Warwick, Rhode Island to Kutztown, PA

We were up late finishing packing but all in all I’m glad we didn’t rush out a few days prior. We had been racing to get so much done, but had to problem solve so much to do it. We woke up Tuesday morning to the camper having no power at all. It was the day after we dewinterized it so we had used different systems the day prior that we hadn’t used yet. We pulled these two very unhappy looking rods and elements out and replaced them and bam! Everything worked again. Thank you to the Rpod Owners facebook group that answered my call for help. $30 later, and we were good to go.

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Needless to say, there were some stressful times and leaving on this loooong trip with that type of energy flowing through us was not going to be the start we needed to let everything go.

We had packed the camper the night before so we just needed to hook up and go. Hindsight, probably should’ve just hooked it up too while it wasn’t DOWNPOURING from Tropical Storm Elsa.

We are extremely grateful that our friend’s daughter is staying at our house while we are away. Thank you to Jayna and Gabe (and Atticus!) for holding down the fort for us!

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It’s pouring as I said and this is unfortunately the first time we are towing with all this extra weight and we could feel it. Something was off. We pulled over, added air to the very below pressure tires and got back going. It was better, but not enough. Then I remembered my first rookie lesson- I had the fresh water tank 2/3 of the way full. This can cause sway and add extra unnecessary weight. We knew we had 5 gallons in a container in the 4Runner so we stopped again and I drained out as much water as I could. It was raining and it was my fresh tank so I am not apologizing for this. We needed to be safe. Once it was done, we were back on the road and the sway was gone. Nice and easy ride from there.

Where to go?

So as I said in a prior post, we are totally winging it right now. We have no plans. No reservations. Nothing. We had hoped to make it to a Harvest Host location in Maryland for our first night, a winery on the Chesapeake Bay (where Lafayette was waiting!), but the timing was not in our favor for tonight. We got on the road when we intended, but the lessons learned and the road conditions through Connecticut told us we should readjust our expectations.

Saucony Creek Brewery

I searched Harvest Host for awhile and found Saucony Creek Brewery in Kutztown, PA. Just past Allentown where my friend Amy is from, Kutztown about 6 hours away from Warwick. We wanted to keep our big travel days around 6 hours so this fit the bill. Plus, they had vegan beer and vegan food on the menu, so sometimes it’s good to be in the passenger seat looking up where we will be staying!

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We arrived right before sunset and it was beautiful. Harvest Host is a membership that we have where you spend $80 a year for the membership but you can stay at any of 2,000+ farms, breweries, vineyards, distilleries, museums, etc across the country for mostly free. They ask you to spend $20 in product to thank the Harvest Host for allowing you to park in their parking lot. Well guess what? I love wine and beer! And I love farms that are sanctuaries for animals! This works for us.

I had a wheat beer and he had a Fruit Wagon Sour with blackberries and plums. We both grabbed a salad- mine with grapefruit and tofu. They also had triple threat garlic fries but I couldn’t have all of the ingredients so they modified it for me and I think added a pound of garlic on top- no lie! Jason rolled his eyes when I ordered it and reminded me that the camper is small but you know, I just had to!

Then the most magical thing happened… we were surrounded by fireflies! The fields, everything around us was glowing. Patch tried to see if they wanted to be her friend but they aren’t dog lovers. When we headed back to the camper I grabbed out my camera and tripod and went to snapping pictures. I’ll add those tomorrow as my camera is with Jason right now as he is adventuring in some caverns.

After purchasing the Rpod mid May, we had about 7 weeks to get it ready to ride. Ron, the previous owner, had driven it less than 1,000 miles total in 3 trips during the 3 years he had it. It essentially was in brand new condition.

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While it was in brand new condition, it felt sterile to me. Everyone knows I love to organize and redecorate, so it will come to no surprise to anyone reading this that the moment we got it home from New York I was on Etsy, Amazon, and Target getting all the things.

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I’ll grab some pictures of the underneath the dinette storage another time because the pups are currently asleep on it and I don’t wake sleeping pups!

This has been a long awaited journey for us but for me especially. Ever since our last trip in 2018, I have been on the lookout for a travel trailer. Car camping was an… experience. I loved the last trip because we were able to stay in some cool places like Chicago, New Orleans, and Nashville which would’ve been harder to explore with a travel trailer behind us. One of the major disadvantages though was that we had to have reservations set in advance so we had dog-friendly accommodations and this became limiting as the trip continued on. We LOVED Taos. Loved New Mexico so much. But we had already scheduled where we were staying in Dallas and NOLA so we couldn’t stay longer. We wanted a little more freedom and a lot more space so the search began for an RV!

