2 Backpacks, 2 Bikes, a Van and a plan..

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Resurfacing in Tampa & A Happy and Sad Day

All -

Apologies for leaving you hanging for so long. I just re-read my last post from late September and realized just how much time has passed since I last shared information about our journey. As you might glean from the title, we are back in Tampa, Florida. We arrived back here in our winter home in mid-October after an eventful couple of months making our way slowly (and in quite a round-a-bout fashion) back east from Yellowstone, visiting friends and family in a variety of places before turning south once more to make our way to Florida.

Along the way, we made some big decisions for the next steps on our journey. The first and biggest being that we are going to get off the road for a while. Over the summer in Yellowstone, we realized that our "van" days were likely coming to an end. We knew when we hatched this plan initially, that there would likely come a time when we tired of travel in such a small vehicle and would start to think about a bigger RV that would be more like a home, and that would allow us to do some types of volunteer work and travel that we couldn't do now in the van.

And so emerged a new plan. We would settle back into a more traditional life for a bit, enjoy hanging out in one place, living with some luxuries that we went without for much of the time we were living "small" on the road (like showers, an oven, reliable internet...). And we would spend some time enjoying the aspects of professional life, we figured out along the way that we missed just a little bit. All the while beefing up our savings of course for the eventual purchase of a new pick-up truck and travel trailer for the adventures that still await us down the road.

Fast-forward to last Friday, when the van drove away from the condo for the last time - in someone else's loving hands. In the end it took only 5 days to sell and it sold to the first people who came to see it. Andre showed it to an older couple while I was at work and it was gone by the time I got home! Although I was a bit sad that I didn't even get to say goodbye, we have layers upon layers of van memories to soften the blow.

As it happens. Today is the three year anniversary of the day we drove the van away from Rhode Island, on course for our big adventure. And an adventure it surely has been! Goodbye sweet van...

Friday, September 25, 2015

Back in the Van and the Journey Continues...

Just a quick update on our travels. We've spent the last week generally in the state of Michigan with a 16 hour sidebar on Wednesday driving back up to Green Bay, Wisconsin to pick up the van. It was a long day of driving, but it put us back on track where we needed to be on Thursday and Friday of this week. The repair was not as costly as feared, and all appears to be well with the van.

Our time in Michigan has not all been work. We have sprinkled in some sight-seeing, some local breweries (of course), and yesterday even took in a movie. Earlier in the week, we spent a great afternoon at Saugatuck Dunes State Park on the shores of Lake Michigan.

As I write this, we are wrapping up two days in Warren, Michigan (just north of Detroit), where Andre has been doing some work. When we check out of the hotel this morning, we will be heading to Pittsburgh to visit Nick and then on to Wilmington, Delaware and New England. Somewhere in the middle of that, Andre will fly back out to Boise, Idaho for a quick one day school visit! Such is our odd life right now.

For my part, I am happy to continue to enjoy all the hotels (and pools & hot tubs) that come my way!

Sunday, September 20, 2015

On the Road Again....Again

And so once more we set out. On roads both new, and well traveled. Driving slowly and surely (if not necessarily in a straight line) eastward. Toward our origins, our family. Our winter life.

But some things are different about our return trip this time around. First and foremost, our direction and route have been planned and re-planned almost daily, as Andre's traveling work takes him to schools in a host of different cities and states, with only a few days notice. Luckily, the assignments have progressed generally in an easterly direction, although they have jagged north and south and two steps forward, one step back at times.

And of course, wherever we travel, we continue to see strange and wonderful things on the road.

Where is Little-Bo-Peep when you need her?

This trio was just trotting alongside the road in rural Wyoming

To recap, we left the park on Monday, September 7th and the first few days took us west to Idaho, then Eastern Oregon, then back to central Wyoming for a few days, before finally leaving the true west and heading into the transition states of South Dakota and Minnesota and finally Wisconsin, for a few days, before dropping down to Chicago for one night and then Michigan, where I am tonight. Despite the directional challenges of our journey, it has been a boon to have much of the mileage expensed as we traveled from school to school, and quite enjoyable to be spending most evenings in hotels with pools and hot tubs along the way (on someone else's dime).

Since we left the park, we have only spent one night in the van, which is fine with us as it is packed pretty tightly with stuff that needs to be moved around when the bed is assembled. And the van itself is one of the other things that is different on our travels east. In many ways it is showing it's age and we left the park with the goal of getting it back to Tampa in one piece and then selling or trading it in for a new transportation option (most likely a pick-up truck and travel trailer). As we speak, however, the van is in a repair shop in Green Bay, Wisconsin, having broken down on the side of the road while Andre was driving back from a job north of Green Bay a few days ago. We hope to have it back and road ready on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week and will shoot back up to Green Bay to retrieve it and resume our travels (we currently have a rental car).

Although most of our travel has been driven by Andre's work assignments, we have still had frequent opportunities to explore our surroundings and see new things (including a new state - South Dakota), including Mount Rushmore and Badlands National Park. In Wisconsin, we stayed at a hotel across the street from Lambeau Field and enjoyed some Green Bay Packer craziness in advance of this week's home opener. Here are some photos from the last 10 days on the road...

Beautiful Thermopolis, WY where we spent two nights

Andre taking a last look at Wyoming as we enjoyed Thermopolis

Hot Springs State Park (Thermopolis)

If you're looking for these things in a motel, this place is for you...
(This sign just struck me as funny)

Coming around the corner to see Mount Rushmore for the first time.

The evening lighting ceremony on September 11th

Badlands Bunny

Don't we all feel like this sometimes??

The van's last National Park?

Entering the land of Cheese heads....

Did not appreciate this one...

But felt better after a trip to Badger State Brewing!

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

The Coyote and the Rattlesnake, Reflections on the West

Our summer in Yellowstone has come to an end. Yesterday morning, we packed up the van and said goodbye. Goodbye to Geysers & Grizzlies, to lumbering Bison, to mighty Elk. To the Absaroka & Teton Mountains, the Yellowstone river, and the lush greens of Hayden and Lamar valleys. Goodbye to Lake Yellowstone, to living in a Caldera and atop the largest magma chamber on the Earth. And to all the people who shared this amazing summer with us.

As we drove away, I reflected upon the past three summers we have spent in the West. First in the desert of West Texas, then the mountains of the Sierra-Nevada, and finally this summer in Wyoming and Montana. It was never our plan to go out "West" each summer, and yet each year inexorably, we arrived on it's doorstep. Bags packed, and camera ready. Drawn there by some unknown force.

A recent visit to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in nearby Cody, Wyoming confirmed that we weren't the only ones affected by this "lure" West in the last few centuries.

As you enter the hall devoted to the life of William F. Cody (AKA "Buffalo Bill"), a quote on the wall reads:

"(I am) Going back west of the Mississippi and spending my pile out there in the country which an American statesman once said was fit only for the coyote and the rattlesnake. That's my home country and that's the place I love. Do I want to go back there? You bet your life I do."
William F. Cody

I thought it would be fitting to share some photos from the museum celebrating the
west, as we drive away from yet another summer in this glorious land. These are some of the paintings, photos and sculptures that "spoke to me" during my visit. I hope you enjoy them as well.

Buffalo Head (Good Morning), ca. 1905
A.D.M. Cooper, Oil on Canvas

Elk, n.d.
Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902)
Oil on Paper

Morning Glory Pool (1987)
M.C. Paulsen, Oil on Canvas

Lower Falls of the Yellowstone (2006), Oil on Canvas
Kathy Wipfler (b. 1955)

Ropers (2013), acrylic on canvas
John Hull (b.1952)

And So, Unemotionally, There Began One of the Wildest
and Strangest Journeys Ever Made in Any Land (1923), Oil on canvas
W.H.D. Koerner (1878-1938)