We headed out of the US and into Canada on the evening of May 7th. The border crossing is one of the nicest ones we’ve seen in our travels as it travels through Peace Arch State Park. It was late afternoon as we had laundry and grocery shopping to do before leaving Washington and we had an early ferry in the morning so we didn’t stop at the park to look around.

Our ferry ride the next morning to Vancouver Island was very scenic and was just a little taste of the immense scenery that was to come over the next few weeks. After getting off the ferry, we headed to Butchart Gardens (my parents recommended it to us and they seemed to have great memories of it). It was an amazing garden and since it was spring we got there during tulip season and they had an amazing variety of tulips as well as all of the other flowers that were in bloom everywhere. There were several themed gardens that we explored and all of them were beautiful. We also took a break to have “tea” at their restaurant, which included a sampling of finger sandwiches, small bite desserts and other goodies as well as our choice of tea. It was very good and we were very glad we went, it was a good start to our few days on Vancouver Island.

That night we spent on the beach where you could see Washington in the distance. We had decided to go for a run and found what we thought might be a nice trail across from our campsite. Within the first few minutes we came to the river and there we saw what looked like bumper airboats pushing and corralling logs into a log boom. It was fascinating to watch and it actually looked like fun. After doing a little research I found these were called log bronc tugs, here is a link to a video of a similar boat doing what we watched. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icOwZHsnEO0

We spent two more nights on Vancouver Island driving along the East Coast and then into Strathcona Provincial Park, enjoying the scenery and having some really good fish and chips at Dockside Fish and Chips in Campbell River, BC. It was then time to take the ferry back to the mainland and start heading north. After the ferry ride we headed up the beautiful Sea to Sky highway and stopped for the night in Squamish. On our way into town we stopped to check out The Chief. Years earlier Drew had climbed it with a guide while Lee watched, it was a good memory of his and we decided the next day we should hike to the top.

It was a great hike, albeit hard, basically climbing a staircase all the way to the top. There were three peaks, and I made it to the middle one and then watched Lee climb to another one and then he took off for the third and met me down on the trail. The views on top were absolutely beautiful and completely worth the effort.

After leaving Squamish we spent the next week traveling the rest of the Sea to Sky Highway and then onto the Cassiar Highway to make our way to Alaska (trying not to drive more than 4 or 5 hours a day).  The scenery on our drive was nothing short of spectacular, with large mountains and still lakes with perfect reflections of those mountains. We also had some fun along the way and even had a surprise heat wave we had to deal with for a few days (up to 93 degrees a couple days).

We mountain biked in the town of Smithers and the next day did a side tour to see Bear Glacier. The road to Bear Glacier continued on to the little town of Stewart, BC and then crossed the US/Canada border, which was to be our first foray into Alaska. The little town of Hyder, Alaska, population 12, is the most southern town in Alaska that you can drive a car to. It felt pretty deserted and run down, but fun to see nonetheless. Even though we didn’t have to deal with a border crossing into the US, we did have to stop on our way back into Canada and show our passports at their little border crossing.

After crossing the border we tried to find a restaurant in Stewart for lunch but nothing was open (still early season). However we did come across the town “golf course” which consisted of a small driving range and a few holes and they even provided free clubs and balls. It was a pretty area so we stopped and had lunch there after which we made our way to Meziadin Lake Provincial Park for the night.

By now we had been in British Columbia for over a week and still had not seen any bears (or much wildlife for that matter) and we were starting to wonder if all the talk of lots of bears was a little exaggerated, but the next day after leaving the campground, within minutes we saw our first black bear on the side of the road enjoying some fresh spring grass. We were quite excited and stopped to watch him for a while before heading on. Then soon we saw another one and another (grizzlies and black bears) on the side of the road, each time stopping to watch these cuddly critters (ok, so they look cuddly from the safety of the van).

We saw 8 bears that day, even a momma and two cubs, but they ran away too quickly to get a picture. The next day we saw 6 more! After that they thinned out but we did see a few here and there on other days, and we also saw a caribou. All in all we were pretty thrilled to be able to see so many!

The night before we officially got to Alaska we stopped for the night in Conrad, YT which was home to a failed silver mining operation in the early 1900s. The lake we stayed on was partially covered with ice that was at least 6 inches thick (we would drive by a week later and it was surprisingly all melted). The next day we hiked along a trail that still had remnants of the tram used for that mining operation, the top of the trail still covered in snow. It was an interesting hike with some great views. 

After hiking we drove a little over an hour to finally get to our first main Alaska stop, Skagway! Of course the drive gave us a little bit of heartburn as we drove the White Pass to Skagway. It was aptly named as about 5 miles of that pass was almost a white out. Neither Lee nor I had driven in such dense fog, luckily we were still barely able to see the stripes of the street that we were able to follow, but nonetheless we were glad once we were safe in Skagway. 

Skagway was a beautiful little town, and while it’s very touristy (several cruise ships come in every day), by evening it all quiets down and it’s peaceful. We did some biking, hiking and rode the White Pass & Yukon railway and had a really good time in Skagway. After a few days we took the ferry to Juneau. What an incredible ferry ride, the scenery is jaw dropping. When we got to Juneau we decided to drive and see the capital and have some dinner downtown. It was packed with cruisers so we drove by the fairly nondescript capitol building, had dinner and made our way to the Mendenhall Campground.

The next day we hiked up to the Mendenhall Glacier. What a cool and interesting hike. Along the trail are signs to show where the glacier was at throughout the years (a little scary to see just how much melt has happened) and luckily almost no one was hiking so we had the area mostly to ourselves (there were some kayak tours on the lake but they were quite a ways away). Once the trail ended and we were close to the glacier I stopped to call my parents and of course Lee decided he needed to see if he could get right next to the glacier. After a little wait he showed up and told me I HAD to go see the glacier up close. I was a little nervous as it looked like a hard scramble but he assured me it wasn’t too bad and he was right (as he always is!), and so we scrambled up so I could carefully touch the glacier and see it up close. It was a hard hike and we were tired when we were done, but so glad we did it.

The next day we drove up to see the ski resort on Douglas Island and drove to the end of the Glacier Highway. The day after we had an early ferry back to Skagway, unlike our quiet and spacious ferry ride to Juneau, this ferry was completely packed with people all heading to Haines for a beer festival. We were luckily able to grab a couple of chairs in the cafeteria and a little later found a couple of more comfortable chairs in the main cabin, but it definitely wasn’t the peaceful trip we had out, but still awesome scenery!

When we got back to Skagway we had 4 days to make it the 800+ miles to Anchorage. We did stop in Whitehorse (the largest town in the Yukon and where most of their population lives) to enjoy the hot springs there and did some mountain biking but most of our days were driving and boondocking at scenic places along the way. The Yukon is a beautiful and remote place!

We got to Anchorage with a day to get our laundry done and get packed up for our trip to Maui where Lee, Grant and Adam were going to do some training for the Maui to Molokai race. The last few weeks we have driven through some of the most scenic and beautiful places either of us has ever seen. This truly has been the highlight of our travels and so glad it is our grand finale of van life! 

Well color me surprised….after having a lot of fun in Thailand and not sure what Bali and Indonesia had to offer, let me just preface my blog with this: Indonesia is on my list of must return places!

When I was planning our trip I thought it would be nice to stop off somewhere in between Thailand and New Zealand so that the air travel wouldn’t be so bad. I did a little perusing and came across some information about Komodo National Park in Indonesia and thought that would be interesting. After talking to Lee, he thought we should spend a little time in Bali as well since you always hear about what a cool place it is.

Our first impressions of Bali were from their airport, it was so clean and beautiful we figured it was a good omen. After leaving the airport we are a little overwhelmed with the amount of traffic – even worse it seemed than Chiang Mai. It took us about an hour to get to our hotel and we enjoyed talking to our driver (as much as we could, his english wasn’t the best) and asked him if he would be interested in driving us around one day for some site seeing. He was very excited and wanted to take us every day (he was desperate for work).

We pulled into the long driveway of our resort and passed rice fields and even a farmer herding his ducks (so, so cute). They use the ducks to eat the bugs and weeds in their rice fields. By the time we got to the open air lobby it was pouring down rain. We were immediately greeted and given a welcome drink (something refreshing with lemongrass) and checked in. The young man who checked us in was incredibly warm and kind, told us we were family, and it was a sign of what was to come. 

He drove us to our villa in an enclosed golf cart and when he opened the door to our villa I was so wonderfully surprised. It looked nice from the pictures but in person it was incredible. It was incredibly private, overlooked a black sand beach, we had our own gazebo, open air sitting area, large pool, nice big king-sized bed, and a big bathroom with indoor and outdoor shower. One of the nicest places we have ever stayed at and the price was very reasonable.

That night they had a buffet dinner with some traditional balinese dancing and the wait staff were incredibly kind as well as everyone we interacted with. We also had a couple of massages while we were there and the women were very sweet. By the end of our stay I wanted to give everyone hugs, I can’t tell you how welcoming they were. We learned a few balinese words and also loved their words of respect and kindness for us (Ebu Mona and Bappa Lee). 

Besides our wonderful stay at Komaneka at Keramas Beach swimming in our pool, getting massages, and doing some yoga, we also walked on the beautiful black sand beach in front of the resort (they advised us not to swim since the current was strong, but there were a number of surfers out, so who knows). We also spent a day with our driver up in Ubud. We stopped to see the people painting with batik material, and a coffee shop that served kopi luwak coffee. The beans are eaten by the civet (smallish mammal), fermented in their bellies, pooped out and then the beans are cleaned, dried and roasted. It was actually very good coffee, though expensive to buy in any type of bulk. We then went to a monkey forest and had a great time watching the monkeys, although they could be a little fierce when they wanted to be. We watched one try to attack a child and get into it’s stroller (I’m sure they know where food is). One even gave me a little scare and lunged at my leg. Besides those little incidences they were a lot of fun to watch, especially by a pond where they would swing in the branches and then jump in the water.

Leaving the monkey forest was a traffic nightmare. Ubud is very touristy and not a place I would want to stay. We actually got out of the car and shopped while our driver battled the traffic. We then had some lunch and a stop at some touristy rice field terraces, but they were still really beautiful to see. 

We also went surfing one morning about 15 minutes from the resort, with an instructor we found. The waves were much smaller here than in front of our resort but I think Lee still had a good time and I did as well even though I really struggled getting up on the board, the old body just isn’t as quick as it used to be.

I should also mention we found a wonderful restaurant close to the hotel that we went to twice and they remembered us when we went the second time and again the hospitality was amazing. I know that tourism is their main economic driver and so they want to be good to the tourists but I have never experienced such kindness, although the people in Thailand were incredibly kind as well, I think the difference is that the people in Thailand were very kind but a little shy while the balinese are just very kind and very willing to talk to you.

Needless to say we had a wonderful time in Bali, while it is very touristy and busy, where we stayed was on the outskirts of the city so it was quiet and we had a wonderful time. The only bummer was Lee caught a cold, he started feeling sick the night before leaving Bail. As a side note, we also had our interviews for the peace corps at this resort, and we felt like both our interviews went well.  Given the time zone differences, we were interviewing close to midnight, and hoped we didn’t come across too groggy!  The kindness of the people there, and realizing just how lucky we have been to have so much, put us in a good place for our interviews.

