"Water Wonderland" Michigan

Michigan snuck up on us like a cool summer breeze. One minute we were seeing family and friends in Ohio and the next we were relaxing poolside at a vacation rental in Mirror Lake with Chip's family. We spent six lazy days here going on bike rides, hunting for mulberries with grandpa, swimming in the pool, fishing, and plumping ourselves up with a lot of wonderful food. But, as always, all good things must come to an end and after a week we had to say goodbye to the comforts of a big, cozy home and help from family. We hopped back in Spud and ugly-cried out of the vacation rental driveway. It is always hard leaving family but after giving my cheek a swift slap of the hand, I snapped out of it and immediately grew eager to explore the rest of Michigan.

USA, Road Trip, Family Travel, State ParksLindsay KellerJuly 28, 2017Michigan, midwest, beaches, family travel, state parkComment

The Number$

Since we decided to take this journey a year and a half ago, we've had the good fortune to talk with a massive amount of people. We get a lot of questions, but, far and away, people want to know about money. Some will disguise it a bit and ask us what we "do". Others are more forthright and just ask how we can afford to take what they perceive to be a perpetual vacation. Most are just honestly curious about how we'll make ends meet. Good questions, everyone. They're ones we worried ourselves with at the beginning.

Stuff

As you can imagine, living in 80 square feet presents some challenges in terms of space. At 20 square feet per person, we've necessarily streamlined our lives getting rid of both our cars, furniture items, clothing we didn't wear, and junk that had no meaning or regular use (goodbye, food dehydrator). What didn't come with us needed to be stored in a ~6x12ft space. But, perhaps unsurprisingly, three weeks into our trip we've found that the less we have, the better we feel. A couple outfits each, cooking basics, a little toy box filled with books and artsy activities, one dump truck, two bikes, and a beach bag filled with cars, collapsible buckets, and shovels is about all we need to keep us going. Luckily, every place we have parked Spud so far has offered us an incredible backyard with lakes for swimming, dirt for digging, ducks for feeding, fireflies (aka "lightning flies") for catching, and paths for biking.

Road Trip, Minimalism, ColoradoLindsay KellerJuly 6, 2017road trip, family travel, Colorado Comments

Embark

I'm sitting in the passenger seat of our '86 Westy staring out the window at the endless wheat fields, towering windmills, and straight, flat roads of Kansas. It is dead silent in Spud (well, as silent as he gets at 65 mph), which is rare with jabbering twin boys. But it's naptime. Hallelujah! I unbuckle my seatbelt and like a flight attendant head to the back and sneak out two M&M ice cream bars from our mini freezer. I deliver one to Chip, then we cackle while waving them in the air at the boys' sleeping faces and scarf them down in celebration of quiet time. If only they knew what we did when they were asleep. I digress...

Part III: CAN we have MORE?

When we last wrote, we had officially traveled 186 miles from Whistler to Kamloops and landed in Nick and Erika's place in the late afternoon. It was definitely one of the bigger cities we've seen while being in Canada so we figured a night on the town would be great. For dinner, we located the main drag and asked a local where she recommended we eat. Her three choices... 1) "This sushi place" - she pointed to an empty restaurant behind her, 2) Denny's (really? Denny's), 3) She couldn't think of a third so I think she defaulted to the Mexican place across the street. So we ate at Qdoba. When in doubt, eat a burrito.

Canada, Family Travel, National Parks, Previous Trips, Road TripLindsay KellerSeptember 30, 2013Canmore, CanadaCanadian Rockies, CanadaComment

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