Cross Country 2023

Our big trip in 2023 had a busy itinerary and Eremos was only half finished. Our first stop was El Paso to visit with our best friend, Myles, for a quick dinner. Then, we did our best to get as far into Texas as we could. I cooked for us once, but we mostly snacked. We took advantage of Texas’s great rest areas and stopped for a nap. It got a bit warm once the sun came up despite our fans going, but it was nice to wake to a green landscape.

Our next goal was visiting a friend in Alabama, but we had a little time to kill before he was available to hang out. I couldn’t resist the signs for the Mississippi Aquarium as we passed them on the highway, so we made a tiny detour to pet the rays. I love rays. Those cute little sea pancakes make my heart glad.

Our visit in Alabama lasted a couple days. Luckily for us, our friend’s family was immensely hospitable and let us stay in an extra room they had because it was so hot and humid. Our fans would not have been able to keep up. We played lots of board games, went out to eat at the Lighthouse Restaurant, explored the beach a little bit, and then hit up the USS Alabama on our way out of town. We tried to convince our friend and his family to join us, but they all said they had been there too many times because of field trips growing up. They could not have had as much fun as we did that day. I love visiting museums and historical sites with Thomas. I might be biased, but he has a great way of sharing his knowledge in a fun way.

Next up on cross country quest was Pennsylvania. We had a Hipcamp reserved just down the road from the Gettysburg National Museum which served as a great launching point for visiting family in Dale and some friends living the RV life in the area. Plus, we had great access to the Museum. We got a book from their shop that had a fantastic audio tour. We will definitely utilize that for future visits, too. The weather was absolutely beautiful up north. We took our time exploring the landscape.

We had a quick, one-night visit with family in Ohio before making our way up to Michigan for the last jaunt of our itinerary. We went to Mt. Pleasant, first, where we had another Hipcamp reservation. This one was a small, family run campground around a pond. We had to deal with the state bird, mosquitos, but there were also lots of fireflies. It was quite the charming campsite and it was not far from town where we were able to spend some quality time with one of my dad’s childhood friends.

We headed south a few days later to Harsens Island for Cousin’s Day at my aunt and uncle’s. The ferry ride was fun in the van. Having our home-on-wheels float across the water was quite novel. At the end of Cousin’s Day, we had a spot ready for us at Brown City Camp. During camp, Thomas and I snuck away to Frankenmuth a couple times. We love that quaint little Bavarian town.

We weren’t able to stay for the entirety of camp, but we got in some really great time with family and friends and were grateful to worship the Lord with them. We had to get home quickly for Thomas to get back to work, so we drove pretty directly. Except for fueling, we only stopped a couple times. Once was to take a nap and the other was during a freak storm in Kansas. The winds got too intense for us to continue driving safely, so we pulled into a gas station. We only had to wait about an hour for the storm to pass and we had an uneventful journey the rest of the ride.

We learned a lot on this trip about vanlifing and what our life on the road might look like. We made lists of projects we wanted to get done first and wish lists of gear we thought might make life a bit easier. One big thing we realized was that we would not be able to rely solely on our cooler for food storage. It was also clear a bed would be top priority to create the storage space we desperately needed. We had a long way to go before we would be truly road ready, but it was a blast getting to test the waters of vanlife.