After Bali we flew to East Nusa Tenggara and then took a boat out to a little island called Seraya. Wow, what a difference this was from Bali. The town we flew into was much more quiet and the little island was even more remote. The boat ride out to the island was so beautiful and we were greeted at the dock by the general manager (it felt like Fantasy Island). We had a cute little beach bungalow with an outdoor shower on a nice white sand beach, it was beautiful. One of the things I had read in the reviews were people raved about the house reef. So after settling in, we went and got a bite to eat, digested and then went out for a snorkel. The reviews were not wrong, it was incredible. Just the diversity of the coral alone was incredible. There were big fat sea stars, fluorescent blue and green coral, lacy coral, brain coral. One of the times we went out we saw a small black tipped shark. Lee went alone one time and saw a big turtle and I went out alone one time and saw a giant parrot fish (I think) with a mouth full of human looking teeth, breaking off coral and taking a big chunk and moving it to another place. 

There were giant angel fishes, schools of pencil fish and big schools of other fish that I don’t know the names of. It was by far the best snorkeling I have ever done. After seeing how incredible it was, I decided to do a scuba refresher lesson and do a dive off of their boat pier. And I was so glad I did. I saw lion fish, 2 sting rays, huge corals, lots of clown fish, and I even saw an electric clam (look it up). I can’t tell you how bad I wish we had brought our under water camera!!!

Lee also took out a paddle board and paddled to the islands several miles away and while he was out saw a manta ray and more beautiful scenery.

On our last full day on the island we took a tour to Komodo Dragon National Park, which consisted of several islands. We stopped at Padar Island first. It was interesting to find deer hanging out on shore when we arrived (they seemed out of place to me and didn’t look too healthy). We then climbed to the top of one of the hills to view the island from up top. It was very scenic. We then took the boat to the other side of the island to stop at one of the pink sand beaches. The sand has a light pink hue from the pink coral in the area. It was really pretty to see it contrast with the very blue water. We then went to Komodo Island to see if we could find some of the dragons. You have to walk with one of the park rangers and after about a mile of walking came to one of the drinking holes the komodos frequent and were able to see two of them. They are pretty lazy looking but something must have upset one of them because he got up and hissed at us. They aren’t something I would want to mess with, and have been known to kill people.

After leaving Komodo island we had one last stop in the middle of the ocean at a spot that is known for the manta rays. When we got to the spot we saw one and hurried and jumped in the water to get a closer look. The current was pretty strong but we soon saw several about 20 feet below the surface and they were huge. I would say at least 10 feet across. They were very gracefully swimming  and we were able to follow them and observe them for a few minutes before it was time to get back into the boat. All in all it was a great day with some beautiful sites. 

We left the next day to make our way to New Zealand. It consisted of a boat ride back to East Nusa Tenggara, a plane ride to Bali, about a 10 hour layover in Bali (we got a cheap hotel room close to the airport to rest and shower) and then an overnight flight to Melbourne and then a final shorter flight to Wellington, New Zealand on the North Island. By the time we landed I definitely had the cold that Lee had in Indonesia.

We picked up our car and prepared ourselves for driving on the left side of the road! We got some groceries and headed to the hotel for some rest, went out to dinner that night in the downtown area of Wellington which was pretty lively and called it a night. We did some hiking close to Wellington before making our way to Margrain which is one of the many wine country areas. We stayed at one of the vineyards and went to a small restaurant for dinner. The food was delicious and when I went up to pay our waiter (who was also the owner) asked where we were from. We said the US and he asked where and we said Utah. He said that is where me and my wife are from. They had moved to New Zealand from Bountiful for him to pursue his PHD and he had grown up in the Willow Creek area. What a small world!

A couple days later we had made our way up to Tongariro National Park where we had plans to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. It’s a point to point 13 mile hike and we had purchased our shuttle passes, however the morning of the hike I was still not quite feeling great and decided it might not be the best idea to do it, so instead we decided to just drive the car to the trailhead and hike however far we wanted and then hike back. I ended up hiking about 6 miles and was glad I didn’t attempt the whole trail, Lee went further and was able to get to the look out of the crater as well as to see some of the volcanic lakes which he said were beautiful. We also stopped at a waterfall in the park called Golum’s waterfall which was a scene in the Lord of the Rings movie where Golum fishes. There were other areas we saw that were scenes in the movie but since neither of us were fans of the movies so we didn’t pay too much attention.

After Tongariro we took a couple days to make our way to Rotorua where we stayed a couple of nights. We went mountain biking one day, which was fun, especially biking amongst the Ponga trees. The brakes were on “opposite sides”, and Lee did manage to go over the handlebars on one of the steeper trail sections.  Thankfully the landing was soft and Lee’s head is hard, so no damage done! On our last evening there I had purchased tickets to have what was supposed to be a dinner to learn about the Maori culture and I was really looking forward to. We got to the center and everything was quiet and I thought maybe we were a little early but upon further inspection of the ticket found out I had booked it for the next night. Aaarrgh!! Oh well, guess we will have to go back to New Zealand another time! 

The next morning before making our way to Auckland we took a pit stop to go on a glow worm tour. The tour was on a family farm and the tour was given by one of the cousin in laws. It was a fun tour with just 3 other people and the cave system was really pretty with a stream running through it. We walked through the cave system and saw a few glow worms but got to a larger room in the cave turned our lamps off and the whole ceiling lit up. It looked like lots of stars. it was very cool. The glow worms are technically larvae of fungus gnats, an insect that looks like a mosquito. They use their bioluminescent glow to attract prey into the silk threads covered in a stick mucous that the glowworm builds.

After the tour we finished our drive to Auckland to get ready for our early flight the next morning to the South Island. We really enjoyed our time the north island, with the beautiful rolling green hills and large mountains, but we were excited for some of the things we had planned for the South Island.

As we were starting our descent into Queenstown in the South Island the scenery from the plane was spectacular. Tons of peaks and glaciers and then for the approach the plan flew into the narrow valley over the lake and between the mountains outside of Queenstown. It was an incredible welcome to the South Island. We got our car and we were excited to start the three hour drive to the Milford Sound Lodge. I had found the lodge a few months early (it looked awesome) and it was completely booked, however I checked a few weeks before getting to New Zealand and there happened to be a two night cancellation and I grabbled it. The drive started out with scenery similar to Idaho and the Teton NP area and then eventually we started to head into the rain forest and towering peaks. 

We got to the lodge and it was better than we expected. When we pulled up to our room, we were greeted by a Weka bird, who was not afraid of us. He sort of looked like a plain hen. He hung out around our room for our visit and at one point surprised me by pecking my foot. We had a nice lodge room with a river and a mountain right outside our room. After settling in and taking a walk around the area, we went to the restaurant for a delicious dinner.

The next morning we bundled up for our kayak tour, it was a little chilly. The tour took us about 3 miles into the sound and back and we really enjoyed being out amongst the unique towering cliffs and the ability to get up close to the waterfall and shoreline. Other options for touring the sound are larger tour boats and while they cruise to the Tasman Sea we were happy we went with the kayak tour for a more quiet up close look at Milford Sound. We were also glad we took the tour on the day we did. Right as we were wrapping up the tour the rain started and it did not stop.

We work up the next morning to waterfalls all over the mountains out our window, it was quite the site. We were sad our visit was over but ready for the rest of our adventures. Driving out of Milford Sound we passed a campground and decided to go take a look at New Zealand campgrounds. We were stopped by a South African woman who was having problems with her van (there was a man there as well), her battery was dead and then we realized she had no jumper cables. After realizing there was almost no one in camp (and the few that were there had no cables) she asked us to take her down the road about 15 minutes where she was hoping a friend of hers was waiting. She hopped in our car and with a sigh of relief said “thank you so much that guy was a creeper!” We had a nice chat with her, and we were glad we were able to help a fellow van lifer!

We spent the next couple of days in a cute town called Te Anau which was on a large beautiful lake. We had a couple of nice quiet days there with our highlight of finding a tramp (trail in the US) for a really great trail run. It was in a rainforest and just super lush and green. We also stopped at a bird sanctuary there and saw a few more of the native New Zealand birds.

Our next big destination was Christ Church which was quite the drive, so we broke it up into two days, with a stop at a really cute town on another beautiful lake called Lake Tekapo. We enjoyed a nice walk around the area and had a great dinner and met a man from Pittsburgh who worked in the building Lee used to occasionally travel to for work when he lived in Detroit. The man was there with his 5 year old daughter and a friend of his from New Zealand. His family was working on getting visas to move to New Zealand because they didn’t want their kids growing up doing active shooter drills in school. Pretty sad statement about the US and all the school shootings that have been happening.

The next day after another beautiful drive we made it to Christ Church. We checked out the surfing beach and Lee promptly decided he would be surfing one of the days we were there (even if it was cold, both water and air). We then made our way to our Airbnb and decided to go for a run at the park close by. We decided on a time and place to meet after our runs and went on our way. After my run I got to our meeting point at our designated time and waited…..and waited. After 30 minutes I decided I better go back and get the car and look for Lee. I drove almost the entire park and no Lee, and then right when I was about to give up I found him. He had gotten lost and was wandering the streets around the park looking for how to get home. Lesson learned, take your phone when you are in a new city!

We enjoyed the city for a few days, and also had our final interview for the Peace Corps while were there (it was our couple’s interview) and found out at the end of the interview that we were going to be invited to serve!! So that was a memorable event from Christ Church. The other one was the day before leaving Lee decide it was time to surf. It was a cold windy, slightly rainy day, but the surf was actually pretty good. He tried to convince me to go but I was not having it, I hung out in the car and observed occasionally from the shore. He got his rental board and wetsuit at the innovative locker setup at the beach and out he went with hardly anyone out there.  He surfed for at least a couple of hours before the high school kids started to show up. When he got out he was shivering so hard, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him that cold. We got him out of his wetsuit into some dry clothes but he was frozen for quite a while, but he had so much fun surfing he said it was worth it (or at least he thought until a few days later).

After Christ Church we drove to Fox Glacier which was another beautiful drive. We stopped to get coffee at a food truck in the middle of nowhere and a pretty beach along the way, both of which had horrible sand flies that attacked my ankles (I was still itching from them a couple of weeks later). Our stay in Fox Glacier was at an Airbnb that was a room at a couple’s home. They invited us, as well as their guests in the other room, for “nibbles” and a drink. They were a very nice couple that had moved there from Auckland and their other guests were from Switzerland. We enjoyed chatting with them before heading out for a great dinner at a restaurant just down the street. We got to bed at a decent time because we had an exciting adventure the next day.

