Outland Adventures

 Hey Y'all! I feel like we've been on this leg of our journey (since my doctors appointment) for so long, but in reality it's only been 2 weeks! We've seen so much in these two weeks, like the amazing sunsets and moon rises here at camp: We do not get up early enough for the sunrise, lol. We've seen lots of wildlife, like these two: We've also seen lots of construction already... everywhere. Gotta love the orange cones & concrete dividers. We've seen fancy rigs (RVs) and a few other vans. Once in a town coming back to camp from a local park we saw not one, but two other older Chevy vans, and had a small little convoy through town, until we all went our separate directions.  Along our travels we've seen an overly friendly squirrel, who clearly gets fed by someone, because that bugger ain't afraid of nothing! The birds behaved far better than that squirrel. We've seen snakes, spiders, and other... things. We've also seen several camp sites....

 Hey Y'all! Sorry I'm a day late, again. We did enjoy a great day at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge yesterday, so forgive us- that was a lot of fun, you'll soon see. Onto today's... er yesterday's topic. Things We'd Change: Our Van Specific~ 1) Size, we'd make her a bit bigger. Not so much as to be classified as an RV, but she's a shorty, so we'd go a bit longer. Chris says a bit taller too, he wouldn't mind being able to stand fully upright. That one isn't doable, but the rest of these are, and are on the list of eventually we will.... eventually. 2) Remove the 3rd seat, we don't use it like we'd thought. Stuff just gets piled in it, and then we can't use it as a seat, and so why not free up all that space. 3) Window tint on the front. I don't know if it was a legal issue at the time (some states allow far more tint that others, especially in the 90s) or if owner opted out, but the back windows are all tinted perfectly. Th...

 Hey Y'all! We're working on getting caught up with videos, and should have two posted this weekend. I'll share the links as soon as they're up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDQoDhhUBPM&t=5s  Rockport, IN https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B-ABGrmL-k&t=2s  Corbin, KY KFC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLs9SK9LWFA  Cowford Campground Walkthrough *Links added.  Currently? We're in an absolutely gorgeous public park /county run campground in northern Alabama. We made it to Alabama y'all!!! The sunset last night, our first night here... stunning! We were not up early enough, and it was storming anyhow, so we missed the sunrise today.  So what happened between southern Indiana and here? The videos will go more in depth and catch you up, but here's the somewhat condensed version: Leaving Indiana, was a cool, grey day, but that makes travel easier on Brunilda (the van). We stopped for breakfast, stopped a few times to stretch. Then overnighted at about ...

 Hey Y'all! I can't believe we've been doing this full time for 3mo already! There are so many awesome things we've discovered, and some things that are MEH as well. In this blog we'll share both the highs, and the lows. The fun, and the not so fun. What we love... and what we don't three months in: I guess so we end on a positive note here, I'll start with a few things we don't love. AKA the worst parts about #vanlife 1) Everything is always being moved, reorganized, put away, and taken back out. Seriously, it's constant. 2) Bad weather means everything is covered in water, dust, dirt, mud (whatever) real quick. We sweep and vacuum at least once each daily. 3) Doing anything is harder than it is in a "normal" living situation. Wanna snack? Does it need cooked?? You need to get out all the things you'll need to heat it up, and then, do the thing and clean it up and put it away to have space to do the thing you were doing before you deci...

  Hey Y'all! So, we met up with Chris' uncle the day before, and had a lovely time with he & his SO. However the traffic and parking downtown Owensboro (KY) on Sunday, convinced us all that we didn't want to mess with it for the eclipse viewing party. The plan was a viewing party at a swanky hotel downtown, which wasn't much my vibe- but I'd have been happy to do it for Chris & his uncle to get together again. Instead we stayed at our campground and had a very chill day. We walked the grounds again, sat at our site and nature watched, got some work done on our computers, cooked breakfast, etc. We watched the eclipse with several others who were also there for the eclipse, and the campground owners. While we didn't really get any pictures worth sharing, the eclipse was one of the neatest experiences of my life, and I'm glad we took the trip. It was amazing to witness! The slow fade to darkness, and immediate drop in temperature were creepy- but awesom...

 Hey Y'all! We enjoyed our 4 day stay at Oakridge Campground . (There will be a video about our stay and the grounds soon, but this is more of a review post, and sharing a few pictures, enjoy!) Here's a reminder of our first impressions: The signage issue was fixed during our stay, on day two. They put up new larger signs, and added banners at the street. They also were working on some fencing along the driveway one of the days we were there.  The more I thought about the bathroom, and used it, the less weird it became. I felt kinda bad being one person "hogging" the entire bathroom to take a shower, but it really wasn't an issue. Since it's limited tent camping, and only 36 sites it wasn't ever too busy. The double shower makes sense for families, that way the can at least shower a few people at a time and not hold up the bathroom too long. I was right in my wildlife prediction, and although we didn't see deer we did see: Turtles, Geese. Cranes, Hawks...

  Hey Y'all! Our travel day started out with a detour. That took us roundabout for an additional 30-45min right at the start. Not a big deal since we're never in a rush, but it was a bit annoying. Once we got back on the original route, we stopped for gas and checked the (paper atlas) map, and decided to make a slight adjustment. We took  231  pretty much the entire way after the 26/28 detour. Our goal was to avoid Indianapolis, since it's a drive through neither of us enjoy. The weather was cloudy and grey the entire day, but the rain held off. Driving through a big section of Indiana was nice, and we enjoyed the scenery. Just an FYI if you ever take this route, there are several small towns you'll pass through, but there's also large spans of farmlands, and nothing. So plan your stops accordingly.  We stopped for a late lunch break, and bathroom break in  Loogootee . Funny name, cute town.   As I said there are a lot of cute little towns on this route, an...

 Hey Y'all! I know this blog was supposed to be van clean up, but we did a lot of that in Tuesdays post. So instead I'm going to share both van tour videos... Chris' Version: Amanda's Version: Hope you enjoyed! Thanks, The Outlands

 Hey Y'all! Today we're getting ourselves and the van ready to be on the move again.. First things first- Laundry, and stocking up on essentials.. Trash bag of laundry... Essentials, some of them lol... We also had to seal one of the rear windows since it was leaking, and that meant we also had to change the bedding too. Beyond that we straightened up the van, threw out our trash, filled the water, and vacuumed. Then checked all the tie downs, and all the fluids etc. Any cold food items we will be purchasing along the way, and then we'll plug the cooler in. The dry foods cooler is full and ready to go, and everything except our laptop bags are packed and ready to go. I need to charge mine up again first, as well as the phones. (Verizon Visible is working out great for service and internet, by the way.) The power bank is sitting at 97% and the campground we're staying at Fri-Tue has power so we're good there. If we use it (because more plugs) we can easily charge it...