Our Saga – Unabridged

A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.
~John Steinbeck

Welcome Family, Friends, Visitors and Fellow Life Travelers

This blog’s 2006 inception is a result of our Australian/New Zealand adventure. That’s when Mr. Pepper aka Scott convinced me to take 5 weeks off from work. Being self-employed, this was a frightening prospect, but I did it. And it reminded me there are more important, more exiting, and more enlightening aspects to life than devoting every moment of time to work (ahh…the life of a business owner). It’s been all downhill, in a skiing on powdery snow sort of way, from there.

At the time of our first big adventure together given our shared love of travel, the peeps in my life asked me to send postcards during the Australian/New Zealand tripulation. I don’t do postcards and not just because I’m lazy, but because I don’t want anything that resembles a chore while I’m on vacay. I also don’t see the point in spending money or wasting the paper. A blog seemed like an easy solution to that problem, because I do like taking photos and I do like expressing myself in the written word (maybe a little too much). It just made sense to keep a virtual journal to share with others. Little did I know that this form of communication to loved ones would turn into an international sensation! 😉 Since I moved from Blogger to WordPress and launched an official site in 2014, things are picking up. There must be a lot of cheeky readers out there who appreciate the journey of life

And what about us now?  Really, wassup with us Peppers? We mind not one bit if you eat popcorn while reading the blog. We actually encourage it. I do suggest organic if you want to avoid a genetically modified snack fest.

Spanning a few continents a dozen or so countries, our travels have taken us to new heights and brilliant horizons. Between the two of us and spanning many years, we have visited more than 50 countries. While I haven’t written in each of the places we’ve visited, I have taken tens of thousands of photos. One day when I’m old (er) and with nothing else to do, I’ll refresh this blog with some of my favorite images from every place I’ve ever visited.  That will never happen.

We are asked a lot of questions about how we managed to spend nearly two years on the road or in the air or on the water. How did we manage? Two ultra extremely very young and vibrant y.o.u.n.g. people and their dog on the road? One day there will be a post or two or five about how we made this awesome dream a reality. Hopefully we’ll call it something catchy like Two Cheeky Monkeys and their Dog on the Run or Two NuttyNutBars Conquer the World Armed with their Frenzied Furried Companion.

In the meantime, I can give you one hint as to how we made it happen, this journey: We seek a simpler existence. For 20+ years I worked for myself and created work that could be delivered remotely if necessary and assuming we visit places that have the intergoogle. But really, our travels look different now. We still have a great time, even better. But it’s different now, because we approach life, in general, with a feverish mindfulness (can those two words go together?) to connect with our environment and people we meet. We are frugal, no doubt. I mean, c’mon we eat beans and rice almost every night for dinner. But we’ve discovered riches in our simpler life. By connecting our resourcefulness to our needs, we’ve learned to do a lot of things on our own (DIY and 2nd hand baby) and we’ve learned we just don’t need a lot of stuff. Through advocacy and a mindset of sustainability, we aim to help make the world a better place on this journey.

Scott Pepper

In this photo, Scott earned himself the nickname, Zoolander. He is Kenda’s Mr. Everything Guy.

He is the Head of Retirement R & D, with a special emphasis on anything smacking of “Early Retirement”, “Frugal Living”, “Investing Overseas”, and “List of 10 Greatest Places To [insert activity here]”.  A recent escapee from the Corporate Treadmill, having graciously been allowed to exit with “time served,” he is also an accredited Master Bean Maker, Body-surfing aficionado, Beach Volleyball Seeker and Guitar-Playing Rock Star Wannabe. Seeing and experiencing new experiences with Kenda and Stella is his life’s major goal.

Kenda Swartz Pepper

By trade, Kenda is an organizational development consultant with a Masters in Art Therapy Psychology. By travel, she is a painter, writer and photographer, and by day she is trying to save every flying creature in the universe. 

A Sagittarian, Kenda’s favorite food groups are chocolate and peanut butter. She also enjoys strawberry coladas and getting caught in the rain, the feel of the ocean and the taste of champagne. Kenda finds comfort referring to herself in the third person. She believes if she speaks or spells her name often enough that folks will eventually learn there is no “r” in Kenda.

When not working, Kenda finds herself deeply immersed in whatever community she currently resides. Some of her free time is spent volunteering, gardening, and dreaming about growing vegetables with Vandana Shiva and fantasizing about hanging out in Tanzania with Jane Goodall and her wild chimpanzees.