The next morning we headed for Fox Glacier Ice Climbing where we had a day of ice climbing on the Fox Glacier planned. When we got there we met our guide who was from Atlanta but had gone to school at CSU from 2017-2021 (same years Jack was there, and of course Lee’s alma mater) and was also thinking of moving to Utah with his girlfriend in a few months when his time in New Zealand was done. Then we met the father and son who were climbing with us and found out the father lived in Hawaii, had moved there in the past few years since his wife was from there and his son worked in Michigan in the auto industry. It was so funny all of the connections we all had halfway across the world in New Zealand.

After getting outfitted for our trip we headed to the helicopter. This was my first time in a helicopter and I was a tiny bit nervous but also very excited. The trip oly lasted 5-10 minutes to the glacier, and was a smooth and scenic ride. We then spent the next half day learning the skills to ice climb and practicing the skills at a few different “crags”. We even got lowered down into a crevasse with running water that was pretty cool, albeit a little unnerving. The ice climbing was fun, although it seems like rock climbing requires a little more puzzle solving, but none the less we had a great day. The scenery was amazing and the weather cooperated (which was great since the next day the glacier was socked in and we wouldn’t have been able to go).

We got up the next morning to head to Wanaka (another beautiful drive) and Lee said he wasn’t quite feeling right. By that evening he was feverish (I think the chill from surfing caught up to him) so we just took it easy after doing a little exploring of the cute town. Unfortunately the Airbnb we rented only had a double bed so Lee didn’t get the best rest with his feet hanging over the end of the bed and both of us crammed in like sardines. We did do a little exploring of Mount Aspiring National Park, but nothing too crazy. 

After a couple days in Wanaka we left for Queenstown which would be our final New Zealand destination. We stopped at a couple of ski resorts on our way there, Cadrona and The Remarkables, it’s always fun to check out the ski resorts. We then made our way through the middle of Queenstown which was crowded with tourists. Luckily our Airbnb was a little ways out of town and was quiet and peaceful. Since Lee wasn’t feeling great, we mostly relaxed at our Airbnb with a few short scenic drives until our grand finale the day before we left.

On our last full day in New Zealand we made reservations to go on the largest swing in the world – The Nevis Swing. It had a free fall of 70 meters and a 300 meter arc. Luckily Lee was feeling well enough to take it on. We took a 4-wheel drive bus out to the swing with the last stretch of road was a one lane very steep dirt road with a steep drop off one side, looking back this was probably more dangerous than the swing. We got to the swing and suited up in our harnesses. We walked out over the suspended bridge to the hut where we would take our swing. We watched a couple of people do the swing before our turn which was a little unnerving but also fun to watch. We also asked a man to take our picture and his hands were shaking like crazy. I asked if he was getting ready to go on the swing and he said, no, he had just been on it, so that made me question what we were doing! 

When it was our turn, we got clipped in, sat down and they then dropped the platform out from under our feet where we just sat suspended over the canyon. They asked if we wanted a countdown or a surprise and we said surprise. After what seemed a long minute we were then free falling through the air and then swinging over the canyon. It was quite exhilarating and not as scary as I thought it would be. If I had a chance to do it again, I would definitely do it. It was a great last adventure to our spring New Zealand travels!

We feel so lucky to be able to be doing what we are doing and to have been able to experience so much beauty, culture and meeting new people on our international excursion. It’s a trip we will remember forever!  

After an exciting storm the night before, we woke up to sunshine and made our way to Aurora, NB to go to the Plainsman Museum which was recommended to us by my dad.

It was a really cool museum with different rooms setup as time capsules of different businesses and even a mud brick home from the past. It was a lot of fun to walk through many of these rooms and even though quite a few things were before our time, there were things that we recognized from our generation (certain toys, cash registers, etc). Lee also enjoyed going through all of the old tractors they had on display and showing me what they did, and the ones he used as a kid growing up on a farm. 

We spend that night in Deshler, NE close to the border of Kansas.

The next morning we got going at a decent hour so we could make it to the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, KS.  As with the other presidential libraries we have been to, we really enjoyed our visit. I did not know much about Eisenhower but the one fact that still sticks with me is that his brother campaigned against him and was a vocal critic of his presidency. The site of the library also has his childhood home on the property (we were unable to visit it since it was being renovated).

After our visit we headed to Hutchinson, KS where we had tickets to visit the salt mine there (Lee’s aunt Louis recommended it to us). Hutchinson was not a very pretty town, very industrial, but we were able to find a nature park and had a pleasant run on their trails before calling it a night.

We had our tour of the salt mine the next morning and it was very interesting. The mine has a museum, a storage facility and a working part of the mine. Ownership of all three businesses is different. We were able to see a lot of the equipment used to mine the salt as well as tour lots of the old abandoned areas of the salt mine. If you are in the area it’s worth a stop.

After the mine we drove a ways to our stay for the night, a vineyard and winery in the middle of nowhere Kansas. The winery looked like a big barn but we soon found out it is the home of the owner as well as his business. We parked amongst the grapevines and headed in. We were able to visit with the owner and found out it was not an easy business for him. He still worked his day job (I believe at Oracle) while figuring out which grapes would survive the climate and soil of Kansas. He was a somewhat quiet man but we had a nice visit with him before Bingo night started. 

We were lucky there was room for us as the room filled with friends and patrons from the nearby towns (at least 25 minutes away). We met some locals who were friends with the owner and had a nice time getting to know them as well as play some bingo. Come to find out the woman sitting next to us was a massage therapist, and she was so nice to open her spa the next day to give me a massage (as my hip had really been bothering me). 

So the next morning we got up and headed to the nearby town where her spa was. It was really nice but I have to say based on the looks and size of the town I’m surprised she can stay in business.  I had a great massage but I was glad to be heading to Colorado. Kansas wasn’t exactly my cup of tea. Flat, windy and somewhat desolate feeling.

We arrived in Greeley, CO late in the afternoon of October 15. We spent a few hours driving around Greeley and Windsor to see the farm Lee grew up on, his high school and other places that brought back a lot of memories for him. I enjoyed seeing where Lee grew up! We then got in a  workout at an Anytime Fitness after our drive down memory lane and had some Thai food before heading out to Horsetooth Reservoir to see if we could find a place for the night. As soon as we got close to the campground we could see things were looking pretty full and sure enough, every spot was taken. So we went back into town and stayed in the Sam’s Club parking lot. We have occasionally stayed at a WalMart parking lot or a rest stop and if all we are doing is parking to sleep for the night they can be great places to stay.

We got up at a decent hour the next day and headed for Rocky Mountain National Park. We spent the day driving up Trail Ridge Rd and doing some short hikes and a quick stop to check out the Moraine Park area where we saw a large herd of Elk. RMNP is beautiful and we were both glad to be back in the mountains after weeks of flat land.

The next day Lee took another walk down memory lane. We drove into the Devils Gulch and then took a walk down North Fork Rd to find the cabin of one of his neighbors in Greeley that he did some work on during a few summers when he was a teen. We also took a hike up to Gem Lake, which was very pleasant. 

That night we decided to stay at the Stanley Hotel since it is such an iconic part of Estes Park (Steven King stayed there and it was the inspiration for The Shining). It was a nice enough hotel but doesn’t quite live up to the hype. We did run into some guests dressed as “the twins” from the Shining which were pretty funny. They were asked by many people to get a photo and I had to get one as well. It was a fun night.

The next day we decided to do a big hike to the top of the Twin Sisters. We had great weather and the trail was fairly empty with the exception of a hiker here or there. I could definitely feel the elevation, but made it to the top and then watched Lee as he went to go tackle another peak in the distance. It felt good to do a harder hike with the some elevation since it’s been so long!

We continued south the next day, making a stop at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. It was a small but beautiful park and we enjoyed our quick visit before driving a little further south to a campground on the way to Great Sand Dunes National Park.

We made it to Great Sand Dunes National Park with enough time to do a 3.5 mile hike amongst the sand dunes. It was actually more challenging then we expected. A lot of times it was one foot forward, half foot back. But the scenery was more beautiful than expected as well as the designs made in the sand by the wind. We had so much fun that we decided to see if we could get a campsite for a second night (it was very full!). We got lucky and snagged the last campsite for the next night.

We had a leisurely morning the next day, did a few chores and then moved to our new campsite. We then went out to hike amongst the sand dunes again, our goal being to make it to the top of the tallest dune (which we did!). We definitely got in a workout, Lee of course having to take some of the steeper hills than me as climbing in the sand can sure make your calves cramp!

The next day we made our way to Durango where we made a quick stop in Pagosa Springs (and added it to our list of places we’d like to go back and stay), it looked like a fun little resort town with several hot spring resorts. We didn’t linger too long as we had appointments at WalMart to get our flu shots and covid boosters. We had checked the weather in Durango and it was going to be rainy on the 23rd so figured we may as well get our shots on the 22nd, get a hotel room and then convalesce since the flu shot always seems to make me sick. 

We got our shots had a nice dinner and then headed to the hotel to see if we would make it without getting sick. Unfortunately, I woke up in the middle of the night achy and headachy but in the morning when we got up it was rainy and cold so we just had a lazy day in the room until late afternoon when we started feeling better. The rain had stopped so we walked down the street for some lunch.

We were so glad we had the hotel room, there are certain things the van is not good for and being sick is one of them!

The next day we went to Mesa Verde National Park, it was beautiful and the ruins were so cool to see, however we were disappointed to find out we couldn’t get that close to them. You now have to go on a guided tour with a ranger and they were done for the season (I’m sure it’s a good thing to preserve the ruins). Luckily both of us had each been to the park in years prior when you could get up close.

After our visit, which wrapped up 49 of the 50 states we have visited since we left on our adventure, we headed to Utah for the night where we stayed on some BLM land in Bluff with a beautiful view. It was nice to be back where it was easy to find public land to camp on.

Over the next few days we visited areas in Bears Ears National Monument that were just beautiful and fascinating. We took a very rough ride on the Valley of the Gods loop which is similar to the rock formations in Monument Valley but more remote and rugged. We rode out to Monument Valley that afternoon but unfortunately we were a little late to have any time to visit before they closed, so instead we ran on a road close by where we could still see some of the scenery of the park.

The next day we took a couple short hikes to see the Butler Wash Ruins and the House on Fire ruins. We then went up to Natural Bridges National Monument late in the afternoon and wished we had time to do some hikes, it was such a cool area. Unfortunately the campground was completely booked so another item on our list of places to go back to. 

On our way to Moab we also made a quick stop at the Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum which I highly recommend. The amount of native American artifacts they have is very impressive. We also made a quick pit stop to see the Newspaper Rock petroglyphs, which is one of the largest known collections of petroglyphs. I thoroughly enjoyed our few days in Bears Ears National Monument and would love to go back and explore some more. 

In Moab we got an AirBnb since Drew was coming out to stay with us to do some bike riding. The first day of riding we road at Navajo Rocks which is an area I really like to ride at. We had a nice ride and it was a beautiful day. The next day we did the classic Slick Rock trail. It is always a tough ride for me, the uphills are steep and I end up walking some of the trail, although I am happy to report I road more of the trail this time than on prior trips (although I still walked a lot). 

I’m not sure we’ve convinced Drew that mountain biking is a hobby he should take up. 

