What is a Hoppy Purpose?

December 2019

We have lived the past 7 years in Colorful Colorado. While there, we encountered a fresh perspective that tended to surround and relate with craft beer culture. A perspective that encourages people to be curious, to live in a mindset of exploration and pushing oneself outside of your comfort zone. Are we talking about your beer choices? Sure… but also about everything else. Skiing off 13,000 ft mountaintops, hiking in every kind of habitat, kayaking in class 5 white water, exploring natural hot springs in the middle of a valley, cliff jumping into sparkling lakes and reservoirs, volunteering for restoration projects, singing, dancing, tasting, howling at the moon and in general just throwing your trepediation and fears to the wind. Whatever it is, we just wanted to get out there and DO THE THING….and then reminisce over a few beers. Beers at sunset, at dinner, on the snowy slopes atop your skis or under the light of the stars next to a campfire.

In essence, wherever you might find yourself when you are living in the here and now, as long as you are finding yourself.

Our preferred way of being happens to be the path of stepping outside the comfort zone on a regular basis. Who needs complacency, the mundane and the same when you only get one life? “To making it count” (shamless Titanic movie quote, not sorry)

When we first moved to Colorado and knew absolutely no one, we found friendship and inspiration through folks that lived this lifestyle and outlook. Given David’s career and weekly craft beer club, we were certainly more surrounded by folks with similar interests and tastes, but by no means do I want to limit these musings or thoughts only to those who choose to partake in drinking. Far from it! It is simply that in our personal experience, craft beer brought us to the kind of people we admired and with whom we wanted to surround ourselves. We found people were kind and curious instead of judgmental and aloof, excited to share their passions and tastes and life stories. Rather than a one-size-fits-all or one-beer-fits-all, we were met with the open ended questions that everyone should meet with in their early twenties: What do you dream? What is your taste? How far can you imagine? Have you met your limit?

We’ve always wanted to travel to South America and explore the famously sweeping landscapes, fascinating cultures, and wonderfully diverse biomes chock full of unique wildlife. There is also a newly forming craft beer scene, wouldn’t you know!

To explore this continent – from its diverse, exciting cities to the grand Andes mountains, into the rainforests and under the falls, through the salt flats and over the sand dunes, past the fermenters and to the bottom of a pint – in the right here and right now, this is our Hoppy Purpose.

~*~* UPDATE AUTUMN 2020 ~*~*

Like all purposes in life, sometimes you have to be flexible with the roadblocks that are thrown at you. We made it 73 days in South America and it was truly spectacular. Then, the ensuing pandemic that we’d been reading about caught up to us at the bottom of the world – Puerto Natales, Chile – and we had no choice but to fly back to the States. We hadn’t yet made it halfway along our planned route. There’s a lot more to that story, but that’s for another time. You’ll just have to read Gabrielle’s book she’s gonna write. Stay tuned.

So…what does one do when faced with a world pandemic and inability to travel internationally? We bought a 1994 Winnebago Itasca Sundancer motorhome and turned the page to the next chapter: North America RV travel living until we can safely make it back to South America someday! So now we travel, hike, take too many pictures (or at least David does because Gabrielle drops her phone in oceans), visit breweries, national parks, state parks & just about anywhere there is wilderness adventure calling and authentic people abounding. Our hoppy purpose holds true. ❤

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