We started traveling in late October 2019. As of today, April 24, 2020, we have stayed in eight states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. We have camped at 29 different sites – a combination of state parks, national parks, Corps of Engineers sites, privately owned campgrounds, and Harvest Host sites. Each place has its own personality and lessons to share.

We’re very grateful to friends and family who’ve kindly invited us to stay in their homes. We’ve had a great time together and have enjoyed amazing home-cooked meals. Breaks from the road often coincide with a fine tuning of some aspect of the van, and folks have graciously endured the buzzing of power equipment, piles of sawdust, and disruption of their normal routines while we worked on the van.

These first six months have been our “shake down runs.” Like backpackers who quickly realize that their packs are too heavy, we’re learning what we really need and have jettisoned excess baggage. The adorable mini dish draining rack I found at a camping store, the blouse I loved but hadn’t worn at all because it was always wrinkled, the woven fabric doormat that stayed sodden for days after a rain – these were some of the things that went.

Campgrounds usually have a spot where campers leave items for the taking. We’ve had good luck finding homes for our extra things, and there are often good books in the exchange area.

With limited storage, you constantly think about space. Taking advantage of a sale on anything means finding a place to put it. For example, the larger bottle of olive oil, although a better value, was way too tall for our petite pantry (Note bonus  lesson: olive oil stored on its side will eventually leak.) Items that we used to get in bulk from Costco are now a no-no. No freezer for fish and no closet for a dozen rolls of paper towels.

More than 30 years of riding “two up” on a motorcycle came with an education about traveling small. Really small.  I developed a minimalist uniform for sight seeing days. Black travel slacks and a neutral top. Being in a different city every day meant that no one would know if you were wearing the same thing again. The only downside is that your photo album looks like your whole vacation took place on the same day. But those trips were, at most, two week vacations. Now this is our life.

And this is our home. So, we have tossed things, but also added things we originally thought we could live without: bicycles, a pop up screened outdoor room, memory foam pillows, a small furnace for frosty mornings, and leveling blocks for campsites that aren’t level. (Note: John and Barbee were right. Sleeping in a van that’s not level, or with your head lower than your feet,  will make you nauseous.)

Currently, we are sitting out the virus quarantine with family near Charlotte, NC. This extended period of time is giving us a window to visit, catch up with mail, reorganize things, (more stuff will go!) revamp van storage areas and build two new cabinets. We will post before and after photos once the project has wrapped up – at least this chapter of it.

We hope you are all staying safe and healthy.