Van Updates 1 (3/24 - 10/24)

Doing a dump of our first 7 months in the van. Was keeping track of this locally but now it's going ON THE BLOG.

I'm missing a whole additional Colorado trip but I'll add that in a different post.

Table of Contents

• March 2024: We left in the van!
• Ames, IA (March)
• De Moines, IA (March)
• Lamoni, IA (March)
• Columbia, MO (March)
• Fayetteville, AR (March)
• Crystal Beach, TX (April)
• Austin, TX (April)
• Houston-ish (April)
• Lafayette, LA (April)
• 30A, Florida (May)
• Nashville, TN (April)
• Memphis, TN (April)
• Hot Springs, AR (May)
• Fayetteville Round 2! (May)
• Back to St Paul for a bit! (May)
• Isla Mujeres, Mexico (May)
• Bay Area, CA (June)
• Duluth, MN (June)
• Split Rock Lighthouse (June)
• Grand Marais, MN (June)
• Tettegouche (June)
• Two Harbors, MN (June)
• 4th of July!
• Lexington, KY (July)
• Knoxville / Oak Ridge, TN (July)
• Asheville, NC (July)
• Charlotte, NC (July)
• Some random places in Virginia and Pennsylvania (July)
• Brooklyn, NY (July)
• Burlington, VT (July)
• Montreal (August)
• Trois Rivieres (August)
• Haverhill, MA
• Boston, MA
• Brooklyn Round 2 (August)
• Lake Placid, NY + The Adirondacks (August)
• Way back to MN (August)
• Back in MN for Starlink! (September)
• Grand Marais II (September)
• Ironwood, MI (October)
• Marquette, MI (October)

March 2024: We left in the van!

• I don't have pictures of us leaving so here's this one

Ames, IA (March)

• pretty cold
• nice campus
• There is a "lake" on campus with lots of aggressive geese
• tons of restaurants and things on campus!

De Moines, IA (March)

• didn't see much, there's a girthy building that is 600 ft tall
• tried to fill up water multiple places but couldn't :(

Lamoni, IA (March)

• small town that we stopped at cafe
• there is donkey basketball and demolition derby

Columbia, MO (March)

• super nice lake spot we stopped at north of columbia (marked on google maps)
  • filled up water for the first time!
• Stayed in walmart parking lot, did huge hyvee grocery run
• Worked some there in the morning, drove to mizzou campus to work more
• Stayed on mizzou campus — pretty nice right off campus downtown area! Hit a happy hour, then hit a wine store and got 2 EXPENSIVE (18 each!) bottles of wine; had some nice dinner and wine in the van
  • grey water is filled up almost all the way :0 and we need to DUMP

Fayetteville, AR (March)

• spot by botanical gardens is fucking perfect — we were the only ones there, stayed like a week, there's a water fountain (no spout though). Just perfect
• And we found the nice right by the water part of the trail!
• Good times with Joe and Ashley. And the Gundermans!
• Fayetteville is still great

Crystal Beach, TX (April)

• the main spot was overrun with trump-y spring break type, but we found a way more private spot a little north (marked on google maps)
• Met Tammy and Michael who hooked us up with someone to tow us out of the sand (we got stuck twice, were able to get out the first time). Downside of the secluded spot was that it was way less packed. Oh also when we got towed the tide was AT the van, so be careful of that
• Honestly didn't love the town — felt isolated in a bad way. Galveston might have been a little better (much more of a city), but felt mostly the same.
• Crazy mosquitos and everything. Sleeping on beach was nice though.

Austin, TX (April)

• came in north of town (Round Rock) and it was horrible. Expensive, not great food, super highway-y strip mall-y and super crowded.
• Spent a few days kind of getting our footing, I think how good Austin is REALLY depends on your spot. We're LOVING the spot on the university that we're staying, walking distance to some great food, not great coffeeshops, and nice campus walks.
• We checked out the downtown area near campus. Like an hour walk from the van and didn't love it.
• Did some Barton Creek walking and Frankie found the spot where she stayed the first time; seems like a really nice area. Barton Springs is sick as always. Cisco's is still holding up too!

Houston-ish (April)

• didn't really stop here; just wanted to include this huge amount of fried food we got at a Tia Juanita's

Lafayette, LA (April)

• So great! People kept asking why we were there and it was pretty hot.
• Some of the nicest parks we've ever seen
• And fun basketball! And we hit the same cafe all week (Carpe Diem) and then saw the people that work there when we went out on Friday.

30A, Florida (May)

• Way exceeded our expectations for the panhandle. We were heading to Savannah, GA and just stopping through but we ended up staying for a week.
• Beautiful white sandy, nice beach. Not crowded. Just all around great.
• It was still Florida though — so bad food and some interesting people.

Nashville, TN (April)

• SO BAD WORST PLACE WE'VE BEEN.
• All the worst parts of big cities + all the worst parts of the south.
• And 8000 busses of sorority girls and bachelorette parties all wearing pink cowboy hats and wooing.
• Horrible. These pictures of the high school prom-type event that we accidentally ended up in and the VA pretty much sum it up.

Memphis, TN (April)

• Didn't actually stop here. Just passed through and saw Lakeland and stopped at Corky's (not great).
• Side note: the Lakeland lake is pretty as hell!

