The first major leg of #vanlife took us from Oregon to Maine. Let’s look at some highlights.
Our first stop was Manzanita on the Oregon coast for a family reunion of the Dad/Jan side of the family. We did some family photos on the beach one day but all I have is a test shot with my nephews Drew (l) and Scott (r).
That was a nice “soft landing” for our van adventure. All we really did was drive the van out and stay in the rental house for the week. But the van did provide lots of handy items during our stay. Like a colander on pasta night. The highlight was on surf-and-turf night when the lament wishing we’d gotten some cocktail sauce was answered. Oh, we have some in the van.
We next headed to Sunriver in central Oregon and stayed with our friends Ray and Lorraine. We hiked up a butte near their house and enjoyed views of the dense forest.
Willie and Kola enjoyed the hike.
We stopped in Boise for a hot night and then spent another hot night in Twin Falls. Shoshone Falls is stunning.
We next stopped in Heber City, Utah (just outside Park City) and stayed with Anissia and her partner Drew. Some shots from a hike:
We spent a day in Salt Lake City where we found our favorite beer of the trip: the lime Pilsner by Uinta Brewing. Who knew you’d find such good beer in Utah? The Great Salt Lake:
Next up was a night in Dinosaur National Monument. We tested out our Verizon data setup and were able to live stream the final of the Gold Cup (US vs Mexico; US won 1-0 with a goal in the 117th minute). A few views from the next day as rain clouds gathered (and soon delivered).
We stayed in Denver with my high school friend Jen and her family. I lived in Littleton for about eight months in 1984 and got hooked on golf that summer. I returned to Arrowhead Golf Course, set in the same stunning granite outcroppings as the famous Red Rocks amphitheater.
I stopped by my old neighborhood and played the South Suburban 9-hole par 3 course, my first regular loops. It was just like I remembered. The 8th (below) was tricky for a 12-year old who couldn’t carry a ball to the green. Now it’s just a 9-iron.
We stopped at Scotts Bluff National Monument and did a lovely hike to the top that included a cool tunnel through the bluff. The bluff is a remnant of harder stone that remained after flooding in the area (at the end of the ice age I think?).
Among many exciting options along the road in Nebraska is Carhenge, a version of Stonehenge made of old cars.
We couldn’t miss the tallest waterfall in Nebraska, Smith Falls.
We stopped through Chicago for a week and caught up with Leena’s family and some friends. Willie loved the Montrose Beach dog park. We caught up with my sophomore/senior year roommate Eric, his wife Tracey (freshman year dorm mate), and their daughter Payton.
We headed north and stopped to see Lambeau field.
Next up was a few days at Laura’s on Drummond Island where she has a lovely spot with a sand beach on Lake Huron. The sunsets were pretty good.
We headed north to the border crossing at Sault Ste. Marie with a plan to head through Canada on our way to Maine. We had our vaccination records, current passports, and Willie’s documents. But we didn’t know we also needed a negative Covid test from the previous 72 hours. We quickly learned that the nearest test was 2 hours away and that they weren’t guaranteeing results in 72 hours. (The lack of a national testing infrastructure for Covid is just one of the ways our leadership has completely failed during the pandemic.)
We turned around and headed south, spending the night in Bay City Michigan. We called our friends Kathleen and Kelley who live outside Cleveland and were lucky enough to spend a couple of nights catching up with them.
We continued east and camped on Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York. After a day of wine tasting and another night camping, we went to Lake Champlain and camped a bit south of Burlington.
The lake tour continued with a night at Rangeley Lake before we drove through to Bar Harbor, Maine and found a campsite a few miles from the entrance to Acadia National Park.
Bar Harbor was lovely and the park was as good as advertised.
