the turquoise trail

Phase II of building my van was to add the electrical system with the goal of powering a fridge, lights & two 12V sockets for things like an immersion element, fan & phone charger.  After extensive research & much deliberation, mostly on the part of my Dad, we settled on a game plan and started ordering things.  Once I arrived in Mission, we knew we had a 2 week window to get everything ordered, delivered & installed, so we were eager to start the process.  This is what our game plan looked like; if it looks like anything more than modern art to you, you're doing well.. Modern Art a la Dad Once everything was ordered, we had about a week before the parts started trickling in.  We used that time to measure, re-measure, disassemble, adjust and otherwise prepare for the parts to come.  Thankfully there were plenty of retirees around who were more than happy to lend their tools, parts and wisdom to the project.  I had ingeniously (aka p...

{texas} Once again, I started off my time in the state of Texas with a stop at the visitor's welcome centre.  The gentleman at the desk had more suggestions of things to see than I could possibly retain, and I left with plenty of reading material.  Behind the welcome centre they had a boardwalk over the swamp, so I went for a quick walk along & spotted an alligator!  I was glad to be up on the walkway out of his way... Welcome to Texas! I made it across I-10 to Houston in time for the evening with Dustin & Laura; we decided to go out to top golf which was a great first experience at a driving range!  We met Caitlyn & Chris at the driving range and had a really fun evening together.  The next morning, Laura and I went to explore George Ranch and saw the 4 historical homes there all from different time periods; 1830's, 1860's, 1890's & 1930's.  It was very interesting to see the transformation and progression of quality of life over t...

{mississippi} From Mobile, it was a short drive across to the Mississippi state line, where I again stopped off at the visitors centre and armed myself with a stack of brochures.  Once I was into Mississippi, I got off I-10 and took the coastal road across to Biloxi.  In some parts you could really see the destruction caused by recent hurricanes, and in other parts it was so beautifully kept that you would never know.  As I approached Biloxi, the coastline got quite built up with casinos and lots of large resorts.  I stopped off in town to see the lighthouse and visitors centre, then headed inland a little ways for the night with friends there; Rachel and her mom & cousin.  They made a delicious tex-mex dinner, and it was really great to get to know them. Biloxi Lighthouse The next day I continued west along the gulf coast, stopping off a few places to check out the beach and coastline.  The sand is gorgeous and stretches for miles and miles ...

{alabama} I started off my time in Alabama with a stop at the visitor information center to gather up some ideas of what to see and where to go; there are no shortage of options in a state I’d never visited before, but I narrowed it down to a few highlights that grabbed my interest.. I decided to save Birmingham for my next trip and headed towards Montgomery. My first stop in town was as the Freedom Riders Museum, which is actually inside the historic greyhound station where the attack on the freedom riders took place. It’s a small museum, but very interesting and with an incredible story to tell in the fight for civil rights. Freedom Riders Museum Along a walk through the downtown Montgomery I discovered the first White House of the confederacy, which is restored as a museum. The Alabama state Capitol is also in town, which was another interesting building to wander through. Downtown there were plenty more historic buildings to see, and I very much enjoyed the day explorin...

{michigan} nothing of significance to report, other than that the border guard granted me great freedom by not asking the length of my stay.... {ohio} ugh..  three hours in a cricket mobile shop in Defiance getting my phone wiped of all photos/apps/contacts/everything.  Eventually left with a functional phone - but no numbers to call, no addresses to search, no apps on which to search them.. awesome.. {indiana} Indiana started by having the nerve to full-on blizzard, but thankfully that passed quickly and thanks to my old-fashioned/OCD notes, I was able to navigate my way to Chris & Lauren's in Indianapolis for the night with them.  Chris's technical expertise reunited my phone with my people, while Lauren & I greatly enjoyed reminiscing over 80's-babies mixed-print fashion statements & dad's in short-shorts through a collection of super-vintage film prints; fantastic.  After a night at their place, Lauren's parents joined us for brunch featuri...

A few of you have been requesting blog posts for this new adventure i've started & although i'm not committing to weekly updates, I'll do my best to keep you posted.. I might as well start at the beginning.. There were several reasons why I wanted to try out vanlife, the biggest and simplest one being and I do not know where I want to live.. ruling out one city leaves me with a lot of options! I did a lot of research and planning this past winter and really had my heart set on a Sprinter high-top cargo van, but it is really difficult to find a used one so when a friend said he could get me a good mini-van (as the days kept slipping past and the snow kept piling up) I jumped on the opportunity and put the sprinter on hold.. January 31 st I picked up my mini-van & drove it home to begin the work! I took the seats out and gave it a thorough cleaning to start, took some measurements, then had the next 3 days at work to day-dream about how I was going to ...