Hot Springs, AR (May)

• honestly super weird — it felt eerie and abandoned.
• Okay couple of days though. Did some hikes, drank some water, then got the fuck outta there.
• There was this nice moment when I was right about the trail not looping around :)
• And there was a scenic drive back! (not a great picture)

Fayetteville Round 2! (May)

• Back for Joe and Ashley's engagement party.
• We went to Sideways and I drank way too much and then threw up the next morning.
• And we went skimboarding!
• And then we played basketball and I bonked heads with Joe and I had to go to the ER :(
• Also, this picture with all of us is actually the first trip but I forgot about it for the first entry.
• Oh, and there was a cop car when we had dinner at the church!

Back to St Paul for a bit! (May)

• we were technically planning some van improvements… we did like 1 or 2 but mostly we just hung out

Isla Mujeres, Mexico (May)

• We had a Mexico vacation and went to Isla Mujeres and then Barcelo :)
• @frankie I think the good pictures are on your phone; feel free to replace the frog picture.

Bay Area, CA (June)

• I went to see Liem's graduation and Frankie went to a Kira in person thing.

Duluth, MN (June)

• So much fun! Lake Superior is amazing. We spent a lot of time at this big building with a brewery and cafe and hotel (I forget the name).
• And the marathon happened!

Split Rock Lighthouse (June)

Grand Marais, MN (June)

• Favorite van place so far!
• Tons of campers, good restaurants and cafes, nice small town, tons of parking, good 5G signal everywhere (including at the nice lookout), and SO PRETTY EVERYWHERE

Tettegouche (June)

• Nice little day hike!
• Sadly it's not pronounced like Chattahoochie

Two Harbors, MN (June)

• Got pasties + castle danger merch!

4th of July!

• at the cabin for fourth of july!
• We had mold :(
• But we fixed it :)

Lexington, KY (July)

• Stopped for a night — almost saw Quinn but just barely missed him bc he was with friends, he gave us an awesome rec though (Kentucky Native) and we slept near campus.
• Place seems fun; I would go back!

Knoxville / Oak Ridge, TN (July)

• SO MUCH BETTER THAN NASHVILLE.
• Stopped at Cathey Daniels', then went rafting with Reid and Katie. Both were so much fun! (Weirdly I don't have any pictures; they might be on Frankie's phone.)

Asheville, NC (July)

• only stayed one night, can't really judge, but seemed like a hopping town!

Charlotte, NC (July)

• Family gathering for Barney!
• How do I not have any pictures from this either (Frankie please fill in)

Some random places in Virginia and Pennsylvania (July)

• They were fine. Fort Chiswell, Christiansburg, Winchester, Harrisburg, Franklin Township, Northampton. Don't remember much about any of them.

Brooklyn, NY (July)

• SO MUCH FUN.
• We saw Jacob perform, saw Arman, and packed a lot into the weekend! Discovered McCarren Park, the best place in all of New York and perfect van spot.

Burlington, VT (July)

• Stopped to see Cam and Vanessa and had a nice dinner at their house and caught up on life!
• Honestly, didn't love the town :/ But decently pretty.

Montreal (August)

• Montreal was so hot and expensive and city-y and miserable.
• But the festival was fun!

Trois Rivieres (August)

• weird time
• spent a lot of time at Starbucks
• we were thinking about going to Quebec City but decided we were sick of Canada and left for Boston

Haverhill, MA

• Came here because of the song :)
• We liked it! More rural MA is pretty. Downside: city part is very city-y, didn't explore a ton, and had a super scary middle of the night knock on the van.

Boston, MA

• Had a great dinner with Lucy, Joe and Juliette!
• Oatie was so scared of me :( we did some dogsitting, Joe's new neighborhood is awesome!
• We slept outside of Boston in a kind of sketchy Walmart but it was fine, and then we also hit a good taco place with Joe and Juliette.
• Oh and I accidentally drove to the airport at one point.

Brooklyn Round 2 (August)

• Did a 2 week stint this time.
• McCarren Park holds up, it was awesome again!
• How do I not have any pictures of Pueblo Querido or McCarren Park???
  • Met Sebastian and Santiago who worked at cafe.
• Frankie met up with the Kira people and I met up with the Flare people.
• And met my mom and Haley at Capizzi's.

Lake Placid, NY + The Adirondacks (August)

• Very nice place and we had a great hike with Teja :)
• We're technically a little out of order here because this was between the 2 Brooklyn weeks but that's okay.

Way back to MN (August)

• No real interesting stops. We ate at a Cracker Barrel. And Frankie was sick :(
• We were gonna stop in Cleveland and Chicago but didn't because Frankie was sick and we were both jonesing to get back to MN.

Back in MN for Starlink! (September)

• and we went to the fair :)

Grand Marais II (September)

• After finishing up the van we were gonna go to the UP… but Frankie got a last minute invite to a wedding and so instead we did a super quick 2 day trip to Grand Marais to test out the van improvements (huge success).

Ironwood, MI (October)

• stopped at a random roadside stop, then at a campsite with a LOT of flies. First time sleeping without the window covers up!
• Beautiful fall colors!

Marquette, MI (October)

• Nice little town! Went to farmer's market, got a free dinner at Delft which was SO INSANELY GOOD, had some graveyard walks, watched Hocus Pocus, and did a lot of naturey spots around the area.
• OH and we mountain biked!
• (our favorite was Horseshoe Lake — maybe best van spot we've had)