Chris and Lisa Nowak of Lansing share their sense of adventure by the slice. But portions of lemon, lime and grapefruit are only the first taste of the couple's infectious wanderlust.
In May, the pair chucked their daytime gigs and departed on a whirlwind quest (documented in their
online journal) to see the country. The first leg of the trip, covering 21 different states, has included stops in Yosemite, Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks as well as in Bozeman, Mont., Salt Lake City, Utah and San Francisco, where they noshed at Apple's employee cafeteria.
Last month, the couple returned briefly to Lansing—where Lisa worked at the popular
Playmakers sidewalk sale—before heading back on the road to the Upper Peninsula.
Green AdventurersConscious of their carbon footprint, about 2,000 miles of the journey has been fueled by recycled french-fry oil in the couple's Volkswagen Jetta TDI. The Jetta needed service in Salt Lake, which was one of the few hiccups on the trip's first leg.
The pair's eight-years together—they've been married for two years—is rich with stories about rock climbing, scaling ice dams, sky diving and white water kayaking.
With the exception of parachuting (“I'm still trying to get Chris to go,” Lisa says about her seemingly reticent spouse), they've walked lock-step through those adventures.
Adrenaline junkies?
“I think that's pretty accurate,” says Chris, 29.
Sitting in Biggby's in Mason, baring no visible "live free or die" tattoos or discernible body piercings, the Nowaks pretty much resemble any typical young professional couple in Lansing.
Their transformation to fearless outdoor warriors is all the more remarkable considering Lisa had never been camping before she met Chris in the MSU Outdoors Club. Now, the Saginaw native can't imagine existence without being outdoors.
“It's changed my life,” says Lisa, who like her husband majored in telecommunications at MSU.
Lisa estimates having introduced 150 people to climbing alone. While a student at MSU, she often took groups of 12 or more cohorts to
Napoleon (Mich.) Skydiving Center where she eventually landed a part-time job on weekends.
A strong booster of the
MSU Outdoors Club, the couple donated a kayak to the program and a fundraiser at
Reno's East Sports Bar. She wants to expand the concept and start a club for Capital Area outdoor enthusiasts "who would get together and watch 'Planet Earth' together on Tuesday nights," she says.
Meanwhile, the couple talks of ice dams and rock hills to conquer. Chris yearns to tackle the so-called Green Eggs and Ham ice climb in Alaska while Lisa has her sights set on something called the "Stairway to Heaven" in Colorado.
Financed by FruitTo help subsidize their road trip, the Nowaks peddle an organic tablet,
Miracle Frooties, which turns the most tart-tasting edibles into delectably sweet morsels. Chris pulls back a Tupperware lid on a bitter citrus collection—sliced grapefruit, limes and lemons—which only become palatable after the Miracle Frooties tablet does its magic.
The berry's protein coats the tongue's taste receptors, masking the bitter and sour buds, he says. A box of 20 tablets runs $17.90 and are available online.
Miracle Frooties is the couple's first entrepreneurial endeavor outside of their IT day jobs—Lisa as a sales associate with
Arialink; Chris an IT engineer at
NuWave Technology Partners.
Their goal is to see Miracle Frooties stocked in health and organic food stores. Their Internet-based enterprise—started with a meager $150 investment—involved setting up a website, filing for a limited liability corporation and producing promotional refrigerator magnets.
Diabetics, who want to satisfy their sweet tooth in a healthier way, are prime candidates for the novelty, as are chemotherapy patients who often lose appetites due to the cancer drug's lingering metallic taste. (The couple is working with a Bronx, N.Y. children's hospital to create a program where a single serving would be donated to cancer patients for each web site order placed, Lisa says.)
College students are another customer base simply because they like to try new things, Lisa says.
Skeptics were won over at the Flavor Tripping Party at Reno's East in March, where the mouth-puckering sour and bitter were transformed into savory confections. Another Lansing area taste-test is in the works for November.
"We had someone who ate a container of sour cream and said it tasted like frosting," Lisa says.
International AppealThe couple’s gusto for life draws admirers from 4,800 miles away, in Slovenia.
"I think it's fantastic and inspiring to meet two people who have dreamed about going across the states their entire lives and who are actually going to do it," says Aida Hvastija, who, along with partner Blaz Zupan, is Miracle Fruities Slovenia-based distributor and stayed with the Nowaks last summer.
"You meet a lot of people who talk about doing something like this and who are in their 60s and 70s and who are still dreaming,” she says. The Nowaks “are going to live their dream."
Chris and Lisa complement one another, the business associate says. Hvastija describes Lisa as a people person, "but not in a pushy sales kind of way," she adds. Chris' humor is disarming, the business associate says.
More importantly, the couple acts on their beliefs, Hvastija says. Their involvement in Miracle Fruities is a prime example.
Lisa heard about the West African berries two years ago and did extensive research, which eventually led the couple to Zupan and Hvastija.
Despite working full-time jobs, the Nowaks helped elevate the product's profile in the Midwest and beyond. A CNN piece on the transformative berries in March fueled a spike in sales from four to five boxes a day to more than 200, Lisa says.
"We worked overnight shipping orders," she says.
Rolling OnTravel will slow for awhile now, as the Nowaks look for jobs to extend their experience by living in another area for awhile. Possible bases include Portland, Ore., Seattle, Wash., or Bozeman.
“We knew we could never leave and just like retire, per se, for the whole year,” says Lisa, 28. “That was never a reality. Otherwise, we would have continued to sit and save while never actually going.”
All talk of the couple’s on-the-road adventures is punctuated by reminders they will eventually return to the Lansing area—which they love—to raise a family.
“As I have been out looking for different things, I realize Lansing really has some treasures I couldn't find in other cities,” Lisa says.
Larry O'Connor is a mid-Michigan based freelance writer who lives vicariously through the amazing people he interviews.
Dave Trumpie is the managing photographer for Capital Gains. He is a freelance photographer and owner of Trumpie Photography.
Photos:
Chris and Lisa Nowak climbing the Ledges in Grand Ledge, fueling their vegetable oil powered car, with one of their kayaks and Miracle Fruities.
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie