Lara and I talked earlier this week that we should write an update every once and a while on our thoughts, feelings, impressions, (fill in the blank) of our recent time period on this little adventure of ours. We didn’t want to have one view on these posts so we will each be writing one. Our guess is we will write one about every month or so. Sorry no photos on these, enjoy the text.
At this point, we’ve been away from Golden about a month and a half and more officially in the van for just over a month. I sit here in a 100-200 site campground along Lake Chicot, Arkansas with all of 3 other RV’ers nicely spread out over the distance of 3-4 football fields of leaves and tall trees. The lake is unmistakably a 20 mile long C formed when the mighty Mississippi decided (some odd hundreds or thousands of years ago) it would take a tangent rather than meander its way to the Gulf. Eventually the sediment filled in the edges of the new, more direct river and left behind a lake mirroring the huge bend of yesteryear. It’s quiet, cooling off after a 75 degree day and a very dark sky is shaping up through the tall trees surrounding us. I describe this because we’ve had a number of very empty campgrounds on this trip, mainly due to the time of year we are in places such as Assateague National Seashore, the Outer Banks or rural Arkansas. We’ve also had some difficulties figuring out where we’d spend an evening because of both time of year (read: closed) or time of year (read: full). I think one of our greatest lessons so far is how to plan to stay in a certain locale. I fully expect my next update to sound drastically different in this respect because we will be out exploring the remote western deserts or hopping between back lots of ski areas. What we learned since the new year is that along the east coast, Maine to Delaware to Florida and all points in between, it’s difficult to find a free and, more importantly, comfortable place to park Hobbes. We resorted almost entirely to campgrounds to counteract this. We have yet to stay in a Walmart parking lot because we haven’t had the nerve to try it yet and the campgrounds we’ve stayed in have been easy and sufficiently comfortable. Now this has meant anywhere from $15-80 being shelled out many nights which will likely hurt the budget a little but what we’ve realized is our day exploring a new area is drastically improved when we have a $30 campsite reserved for the night. Also due to the amount of daylight, we have very little time to roll into a new area in late afternoon and get a feel of a lengthy dirt road, how trafficked a Walmart is or if this national forest land is dotted with houses we may end up parking right in front of. An example of this came in the Keys. We knew it was high season for any of the RV parks in the Keys. Many held back giggles when we called the day of asking if spots were available. We settled on an expensive spot for two nights but it allowed us to explore freely, knowing we could roll into what most would consider a storage facility for high end RV’s rather than a campground. Either way, the view was gorgeous from our site.
Beyond the “living” situation, I think the trip has worked out very much how I, personally, thought it would to this point. The first couple of weeks felt a lot like driving around New England to visit family…well because it was. We got some skiing in and some little bits of vast views and rolling ocean waves but it was more focused on catching up with family who we hadn’t seen in a long time. I don’t think I gave enough credit to this aspect of the trip ahead of time but each new Aunt, Uncle, in-law, etc. we visited we were left chatting the next day about how great it was to catch up and how lucky we were to do it on such a free schedule.
Heading down the east coast was a nice surprise for us. My initial thought was it would be quick and without much fanfare. However, all along the sandy beaches of Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina and Georgia we found one of our favorite times of year at one of our favorite place, winter on the beach. When we were wee little kids dating in New Jersey, we would make regular drives down Route 18 to Route 34 and onward to Belmar and Point Pleasant during the winter. All of the hustle and bustle of the shore in the summer was quiet, the waves themselves seems to crash with less tension. When we sat at our completely empty campground and watched sunset over the bay with the full moon rising over the picturesque dunes directly behind us we had rekindled some of that past. As similar the feel, the views and highlights were complete fresh. Assateague and the Outer Banks felt more wild, with the rippled dunes making a march across the roadways. Wild horses and pelicans told us we were definitely no longer in New Jersey. We found the pleasure of bare feet in numbingly cold sand and down jackets. In Georgia at Jekyll Island we found Spanish moss hanging dozens of feet down to the ground off massive trees only steps from the dark, hard sand of the driftwood beaches. These were all new but felt very comfortable at the same time.
Of course we did have our fair share of “learning experiences”. The broken drive shaft in North Carolina, learning how to ensure we don’t skewer someone’s bumper with the van and generally getting used to being in 70 odd square feet of living space. We recently did a rearrange of the cubbies and pantry to better align with what we use frequently. I’m sure there are still significant changes to be made along the way but we are definitely more dialed in when it comes to set up and break down of our little rolling home.
Other random one-off thoughts:
- We look like “that couple” when we get to a brewery that has WiFi, heads buries in our phones. What others don’t realize is that we have just spent the last 3 days within arms reach of each other, we’ve conversed, shared, laughed and all of those good things. We get to WiFi and we nerd out on Instagram and look like the couple that can’t pull themselves away from the interwebs. At least we know that we more than make up for it when we are sitting atop the van watching the sunset with our iPhone used only has a camera from time to time.
- I will speak for both of us that we are very likely going to adopt a ZERO NEWS rule. We have checked into CNN or other news source maybe 5-10 times total in the last month or so. Every time we spend 30 minutes griping and generally being dumpy about the state of the world. Whether that be politics, the internet’s stranglehold on every aspect of our society or some shitty event that happened, we have no need for it. We are going to continue to do what we are doing, we are going to be good people to those we meet, we are going to do fun things and stay in touch with those we are closest with. The news will have zero impact on that.
- The change of seasons has been kind of baffling. We went from -20 degree sleeping bags AND a down comforter in Maine to being too hot at night to comfortably sleep in southern Florida. I can see how much of the southern US can forget what time of year it is if there isn’t some holiday to remind you. Don’t get me wrong, 75 degree turquoise blue water and 80 degree air temperatures are more than acceptable for our trip, just screws with your head a little.
- I have thoroughly enjoyed watching Rooney’s every day routines. We noticed quickly that Rooney has adapted to not caring about us bumping into him, dropping things on him or covering him in blankets while we dismantle the previous evening. But more so, I’ve enjoyed watching much of his thought process that I probably didn’t see before. “Do I want to eat this bowl of food now?”, “Huh, should I lay here or over there”, “I think I want to go out but I don’t really care that much”, “Ugh, I’ve got to stretch!” Before much of this would happen in the other room or the backyard. Now we’re front and center, and all up in each others’ grills.
Okay, that’s what I’ve got for now. It’s been a blast exploring, seeing the open road roll underneath us, visiting family and friends, and breathing a lot of fresh ocean air. I have to say, I was pretty confident that the trip would work out this way but it feels so good to be out exploring. It’s one day at a time…very literally many days…not knowing where we’ll be sleeping that night. But with Lara and Rooney along side, a strip of pavement (at least for this part of the trip) and some beautiful parts of the country, we can do just about anything.