Berkley, MI

Let me start off by saying that Michigan is beautiful! On our way north to Berkley we stopped at Belle Isle Park in Detroit and spent the day looking across the Detroit River to Windsor, Ontario. Since they were also en route, we drove through Grosse Point Park and Grosse Point Woods (two towns that got nixed recently because they lacked definitive downtowns), and I started to second guess my decision to reject them. Cameron talked me out of them – too wealthy, even for our expensive tastes – but I did start to daydream about what my life as a lake dweller would be like.

Now let's go back to Berkley. Although not directly on one of the Great Lakes, there seem to be plenty of minor lakes and waterways to venture to for a short day trip. The town is small, less than three square miles, and is considered one of the northern Detroit suburbs. Seeing those facts made me hesitant, but once we got into town I was pleasantly surprised. 

The main downtown street was only a few blocks long, but there were at least two ice cream shops with long lines outside, which I take as an overall good sign. On the flip side, that was probably in part because we were in the middle of a heat wave (I think it was 98° at 7pm), which I take as an overall bad sign. Despite the heat, there were quite a few people of various ages enjoying their evening downtown. 

Given it's small size, it seems like the main neighborhoods are right off of downtown, so we meandered around a bit. The homes were all cute and fairly modest, but with reasonable lot sizes. I commented to Cameron that it seemed like the type of town that would be very into their 4th of July celebrations. We ended the evening eating at Berkley Common, which was the perfect amount of quirky to win me over and leave the town with a generally pleasant feeling. 

The Good

• Family-friendly neighborhoods that seemed to have a strong sense of community.
• Very affordable housing – we could easily find a very suitable house in the $300k range.
• Good mix of restaurants and store types downtown; everything felt local and unique. 
• Close to many state parks, nature preserves, and the like.
• Community events, such as an upcoming Pride block party and an annual art walk.

The Bad

• Michigan is definitely a lake state, not a skiing state. We drove by one of the nearby ski areas and it is barely a lump.
• Pretty small; you would be very dependent on outside communities and the greater Detroit area for anything outside of day-to-day entertainment and needs.
• The heat. Maybe this was a fluke, but it didn't bode well.
• No true parks within the town's city limits. 

The Verdict

No. Berkley is overall suitable, but it wasn't special. I want to bubble over with excitement when I see my Goldilocks town, and I especially am not willing to make accommodations for a town that has such crummy skiing options. That said, this was a great start to Michigan and I'm looking forward to the next stop on our trip. Stay tuned!

Berkely – perfectly pleasant with some small-town charm.

There were cute quirky shops and restaurants. 

I found the neighborhoods surrounding downtown to be idyllic for small town family life. 

Despite the heat, people were enjoying outdoor eating, and I was enjoying seeing people out and about on a weekday. 

There seemed to be enough going on that it was worth advertising, although that could mean that they are trying to artificially entice people to come to town. 

I really liked that the town was not cookie cutter. Sure, this was a church, but it was still interesting to see on the downtown strip. 

The very popular ice cream place that had a line at least 20 people deep. 

More appealing street art that made me think this town had its own flair. 

Another great thing about Berkley was that it felt fully local. There were very few franchised shops in sight. 

That said, very few of the spots that were open by 7pm on a weekday, although if they were I'm sure I would have found plenty of things that were appealing to me. 

The fact that they had a municipal Pride celebration, alongside other community events that were advertised, makes me think I would get along well with the people here. 

Van Life: The First Weeks

You may have thought that when I said I would write more regularly now that we're on the road, that would have meant you could expect a weekly post. I did too, but it seems that both of us have underestimated my ability to over-maximize. My apologies, to both of us. 

A quick summary of the journey so far: we left Utah on June 1st, drove through parts of Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois to end up at our first set destination of the trip: Lexington, Kentucky. I am such an elitist, and assumed that Kansas was only good for flat agricultural land and that Kentucky was a bunch of "all y'all" slinging rednecks without much else to offer. I didn't even have any thoughts about Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois, mostly because I've never given much thought to any part of Middle America. 