Last February, before the world stopped, Jen Farley and Amanda Weeden‘s family met Jason and I in Providence for an RV show. Whoa was it overwhelming to see all of the fancy options that were available. I searched up and down every row because there was one RV I wanted to see.. the Rpod. These cute little 20 foot travel trailers seemed big enough for the 4 of us to travel in but were light enough that my new Subaru Outback Onyx edition would be able to tow it with it’s 3500lb towing capacity. But they did not have any Rpods to look at during the show. Soon after, we drove to Pete’s RV in Plainville because they had a Rpod 179. The 179 has a MASSIVE rear kitchen and this vegan loved that journey for me. We fell in love with it and began trying to see if this could be it for us….and then the world turned upside down. Covid-19 took over, work for both us changed dramatically, and we had no choice but to cast our dream aside.

This past year has been full of learning experiences and long hours worked. I don’t want to get into it because well.. that’s not what this is about. But it is important to note at least that I worked my tail off this year and sacrificed a lot of myself and my well being at times for others. That is who I am at my core so in the moment I didn’t think twice about it. But after DESE threw curveballs and screw-you balls at us over and over, I knew I had reached a breaking point where I needed to recharge and do something for myself. Carefully watching how the vaccine roll out was going and how the doors began to safely reopen places, I threw myself into finding an Rpod for us.

I joined an Rpod (okay 4) Facebook group and began reading and watching any video I could. This was a brand new world to me but I used the experience as a distraction. While I had fallen for the 179, a few other models began creeping up on the possibilities list. The 179 had a big rear kitchen, but the slide out was a couch with two ottomans and it faced the bathroom door… not really what I want to sit and look at. We tried to make some offers on 171 and 177’s, but they were getting snatched up very quickly. Private sales and RV places couldn’t hold onto them. I looked from Maine to Illinois to Georgia. I lost a few potentials just because my cell phone doesn’t work at school so by the time I could reach out to Jason they were gone. It was heartbreaking for sure.

Then it happened. A Rpod 178 was up on Facebook marketplace- perfect price- perfect location! Schenectady, NY- a mere 3 hour drive! I immediately reached out with interest, heard back within hours, and told Jason we were setting up a phone call to ask questions later that night. We went that weekend, saw it, put a deposit down, figured out how to get it with cash since it was a private sale, and then two weeks later drove him home! There was A LOT that happened within those two weeks, but at the end of the day, through the generosity from my mother, I was able to get the cashier’s check and bring the Rpod home.

Throughout the blog I will post about where we are, how have/continue to customize the camper, what we are doing, and of course what I am eating as we travel across the country. This time, we literally have no plans. No reservations. Nothing scheduled. We had hopes of leaving on Monday July 5 but didn’t get on the road until Friday July 9th. But it’s all good. We’re on the road again, and I just can’t wait to see what this journey brings.

August 12, 2018.. to August 13, 2018

Nashville, TN to Charlottesville, VA….. to Warwick, RI

The longest day ever.

We woke up in the comfiest bed of the entire trip and definitely wanted to take it easy. Our original plan was to get breakfast in Nashville and then jet over for dinner in Charlottesville before camping once more before our drive home. You’ll read how that’s not how it happened!

We did grab breakfast in Nashville! First we found Von Elrods. This great little bear garden had these perfect mimosas and beet patties that were super filling for me this morning. A great start!

Bear was not feeling well. We could today that we really couldn’t push him to walk much at all. We decided to just drive around Nashville and grab some pictures from the car as much as possible.

My mother loved Nashville when she had gone so it was nice to see some of the places she spoke of. I think this would be a great place for a girl’s weekend!

We went to the Grand Ole Opry next and Jason was really excited!

Drive to Charlottesville:

So this is an interesting part of the story. I have always always always wanted to go to Charlottesville. For those who don’t know, this is where my favorite band, DMB, the Dave Matthews Band, started playing together. I told myself if I was ever driving by, I would make it my mission to get to Miller’s bar just to be there.

Now, unfortunately and tragically, a year ago from the date we were in Charlottesville was the day that Heather Heyer was murdered during a rally of people who were spreading hate. Charlottesville was on lock down. Jason and I decided to try to get as close as we could to the area and then see if Miller’s was still going to be open. We had a long day of driving ahead of us to get there, but we were NOT going to allow hatred destroy the joy we were looking forward to.

We set off and all seemed good. Patch was a happy backstreet driver.

