Three Months
July 7, 2016
It’s been three months since Missy and I left our jobs and headed out on the road for vanlife round two.
Everyone tells us we should keep up a blog about the trip and our experiences. While we have been regularly updating our @albumofus Instagram account, that doesn’t tell the whole story.
Luckily, Missy and I started compiling some notes highlighting certain anecdotes from the trip. My plan is to start transcribing them here to get them out there.
Before that, here’s a quick status update. As all internet things are best in list form, that’s how these will be presented as well.
States visited (planning on publishing some general thoughts on each later, * is new to me):
- Massachusetts – we’ll count this one even though it’s where we started
- Connecticut
- New York
- New Jersey
- Delaware
- Maryland
- Virginia
- North Carolina*
- South Carolina*
- Georgia*
- Florida
- Alabama*
- Mississippi*
- Louisiana*
- Arkansas
- Oklahoma*
- Missouri
- Illinois*
- Indiana*
- Michigan*
- Wisconsin*
- Minnesota*
- Iowa*
- Nebraska*
- Colorado
Repairs or upgrades we’ve done on the van (* is something a professional handled):
- New paint, buffed out rust, banged out dents (before trip)*
- Clothes hanger rod in closet (before trip)
- Cut additional foam padding for bed (before trip)
- Made screen for back door
- Tightened oil pan after a pool formed in a Walmart parking lot overnight
- Added auxiliary battery to run interior electronics
- Added more padding to seat cushions
- Added inverter to auxiliary battery to charge devices
- Added plugin trickle charger for auxiliary battery
- Oil change*
- Added extra interior lock to secure more valuable belongings
- Spray painted terrible rear bumper (it’s not great, just better)
- Decided front carpet must go in a moment of panic during a thunderstorm (that one was Rugby)
- Reattached muffler cover after the welds came loose
- Realigned shifter*
- Replaced window roller
Other important stats:
- Miles traveled: 9,035
- Quarts of oil added to our somewhat disagreeable engine: ~20
- Friends/family stayed with: 4
- Highest elevation: 14,144′
- Longest stretch without shower: 5 days
- Hikes: 49
- Longest hike: 10 miles
- Longest canoe trip: 17 miles
- Van shows attended: 1
- Awards won at van shows: 3 (Missy says they’re participation trophies, but whatever)
- Parking tickets: 1
- Times rudely awakened and asked to leave: 1 (…and they still gave us a ticket!)
- Bears encountered: 0
- Mountain lions encountered: 0
- Crocodiles encountered: 1
- Marmuts encountered: 3
- Weddings attended: 1