Surprise surprise, it turns out that the middle 1,000 miles of the US isn't just barren wasteland. Yes, there is a lot of agricultural land in Kansas, but there are also lake oases and interesting rock formations. Missouri had our top stop of the trip thus far: Gateway Arch National Park. I still don't know much about Indiana and Illinois, but we enjoyed a day's work at a small town's city park and throughly enjoyed our first Dairy Queen stop of the trip in one of these two states. (Sorry if that still sounds dismissive, but in my defense we were only driving through the southern-most tips of those states.)

Now Lexington is where it is at! If you don't mind the occasional oppressive heat and humidity, and the nearest dinky ski area being three hours away, then Lexington may be for you! I know that sounds sarcastic, but I am absolutely charmed by this town. The pastoral horse farms, lush arboretum on the university campus, and the eclectic mix of stores and restaurants in downtown all would lead to high marks on my Goldilocks Project checklist. That, though, would have to assume I don't mind heat and humidity and driving for hours to ski, and unfortunately I do. 

Time to stop critiquing towns (we'll get back to that once we hit our next Goldilocks Project stop, presumably in Michigan, presumably by the end of the week) and start critiquing our van life skills. I'm nervous I'll jinx it by saying this, but it's going really well so far! This first leg of the journey was a lot of driving so that we could get to Lexington by a set date, but I expect that our continued journey will be more leisurely. So far I'm enjoying the life of a vagabond (or should I say vangabond?!). 

In many ways, it feels like I'm living my best life. We wake up in a new spot every day (yes, sometimes that spot is a Walmart parking lot or a beside-the-highway truck stop, but there is still a charm to that, too), find a cute spot near a park to work from for the day, walk around said park after work, and then head to a new destination a few hours further down the road. I haven't watched TV in three weeks; instead I'm watching the world from the front seat of Vanjie. 

In contrast, I'm also living my worst life in some ways. Remember my mention of our first Dairy Queen stop? Unfortunately, our cooking setup isn't as ideal as I'd like it to get, and our driving schedule has led to inconsistent meal times, so we've made more fast food stops in the last two weeks than I feel comfortable admitting to. We're also incurring more trash than we used to since we often have to opt in for the more-convenient-yet-more-packaging options and I'm using disposable body wipes on a regular basis. That said, we do have a fully operating in-van shower (good job, Cameron!) but it's a little bit of a hassle so we've only used it twice so far. 

I'll share more about the nuances of van lifing in later posts, but for now you can rest assured knowing that we are resting quite comfortably so far. We now have a full month until our next scheduled commitment, so I expect we'll start to set into our true routine. I also expect my so-far cheery optimism may start to crack, but we'll see how long I can keep these rose-colored glasses on. 

Our first stop of the trip was Little America, WY. Free overnight parking and 6am ice cream is a great way to start in my book!

Other overnight stops have included:

The Cheyenne, WY Walmart parking lot – another great free stop with the added benefit of being able to use their bathrooms 24/7 and buy various van-improvement items. 

Cedar Bluffs State Park in Kansas – we paid $20 for the convenience of a shower house. 

Conservation land not far off of the interstate, also in Kansas.

A pretty view and hookups for $20 near Nashville, IL. 

Joining up with our friends for a stag night camping trip outside of Lexington, KY.

Other unpictured stops have included: a Cabela's parking lot, a truck stop behind a Marathon gas station, and our friend's driveway. 

One major bummer is paying for gas. We average about 400 miles to a tank, so that meant filling up almost daily for this trip. So far, each fill-up has been around $100. I keep trying to convince myself that even if we're spending $3000 a month on gas, that's probably less than what we'd pay for an apartment in Bellevue, WA. 

Dealing with water fill-ups and dump stations is a new experience for me. We've made some purchases (a longer hose and a hose cap) to ease the process, but it's pretty easy to begin with. If you're ever south of Cheyenne, WY I highlighted recommend a free fill-up and great rest stop in general at the Southeast Wyoming Welcome Center. 

This definatley tops watching Netflix while eating dinner.

I'm hoping we will cook and eat outside often...

...but sometimes it's far more convenient to stay in. We intentionally put in a lot of counter space for cooking purposes. 

