Photos by Lindsey Dolan

It’s a surreal experience when the TAPcouch shows up at your door. With it comes anticipation, expectation and definitely the desire to be on the same level as the people who have sat before you. You want to show the couch a good time. Take it places that are special and let it become part of where you’re from. It’s kind of strange when you think about it, wanting a couch to enjoy its time in your home town or favorite places. It’s an inanimate object that somehow embodies life, freewill and living life to the absolute fullest.  It’s worth noting that the couch looks at home where ever it seems be; whether sitting against a backdrop of trees covering the mountains and open fields or nestled against snowy banks and truck bed wheel wells. It has an energy to it, it attracts smiles and neck breaking stares.

The TAPcouch somehow seemed to bring a piece of home our way, attracting the admiration of what was likely to be one of the few New Jersians in Southern Oregon while we dined on its cushions in the Trader Joe’s parking lot. He threw a shaka our way and continued smiling as he walked into the store. I took a second then to pause and think – I realized how incredible it must be to pilot this couch around the country. It’s a place to sit and catch up with friends you’ve had since you were a kid or new friends that you make along the way. To me a couch in general symbolizes a living room and people coming together. The TAPcouch in particular creates that in spades. This week was filled with adventure, laughter, love, (couch)family, and happiness. I’m definitely sad to see the tailgate close for the last time and watch Lindsey sail off to the next destination, but luckily the US government shut down and so far I’ve been successful at keeping her here. I can say with true honesty that this will be the ONLY time I am happy the National Parks are closed because it means that I can continue to sit on this couch, with the greatest of company, writing and adventuring. It’s bittersweet, but I know that when the couch makes its way back to another mountain town near me there will be more memories to be made and more laughs to be had. See you soon Dolanator and the Tapcouch.

-Kelly Wallace