the turquoise trail

{new mexico} I crossed back into New Mexico in the late afternoon, too late to visit the tourist info centre & late enough to call it a night in the first town, Gallup.  I found a little asian restaurant for some well-cooked stir-fry, then found myself parking spot for a quiet night of Walmart camping.  Well, I think it was quiet - I was dead to the world thanks to the pain killers from the dentist... Welcome (back) to New Mexico!  As I was driving up to Albuquerque the next morning, the radio revealed that according to recent statistics, Gallup is the 15th most dangerous city for violent crime in the US.. fabulous.  It wasn't a place you'd choose to spend a lot of time, either way.   It was a couple hours from Gallup up to Albuquerque, where I headed to the old town district for a look around the historic square.  There was a wide selection of galleries and shops featuring native art, an old church & lots of adobe buildings with chile pep...

{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 ...

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 ...