Outland Adventures

Hey Y'all! Let's catch up. 25th, Tues- Finished Van Redo: Our Final Thoughts  27th, Thu-  Travel Questionnaire First off the redo of Brunilda, our 1991 Chevy G20 conversion van: Our final thoughts? Though it took a bit longer than expected to: Remove and reinstall new carpet Remove the interior side panels, and add insulation Remove the rear a/c and all the hoses, etc that went with it Remove the third seat Plug the holes, made from all the removals Build a new bed frame We love it. There's so much more room between the front and bed area. Also the amount of space gained under the bed is great! We're able to fit so much more under there, and no longer have to shuffle a ton of things around from the back to the front seats, and back. The insulation seems to be helping keep it cooler to, which was much needed since it's been in the 90s no matter where we've gone. It's been great, and didn't cost too much (less than $400). The bed is especially the best par...

  Hey Y'all! So, Summer travel plans? What are they? I think we're pretty decided on Ohio, then PA... https://perchance.org/ai-photo-generator Actual plans? Nothing solid yet... But I did a bit of research today, starting with just "western PA things to do" since from Ohio, you come to western PA first. Immediately a reddit post came up for Oil Creek & Titusville Railroad . That looked like something we'd be interested in, and it's in our price range for activities. After checking that out, I searched things nearby, and came up with quite a bit in just a quick search- After seeing how much there is to see and do nearby, I started looking for places to camp, these were the most promising- This option was the closest to my search of Oil City, and one of the cheapest on this app. The abandoned school looks like Chris' thing, and I'm totally up for a night or 2 out there.   Oil Creek Family Campground had a lot of amenities, and activities in the park...

 Hey Y'all! Ask us anything, this attempt... We actually got a few questions. The first question comes from @countrygang2 on TikTok: "What made you want to do van life?" We have always liked to travel, and camping. The more we learned about this option, the better it felt. We can travel as much as we want, stay a few hours or a few weeks. It's the perfect marriage of traveling cheap, and camping with luxuries. We had always talked about traveling "later" but also wanted to do the bulk of it when we were young enough to see the sites and get around well... So later became now.    This second question comes from @shadowwolfstudios on YouTube: "Where to next?" After we leave here, and spend 2 weeks in NE TN for doctors appointments, we're headed to Ohio! Then we're about 80% decided on PA. Last question was a DM from Sarah: "How do you make money for travel?" We were fortunate enough that our house sold for well over what we owed. ...

 Hey Y'all! When picking an adventure, first we start with a location: https://outlandadventures.blogspot.com/2024/06/how-do-we-decide-where-to-go-next.html After we've decided on a destination, we'll agree on a budget for that location, and search free stuff first. Athens, AL was great for this reason, so many free things to see/do and a ton of parks. Kokomo, IN has a ton of parks too. (We're a big fan of parks!) We then decide on adventures, based on location. We're typically not going to travel more than an additional 30min from where we've chosen to camp.  After we've researched all the free things in an area and decided what, of those, we want to do (and when they're open) we start looking at the paid touristy things to do. Our usual budget for these things is $20 each or less, and we plan further ahead for bigger/more expensive adventures. Then we roughly plan these around the free things, depending on what days/times things are open. We also have ...

 Hey Y'all! So, how do we decide where to go next? It depends on if we have anywhere we need to be, and when we need to be there. That's our first consideration. After we've thought about that, and the timeline, we choose a destination. Like currently we're in North Central Indiana, and we have to be in NE Tennessee by the 25th. Because we're working on the rebuild, with help from others, the timeline on the return is a bit loose (as in we don't have a date nailed down). But typically we spend a night or two somewhere in KY on the return. There are 2 weeks between my scan and the appointment for follow up. Usually it's only 3-5 days. I don't know why they scheduled it like this, but we'll be in TN until mid July. After that we're thinking OH for a few to visit more family, meet our great niece, and attend our nephew's graduation party. From there? Nothing solid yet, but either MI or PA are on the short list. Depending on what we decide will ...

 Hey Y'all! So, why'd we decide to redo the van now?? 1) Time- We had about a month and a half between appointments this time, so it seemed like a good time to get it done. Between travel days, and accounting for bad weather we figure 2 or 3 weeks. 2) Weather- It's not too hot yet, and there are still more cool days than blazing hot. Thunderstorms are usually short, and then things dry pretty quickly. 3) Room- We really came to the realization that we didn't use that third seat like we thought we would, and as such weren't utilizing that space well. Most of the time our laptops were in the seat, and that just didn't make for a good use of all that potential space. 4) Space- the rear a/c and rear seat framework really were taking up a lot of valuable space. Like a quarter of the rear end minimum. With those removed we can store more things, and have access from both sides (in the van and from the rear). 5) Readiness- After spending a few months in the van we real...

 Hey Y'all! I, Amanda, like to keep a planner, but haven't even opened it since February. It was past time to do a little catching up. We got these planners a few years ago in a  Michaels  Grab Bag, all of them were Recollections brand. (Chris also has a planner, but I didn't get it from him, I'm 99.9% sure he hasn't touched it anyhow...) We also recently decided to try out a Budget Planner, more on that below. I've shared about this planner before here: https://craftinwifescreations.blogspot.com/2024/01/goals-for-2024.html Things that have changed since that blog? I've really grown to like the layout. There's a lot of space for each days activities to be written out. My (main) Planner: I'm doing pretty well on my goals for the year, some are completed.. I just recently filled out this bucket list section, all are goals I'd like to achieve this year, except the first one. It's more a 5 year goal. I've already ticked off a few! Note to mys...