The morning we left we had breakfast with Drew and his roommate’s family that were also friends of Lee’s. It was nice to meet them and I think Lee enjoyed catching up with them as it had been a while since he had seen them.

After Moab we made our way up to Salt Lake where we had another Airbnb for the week. It was a week of lots of appointments (dentist, doctors, van maintenance, haircuts, etc) and I also got a chance to attend my book club (it was great to see my friends, I’ve missed them), got to get lunch with my friend Dawn and some time with our kids. It was a busy but fun week to be back “home”.

After leaving Salt Lake we decided to go to Zions for a couple days to see if we could get permits to hike Angel’s Landing in Zions NP as Lee had never done the iconic hike. We didn’t get them the first day we applied but luckily got them for the morning of Nov 7. It wasn’t over the top busy on the trail, but definitely busier than when Adam and I had hiked it in 2016. We had to wait on the way up and down for people to make their way on the trail. But it was a beautiful  morning and we timed the weather perfectly. At the top the wind was starting to blow and by the time we got to the bottom it was pretty windy. I think it’s a hike everyone should do once and with the permit system it helps to keep the crowds somewhat manageable. You definitely will not have this trail to yourself unless the weather is truly ugly.

After our hike we were supposed to have gone to dinner with friends of ours but unfortunately they fell sick and we had to cancel so we decided to get a little closer to Vegas (which was our next destination) and stayed in the parking lot of a casino in Mesquite.

The next morning we headed to Vegas for the opening day of my friend Andrea’s Jeremiahs Italian Ice franchise (she has invested in it with her daughter Meagan and her daughter’s boyfriend Will). Meagan has been working non-stop to get it opened and we were excited to be there to support them on their opening (plus it’s a delicious treat). Andrea looked fabulous and it was so good to see Meagan and Will. We spent a couple of days with Andrea so that I could have a chance to visit with her.

We had plans of going to Grand Canyon NP but it was a little out of the way to Mesa and after all of our travels we were ready to just settle for a while. So we decided to skip it and visit next year, and instead head straight to Mesa where we have been since.

We’ve had a really nice visit with my parents and my brother and family. We’ve done a lot of mountain biking and paddling (mostly Lee), Lee’s helped Grant with his van build, I was able to make a quick visit to Yuma to see my friend Heidi, we did a day trip to Saguaro National Park, spent a little time with my mom in the hospital (thankfully she’s fine) and I’ve enjoyed cooking for my parents and hopefully giving back a little to the two people who have given me so much! Oh and I finished my biology class with an A or A- (can’t figure out what the official grade is).

We also had a few visitors while we’ve been here. My sister Amy and her family came down for Thanksgiving, Adam came for a week over Christmas and Jack and Carmen came out over MLK weekend (they were supposed to have come at Christmas but Jack got Covid).

We also took a couple of short trips during this time. As we watched all of the snow falling in Utah, we decided we had to take advantage and spent a few days in Utah skiing. It was the first time either of us had stayed at a ski resort (we stayed at Snowbird) and we skied for four days straight. Jack, Adam and Carmen skied with us a few days. On the 4th day our bodies said that we may have overdone it (at least mine did, Lee is the energizer bunny). We had a great time though and the snow was the best it’s been for that time of year in a long time. We also had a chance to have dinner with my sister and Lee’s kids as well as see our friends Matt and Melissa since we stayed with them the night we got in and the night before we left.

We also took a quick trip to Puerto Penasco, MX with Grant, Viviana, Afton, Derek and Adam. We went fishing one day and caught a lot of fish (although nothing too big) and Grant and Lee paddled another day. Even though the scenery wasn’t the best we still had a good time hanging out.

It has been nice to stay in one place for a while, but I’m itching to get going again. Our next few months of travel are places I’ve had on my bucket list for a long time and I am pretty excited to go!

We got back from Iceland excited to start our Northeast US adventure. When we got to Lee’s cousin’s to pick up the van we noticed there was still oil on the tires (we had the rear brakes done in Philly when we were there and noticed the oil before we left but had hoped it was just residual from the job). We decided to head towards Connecticut hoping to find a Ford dealer that could fix our problem the next day. We stayed at a campground about an hour from NYC and the next morning called some Ford dealers in Connecticut. No one would look at the van for at least a couple of weeks except one dealership, so we headed that way. Once we got there and he saw the van he said he wouldn’t be able to help us for about a week (UGH!!) so we called the Ford dealer in Philly that did the work and told them they needed to fix it ASAP. They of course did not have anyone who could look at it until Monday (it was Thursday) but we decided to head back to Philly since Monday was much sooner than anyone else could help us (plus they needed to fix their mistake).

Driving back to Philly was pretty stressful when we got to the NYC area, especially the area of the George Washington Bridge, but we got through it and made it to Philly. We ended up staying in Philly for almost a week which really threw us off schedule (we have seaplane reservations for Isle Royale in mid-September) so we took Lake Placid off our schedule.

We did, however, see a few sites we missed on our last stay, like the Rocky Statue and steps and the Eastern State Penitentiary. That was a very interesting visit to see the first Penitentiary in the US, it was used until the early 70s. It also had a very interesting exhibit about the US prison system (we imprison the most people per capita of any country by a long shot), it was informative and a little depressing.

We also got to see Leon Bridges in concert, it was a fun concert at a venue that looked over the city.

We finally got our van back and due to the time lost we flew through Connecticut and Rhode Island, only staying a night in each state. We stayed close to the shore which was nice. We then headed to Salem, MA for a night, as I wanted to see some of the Salem witch trial sites. When we got there we went for a walk and saw that there was a 1 mile race happening that evening so we hurried back to our B&B, got on our running gear and headed out to sign up. We had been talking about doing some races so it sure seemed fortuitous that there was one we could easily run in.

Lee took off fast and finished his mile in 6:13, I was a little slower at 8:28 but I was pretty happy with my time. Neither one of us placed in any category but we were both glad to have raced.

The next day we decided to head into Boston to have lunch at the North End and to see some of the old Fidelity places both Lee and I had worked at when we were Fidelity employees. It was fun to see the city again and we had a nice lunch in the North End.

The next day we headed to Ellacoya State park that was on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire and had a nice time paddling, it was a beautiful lake. That night we were invited to our neighbors campfire and had a pleasant night visiting with them and their friends. They were from Massachusetts and they also gave us some good suggestions for our upcoming trip to Nova Scotia.

We then made our way to Vermont which was very beautiful, we happened to stop in Montclair for gas and saw the capital (we did not realize it was the capital) and stopped to take a tour. It’s small but a really nice building and we were glad we stopped. We then made our way to Stowe to check out the ski resort, did a little biking, saw the Trapp Family Lodge (The Sound of Music is my favorite movie) before heading to our campsite on Lake Champlain. We had wanted to paddle while we were there but unfortunately it rained while we were there so instead we went to the climbing gym in Burlington and caught up on a few errands.

Our next stop was New Hampshire again and I had found a hike up Mount Washington in the White Mountains. The best part was they had a Cog wheel train that could take us back down. The hike up was not easy, it was pretty rugged and slippery on some of the granite rock you had to climb up, but it was beautiful and part way up the trail we stopped at one of the Appalachian Trail huts, Lake of the Clouds. It was aptly named as it was getting quite cloudy as we got closer to the hut. It was fun to go in and take a break and see some of the hikers come and go. 

We had a brief look at the top before the train was heading down. The train is the second steepest cog wheel in the world  (steepest is in Switzerland). We were a little hesitant in the morning to do the hike (are we getting lazy??) but we were so glad we did, as it was a beautiful and fun to see the hut and railway.

Our last stop before hitting Canada was Acadia National Park. We spent a full day there and rented some scooters to check out the park. They were a lot of fun and definitely an easier way to get around then the van. We rode the park loop and around Bar Harbor. I had been to Acadia with my boys a few years ago but we hiked in a different section of the park so it was fun to see a new part. We ended our day with a meal at Thurston’s Lobster Pound, on the bay in Bernard, Maine.

Even though the car troubles made us fly through some of the Northeastern states and give up going to Lake Placid we still had a great couple of weeks. Even our time in Philly was nice to decompress after our busy Iceland adventure. We realize how lucky we are to be doing what we are doing so try to take our setbacks in stride.

We have finally made it to Iceland. We had planned this trip originally for May of 2020 and we were going to rent an RV and Adam was going to join us, but then Covid happened and all was cancelled. We thought we would then go in May of 2021, but Covid restrictions were still in place and instead we took the kids to Costa Rica. But by the end of 2021 restrictions were being lifted and we felt we could plan our trip. 

We decided we would try and go during a couple of the hottest weeks in the US so we would have a few less weeks battling the heat in the van (although I have to say so far we have been very lucky with weather). With the exception of a few days here and there where we have had to stay in hotels we have dodged most of the bad weather. We missed tornadoes in the south by a week or two, and heatwaves here and there, and just dodged mass flooding that is happening in St Louis and Kentucky right now by just a couple of weeks.

On Wednesday morning we left our campsite in Jefferson Township, NJ in the morning and got our laundry done and finished up some last minute chores before heading to Wallington, NJ where Lee’s cousin Karen lives. She so kindly offered to let us park the van at her apartment and she is keeping an eye on her for us. We got there early enough to be able to visit with her and her husband Booker and take them to dinner. We then grabbed a Lyft for JFK. Luckily we got there 3 hours early because it took us an hour just to check in (even though it was Sky Priority) and the TSA Pre-check line was closed so security took another 30 minutes, but once we were through all that we were able to relax for about 45 minutes before boarding our overnight flight. It was a relatively short flight and we had a strong tail wind so instead of a little over 5 hours it took just over 4 hours to get to Iceland. Luckily we were both able to get a little sleep and were super excited to be in Iceland. 

When we got off the plane we took our time and used the restroom, then went through customs and thought for sure our bags would be waiting for us. Unfortunately they weren’t and after about 30 minutes some bags from our flight arrived, but not ours. We found out the bags were somewhere on the tarmac and they were trying to locate them. Finally after another 30 minutes, the bags were found (and ironically they were all the bags marked Sky Priority). 

We were happy to have our bags and got our car rental shuttle, rented our car and off we went. The car was asmall stick shift diesel 4×4, and it has been fun to drive since it’s been a few years since either one of us has driven a manual.

We drove the 40 minutes to Reykjavik and found a nice restaurant for lunch and then headed to check in to our hotel. We decided to take a nap before exploring. Once we got up from our nap, Lee was determined to find scooters for us to explore the city (he has been obsessed since riding them in Cleveland). We found some and followed a bike path up the coast a few miles, then back to the city to check out Iglesia Hallgrímskirkja. It was a very cool church with some interesting architecture. We then walked around the shopping area and then found a restaurant and had some great fish and chips. We were exhausted by that time and headed back to the hotel. We went to bed around 11PM and it was still light outside which was strange.

The next morning we headed out to do the Golden Circle. Our first stop was a beautiful waterfall called Þórufoss (yes the language and letters are quite difficult here), it was nice since we were the only ones there, we then headed to Þingvellir National Park but went the long way by circling Lake Þingvallavatn. It was a beautiful drive. The national park sits in a rift valley caused by the separation of 2 tectonic plates. We walked about 3 miles around the park exploring the rift valley and seeing another beautiful waterfall.