Although we mostly work in the van, we've found some nice outdoor spaces, too. Luckily the weather has been mostly nice, so if we both have work meetings at the same time one of us can go outside to take their call.

The shower works! The bathroom situation has been the most asked about element of van life so far. I promise to dedicate a full future blog post to it.

And now for some sight seeing highlights:

Cheyenne, WY in general, but especially the botanical gardens and neighboring park. I didn't like Cheyenne enough to add it as a bonus city, but if I had to live there I wouldn't be mad about it.

The badlands of Little Jerusalem State Park, Kansas.

Rock City, Kansas.

Overland Botanical Gardens, south of Kansas City.

Gateway Arch National Park, St. Louis, MO. 

Tree giants in the Bernheim Forest, outside of Louisville, KY.

Lexington, KY has been great in general, although that may be partially enjoying being here for our friend's "unwedding" (they would kill me if I called it a wedding).

And the mandatory Pancake picture – she's enjoying outdoor time as we travel across the country.

Van Buildout: Maintenance Break

Phew! After four months of van life, we are back in our home base (Mountain Green, UT) for a few weeks. I'm happy to report that it has been a success so far and we don't have any notions of quitting. We have a few personal things to take care of while here (dentist appointments, social engagements, planning out our next phase), and we have some van updates we want to make. Our stopover will only be a few weeks, so we won't be able to make major changes, but here's what's on the list: 

Likely Will Get Done:

• Replace latch system on pull-out drawers. We discovered pretty early on that our initial installation was not strong enough, so when we hit a tight corner all of the drawers swing open and startle us with a booming clatter. Surprisingly, nothing has broken. As a temporary fix, we've had bungee cords strapped across the front, but the elastics are starting to wear out, and it's cumbersome to get around them.
• Replace drawer face. The full cabinet construction needs to go (see the next list), but at the very least we need to replace the cabinet face that Cameron accidentally yanked off. For the last two weeks, we've been relying on a few strips of duct tape to keep everything inside. 
• Shorter footboard. It will be easy to trim down what we already have so that someone can sit on the edge of the bed without the wood pressing into their thighs. 
• Headboard replacement. What we have works, except Cameron accidentally cracked it a little when he tried to use it to hoist himself up onto the roof. 
• Remove unnecessary nails and paint over imperfections. I had made the mistake of trying to hang up some of our art in the traditional way, but we've learned that a Velcro system is better for lightweight art. Unfortunately, I think we'll have to retire my favorite piece, Robin; it's simply too heavy for a moving vehicle. 
• File down the sliding door near Aisha's bed. Because it's slightly too tall, it gets stuck. We also need to figure out a handle system for the same cabinet face (likely adding holes or handles). 
• Cabinet bottom for the electrical cupboard. We intentionally left it open to improve air circulation, but the light it omits bothers me as I try to fall asleep. We should be able to find something that will block the light, but still allow adequate ventilation. 
• Add a check valve to measure the fullness of the water tank. Once that's in, we'll seal the access port in the water tank. 
• Swap out the wooden bunny cubby door with a clear alternative.
• Redo the table support. We have to keep the table down while we're driving, and it seems to sit at a slight angle, but Cameron is actively looking into a clamping hook-and-eye system so the table can stay up while we're driving, which would allow for...
• ...Adding a third seatbelt at the bench seat. It wouldn't meet legal standards, but it would add some level of safety and make it feasible to have a third person. 
• Add a pass-through valve for the Starlink cable so it doesn't get slammed in the door every day. 
• Redo the window covers. The structural integrity is starting to fade and we'd like to add more magnets. 
• Reinforce the Velcro used to attach the bug nets. 
• Add an access door to the back of the van. Right now we just have a 1/4" piece of plywood blocking off the garage from the main living space, but it would be nice to have that visually blocked off but with better physical access. 

