Blog

Sorry for the delay in updates. We haven’t had the greatest internet, which is why there aren’t any pictures in this post.

We had a wonderful week in Holland with family. Lots of pool and beach time. Good food and memories made with people we love and cherish. Sorry if we missed you in our time there. We promise to come back again!

We left Holland on Monday morning (August 25) and headed across the state to Pontiac Lake State Recreation Area. We stayed there two nights so we could go to the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation in Dearborn, MI. It was fabulous!

Pontiac Lake State Recreation Area

At the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation we got to see the chair Lincoln was shot in. We sat in Rosa Park’s bus seat (the actual bus has been refurbished and put in the museum). We stood by presidential limousines – including the one Kennedy was shot in. We got to tour the Dymaxian house (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_house). And so much more! We saw so much history. Really incredible.

After that we headed into Canada – they let us in! Thankfully it was pretty uneventful to get in. We’ll keep you updated on how the border crossing back into America goes!

We dipped our toes into Lake Huron, then headed southeast to camp on the shores of Lake Erie at Turkey Point Provincial Park. We drove through many fields of corn, soybeans, strawberries, tobacco, and asparagus. We also stopped to help a man pulled over on the side of the road – he just needed some water for his overheating truck. He gave us a tour of the 11 toilet trailer he had just purchased and was hauling. He was very excited about it!

That night we toasted being in Canada, waded in Lake Erie, and watched the sunset. The next morning we went for a short hike before leaving. Then we headed northeast, stopped in a small town for groceries, and then hit rush hour traffic in Toronto. We finally made it to The Big Apple (no, not NYC). It’s a lovely tourist trap on the side of the highway that had great food and a free place to park for the night. And then maple coffee, hot apple cider, bathrooms, and a petting zoo in the morning.

From there we went to the shores of Lake Ontario – to touch our 5th and final Great Lake of the summer. The shore was a plethora of perfect skipping stones (and lots of seaweed, a dead fish, and some washed up trash). Reece was in his glory skipping rocks over the small waves.

Because school is sometimes tough in a van, and we had been driving a lot lately, we stopped at Grass Creek Park along the way to stretch our legs and get some schoolwork done. We ended up meeting and playing with some locals who were also at the park. Then they went swimming in the river, so we did too! (Trying to embrace opportunities!) Needless to say, less schoolwork was accomplished than originally planned, but a fun experience was had by all!

Then we continued northeast.

We spent 2 nights on the northwest side of Indianapolis in the middle of corn and soybean fields. Pretty sure the corn was taller than our camper (which is almost 11 feet)! They had a mini golf course, a pool, and an extra large Adirondack chair for pictures. (Yes, my feet look huge!)

We spent a full day at the Children’s Museum in Indianapolis. It was a wonderful experience and fun to have a field trip for the second day of school!

The pictures don’t do justice to the amount of fun, interactive learning opportunities we encountered. It was really fabulous!

From there we headed up to Holland to visit my family while Matt went on a couple back-to-back work trips. It’s a great pit stop to a place and people that we love. I don’t have many pictures to post yet from all the swimming and fun (and school, and laundry, and organizing/cleaning) we’ve been doing, but we did finally get our U.S. map on the back of our van. (Thank you Sarah Garrett!!) Putting all the states on made us realize how many miles we have already covered in the van this summer.

This set us up well to visit the city of St. Louis for a day. We went to the St. Louis Zoo and the St. Louis Art Museum in Forrest Park. And both were free!

We got some lunch at an excellent Cuban restaurant and headed over to the Arch Museum. What was only about a 10 or 15 minute drive took considerably longer as we encountered massive downpours and gale force winds. We ended up stopping under an overpass (with many others) on the freeway. In fact, when we arrived at the Arch museum we were pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t too crowded. Only to find out that the fire alarm had been set off to evacuate the building because of flooding at the entrance!

The next morning we packed up and headed towards Indianapolis. It was also the first day of school – pictures and all!

Overall the first day went well, but there were a lot of emotions as we thought about friends and colleagues back at Columbia Elementary in Colorado Springs. We are missing them a lot, but trust that their school year goes well, as we hope ours does. Grateful for technology to keep us connected!

We’re starting to settle into this new ‘normal’. It still feels like summer vacation (especially when it’s 84 degrees and 95% humidity), but we’re enjoying the challenges and adventure so far. It’s not always easy, but most worthwhile things aren’t.

So we made it to our first stop in Limon, CO… on Friday evening… only about 5 hours later than planned… but it was the single step we needed to get on the way!

Things were going well, so we continued on from Limon. We were going to camp in Genoa, CO, but we missed the exit and decided to push on to our intended first stop (had we left almost 5 hours earlier – because why not push it when everyone is tired?!). But, shortly after that, someone had to go to the bathroom ( of course), so we stopped at the next available place – the Kansas Welcome Center Rest Stop – where we decided to spend the night.

It was a beautiful sunset and then lots of storm watching. The big, open skies made for a great lightning show, and we were grateful that any serious weather went around us.

With the first step under our belt, we continued on through Kansas, to Mushroom Rock State Park:

And spent the night at Kanopolis Lake State Park.

Moon rise from our campsite after a dip in the lake and dinner and s’mores over the campfire.

On to Missouri after two days in Kansas (it is pretty slow going…)

We ended up at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park just south of Columbia, MO. We hiked out to Devil’s Ice Box – a really cool cave.

And saw the Rock Bridge from both sides:

So far we’ve been enjoying the road – the whole 3 days we’ve been on it!

We’re super grateful for:

• air conditioning in the camper with these super hot, humid nights in the midwest.
• seemingly good renters that are now in our house until next July!
• safe travels amidst tons of road work in Missouri.

And most of all, we’re grateful for all the love, support, and encouragement from many family and friends all over the place! I was relying on the excitement of the people around me for that last month of preparations – it was A LOT!

And so, the adventure begins!

Well, things are coming together and we’re heading out soon!

We’re looking forward to getting on the road and seeing what this will really be like. We’ll be heading east and then north to start. Follow along to see where we end up!

Here are a few pictures from our inaugural van trip!