We then made our way to the Geyser Geothermal area, which was crowded and which frankly we were underwhelmed by since we have Yellowstone as one of our nation parks. We didn’t stay long and headed to Gulfoss waterfall which again was very crowded, but as soon as we saw we were in awe. It is an incredible water fall that has a little feel of Niagra but with more interesting geology. The way the waterfall cuts through the valley is very unique. We quite enjoyed our visit. We then made one last stop at an old volcanic crater with a lake at the bottom. We then headed to our hotel in Hella. We had dinner at their restaurant (the special was horse, pronounced “harse”) and met a nice older couple from Israel that we ended up talking to for about 45 minutes. Again traveling has been made even better by meeting a variety of people!

On Saturday we went to Seljalandsfoss waterfall. Luckily we got there before too many tour buses showed up (Iceland is popular right now). It was another beautiful waterfall and unique in that you can walk behind it. We made sure to wear our rain jackets because we did get wet. There were a few other waterfalls you could walk to down a path. We also saw a small cave we walked up to and of course I slipped coming down and cut up my hand. Luckily with so much water around I was able to wash the blood off and the freezing water made it numb so it didn’t hurt too much. Right after I fell and at the last waterfall there was a couple from Florida that asked Lee to take some photos of them, and come to find out he had just proposed!

After we left we had another waterfall destination planned but as we got close to where we were going we saw a very large waterfall off the road so decided to explore. The waterfall was Skogafoss and it was a very popular place. As we got closer we saw lots of cars and tour buses. But we were there and decided to climb the steps to a viewing platform above the waterfall. We are so glad we did, when we got to the top we saw a trail that continued on and you could see that not a lot of people were following it. We ended up hiking about 2.5 miles in and saw at least another 6 or 7 waterfalls in the beautiful canyon. It was so incredibly beautiful. We saw some backpackers taking the trail and found out later it’s about a 25 mile hike, and you can get a bus at the end to get back to your vehicle. We’ve added this to our bucket list for a future backpack adventure.

That night we stayed at a nice hotel and while we were hot tubbing met a couple from San Diego and we talked to them for quite a while. The husband was a big fisherman and was on his way to Greenland after Iceland for fishing. Really nice people and we enjoyed talking to them.

The next morning we had a zodiac boat tour of the glacier lagoon Jökulsárlón. Unfortunately it was canceled due to high wind, but we went and explored on our own. Again it was very crowded. We first walked over to Diamond beach where there are large chunks of ice on the shore and just really cool to see. We then went back to the lagoon and saw very interesting icebergs of different shapes and colors, very beautiful. We decided to walk around the lagoon and made it 1/3 of the way around and as always once you venture just a little past the main attraction the crowds thin out. We only saw three other people, it was very peaceful and it was nice to be able to see the glacier from different angles.

After the lagoon we made our way to Djúpivogur where we were staying for the night. That evening as we were looking into what we wanted to do the next day, Lee found a peak he wanted to climb (Búlandstindur) that was close to the hotel. He showed me the route information and I immediately knew I was in for a long and anxiety producing hike. But the next morning we geared up and made our way to the trailhead. There wasn’t a trail for this hike but they did have wooden stakes you followed up the mountain, and you basically went straight up the mountain. There was some scrambling involved as well, which alway makes me nervous, but Lee was having a great time. After 2.5 miles and 3000 feet of elevation gain we made it to the top of the pyramid shaped mountain. We had a quick snack and started to head down in case it started to rain. There was supposedly a loop you could take back down the mountain and we started heading in the general direction we thought the path would be. We did finally find a few wooden stakes but after the third stake they either disappeared or we just missed them. Needless to say we had what I would say was an anxiety provoking adventure making our way down the face of the mountain, scrambling down cliff bands. Luckily Lee has great route finding skills and got us down in one piece. As much as the hike made me nervous it was beautiful scenery and we walked on very cushioning moss in several spots and Lee got his Iceland peak!

After hiking we made our way to the cute town of Egilsstaðir, got some great pizza for dinner and headed to our little farmhouse for the night. The next day, I planned our adventure to a remote hot pot that I had read about. It was mostly paved roads except for the last 8 kilometers where it turned into and “F road” (these are dirt roads that can be rocky and rough in places), but we found what we were looking for, Laugavallalaug! As we got to the parking lot there was one other car there, we were a little disappointed hoping we would have the place to ourselves but we were still excited to check it out. As we were walking down the hill to the hot pot the couple (they were from Canada) were just leaving. We had the hot pot to ourselves! The hot pot was fed by a waterfall and we had a view of a beautiful valley and the river that the hot pot emptied into. It was glorious! The water was the perfect temp, you could get a massage under the waterfall and it was just a wonderful experience (and we had it all to ourselves). 

We stayed for almost 2 hours and then decided it was time to leave and we couldn’t have timed it better, about the time we decided to leave we saw a car coming down the road, as we walked out we passed 6 people heading in. It was great timing and an experience we will not forget.

As we left the hot pot we made a quick stop literally across the road to a the largest canyon in Iceland, Hafrahvammagljúfur. It was beautiful and the water was a milky blue. Then our next stop was about 20 kilometers down the F road to another canyon Stuðlagil. This canyon had very interesting basalt columns and the river water was a beautiful blue, oh and of course had a very cool waterfall by the parking lot. There were quite a few people on the trail and we were missing the quiet we had earlier in the day at our other stops, but it was still worth the stop. We had great timing as we got back to the car it started to rain and it didn’t stop for the next 1.5 days.

We arrived at hotel for the night (the only one we stayed at for more than 1 night) and were happy to find it was a quant inn that was once a farm. The next morning we got up and decided to just relax for a while before our whale watching tour we had scheduled that day. The tour company had already emailed saying it may be cancelled due to weather so we weren’t getting our hopes up. As we went out to the car Lee noticed our back tire was flat (the tire pressure light had been on for a couple days, but the tires never looked low). Lee changed the tire (in the rain I might add) and I found a tire shop in the town where we were going for our tour. We dropped off the tire and went to the tour office where they told us no tours were going out that day. We were disappointed but we saw there was a whale museum in town and a geothermal sea bath. We visited the museum which was interesting and then headed to the sea bath. It was a very nice place that had several pools of different water temps that overlooked the ocean. Even though it was still rainy and windy it was a great way to spend a few hours.

Our first week in Iceland was amazing and we couldn’t wait to continue with our trip!

The jet lag from Hawaii was keeping me up late at night, but I can’t complain since it’s the first time coming back from Hawaii that I didn’t have to worry about getting up for work and battling the jet lag during the working day, it sure is a nice change!

We had some fun things planned over the next month that I was pretty excited for as we left Lynne’s in South Carolina to make our way north. We stayed a quick night in North Carolina and then headed towards Virginia. Our first stop in Virginia was Newport News. We didn’t have much planned at this stop but realized we were close to Jamestown so headed there for a tour. It was very interesting to see the first permanent English settlement in North America. They had several archaeological digs happening on site, and it was interesting to see and realize they were still digging up things from the past. That night as we were eating dinner at camp, I saw a small flash of light, I looked over to Lee and said is that a firefly? Sure enough it was and then there were more little flashes of light. I have never seen a firefly and it’s something I’ve wanted to see for a long time, I was so excited to finally see them! What a cool bug and phenomenon!

After leaving Newport News we made our way to Shenandoah National Park where we would spend the next four nights. Shenandoah was a beautiful forest and we hiked, relaxed, enjoyed the scenery and even had a good thunderstorm one night. We stayed at three different campgrounds during our stay, one in the south, one in the middle and one in the north. We both agreed that Shenandoah was beautiful, but like Great Smoky Mountain NP neither really has the wow factor that a lot of the parks in the west have. I will say if I had to pick one of the two to visit I would pick Shenandoah over the Smoky Mountains.

We were then off to Washington DC where my BFF Andrea was going to meet us for a few days! We made a short stop to work out at an Anytime Fitness and then another stop in Baltimore where Lee had an appointment with a dry eye specialist to see if he could get some relief from the discomfort he’s been experiencing lately with his eyes (he seems optimistic that the treatment may be working). While he was at the doctor’s I was able to get our laundry done at a laundromat just down the street. 

We got to our AirBnb with enough time for me to shower and then get to Ronald Reagan airport to pick up Andrea! It was so nice to see her and I was excited to spend a few days with her site seeing. Our first day we headed to the Washington Mall downtown to see if we could get same day tickets to the Holocaust Museum. We were in luck and got tickets for later that afternoon. We then decided to go get lunch and walk over and see the White House. It was a scorcher of a day and we were glad when our time came to get into the air conditioning of the museum which is an excellent yet somber museum. Later that night we headed to dinner to a restaurant close by the Airbnb where they happened to have karaoke. Lee tried to get me to perform but I wasn’t feeling it. There were some who sang that made for a somewhat painful dinner.

The following day, Lee got up early and ran around the Mall while Andrea and I took our time getting ready and then headed out for more site seeing. We started in Georgetown, had some lunch and then walked to the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Vet memorial. Again the temps were high, 95 degrees and humid, making it feel even warmer. We were pretty tired by the time we got back to the Airbnb that we decided to order in dinner that night and watch a movie.

Our last full day in DC we went out to Mount Vernon. We had a nice time visiting the mansion and the grounds and had a nice lunch at the onsite restaurant. The next day I dropped Andrea off at the airport and headed back to the Airbnb to pack up and head to Maryland. I had a great time seeing Andrea and you realize one of the hard things about traveling is missing friends and family. We always love when we get to see our friends and family and especially when they come and join us on some our adventures.

We decided to go to the seashore in Maryland. Along the way we stopped and got some delicious produce at a farm stand and some nice scallops at a seafood market (we had a great dinner that first night). Assateague National Seashore and State park were a lot of fun. They have herds of wild horses that roam the park and the campgrounds. We had several visit us in camp and saw many along the roads when we road our bikes. There was a great bike path in the area and the beach was nice as well, if not just a wee bit chilly for me. Lee spent a few hours in the cold water paddling one late afternoon and I sat on the beach in my sweatshirt cheering him on. One of the evenings we were there we went to a restaurant that served Maryland blue crabs. I’m not a big crab lover, but these were good and the waitress also showed us a great way to crack, peel and eat them.

On Tuesday (the 21st) while we were at Assateague, I got a text from my brother asking us where we were going to be that Saturday. I told him we were going to be in Delaware, headed towards Virginia. He asked if we wanted to meet up with him and his wife to go to the Midnight Oil concert in DC. We said sure why not, we weren’t planning on staying that far from DC that Saturday night anyways so the timing was perfect and as I mentioned before we love having our friends and family join us on our travels! But in the meantime we had some exploring to do in Delaware.

We left Maryland on the 23rd and headed to Delaware Seashore State park. We both ran on the beach that evening (which was incredibly hard since the sand was so soft) and I saw what I thought were dead horseshoe crabs on my run. After running we walked back to check them out and sure enough they were horseshoe crabs and they were quite large. They are an interesting looking animal to say the least.

