place on Earth) and spent a full year traveling – 6 months in South East Asia and 6 months camping our way through the American West, where I developed my love for life outdoors.
Scroll down to see some of our favorite “home movies” from our travels below! Try not to judge our shaky camera work.
It was seriously the best year of my life. (I’ll admit, other years didn’t provide much competition, but even if they did, 2017 would take the cake!) But as with most good things, it eventually came to an end. Sort of.
Flash forward to present day (is your head spinning from all of this time travel?) and I’m sitting here in my tiny office/guest bedroom in my Idaho apartment, staring at a bulletin board packed with photos of adventures and maps and 2019 goals. Francis is in the other room, trying to be quiet because I’m a weirdo who needs complete silence to write. My blog is now, sort of actually, a business. It’s starting small, and only weekend adventures will be permissible (for now), but I love what I do, I love where I live, and I love who I get to share it all with.
Wow. That sounded super cliche.
So that’s the story of me! Riveting, huh?
And if you still like me after I put you through all of that, check out my social media! I share more, much shorter, and much more embarrassing stories here:
Now that all the self-marketing is out of the way, let’s get to the good stuff! Shaky homemade videos and some of my favorite posts from my years of travel.