HMS Beangle
Welcome aboard! We're sailing across North America in our Bean Stalker teardrop trailer. Come share our journey.
Month: September 2025
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Back in 2018, coming off a couple years of doing triathlons together, Jessica and I decided we were going to run a full marathon. We laid out the training plan. We committed to it. We found our perfect race: Grandma’s Marathon along the Duluth waterfront. It was the right time of year, we’d heard great…
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We’ve been to some really lovely State Parks over the years, and one of the things I value most about them is that they tend to be spots of respite from a chaotic world. Since they don’t get the press of the National Parks, they tend to be quieter overall. And without The Big List…
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There’s an app for that! Ok, the Fort Sisseton Historic State Park app is a bit out of date for current events (hello, two years?) but the audio guides are useful and full of interesting information. I especially enjoyed the selected readings from Captain Bennett’s and Sergeant Andrew Fisk’s writings. A quote that has stuck…
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The terrain in Badlands National Park speaks for itself, so I’m going to just post some photos and keep the commentary to a minimum. Phone viewing tip: turn your screen brightness all the way up, set True Tone on (iPhones only?), and turn night shift off. It will make a big difference here. We want…
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After leaving Deadwood, we decided to head east instead of sticking around for the night. I saw that Badlands National Park had a free dry campground on the north portion of the park, so we decided to give a it go. It wasn’t quite boondocking as there were vault toilets, formal parking spots, and picnic…
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Long a fan of Wild West history, Jeff has been wanting to go to Deadwood, South Dakota, for ages, so it only made sense that it be our first true destination. After leaving Wind Cave on Monday, we headed north and grabbed breakfast in the town of Custer after a brief moment of terror where…
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“It’s windy and there’s a cave,” as quipped by our tour guide, Ranger Franny. Wind Cave National Park’s claim to fame is the fact that the cave system ‘breathes’ in and out of a small helmet-sized hole in the ground, adjusting the internal barometric pressure of the cave throughout the days and seasons. Winds in…
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Solar panels are wonderful. They’re also picky. Our panel has a curve to it, to fit it to the front of the Bean trailers. This means we don’t get 100% of the sun unless it’s very bright, but it also means that it can get some sun most of the time if it’s points in…
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One of the things we decided to do early on when planning this adventure was to save the bulk of The Boy’s ashes so that we could release them at special places we find along the way. Cherish. Embrace. Let go. The past year and a half has been an exercise in living those words.…
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Last weekend, the amazing Miss Carmen personalized the HMS Beangle and it turned out just as were hoping. She made us some cozies for the propane tanks, too. That will keep the tanks out of direct sunlight, which reduces the chance of hot, heat-expanded gas leaking out. They’re just so adorable. Let’s talk nuts and…