The next day we headed to a Harvest Host in Dover that was an aquaponics farm. The farm is owned by a husband and wife who were former school teachers. We’ve met a few people now that are tired of the low pay and stress of the American education system, and have moved on to other things, which is quite sad and worrisome for the future generation. 

When we got there we got to tour the operation. Before we went into the greenhouse we had to wash our shoes on a soapy mat and wash our hands. This was to keep any bacteria from coming into the greenhouse. We were greeted with large barrels of tilapia fish and she walked us through the process of growing the fish, filtering the water for the lettuce and how they harvest and sell the fish. It was very interesting. We even got to feed the fish which surprised me since they were very aggressive and splashing everywhere. We then got to see the lettuce and she picked a head for us to eat while we continued the tour (it was very good). It was an absolutely fascinating tour and I thoroughly enjoyed it. After the tour we walked around their cute farm, checked out the old school bus they use for their chickens and watched their funny donkeys. It was a very good evening!  I also learned that I’m a natural “donkey whisperer”, as the donkeys would come to me when I called them…  (this last sentence is a little addition from Lee)

The next day we needed to start making our way to DC to meet Grant and Viviana. We met up at the hotel we were all staying at that afternoon and headed to dinner and then the concert. The concert was really good and even though it was a really quick visit (they flew out at 5AM the next morning), I’m glad we were able to make it work!

We had a little longer drive the next day to make it to Lewisburg, West Virginia which is where we were going to do our first bike packing trip. As we drove into West Virginia I couldn’t believe how beautiful and “quaint” it was. If it weren’t for the fact that it’s somewhat of a backwards state, I could see living there. 

We found another Harvest Host for our first night that was a cattle farm at the top of a “mountain”. The views were incredible and we purchased some of their beef and grilled up some steaks that night. We had a great nights sleep which got us ready for our next adventure.

The next morning, we met up with a man named Tracy who was our shuttle driver to take us from Caldwell, WV to Cass, WV where we would start our bikepacking trip on the Greenbrier River Trail (a 78 mile Rails to Trail path). Tracy was a teacher and born and raised in WV. He was a talker and took us by the Greenbrier Resort which was very impressive, told us about the area and overall a really nice man. 

While we were on our way up to Cass a young man flagged us down, he had just gotten into a car accident and was looking for help (there was no cell service). His car was flipped upside down in the yard of a house with his mother still in it. She was bleeding but was conscious. He seemed hesitant to knock on the door of the house but Tracy told him to go do it. No one answered, so we said we would drive and see if we can find someone at another house with a landline. We drove up to a couple of houses and Tracy would honk his horn and not go up to the door, when we asked about it, he said people in West Virginia are the nicest people, but they are very suspicious and so he didn’t feel safe just knocking on a door. You always hate to stereo type, but those stereo types usually come from somewhere and I always thought of West Virginia being a little back woods.

We were never able to find someone home (or at least someone who would come to the door), so we gave up, there were several cars going the opposite way of where we were going and the direction the young man was going and closer to a town so we figured he would be able to get some help from people going the other way.

Tracy dropped us off at the trailhead in Cass and after a quick lunch at the local market we headed out for our 24 mile bike ride. It was a beautiful and well maintained trail and we had a nice time making our way to Marlinton, WV where we were staying for the night. We stayed at the Old Clark Inn and luckily found one restaurant open that evening for dinner (it was a pretty small town). The next day was a long one. 54 miles on a mountain bike! We again enjoyed our ride and the scenery but our rear ends were pretty sore by the time we made it back to the van. Overall it was a great experience and something we plan on doing more of!

We had a day in between our bike packing trip and our next big adventure and we spent part of that day paddling on Summerville Lake. It was such a pretty lake with a few waterfalls, and Lee found some climbing routes while we were paddling and we also watched some people with a slack line over the water showing off their skills. Just a really nice lake for paddling.

We made our way to Ace Adventure Resort after paddling, driving through some very narrow roads with homes extremely close to the road. We checked in and got ready for our overnight white water trip starting the next morning. At check in we met a family from Georgia that would be paddling with us. It was fun to get to know them and paddle with them. We were a little unsure of what the trip had in store for us as the description on the website was somewhat vague so we were pleased to find out the first day we got our own “duckies” to paddle in the class I & II rapids. We had a great time paddling and swimming when the water was calm. We had a great lunch on one of the beaches as we made our way to camp for the night. 

Camp had several platforms that we could use to set up our tents. After setting up we made our way to a waterfall close by to clean up for the night. We had a great steak dinner and met the other people who would be joining us the next night for our rafting day. When it started to get dark the fireflies came out in force. It was such a cool site, there were so many and with the darker skies it made it even more of a show.

The next day we got in the big rafts for a day of class III – V rapids, we shared a raft with three women from Pennsylvania and off we went with our guide Kelly. We had so much fun hitting the bigger rapids and again jumping out and swimming when the water was flat. When it was getting time for lunch the clouds started rolling in and we made it to our lunch spot that luckily had some covered pavilions just as the storm came in. The thunder was LOUD and the rain dumped down but our guides setup lunch and by the time we were done eating it was over and we were on our way for the last half of the day.

The rapids after lunch got more exciting and we even did a little surfing in the raft. We also got out at a jumping rock and I was able to climb up and jump off (it felt higher than I thought it was after I jumped). All in all the trip was so much fun, we would love to do it again. We definitely have West Virginia on our list of places we want to come back to, we had a great time!

The next morning was Lee’s birthday and we woke up to rain which squashed our mountain bike plans so we decided it was time to head to Kentucky. Lee wanted to go climbing at a gym in Lexington so we made our way there and had fun climbing although it was hard since our climbing has been so sporadic. We then went to an inn we had booked in Versailles, just outside of Lexington. We got there and it was a beautiful old home that the owners had just recently purchased and had remodeled. Our room was beautiful and there was only one other couple staying there. The owners were away for the evening so it was very quiet.

We showered and walked to a local restaurant for dinner and then when we got back to the inn we looked around and discovered a ton of water in the dining area which was right below our shower. We called the owners to let them know and soon they were there to clean up. We talked to them briefly, the wife was another former educator fed up with the profession and decided to pursue her dream of owning an inn. If we are ever back in Lexington we would definitely stay there again.

Our main destination in Kentucky was Mammoth Cave National Park. It was very hot that day and the cave tour was welcome relief. We’ve been on quite a few cave tours since we’ve started traveling and this one didn’t have the pizazz as others but it was quite large and had some interesting history. After the cave tour we went to the campground and silly us decided to workout in the heat. We were both drenched when we got back to the van and a cold shower didn’t even help to cool us down. Luckily the night got cool enough that we were able to sleep.

On to Missouri. We knew Missouri was going to be very hot so we booked hotels for our stay. As we were driving to Missouri we passed into Illinois shortly and drove through what was a modern ghost town, Cairo, IL. The closed gas station had gas listed for about $2 a gallon, much cheaper than the close to $5 we’ve been paying and everything was boarded up and just eerie feeling. It’s times like this, passing through a deserted town that I love having internet access to learn about why it’s a ghost town (I won’t bore you with it, but you can always look it up).

We got to our Bed and Breakfast, The Old Caledonia Inn, in Caledonia, MO. It was a cute historic mansion ran by a same sex couple that were a hoot to visit with. They made us a delicious dinner and breakfast the next morning was fantastic as well. We spent a few hours visiting with the owners over breakfast and then we were on our way to Johnson Shut-Ins State Park a little ways from the inn. It was a cool swimming hole (or natural water park as they like to advertise) and it was very refreshing on the 95 degree day.

We then made our way to St Louis (staying at a Residence Inn) where we stayed for a few days. We visited the Gateway Arch which was more impressive than I thought it would be, we even crawled into the small pods that took us to the top. Being that it was so hot we mostly stayed indoors and hit up a climbing gym which was in an old power plant and got massages.

After Missouri we went to Illinois for a couple of days. We stopped in Springfield, IL to see the Lincoln Library and Museum and then stayed in Shelbyville and paddled on the lake. We then went to Bloomington, Indiana, again stayed at a lake and paddled and then a quick drive through of  Indianapolis where we had lunch on the canal downtown. Can’t say that either state had much appeal to us except to see lots of corn and soybeans !

Well we had every intention of blogging every couple of weeks, but time sure does get away from us. It’s been a busy few weeks, with some fun activities and some not so great weather for van living!

After we got back from New York City we made our way to Florida. Our first couple of nights we stayed at a Boondocker’s Welcome host who had a large lot with two rv sites with full hookups in Bell, FL. Our host was a nice older retired gentleman and who was flying his Trump 2024 flag. We’ve seen more of those in Florida than anywhere else so far, hence Florida is not a place on our list of potential places to live. He did give us 3 grapefruit off of his trees that were very delicious so I overlooked the flag. 

We met our neighbors who were kayaking the next day on the Santa Fe river, so we did a little perusing and thought we would enjoy it as well. So the next morning we arranged to be dropped off up river and took a nice leisurely paddle down the river. We did stop at a side tributary that led to a beautiful fresh water spring (Gilchrist Blue Springs). The water was so incredibly clear and the color was beautiful. We saw turtles, fish and a snake swimming around (which I was not thrilled about). After our stop there we continued down the river. It was a beautiful day and a great start to our Florida adventure. 

After we got the boards packed up we headed over to Manatee Spring State Park, another fresh water spring, in hopes of seeing some manatees. When we got there we asked the gate attendant if they had seen any lately and he said we were a little past season so we did not have our hopes up. However, as soon as we got to the spring there were 3 just off shore. I was thrilled we got to see them. We didn’t get to swim in the spring however since an alligator had decided to hang out on shore and they had cleared out all swimmers.

We then made our way to St Petersburg where Lee had arranged some kite boarding lessons for us. We stayed at a great county campground right on the water (Fort De Soto). It was a large site with lots of trees, really clean and we really enjoyed our stay there. While we were in St Petersburg we did some paddling and biking right off of our campsite, and we took a couple of kite boarding lessons. The place where we took the lessons was very shallow (waist high) and was a great place to learn. The first day we had great conditions and learned about setting up our kite, the different safety systems and then actually got some flying and body dragging in. Our second lesson was cut short, it started with almost no wind and then got to be too strong for us to safely continue our lesson, but we got enough of a taste of it that we knew we wanted to take some additional lessons.

After St Petersburg we spent a quick night outside of Fort Myers, FL. We stayed at a nice campsite on a river and thought maybe we would paddle the next day until our neighbor pointed out the large alligator sitting on a homes dock across the way and another one swimming in the river. We did however find some fun bike trails close by for riding the next day. The weather was starting to get a little on the warm side but nothing close to what was in store for us.

After biking, we started making our way towards Everglades NP. We stayed one night in a crowded campsite, the temperatures were getting very warm and we then experienced the lovely noseeum bugs. Ugh!! We couldn’t sit outside because we were getting eaten up, but inside the heat was stifling. We don’t have air conditioning since we planned on lots of boon docking but we were wishing we had air conditioning that night.