Likely Will Not Get Done (for now):

• Replace cabinet faces. They were cut out as a prototype and are poorly painted and shoddily put together. When we finally get around to redoing them, we will need to buy and cut new wood, and likely modify the paint type.  
• Stronger under-bed hydraulics. Similar to the drawer latches, what we bought is simply not strong enough for our use. The intent is for us to press a button to lift the bottom third of the bed, and again to re-recline it. What we have sort of works, but it is inconsistent and I am always worried about the bed clashing down on my head or fingers as I'm trying to access something under there. 
• Install a permanent stove. We still are operating with a single camp burner, but I'd like to upgrade to a two- or three-burner induction surface. If we do that, we'll need to reconfigure out pantry setup, because the designated stove surface is currently a hinged counter that lifts up. 
• Permanent toilet paper holder. Our TP wanders around the van, but we would like to have it mounted (surprise surprise:) near the toilet. We may be able to install a quick fix, but since that space is so multi-use (table, shower, toilet, bench), it will be difficult to find a spot that doesn't impact other things. Cameron has a clever idea for a convertible privacy wall, but the planning and building will likely take longer than this quick break will allow. 
• Router mount. The router for the Starlink sits on the sink-side counter top when we are stopped, and then get's placed on top of the bed when we are driving. We often forget to move it onto the bed before driving off, so we commonly hear it fall onto the floor a few minutes into the drive. For the sake of its longevity, we need to find a permanent placement, but don't yet have any clever ideas. 
• Buy interior doormat. I'm hoping for something that looks nice and cuts down on the amount of dirt in the main living space, especially when it's been rainy or muddy outside. Although this is a low-effort fix, it's something we can continue to live without until the right mat comes our way. 
• Add a water filter between the tank and pump. We already filter water before it gets into the tank, but there are still inconsistencies in taste depending on the source. There's some other under-sink plumbing that likely will get updated at the same time, but you'll have to ask Cameron about the details of those. 

Well that list is much longer than I initially realized, but that's ok! Like I said, we're in a good place and the van is really livable, so anything we can do to improve is just extra. 

Look at how happy we are with the van. I'm really glad that the first four months have gone so well. 

First step to getting back to Utah was fully clearing out the van. If nothing else, we'll be going back on the road in a clean van.

Well...not everything came out of the van, but the floors and sheets will at least be clean. 

Here's all the stuff in the meantime. We'll have go through to see what stuff we actually want to keep hauling around with us. 

Now that we're in a stable location for a few weeks, we're back on the delivery game. 

It wasn't a plan from the onset, but we've begun a bit of a pin collection that has continued to expand since we've been on the road. Hopefully we don't fill up before we finish. 

All this work has worn out baby bunny Pancake. 

Fort Collins, CO

Fort Collins is our first bonus city, and now I see why so many people told me we should consider it. We didn't know we would drive through until day-of when we made a last minute decision to head south towards Kansas, rather than heading from Wyoming through Nebraska in an attempt to keep better cell coverage on the road. 

Fort Collins is a hippy college town, very much like the Colorado version of my beloved Bellingham, WA.  We parked in a cute old neighborhood nearby downtown and I immediately started picturing my life there. The main downtown was fairly large, and partly pedestrian-only. We snacked on tasty pastries from Little Bird Bakery, watched a group of 100+ folks do an outdoor yoga session, and did a top of shopping at their varied farmers market. 

Because it did not stay on my original list, I looked back through my various criteria to try and figure out why, and honesty I cannot figure out why. Maybe I had read that Colorado State University is a big party school, or that the town is experiencing negative side affects of a rapid growth rate, but those shouldn't have been reasons to nix it from the list completely. 

The Good

• Very cute and active downtown. There was lots of multi-use spaces and plenty of public seating to enjoy the surroundings.
• Feels like a college down with a lot of variety in people and shops.
• Only a few hours drive to my sister.
• The general benefits of living in Colorado: pleasant weather, good skiing, outdoorsy lifestyle. 
• Close to Cheyenne, WY and Denver, CO if you need bigger-city amenities. 

The Bad

• Maybe would feel like too much of a college town – we visited during summer break so it may be a very different vibe with students.
• It's not as close to the mountains as would be ideal, and there is likely a lot of traffic to get to the mountains.

The Verdict

Yes, but with some caveats. I would want to go back and spend more than two hours there to make sure it's a fair comparison to other "yes" towns. I also will need to do more research about what the housing options are and how the vibe changes during different times of year. I thought I had abandoned Colorado completely, but apparently not. 

