After 18 years aboard Nine of Cups sailing around the world, it was time for a change. We wanted to continue with our vagabond lifestyle … just not on a sailboat. Land travel appealed to us. Some folks prefer big rigs, but we've always preferred a simpler lifestyle that allows us more flexibility for travel.
We purchased Blue, a 2015 Ford Transit 250 cargo van, in July 2017 and upfitted him just the way we wanted… or so we thought. After several great roadtrips, we thought of a number of things we wanted to change or improve upon, and rather than redoing Blue, we sold him and started over by buying and upfitting Blanche, our 2019 Ram Promaster. We can always think of things to improve, but after several iterations and a whole lot of interesting roadtrips, we think she's getting close to what we want. Come along with us for the adventure.
A good friend, George Swallow, created this slightly modified Van Gogh painting.
We’ve accumulated a lot of information on the "upfit" adventure as we prepared ourselves for a nomadic life on land after nearly two decades at sea. You can check out much of the upfitting process on both vans below.
It wasn’t all work and no play… we took lots of breaks during the upfitting process for long, fun roadtrips. You can join us as we explore this great continent of ours.
Finally, we’ve put together a number of blogs related to living in a small van and the camping lifestyle. Hopefully, you’ll find some of them informative, some interesting and some humorous.
Scroll down the page or just click on any of the thumbnails below to read more.
Upfitting our Van(s)
Just click on a thumbnail below to read the associated blog post.
Roadtrips
We love a good roadtrip, especially in our van. Occasionally, we’re on a schedule and don’t have time to dawdle, but most of our trips include lots of time for exploration along the way. Sometimes we have a destination in mind, but often, as Emerson said, “It’s not the destination, but the journey” that we enjoy most. Come join us on a few of our favorite roadtrips…
Great Western Loop
Spring, 2018
Our inaugural trip with Blue was a 5,000 mile loop through Arizona, California, Oregon and then back down through Nevada. Our original plans were ambitious and included much more, but just as when we were sailing, our travel style is slow and we found lots of diversions. We may have covered less territory, but we saw and enjoyed every mile along the way.
The Tall Timber - Hobo Loop
Summer, 2018
Well, we’re off again! It’s been triple-digit hot in Las Vegas (yup, we know … Mojave Desert in July … what can we expect, right?) and so, it only made sense to head out again in search of something ‘less heated’ than our desert. We’ve done our research and come up with a route. The major planned itinerary stops on what we’re calling the Tall Timber-Hobo Loop (TTH) include Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, Tall Timber Days in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, Voyageurs National Park in northern Minnesota and the 118th Annual Hobo Convention (yes, you read that right) in Britt, Iowa.
North to Alaska
Summer, 2023
We’ve both been to Alaska many times - both for business and for pleasure. In fact, David was stationed in the Adak, way out in the Aleutian island chain for a year while in the Navy. We’d never driven there, however, and we decided that this was the year. The plan was to take our time up through Canada, traverse the AlCan/Alaska highway, and eventually make our way north to the Arctic Ocean - the only ocean we’d not dipped our toes in. The trip took us a little over 5 months and we travelled 16,082 miles. It was nothing less than wonderful. Come on along… you’ll love it!
Destination: Maritime Canada
Summer, 2024
We’re off on this year’s road trip. Destination? Maritime Canada. We will head north through northern Nevada, Idaho and Montana crossing into British Columbia at Roosville. We will, by the way, have completed US-93 from south to north… another Blue Highway from Wickenburg, Arizona to Roosville, Montana. From B.C., we head across the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and then head northeast to Labrador, take a ferry to Newfoundland, another ferry to Nova Scotia, then on to Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and back through Quebec. This is going to be an epic journey. Bienvenue au Canada!
Along the NAtional Old TrailS Road in Arizona, circa 1915
The first person to drive an automobile across the United States was Horatio Jackson who traveled from New York City to San Francisco in 1903. His journey was mainly on dirt roads, but also included cow paths and not a few miles on railroad beds. His odyssey sparked public interest in long distance road trips as a form of recreation and adventure, and not long after, three transcontinental routes were established, the Lincoln Highway from NYC to San Francisico, the Yellowstone Trail from Plymouth, Massachusetts to Seattle, Washington, via Yellowstone National Park of course, and the National Old Trails Road that began in Baltimore and terminated in Los Angeles, following what would later become Route 66 through the western states. These routes formed the basis for the U.S. Highway system, more than 150,000 miles of primarily two-lane highways that criss-cross the U.S.
We really enjoy traveling these historic highways. The pace is slower and there is no shortage of odd and wonderful things to see along the way. We often refer to them as “blue highways”, a term coined in 1979 by William Least Heat-Moon in his book ‘Blue Highways: A Journey into America’. He used the term ‘blue highways’ because secondary highways on the old paper road maps were always printed in blue. While many of the U.S. routes have been incorporated into the vast Interstate Highway System and are no longer blue highways, we’ve found several roadtrip-worthy routes that do, for the most part, remain two-lane, less-traveled roads. Here are a few of our favorites…
US-2, The High Road
US-2, also known as the High Road is arguably the most diverse and stunning of the great transcontinental road trips, and also the longest. The route starts in the state of Washington and ends in Maine. We have lots of adventures ahead of us. From Pacific to Atlantic and everything in between, this portends to be a memorable journey.
US-93
U.S. Route 93 is a north–south 1,359-mile highway that connects U.S. Route 60 in Wickenburg, Arizona, with British Columbia Highway 93 at the Canadian border. The highway passes through the deserts of Arizona, the glitz of Las Vegas,and the gorgeous mountains of Idaho and Montana. Care to take a peek?
Life in a Van
Living in a camper van requires a number of lifestyle changes. While the 18 years we spent living aboard and sailing Nine of Cups around the world went a long way in preparing us for our new lifestyle, life with Blue and subsequently with Blanche certainly was and continues to be a big learning experience, but it gets easier each time. We’ve written a number of blogs that describe some of our experiences and what we’ve learned. We hope you enjoy them.