We made our way to the Everglades and stayed at a really nice campsite in the park for a couple of nights. We didn’t do too much in the Everglades but it was nice to drive around the park.

After the Everglades we made our way to the Florida Keys. We were able to grab some canceled spots in a couple of state parks. The first state park we stayed at was Bahia Honda, when we got there we immediately went to the beach to get in the water and cooled down since the heat had intensified. It was interesting because the water is super shallow for a few hundred feet off shore. There is lots of sea grass so we were hoping for some good snorkeling but that was a bust, as there was almost no fish to see. We went to Key West one day, and we were glad we didn’t stay there as it was a crowded tourist trap. We parked and biked over to the southern most point of the continental US and throughout the city in the heat, made it back to the van got in the water to cool down and headed back to camp for another very warm night.

Next on our agenda was John Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo. We paddle a few times there in the mangroves which were really cool. The water is really clear and you paddle in channels lined with the mangrove trees. The first day out we saw a saw a small shark, lots of pencil fish and lots of upside down jelly fish. The next day when we paddled we went into the neighborhoods that lined the water. That was interesting to see. We were still dealing with the heat and the bugs but we made the best of it. We had some good seafood while we down there as well.

After dealing with the heat and bugs we decided to take a break from the van and rented a condo in Cocoa Beach for a week. We had found a good place to take more kite boarding lessons in the town. The condo overlooked some of the launch pads at Cape Canaveral so we were hoping to see a rocket launch. Unfortunately the one that was scheduled kept getting pushed back so that never happened while we were there. It was also on a nice beach and made for some good running in the evening and we could watch the cruise ships go in and out of the port. 

While we were there Adam came out to see us. The day after we got there we all took kite boarding lessons. Adam of course got up on his board during his first lesson while Lee and I were still in the body dragging stage. However the next day at our lesson, Lee got up on the board and I actually rode the board a good distance and had enough kite control to stop where I wanted. Lee said our instructor was a little nervous I wouldn’t stop!

While we were at Cocoa Beach we also did a day at the Cape Canaveral Space Center. It was amazing to see the rockets and some of the space vehicles used in our space program. We could also see the SpaceX rocket that was supposed to have launched that week on the launch pad. It was crazy busy with lots of kids but still fun. 

It was a great week in Cocoa Beach kite boarding and enjoying the beach and being out of the van for a little while!

February 11, 2022 – March 2, 2022

It has been a whirlwind of a few weeks, with some extreme weather and the addition of two more states on our list – Oklahoma and Mississippi!

After leaving Big Bend we headed towards Corpus Christi.  One thing about Texas – it’s big!  The drive wasn’t too long the way we split things up, but we did do more driving in Texas than we will be doing in many other states. We spent a few days camping right on the beach which was a lot of fun. The weather was still pretty cool so we didn’t do any swimming or paddling, but we did run and ride our bikes on the beach which was nice. It was nice to just stay in one spot and not have a lot of site seeing to do. Each day we had several people paramotoring but one person in particular was fun to watch. He did loops in the sky and would scream down and almost touch the water. I’m surprised he didn’t crash, but he obviously was not a newbie.

San Antonio was next on the agenda. We headed straight to the Alamo on our first day, which we thought was very interesting. We both know our basic history but traveling in the US has been very educational and has made us painfully aware of how much history we do not know.  That night we stayed in the driveway of a woman with Harvest Host, and when she asked us what we thought of the Alamo we both said we enjoyed it. She was surprised because she said almost everyone else is either disappointed or underwhelmed. The Alamo is not very big and I guess most people have expectations of something grand, neither of us had any expectations so maybe that helped.

The next day we walked 6 miles on the Riverwalk trail, having lunch at one of the old hotels and just enjoying a beautiful warm day walking by the river.

We then headed to Austin. We decided to take the scenic route and about 5 miles out of Blanco, TX our tire monitor went off – yep, flat tire!  We decided to call AAA instead of trying to change it ourselves but ended up having to wait 2 hours for the guy to drive out. We are glad we ended up waiting, the jack in the van is pretty small and he had full size jack and he also ended up using his air compressor to fill up our spare tire. It would have been ok to get us back to the nearest town, but all in all we were glad for AAA.

Austin has a very cool vibe with lots of young people and lots of traffic. It was a little unnerving driving there. We immediately made our way to a well rated BBQ restaurant and were not disappointed. Our timing was perfect because the lines got huge after we got there (the next day we decided to try another place and gave up because of the long lines). We were able to get a campsite at a State Park close to the city the first night which was scenic and has some swimming holes that I’m sure would be fun in the summer. We had a nice run along the river and then Lee took me to an arcade with all the old classics. It was fun playing some of the old video games I remember as a kid (Ms PacMan, Centipede, Galaga).

Unfortunately that night the campground was full, so we boondocked in the parking lot of a park in the city. It ended up being a nice quiet night and was perfect for us to hop on our bikes the next morning and ride the Ann and Roy Butler Trail, with a side trip to see the capital.

We agreed that Austin would be a fun place to fly to and stay if there was a concert you wanted to see, but not a place we’d want to go back to in the van. We also thought it would be a fun city to live in if you were young.

Next on the list was Dallas. We spent the first day doing chores (Lee had a Drs appt, we got an oil change on the van, laundry and cleaning) and then that night we met up with several people that Lee used to work with at Fidelity. We had a great time and it was nice to meet these people, that Lee talked to me about, in person. I should also mention that the high temp that day was 90 degrees. That night we watched a great lightening show and then the wind and rain woke us up that night. The next day we had lunch with another former co-worker of Lee’s, Kevin Glanzer. He hired Lee many years ago at Fidelity. I think Lee had a nice time catching up and I enjoyed meeting him.

The next morning we had plans of visiting the JFK museum before heading to Lee’s cousin Jon’s house an hour away. However, we woke up to sleet and very cold temps (I think it was a high of 28 degrees that day) and it was only going to get worse, so we decided we better just make our way to Greenville, TX (although we did stop to work out). The roads were wet and icy in spots and the traffic was very slow but we made it to Greenville. We had every intention of only staying a night at Jon’s and even staying in the van, however we decided it would probably be best to stay an extra day and take Jon up on his offer to stay in his guest suite. We are sure glad we did because the next morning the van was literally covered in ice.  This was an interesting juncture in history – this was when Putin (the President of Russia) decided to invade the Ukraine.  This has cause a lot of disruptions, and between the market going down and gas going up, it has been disappointing to see this happen, not just for the people in the Ukraine suffering, but also all the fall-out that comes up when things like this take place.

Jon’s large family (8 kids!) kept us entertained and Lee had a nice visit catching up.

With the weather finally somewhat settling down we decided to head out to Oklahoma. Since we ended up staying an extra day in Texas due to the weather and we had hotel reservations in Hot Springs, AR coming up, we decided we should skip our plans of going to Oklahoma City and just visit the south east corner of Oklahoma. Oklahoma was a lot more wooded and beautiful than we were expecting. We drove to Hugo via Broken Bow which was beautiful and stayed at a campground on the lake with only one other camper. The next day we made our way to Talihini via McAlester.

As I mentioned we had hotel reservations in Hot Springs National Park so headed there after staying the night in Talihini. We decided to take the Talimena Scenic Byway to Hot Springs but after about 10 miles on that road, which does not get plowed, decided the snow and icy conditions would make for a very long drive so turned around and went the more direct route, but the few miles we were on the byway were beautiful.

Hot Springs National Park was nothing of what we expected. It mainly consists of some old bathhouses that have been repurposed. One is now a brewery, another is the park visitor center and museum which was really cool, one is a hotel which we stayed at and loved, another is still a working bath house and the last is a spa with thermal pools. When we got there that afternoon we decided to go for a run since it was the first time in may days that we had good weather. We ran up the road to the watch tower in the park (ok, Lee made it, I didn’t quite get there), and then we had a nice dinner in our hotel. The next morning we went to the spa at the Quapaw bathhouse and got massages and soaked in their thermal pools (I know, hard life). It was very nice!! We did however go biking later that day, again making our way to the watch tower and then found some fun mountain bike trails a few miles away.

We really enjoyed our stay and would come back again if we ever got the chance. We then headed to Little Rock where we stayed at a campground that was right on the Arkansas River and close to some more mountain bike trails. We setup and headed out for a ride. The trails were fun but very rocky so I took it slow, we made it back to camp just before sundown. The next morning, we debated about whether we should just head to Mississippi or check out the Clinton Library. We decided on the library and we were glad we did. It was our first Presidential Library and we found it to be a very interesting museum. It had a replica of the oval office and cabinet room and just lots of memorabilia from his presidency including his daily schedules which looked exhausting. After a nice lunch at the library we made our way to Mississippi. 

Mississippi definitely felt poor driving in, we made our way to camp for the night at a State Park in the city of Jackson and on a lake.

The last few weeks showed us some extremes in weather and also made me appreciate yet again how handy my husband is. Our heater died on us (luckily we had purchased a space heater as a back up), he pulled the fan out, found out it was dead and got another ordered so we can pick it up in New Orleans. It always seems like there is something to fix, I guess that’s part of the adventure!

I can’t believe our last blog post was from almost two months ago – time does fly!

After leaving Joshua Tree, we spent eleven days in Mesa.  Almost my entire family was there for Thanksgiving and to also celebrate my Dad’s 90th birthday. It was a lot of fun to see everyone and we had a great time playing games, catching up, and eating (of course). We had a nice party for my dad’s birthday with my family, friends of my parents from Mesa and friends from their days in Hawaii (many that I hadn’t seen in years).

We spent a few days after all of the celebrations finalizing our plans for Baja, including getting our Mexican car insurance, FMM (Mexico Tourist Card), buying traction boards (in case we got stuck in the sand) and gas can (in case we ran out of gas). We then left on December 3rd for Baja. We stopped and stayed the first night in Yuma, AZ to see Heidi Jones, my good friend and college roommate. It was so nice to see her and as I’ve said before one of the great things about our travels so far is meeting up with family and friends!

After our night stay we headed for Mexicali, and I was a little nervous about crossing the border. You hear stories about getting bribed or having to take your van apart to be inspected, so between that and never having driven my own vehicle into another country I wasn’t sure what to expect. 

The border crossing for the most part was uneventful, we drove in the wrong lane and were told next time to go to the truck lane since we were so big and we had some trouble pulling up our FFM form to show the border agent, but eventually the slow internet downloaded our form. After a quick stop in Mexicali to get Pesos we were off for our first destination, San Felipe.

One of the things we first noticed on our drive was the amount of trash all over the sides of the street and how run down the buildings are.  It remained that way until we were further south in Baja. We stayed a couple of nights in San Felipe at a Campo on the beach. We paddled and walked around town and while it was a nice enough place, San Felipe would not be on my list of places to go back to. 

