Day 4 – 7/12/18

Tripometer – 425mi

Gas Gauge – 29.126gal

Location – Ohiopyle State Park, PA

Once Kelly finished work for the day we traveled from Harrisonburg, VA to Ohiopyle State Park, PA on the way to visit Stratis & Regina in Pittsburgh, PA. We couldn’t resist stopping at Cooter’s of The Dukes of Hazard fame. Cooter and his band still play here every Saturday. Kelly very wisely purchased a battery operated button for our dashboard that plays the General Lee’s Dixie song whenever we see something that strikes us as excessively redneck.

Day 3 – 7/11/18

  

Tripometer – 225mi

NEW METRIC! Gas Gauge – 18.745gal

Location – Harrisonburg, VA

While Kelly and Patti worked, Tim took me on a tour of his favorite fishing spots in and around the GW National Forest. We had tremendous success bringing back 4 tasty trout for dinner. We also visited Patti & Tim’s cozy mountain cabin  lovingly referred to as their “Meth Shack”

Day 2 – 7/10/18

Tripometer – 213mi

Location – Harrisonburg, VA

Patti and Kelly had to work today. Paul and Tim played in the workshop building a bathroom vanity and went fishing in the afternoon. This ~15″ rainbow trout sets a pretty high bar for the rest of the trip! Caught and released in the George Washington National Forest, right behind the house Tim grew up in.

Day 1 – 7/9/18

Tripometer – 202mi

Location – Harrisonburg, VA

Finally on the road! The house has been reduced to a finely packed 19 feet of plywood and styrofoam. The first fully packed haul is complete and the trailer pulled well (even up mountains). Spending a few nights with Paul’s sister Patti & husband Tim in Harrisonburg.

 

Welcome!

Hello Everyone! The past few months have been an absolute whirlwind of activity. Making the decision to go on an extended road trip was a lot easier than actually making it a reality. From buying a trailer, to figuring out where to store the gas can — this has been a journey in rearranging our entire lives!

I have been procrastinating this blog day-after-day since we bought the domain name in March. Once we begin our travels I plan on updating this blog with our plans, activities, pictures, and thoughts from the road. I want to talk a bit about the work we’ve done over the past few months to shift from single family home living to living and working on the road. Several of the blog posts coming up will be based on things we worked on and conquered weeks ago, so bear with my memory.

How this all got started

In mid-February of this year my company informed me that my job would be moving to New Jersey. Rather than accept a job in glorious suburban New York, I decided to move on.

Kelly currently works 100% from home out of an office in our basement. This arrangement provides a tremendous amount of work / life freedom for both Kelly and me.

It didn’t take us long to realize that the happy coincidence of these two things provided us the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take a several-months-long road trip around North America. Kelly and I have always enjoyed our road trips. In the past we have traveled across the country by car twice — once from MD to Yellowstone/Grand Tetons and once from MD to Utah. Both of these trips were tremendously successful and left both of us with the desire to do something similar again. It has long been a fantasy for both of us to wander the country with no set destination or schedule and we’re both looking forward to this trip as the road trip of a lifetime.

What’s going on right now

In March we purchased a 2018 Jayfeather 19XUD. I will get more into our trailer shopping journey at a later time, but for now, here’s a picture of the trailer and the layout of the inside.

Today is (hopefully) our last full day before we hit the road. We’re running errands and packing like chipmunks in the fall.

What’s next

I have a dentist appt. tomorrow which delayed our leaving by a few days. I like to say that, but the reality of it is that we probably wouldn’t have been ready to leave until Monday anyway. Week One has us visiting friends on our way West and North through Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Our first camping destinations are going to be the Michigan Upper Peninsula and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Northern Minnesota, all hopefully starting early week of July 15th.

I’ll try and post frequently!

Paul