Kenda makes a pretty good show of pretending to be a writer and a photographer having published an award-winning children’s book entitled Well Earth Well Me! She visits schools and hangs out with children reading, singing, jumping about, and generally having a good time while talking about outrageous ways children can save the earth.

Some ask her, “Why did you write a children’s book about caring for the earth?” Her response varies from one day to the next, but the consistent theme is:  “I have faith in the infinite wisdom of children.”

Besides, “I’m hoping our children fix the mess we made” doesn’t seem like the answer most people want to hear. She remains hopeful. And each time she reads to a group of children who share their tremendous insights, she feels uplifted and confident that the human race will continue to thrive in sync with the earth and her inhabitants.  To learn more, check out the website to the (did she mention award-winning?) children’s book Well Earth Well Me!

Oh, and we love butterflies.

Our Daughters, Jaime and Stella

Stella, our canine daughter

Meet Stella, aka Punkin, Stretchy Girl, and Baby Girlfriend.  Stella is Top Dog, herder of humans, princess of love, and chaser of all things roundish or stickish.  In a recent interview, Stella was asked, “Who is the prettiest girl?” and “Who is your Mama’s baby girl?”  She enthusiastically responded by grabbing her favorite toy, Mr. Squirrel, and shoving him in the interviewer’s face.

I’m mentioning Stella first – only because she’s our regular companion.  And a great companion she is.  She has flown to and rode with us all over Mexico.  She has made friendships – human and nonhuman – with folks from all over the world.  She now speaks Spanish, English and Dogspanglish fluently.

Our Human Daughter, Jaime

We sometimes live 3000 miles away from Jaime, so we don’t get to hang that often.  But we’re most proud of her because unlike Stella, Jaime is a Masters graduate of Harvard in Environmental Sustainability. We maximize every opportunity to talk about that. *Beaming* at how awesome she is.  I can take no credit at all, since I am merely the stepmother, but I own the pride nonetheless. If I can spin this story well enough, I somehow get to look good because of her. As always, it is a joy when the whole pack is together.

Our Story Starts and Continues

Our big travel adventure began in Mexico, October 2012.

We lived in Sayulita, Mexico for eight months.  There, we built an awesome community and experienced life in a small Mexican coastal town. I joined a writer’s group, taught middle school students about marine debris, and Scott honed his body surfing skills. We took jungle walks and savored the occasional icy margarita.  Living high on a hill in a 3-walled house with a lovely peek of the Pacific Ocean, we enjoyed colorful evenings and the obnoxious call of the Chachalaca in the early morning hours. And in a 3-walled house in the tropics, we learned to connect to our inner insect.

Toward the end of our Sayulitan living experience, we fostered two sibling puppies, Frida and Diego.  Frida was the first to get adopted.  Within one week, a family wanted her in their lives.  But Diego didn’t get noticed as easily despite his gorgeous face, beautiful coat and optimistic attitude.  Eventually, he and his new Mama (two lucky souls) found one another.  Diego is happily residing in San Diego, California with his new Mom, Sarah.  It was sad to say good-bye.  It’s all good.

We then moved to San Miguel where we lived for four months and I volunteered as a teacher’s assistant working and playing with kids age 4-19. We sang, made art, and sampled different foods all in the name of learning English (and for me, Spanish).  Our last month in Mexico was spent exploring the southern states our favorites being Oaxaca and Chiapas.

This journey took us to South Africa and then across the US twice, the last being on Route 66, a cool ride down mid-century memory lane.

Our journey came to an unplanned stop in 2015 when we decided to provide a home for Scott’s 90-year old dad to live. All four of us (including Al, my father-in-law) happily resided in Southern Oregon. I continued my professional work and writing, and started a local pollinator group. I also earned my Master Gardener certification as Scott sharpened his carpentry/plumbing/electrical skills. Sadly, 2018, our sweet Al died at the age of 93. We sold off almost all of our earthly possessions and hit the road once again. That journey was about living a sustainable existence and trying to enhance whatever small corner of the world we resided in. That corner became the Ligurian Region of Italia. We thrived there for 2.5 years and then, once again, we returned late 2021 to the US to be closer to family. All the while, I was able to maintain my work as a learning and development professional and professional coach. Now, after 22 years of working for myself, I’m looking to work directly for a company that matches my values, and I found my place with Skin Resource.MD.

A shout-out about my Amazon promotions.  If you order products (those I mention and those you find on your own) through any of the numerous Amazon links on this site, as an Amazon Associate (an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon), I receive a small percentage of your purchase in advertising fees at no extra cost to you.

And thank you for reading.