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Prepare for Take Off

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Oh, hello there! It's nice to see you have arrived.  Welcome to our Blogger page, where dreams come true.  Hop on in and take a wild ride with us around the country!  As you probably already know Emma and I have spent weeks preparing for a cross country tour in our van, Van Burgundy, aptly named for its deep burgundy paint color and rich mahogany interior.  In the past month we have quit our jobs, sold and shuffled our belongings, and modified our van into a cozy living space. Family, friends and co-workers have all asked us to stay in touch and keep them updated on our Van-Venture.  We have felt so much support and encouragement for our decision to embark on this journey that we want everyone to be able to be a part of it through this blog. We are very excited to share this experience with you and will be posting regularly on here, so please visit often. -Ewik GENERAL ROUTE: Here is the general route we plan to take.  We will be seeing fa...
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Kansas to Texas Pt.1

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January 30th - February 4th We decided to take a different route on our way south from Iowa (we drove up through Arkansas and Missouri) so we headed to Kansas! The vast open prairie was stunning, but a little bit too desolate and unknown to try to camp in the van. It would also drop below 20 degrees overnight so we planned to find a motel along the way. Erik found one online that he thought looked decent. We were pleasantly surprised to be greeted by two friendly cats and a lovely, welcoming woman. She told us that she and her husband had recently purchased the motel and remodeled it..and we got to chatting about how they had spent a few years living in South Africa. Cool!   Prairie Lodge Motel in Council Grove, Kansas - this is a great lil place.  Very homey little cottage rooms with a mini fridge, microwave, and coffee pot. This is luxury! The next morning w e explored the town of Council Grove and then made way toward Dallas. This found ourselves o...
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Iowa to Mexico and back

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We got to Iowa the day before Thanksgiving - right in time to pick up our packet for the Turkey Trot in Des Moines - and stayed through mid-January!! Originally we had planned to finish our trip in time to land in Iowa in early January but we decided to slow down a bit, spend the holidays in Iowa, and help out on the farm while Erik's dad had a knee replacement. We felt pretty accomplished by the projects we finished during our visit, and there were still plenty more that we didn't get the chance to do. Since it's fun for us to remember and it was a whole two months I'm going to list what we did for projects, for fun, and with Erik's family.. During the 50-60 degree weather of late Nov - early Dec.. We tore up an old bunny hutch to be used for firewood the livestock tank heater I collected a bucket of apples from their apple trees and Barbara and I made apple pies Erik brought some cattle to the local auction house  We went to my first livestock ...
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Houston, Hot Springs, Des Moines Turkey Trot

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Hello,  Welcome back!  Erik here.  Writing this post at a cafe in Sedona, AZ.  Just found out there will be a mt. bike festival here this weekend so we will be sticking around for a little longer than expected.  It just snowed last night, but I think it will melt off before the festival begins.  Fingers crossed. Snowfall in Sedona I am using this "snow day" as an opportunity to catch up on the blog.  In the last post we were leaving NOLA after staying there for like 5 days.  It was such a cool experience living like a local with Danny. In this post I write about our time in Houston with Dallas.  This is where we made the decision to head north to Iowa to help my Dad on the farm in preparation for his knee replacement surgery.  We stayed for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and through the New Year!  My Dad's knee surgery was successful and the rehab was almost complete by the time we left in mid January.  We will write mo...
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