Welcome to Kristin Collum Dare | Grow | Curate! Here I share my travel adventures and my life’s laughs and lessons as a digital nomad, minimalist, low-carber, and typical 50-something woman.

Born and raised in Montana, then living around the world for 12 years while serving in the US Army, I settled down in Idaho for 2+ decades. There I worked in the tech sector and ran for Idaho Lieutenant Governor as the 2018 Democratic nominee. 

For over a year, I have passed a sign many times in Garden City on my way to visit a dear friend and mentor. In her mid-50s, she has Stage 4 cancer and is dying. My friend is a reminder to embrace the one life we each are given and to make each day count because there are no guarantees. This sign challenges me, “If not now, when?”

I am 52, single after a recent, second divorce, with 2 grown daughters, healthy parents, and a 100% remote job. As my ex-husband moved out last Fall, I looked around my Boise, Idaho home that I had built, raised my kids in, and paid off the year before. I was mentally creating a list of things I needed to buy to make it whole again, when I thought, “Or, I could just sell the house and go live abroad!” 

Hadn’t I always wanted to do that? And if not now, when?

So I did it. I fully embraced the freedom and opportunity of my new situation. I sold my house and reduced my possessions to what can fit in my car, to be reduced to a suitcase and backpack when I go farther afield. 

By March 2020, I was mere weeks away from commencing my adventures abroad when the borders closed due to the pandemic. I hunkered down at my sister’s and reworked my plans. 

My COVID-19 adjusted domestic travels begin in June 2020 and continue until I can get a vaccine and safely travel abroad. I will spend a couple of months at a time in US towns with reliable internet and an abundance of hiking, forests, and mountains. 

This may not be a big, dramatic start to my new life at large, but that’s ok. It is, after all, as much about the journey as the destinations. And sometimes just starting, getting out of that rut and daring to pursue a life’s dream, is significant enough.

I welcome you to journey with me as I travel, explore, and Dare | Grow | Curate.