Sorry for the limited photos – Fort Collins was just a quick stop over and I didn't initially realize I would have added need to document our visit. 

Saturday morning downtown yoga.

A beautiful downtown walking area.

A large and active farmers market.

Van Buildout: The Final Frenzy

Three weeks ago I wrote a note to myself that "this project is taking over my life!" And that was before we really started to kick everything into gear. For the last two weeks, we have been spending all non-work and non-sleeping hours focused on finishing the van and leaving the state by June 1st. We did it, but oh boy was it a push. 

In the last two weeks, we have: 

• Installed all cabinets and shelves;
• Waterproofed and laminated the counter tops;
• Built a shower, including waterproofing the walls, creating a waterproof basin, tiling the floor, and constructing a curtain track;
• Finished the walls;
• Added the main table and a pop-up desk;
• Installed a gray tank;
• And many more seemingly inconsequential tasks that all add up to a neat and finished home.

By far the most difficult part was the shower. Building a shower is not easy in normal circumstances, but adding in the complexities of it being inside of a vehicle is a chore! Our shower isn't a permanent fixture, but I suppose everything in the van has to function as multi-use space. The shower shares the same floor print as the toilet and dining table. When we need to use it, we will fold up the table, remove the bench seat that hides the toilet, pull the shower head and curtain from their hidey-hole in the neighboring cabinet, and run the curtain along the tracks, which encapsulates the ceiling vent/fan. It seems like a clever system, but in the rush to get out of town we didn't get a chance to test it. Whoops! Guess that will be a fun adventure for the road. 

Even when not actively "constructing," there has been lots of behind-the-scenes projects that include all of the standard hassles of moving: packing, cleaning, changing your mailing address, scheduling final meet-ups with friends, etc. I was quite restless for a few days when I had all of my clothes packed up in boxes and scattered around our bedroom, knowing that there was a good chance that not everything would fit into the van and I would have to reassess what would come with us again. Luckily, I was able to cram it all in there, because I don't think I could have easily nixed a significant amount more – I'm already down to less than half of my closet from three years ago. (Tip: if you need to downsize, Marie Kondo has some clever organizational guidance, but it's hard to let stuff go when it still "sparks joy.")

As I'm writing this, we have been slowly making our way towards Kentucky for some friends' wedding. It would have been too restrictive and we had attempted to add some of our Goldilocks towns to our route, so instead we are taking it easy. We figured our first two weeks as official van lifers would be stressful enough as is. Plus, now we have the flexibility to spend an extra night if a place strikes our fancy, and we can do some light detours to see key points of interest across Middle America (you know, like Indian Cave State Park in Nebraska; Blue Springs, Missouri; and Chahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Illinois). Now that we are on the road, I expect to write more regularly – stay tuned for upcoming reports on van life!

Before I get started with the back log of work – look how cute the finished product is! (That's the tail of a beetroot on the ground, if you are wondering.)

Now for the sweat (which is mostly a compilation of Cameron photos): putting the fridge back in. 

Adding contact cement in order to attach the formica to the base wood for the counter tops. 

Drilling a water drain hole to the floor. 

Adding waterproofing to the back wall of the shower. I spent three days driving around the greater Salt Lake Area looking for a hardware store that sold this Redgard. 

Adding tile – the top layer of shower flooring. Unless I'm forgetting something: metal van floor, XPS foam insulation, cork, vinyl floor tiles, plywood sloping, PVC shower pan liner, epoxy mortar, and then finally the tile. (Cameron says this is not at all how you are supposed to do it, but that's how we did it.)

The finished shower (more or less). You can also see our cute IKEA trash cans hung behind the two chairs. 

Lining the cabinets. I also used some spare strips of this stiff fabric as the cabinet handles. 

So here's the finished product! The "garage" is pretty spacious, but we managed to fill it up before leaving.

There's plenty of space to work. Theoretically we could both fit at the table, but Cameron has his own flip-up desk that he uses.  

The finished look of those pesky bug nets. 

And in case you are wondering, Pancake is doing just fine! She spent the first night exploring the multiple surfaces she could jump onto.