Now that we are home from our maiden voyage on the Winona Rider, I thought I would share some lessons learned about traveling around the country. Brad and I traveled 5600 miles in four weeks and went to 13 different states racking up over 150 hours in our Sprinter Van. Although we spent some time in our Boulder condo and at the Winona Lake cottage, we did have enough time on our own in the Winona Rider to learn a thing or two.
Simplicity is freeing. It was unbelievably freeing to live life simply while in the Winona Rider. Brief showers, no makeup, hair in a ponytail and a hat, and rotating between three or four outfits. Our dinners were simple with very minimal clean up. Even though we had some really good wine, we used plastic wine glasses so Brad didn’t spend hours shining up his wine glasses like at home. Yes, you heard me right….plastic wine glasses!
Conservation is necessary and important. We had to conserve everything because we were not going to RV Parks and were not plugging in anywhere that we camped. Conserving fresh water was key so we didn’t have to keep stopping to find water. We did the shower routine we learned on The Andiamo in our sailing days. Turn on water. Get wet. Turn off water. Lather up. Turn on water. Rinse off. Minimal water used….minimal time! Our tiny bathroom converted into a wet shower so you didn’t want to spend that much time in there anyway.
Our biggest issue was battery power. We didn’t have enough to feel comfortable each night plugging in devices and using power around the van so we were very careful. One night we left the refrigerator door slightly ajar and woke up with Zero Percent Battery Power with warning lights flashing at us. Never a good thing. We patiently waited for the sun to come up to get some solar to help power up the RV. It was a race between the refrigerator running and the sun shining that morning. I really got into all of the solar power vs. battery numbers after that day!
Routines are Good. We figured out our roles and routines early on and then refined them along the way. We had a morning routine where Brad got up and took the dogs out and made me coffee and then I slowly got up! Everyone who knows me knows of that truth. We figured out the timing of cleaning up breakfast and dinners, making and un-making the beds, when to take showers, and when to charge our devices. Our best new routine that we developed was having a beer together when we first got to our new camping spot. We started doing this after the harrowing drive in Kansas with the wicked thunderstorm and decided it was a worthy routine after that!
Dogs are great traveling companions….most of the time! Sophie and Ralphie really did well on this trip. They assumed their positions in the RV and were very patient on the days we had long drives. They slept like champs and loved the wide open spaces wherever we camped. We did have a few issues, however. For one thing, Ralphie is a wanderer and we frequently had to go searching for him as he slowly wandered off to check out a venue that looked more interesting. We nickname Sophie the Velcro Dog so we never had a problem with her wandering off. Unfortunately, Sophie got a little case of diarrhea when we were in Boulder the first time and poor Brad had to take her down three flights of steps to the nearby park every two hours for two nights in a row. Luckily, after some rice and pumpkin added to her diet, all was well. Our only other issue with the dogs was when my Dad announced he didn’t allow dogs in the Lake Cottage upon our arrival. We did our best to do a dance where the dogs went out to play or on a walk when my Dad was in motion. Ralphie and my Dad ended up being fast friends so it was almost a win!
You meet really interesting people even during a Pandemic. Although our main goal was to go to places without people because of Covid, we did encounter some really interesting people and their stories at the Alpaca Ranch. We met one woman who is the founder of the African Library Project and has started over 1900 libraries in sub-Saharan Africa. She lives in the Bay Area and, of course, we connected to see how we can participate in the future. We also met a few other couples who had sold their homes and were living in their RV’s for the foreseeable future and traveling the country. We met a few novices like us who bought their vehicles during the pandemic and were on their own maiden voyages. People were from all over the country and were trying to travel the safest way they could figure out during this troubling time. We also re-connected with some good friends and family along the journey. We appreciated them all for welcoming us into their backyards with our two crazy dogs and a van that scraped up their driveways. We book-ended our trip with the Frandsens and Dittmores in Tahoe and can’t thank them enough for their hospitality and we are thankful that their neighborhood bears didn’t want to have a midnight snack in our RV.
We Loved Our Wide Open Spaces. Wow, this country really is beautiful. We loved waking up every day to a new place for a sunrise and sometimes a different place for a beautiful sunset. Almost every place we stayed at had Wide Open Spaces and we felt so fortunate to just sit outside by our van in the mornings and evenings and look at the beauty around us. The beauty wasn’t only in Montana but we also enjoyed our stays in Nebraska, Kansas, and Iowa. There is a lot of beauty to see everywhere in the United States. It felt good to appreciate it and not be in a hurry or fly over those places.
Masks should be federally mandated everywhere. We were very aware of the mask issue in each state we visited. Places like Colorado who have one of the lowest infection rates in the nation had 99% mask compliance. People even wear masks while cycling and hiking in Colorado. Other states seemed to have very optional mask-wearing ordinances. Sadly, most of the states with the worst mask compliance were also those who were seeing surges in cases. We saw large weddings, a large party, and people in stores without masks. Hard to believe that wearing masks has become a political issue and not one about health… but I digress.
We slept like babies. We both haven’t slept this well since before Trump became President. Our bed was very comfortable but there was something about the fresh air and lack of distractions that made us both have the best sleeps of our lives. The dogs slept amazingly as well. Ralphie slept with us and Sophie was right by our feet and would only get up and start pawing us when the sun rose.
A sense of humor with your spouse is helpful. Things went wrong. We both made mistakes. I kept leaving the light on in the bathroom draining our much-needed battery. Brad mistakenly left the water running in the sink somehow filling up the grey tank and over-flowing the shower. We went up some harrowing roads with hairpin turns and we backed out of a few driveways and made our mark in the streets. Sometimes it got hot and buggy inside the van and we wished for air-conditioning. And yet, we enjoyed figuring it all out and laughing about it. We laughed and sang and talked a lot. My phone never seemed to work so there were no outside distractions or negative news about the world. It was nice to take a break from it all for once. (Although we did make sure to catch the Democratic Convention whenever we could find it on one of our devices. Some things are worth the exception!)
A month is a long time to be away from home and the grandkids. We loved our time away but couldn’t wait to get back to see Max, Maile, and Noa. (Oh, and their parents, too)
A lot changes in a month. California has had record heat and lightning strikes and now fires, smoke, and unhealthy air. Kamala Harris became the Vice Presidential Nominee. Steph moved into a new apartment in New York. I announced my retirement from the Town Council. A rat decided to take up residence in our home while we were gone. Sophie has doubled in size. Noa has changed dramatically with his moving and smiling and cooing. Maile is in the process of starting remote pre-school and learned how to swim across our pool and jump off the diving board while we were gone. Max turned three and has become even more curious about the world. His favorite word is “Why?” We FaceTimed almost daily but as everyone now knows, FaceTime or Zoom is not the same as being there in person. It felt great to arrive in smoky Danville this afternoon. I was filled with gratitude about being able to go on this journey with Brad.
The first thing we did after unpacking was to take a really long shower and start planning our next (shorter) trip! We may not blog in the future now that we are thinking we are pros but we will post some more sunset pictures along the way this fall.
Lisa and Brad's Travels 