Galactic Adventures

ISSUE 16 | MARCH 7, 2025

Camper Vans gathered at a campfire at sunset

Hello, STORYTELLERS! Welcome to the 16th issue of Galactic Adventures -- our community-focused, community-informed newsletter. It was a busy February full of events and we love to see it! Shout out to everyone hosting and participating in Storyteller meetups across the US and Mexico. It brings us great joy to know you all are out there, building community, exploring together and writing what will surely be the greatest stories ever told.

To stay in the loop on Storyteller events, be sure to check out the Insiders Facebook Page as well as our official Events Page.

This issue's featured photo comes to us from BEAST MODE owner, Kevin Tokarski.

🚐 Mission Accomplished –
Visit all 63 US National Parks

Steve Binkley, STEALTH MODE owner

Visiting all the ‘big-named’ US National Parks has been a goal of the Binkley family for the past 20+ years. With two boys growing up in the concrete-jungle of the DFW Metroplex - it has been important for us to “touch-grass” and to find outdoors and nature. Our National Park Service and our 2021 Stealth MODE certainly allows us to do just that.

As many of you in the Storyteller community already know – our national parks are incredible places to visit providing wonderful opportunities to bond with family and friends in the great outdoors. From Acadia to American Samoa – the NPS encompasses some of the most beautiful and iconic landscapes, while protecting natural and cultural resources for future generations.

“The National Parks are the best idea we’ve ever had – absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst” - Wallace Stegner.

Our national park journey began when our boys were 5 and 8 years old, including spring breaks, summer vacations and an occasional Thanksgiving and / or Christmas break - often much to the (they’re gone again?) disapproval from grandparents and extended family.

However - these trips have become the treasure of our lives.

It’s actually quite hard to sum all 63 up – so many road trips, world-class hikes and trails, waterfalls, backpacking, caving, canoeing, kayaking, rafting, snorkeling, historic lodges, sunrises, sunsets, stargazing and all the animal sightings.

The sense of adventure, the laughter and tears, the silliness from exhausted moments, the challenges we set for ourselves, the things we’ve learned from park rangers and the awe-inspiring wonder of nature - is what I’ll remember. I could not be more grateful to the National Park Service for preserving and protecting these special places.

A real benefit for the flexibility of the Storyteller has been finding camping and boondocking opportunities in NPS places which are not only extremely popular, but also being established in the early 1900’s means often not feasible for larger recreational vehicles and campers.

A great example is the magnificent and iconic ‘Driving to the Sun’ Road in the incredible Glacier National Park which limits vehicles longer than 21 ft – additionally many of the bridges and tunnels in the park service built in the 1930s and 1940s simply don’t accommodate larger recreational vehicles. Outside of the very remote parks, our STOs provide the perfect vehicle for mainland visits with 30 states having one or more parks.

Of course – one of the challenges of visiting all 63 US National Parks is the extreme remoteness of several - particularly in Alaska, Hawaii, Virgin Islands and the other island parks often requiring boats or progressively smaller airplanes, float-planes and bush-planes to visit.

For our Alaskan visit to Gates of the Arctic NP and Kobuk Valley NP we flew from DFW to Seattle, Seattle to Fairbanks, Fairbanks to Bettles and finally on a de Havilland Beaver float plane to visit these parks above the Arctic circle. Because of their remoteness, Gates and Kobuk are the least-visited parks with fewer than 1000 visitors per year.

Our final visits also presented some logistical challenges with visits to American Samoa National Park in Pago Pago and Haleakala NP in the Kipahulu district of Maui. American Samoa NP is the only park in the Southern Hemisphere, below the equator and actually requires a passport to visit despite being an American territory. We also visited the remote Manu Islands of AMSAM including a 3-night stay in OFU which only receives 2 flights per week on Samoan Air.

Finally - We’ve found the park service to instill a sense of American pride, an opportunity to challenge ourselves physically on hikes and trails while seeing incredible animals including brown bears, the American bison, elk, grey whales and the flying fox fruit bat of Samoa. I’ve been fortunate to accomplish several ‘quests’ (many in the STO) which include all 50 states, all 30 Major League Baseball parks and now all 63 US National Parks.

What should I tackle next? Hit me back on the STO Facebook Page or on Instagram and Twitter @louisbink.

☀️ 1st Annual STO Safari in Florida

Sara Keller, CLASSIC MODE owner

What does an Oregon girl do when she rolls into Florida for the first time? Naturally, she rolls right into the 1st Annual STO Safari in Florida!

On Friday, February 14th (because what better way to spend Valentine’s Day?), 20 vans gathered on a sprawling cattle ranch in Lakeland, Florida, for a weekend of adventure. We set up camp along the shoreline of a peaceful lake, where we were greeted by some unexpected guests—a few curious horses and one silly donkey who clearly wanted in on the fun.

That night, we feasted. Huge thanks to Scott Tydeman and Alicia Ober for handling the main course of our potluck BBQ. One thing I’ve learned: STO owners don’t mess around when it comes to potlucks. As an East Coast first-timer, it was amazing finally meeting so many friends I’d only known through the Facebook forum—turns out, they’re just as awesome in person (yes, Eric Kuenzli, I’m talking about you).

The next day was the highlight of the weekend—a safari at Safari Wilderness in Lakeland. We piled into an open-air bus (not quite the off-road capabilities of our vans, but hey, it got the job done) and spent two and a half hours rolling through landscapes that felt straight out of Africa and Asia. We saw ostriches, water buffalo, cheetahs, and a menagerie of other endangered animals. The grand finale? A chance to feed ring-tailed lemurs. I, however, declined—because monkeys are terrifying (go ahead, make fun of me next time you see me). Alicia Ober, on the other hand, said it was one of the most incredible experiences of her life.

Back at camp, we wrapped the weekend with a lakeside happy hour, a roundtable of our favorite van mods, and—because Florida— Nestor Fernandez offered to take me spotlighting for gators. He even offered to catch a small one for me if it came close enough but no luck. For this West Coaster, just spotting them in the wild was exciting!

Already counting down to next year!

🏁 Happenings@HQ: Storyteller Presents $85,000 Check to American Red Cross

Y'all, we did it! And we could never have done it without you.

We started with a goal: raise $10K for hurricane relief. Hit it. Raised the bar to $50K. Blew past that. By the end of the Vannonball Run, with the support of our incredible community and industry partners, we raised $85,000 for the American Red Cross.

Last week, we were honored with the opportunity to make it official and hand over the check—something that never would’ve happened without y’all showing up in such a big way.

What started as a wild idea turned into something bigger than we ever imagined—proof that when this community comes together, real change happens. Thank you to everyone who showed up, donated, and believed in what we could do.