The most interesting thing of our stay was the first night as the tide went out (and it went out quite a bit), I took a walk out pretty far where the tide had receded and as I was walking back I noticed a truck had driven out pulling an empty boat trailer. I thought it was pretty amazing that it didn’t sink into the wet sand but didn’t think much else of it. However about 30 minutes later I then noticed several trucks with empty boat trailers heading out onto the wet sand. By this time it was getting dark and soon Lee and I watched for at least an hour the headlights of at least a hundred trucks going way out where there was once water and then heading back to shore. We found out later that they were picking up the fishing boats. It’s amazing that the boats knew which truck was theirs and navigating it in the dark would seem to be a challenge, but obviously it’s something they do daily. For us Gringos it was great entertainment.

After a couple nights in San Felipe, we made our way a little further south to the small town of Puertecitos. When we got there it was very eerie, it felt like a ghost town, we saw almost no one and the place felt very run down. We did find our Campo that we would stay at for a couple of nights and then headed to the hot springs which Puertecitos is known for. These hot springs are on the ocean shoreline and when the tide is out they are way too hot to sit in, however as the tide comes in the cold ocean water mixes with the hot water and makes for a nice water temperature for soaking, that is until there is too much ocean water and then it’s too cold. So as the tide comes in you move from pool to pool for a just right temperature. With the exception of the strong sulphur smell, we really enjoyed the hot springs, the ocean scenery was beautiful and it was just a unique experience. We enjoyed the hot springs both days we were there.

We did meet a couple from Spokane, WA the first day at the springs (Lanny and Sue) and we ran into them again a few days later in Bahia de Los Angeles. Another fun part of traveling is getting to meet new friends along the way.

After Puertecitos we made our way to Gonzaga Bay for a night. The Campo we stayed at was a little run down but the beach was beautiful and had tons of really cool shells. I collected a dozen or so to go with my sand dollars that I collected in Morro Bay.

We then made our way to Bahia de Los Angeles. The roads to Bahia de Los Angeles were very narrow with no shoulder and steep drop offs, I was glad Lee was driving but it was a little unnerving!

We stayed at Campo Archelon and loved it so much we stayed longer than we planned. It had a cafe with great food and internet, the showers were hot and clean and the beach and views were beautiful. Within 10 minutes of getting our camp spot we ran into Lanny and Sue (we had no idea they would be there). While we there we also met a couple from Logan and a couple from Park City. The wife worked at Fidelity so we got a good laugh about what a small world it is.

While we were in Bahia de Los Angeles, we attempted to drive out to La Mona, but when the dirt road turned into soft sand and we felt our tires sinking in we high tailed it out of there. 

We also took a boat tour in the bay (which has about 28 different islands) with Lanny, Sue and three others from camp that Sue arranged. We saw a ton of sea life, it was incredible. We saw fin whales, humpback whales, flying manta rays, dolphins, sea lions and one whale shark. We did a little snorkeling (it was cold!!) and saw some cool fish and star fish. It was an amazing day that I will not soon forget.

A couple days later we went fishing, Sue and another man we met at camp from Colorado joined us. We again saw fin whales and flying manta rays heading out to our fishing spot. Marcos our guide found a great spot and we had a great time pulling in sea bass after sea bass. The pelicans hovered around the boat just waiting for us to pull up the fish and actually got one off of Sue’s line (I don’t think it was on very good) but they were quite fun to watch. Marcos then took us to one of the islands that we could walk around as he cleaned our catch.

Later that night we hosted dinner at our Palapa grilling the sea bass we caught, and I even made brownies in our Omnia stove top oven. We had Lanny, Sue, Kevin (the man from Colorado) and the couple from Logan. It was a fun evening making new friends!

We did some paddling while we in Bahia de Los Angeles as well. We paddled out to the island right in from of camp that was 2.5 miles away. About half way there I had a little panic attack when I realized there could be whales out here that could easily surface and knock me off my board. I calmed down though and made it out to the island and back without incident. 

We loved our stay in Bahia de Los Angeles and would go back again in a heart beat.

We decided it was time to start heading back north so we could be in Mesa in time for Christmas. We stayed one night back in San Felipe and a night on the Pacific ocean outside of Ensenada on our way to Valle de Guadalupe.

Valle de Guadalupe is a beautiful valley about 90 minutes south east of Tijuana. It has really, really good food, lots of vineyards and beautiful scenery. Some of the rock formations reminded me of Joshua Tree. We stayed a couple of nights at a nice RV park and then decided it was time to take a break from the van and we found a great Bed & Breakfast. It had a nice courtyard for relaxing in, a hot tub and the breakfast was soooo good. Fresh squeezed orange juice from the surrounding orange groves, homemade marmalades, olives from the grove, and fresh local cheese and breads. Every place we ate had great food, but Finca Altozano topped it off (if you go better make a reservation). It was such a cool place, two paved roads that enclosed the valley and everything in between were dirt roads. Very rustic but the food was as good as any we’ve had. As you can tell our stop in Valle de Guadalupe revolved around food (although we did manage to run a few times).

When it was time to head back to Mesa, we made a  stop in Tijuana to see my former co-worker at Degreed, Carlos Vasquez. We were able to meet his very cute and smart girls and then went to dinner with him and his wife. They took us to a place where they bring out fresh tortillas, rice, beans and then a large plate of lobsters caught right there off the coast. After dinner we decided we better get over the border since we didn’t have a good place to stay for the night. The border crossing was pretty uneventful and we drove for an hour or so and stayed the night at a rest stop along the freeway.

Baja was a great adventure and we want to go back again in a year and make it even further south!

We made it back to Mesa on the 23rd, just in time to spend Christmas with my parents and brother and his family. While we were in Mesa Drew came out to see us, Jack, Carmen and Adam also came to visit and we were able have a celebratory dinner for Adam’s graduation from UVU! I spent some time organizing the van, getting rid of what we don’t use, planning out our next stretch of travels and Lee spent a lot of time helping Grant on building out his van. It was a nice break from the van and I always like being able to spend time with my parents and my brother and his family, but I’m itching to go and see more of the US!!!

Adam and Kelsie were supposed to have flown home on the 24th but they decided to stay another day!  It was a nice day, I took them out to see Multanomah Falls and the Bridge of the Gods before I had to take them to the airport.  Adam got some incredible photos of their visit and I plan on framing some when we have a house again.  It was really nice to have them come and visit.

We did have one incident before leaving Portland – we had a large duffle bag with all our sheets and a few other house things stolen.  Right out of the back of our car.  Lee thinks he may have left the car unlocked, and someone came along in the night, checked the doors, and realized that they could make a quick “score” by stealing our bag and running off. Needless to say, they didn’t get much, but it did drive us a bit crazy trying to figure out what had happened, and ultimately realizing that someone had taken it.  We replaced things over the next few days, so it wasn’t too big of a deal.

After we left Portland we headed up the Washington Coast.  Last year when we picked up the van we drove the Washington Coast but because of COVID all of the beaches were closed.  In particular I wanted to see the Tree of Life and Rialto beach.  The weather was more rainy and cold than when we were there last year, but we were still able to see some of the things we missed.  

The Tree of Life was pretty unique – it’s amazing the root structure can hold up the weight of the tree.  The beach itself was littered with huge drift wood logs.  It was a little rainy and windy and the ocean was foamy and rough.  We didn’t stay long and headed towards Rialto beach.  We got to Rialto Beach at high tide so we couldn’t walk the beach; it was also a little rainy so we decided to go to our campground.  Mora campground was a really nice, big campground about a mile from Rialto Beach.  There were only about 4-5 campers so we basically had the place to ourselves.  After we setup camp the rain stopped long enough for us to get a run in.  Then the rain started and basically did not stop for over a day.  We spent the next day just hunkered down in the van (with a quick run to town for a coffee).  Luckily we had good internet so we could watch a move, do some reading and some “interneting”.  It was actually nice to just stay put and have a down day.

The rain stopped on Friday and we were able to go walk a small portion of Rialto Beach.  Unfortunately low tide was in the early afternoon and we had to be on our way so we were not able to hike to hole in the rock to see the sea stacks and tide pools.  Another thing on my list of “stuff we need to go back and do”.  We had a long drive to get to Arlington, WA where we were going to see Lee’s cousin.

When we plugged in Lee’s cousins address in Google Maps, it said we only had 190 miles to go but it was going to take us 5 hours.  We couldn’t figure out why that was the case.  After driving for a while I did a little more investigation about why it was going to take so long and realized it had us going on a ferry.  I panicked a little never having experienced a ferry with a car, let alone a big van and wasn’t sure we could do it.  Luckily we had cell coverage and after some research learned that the ferry would be able to accommodate us.  I was then relieved and excited about my first experience boarding a ferry with a vehicle.

We got to the ferry about 45 minutes before boarding time, which gave us some time to make some lunch.  And then it was our turn to drive on.  It didn’t take long for the crossing (about 25 mins), but we got out and walked around the large boat. I was glad to have had the experience.

We spent the next couple of days with Lee’s cousin Karen Benjamin and her husband Craig.  Lee hadn’t seen her in about 40 years, so he was happy to reconnect and I was happy to meet some of his extended family.  They had a sprinter van so we gave each other tours of our “tiny homes”, and also toured Deception Pass which was very beautiful.

A few days previous my sister Karen had texted to say she saw we were in Washington and asked if we were coming to Spokane.  I told her we weren’t but we’d be more than happy to meet here somewhere halfway.  Luckily she was able to get a few days off so after leaving Arlington we headed to Leavenworth, WA to spend a few days with my sister.  We had a great time – Leavenworth is a quant little tourist town that looks like it belongs in the mountains of Germany.  We toured the little town, ate pastries and German food, stayed in a nice cabin close to town and did a hike in The Enchantments up to Colchuck Lake.  It was really cold at the lake, but absolutely beautiful.  On Tuesday (11/2) after checking out of the cabin we followed Karen to Wenatchee to do a 24 mile bike route along apple orchards and the Columbia River.  It was chilly but very scenic.  

After we said goodbye to Karen we started heading south.  We stayed a night in Vantage, WA and then a night in Bend OR.  We got to Bend after dark, did some quick errands and had a great dinner at the Boxwood Kitchen and saw a movie (The French Dispatch, which Lee hated).  We then scoped out a place to stay for the night – a quiet street behind an assisted living place.  We then headed to Sacramento via a night in Redding (where we found a tiny bouldering gym on Harvest Host) and then a stay at a Harvest Host winery outside Sacramento.  

On our way to Redding we drove by Mt Shasta and boy was it impressive.  The sky was clear and we got an incredible view of it.  We decided (or I should say Lee decided) that we needed to climb it at some point in the not too distant future.

We met up in Modesto with my former boss at Degreed, Scott Smith and his wife Steph on Saturday for dinner.  It was nice to see them and they were kind enough to let us stay in front of their house that night since our other options were a little limited.

We ended the week by heading to Yosemite via Calaveras State Park to see some giant Sequoia trees. We were lucky to find a last minute campsite in Yosemite and even though it’s still a popular place in November the crowds were much, much smaller than when we were here a few years ago in August to climb Half Dome.  We found our campsite, went for a walk and scoped out the hike we planned to do the next day (Upper Yosemite Falls). 

It’s been a busy few weeks, with a lot of driving, but I feel very grateful to have spent time with friends and family.