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.