Counter-clockwise around the USA

The name of our van is Vincent. And the question is: Where will Vincent Van Go? Well, this post is the beginning of a lot of going for Vincent as we have started a journey, and an adventure! We are on the road again for an epic counter-clockwise North America experience! It will include lots of friends, interstates, a cruise, a visit to some place with green gables, and more than one national park we hope!

 Before we left on our journey we of course stopped by our home base in Salem, Oregon for a summer gear swap! Since this particular adventure will likely last through the summer we wanted to have all the appropriate items for a summer adventure! We put in our kayaks, loaded up on summer clothing, dropped off our skis, and headed out! First stop: BEND! Which... admittedly isn't far, but is a great place! We spent our first weekend helping prepare food for a bunch of teens who were on a rock climbing adventure in the Bend area, and spending time with Julie's brother's family before we left the state. It was a great time, with lots of early mornings, late nights, and plenty of time in the dishroom.

From there we headed east to Boise, Idaho! We got to spend an evening with our good friends Travis and Alexa! We worked with Travis and Alexa back in the day at Big Lake Youth Camp (one of our favorite places on earth!) for many years. We had some great conversation about life and stuff and things, and about what it is like to see people honestly and value them with what they need and where they are at in life. I definitely appreciate it when I have a chance to learn from them!

Our journey continued from Boise with a transition southward towards New Mexico! The drive down through Utah and into New Mexico was amazing, there were TONS of beautiful roads that wound through the mountains and high desert! And, we brought some winter weather with us to Los Alamos, where our friends work! I'm not sure they were hoping for winter, but when you come from Oregon in the spring you have to bring some winter joy with you. We had a great time with Carolyn (sadly Daniel and their boys were away for Easter) exploring the area around Los Alamos, seeing the store that she owns, and driving through the (non-restricted) areas of the National Lab there! They have an awesome museum that talks about some of the research done there during WWII. Definitely a beautiful and interesting place to visit! 

 

 

And that brings us to today, April 21, 2025. Today we entered the state of Texas on I-40, got to drive on historic Route 66 for a little while, and decided to spend the night at a hotel in Amarillo. Unfortunately Julie has had some health issues that were giving her some problems today, so we stopped at a local urgent care, and decided it would be nice to have a night here with a hot shower and a chance to wash clothes. Julie is doing fine, but it is always nice when health stuff is happening to be able to go to the bathroom without leaving your van! I took the chance to spread out some stuff I'm working on for the van electrical system, we watched a movie, washed our clothes, took showers, and are getting ready to continue the adventure tomorrow!

 

 

Tomorrow we continue the journey towards Florida (where we will be going on a Lindsey Stirling sponsored cruise!) after which we will be heading north to Nova Scotia, then meandering back towards the PNW. We are hoping to see a bunch of people on the way, and hoping to be better about taking pictures of our adventure than we have been thus far (sorry!)! And of course I will do my best to keep you all updated on the blog! If you want to keep closer track of where we are I also have a photo album where we upload photos of the state signs as we enter each new state that you can find here: 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/7Y6VTUYg8a3x2k7L6