When we got into Virginia, things changed. The weather was not in our favorite. It was… insanity. Out of nowhere, the sky’s opened up and rain flooded down. We could not see anything. The highway came to a standstill as it poured and poured. Well, almost a standstill… the 18 wheeler in front of us slowly lost traction… and began sliding backwards. I screamed to Jason to look to the left and right of us as I quickly put my car in reverse. I was terrified. The 18 wheeler kept creeping toward us then all of a sudden… he pulled on his e brake. The entire vehicle stopped and I was able to maneuver around him. Shaking, we drove a little further up and pulled over to the side of the road, along with pretty much ever other car. We sat for about 15 minutes until we felt we could travel again. I was so grateful to have Jason by my side during this. He kept his cool and that kept me calm. I was able to work our way out of that bad situation. Wow. Below find the before and after pictures of the sky.

We stopped at Wendy’s to grab and a bathroom break. The dogs walked in the grass as I continued to work my heart out of my mouth. Baked potato and lemonade to the rescue. I discovered that Wendy’s French Fries are not vegan… such a disappointment. I had always thought they were, but they do not use a dedicated fryer for the fries, so they are fried with the same oil as the nuggets.

We kept driving on to Charlottesville and I made the call I was so afraid to make. Everything online said that the Charlottesville Mall area was closed down. You couldn’t drive into the area. Police were blocking every entrance to ensure peace. We had booked our KOA campsite online, so we had accommodations, but I really just wanted to see Miller’s. My nervous fingers shook as I placed the call…. and they answered! They were open and directed us to where we could park. Yessssssss!

The lie: “No Mom, we will be no where near the police presence or the Mall area”

I had to. She would’ve been worried sick. I contacted my sister and sister in law, both DMB fans, and made sure they knew where I was. I wasn’t rubbing it in or anything… 😜

The rain subsided as we pulled into this very quite town. It was about 9:30pm by the time we arrived. Police were everywhere. Nothing was going to happen in town tonight. We drive over to a parking area and spoke to an officer. We told them we were Rhode Trippers and this was an important stop for us. He smiled and waved us down. There were 6 officers blocking the roadway, along with a dump truck.

We thanked the officers and continued on our way. I was giddy with excitement. This was it. This was where the band that picked me up and made me feel alive started. I was so nervous. Of course, I didn’t want to seem like “that fan”, but alas there I was.

The bar was muuuuch different than I imagined. Three stories tall, this brick building was not the shady dive bar I assumed it would be. We sat outside in the middle of the mall with our pups. We ordered a cider and looked over the menu, which the waitress told us was minimized for this weekend. Usually, they are booming until 1am. This weekend, they closed earlier than 11pm each night. They had the Beyond Meat burger and changed up the bun so I could eat it…aka they gave it to me on lettuce 😂😂😂 Jason ate something covered in sauce… see this is why you finish your blog while you’re on the trip 😂.

So at this point, we’ve been talking to the waitress for some time. We were her only customers and she happened to be in school to become a teacher! I had to share as much wisdom as I thought she could handle. She walked away to let us eat and I took a bite…. and spit it out. I said to Jason “this is meat. No way is this not meat”. He tried a bite and also thought hmm this definitely tastes a ton like meat. I was so dismayed. We called her back over and she reassured me that it was the Beyond Meat burger and they hear it all the time. It’s just that good. She even asked the Chef to come talk to us and she confirmed it was what I ordered. She has always wanted to ask someone about it because as a non vegan she can tell the difference but wanted to know why we thought it was the same. Beyond the taste, the BM burger has beet juice in it, so the burger “bleeds”. Also, due to the cooking surface, it was crispy on the edges. I was relieved it was vegan and finished up.

At this point, I kept walking into the bar to look around, but hadn’t said anything about why we stopped. Finally, another waiter working chatted up Jason who told him “my girl just wanted to grab a picture wherever Dave used to play”. He replied back, “oh you’re fans? He was here all last night! He gives back to the community often and wanted to be here in support for the anniversary weekend.” Welp, my jaw dropped and I covered my head in disbelief. One day from seeing him IN PERSON at THE BAR where he started. I couldn’t. The waiter brought me over and let me go onto the stage. I’m not crying, you’re crying!

The stage was the size of a postage stamp. I am not sure how all 5 members fit on it, but oh how grateful I am they did.

I was on cloud nine, when I get a text from my mother. Charlottesville was under flash flood warnings until 4am. The storm was approaching and we would be sleeping in… a tent?? On the ground?? Uh oh.

The decision

We both we full of energy and weak at the same time. We did not want to get all of our camping gear soaked, but we were unsure if we could make it home. We decided… to blare some music and get on the road home.

Charlottesville, VA to Warwick, RI

7 hours 30 minutes

Jason drove first. We had to navigate some weird back roads for longer than made sense to us. The fog was thick so it was hard to see. We said we would rotate every two hours and if one of us said we couldn’t drive we would just sleep in the car until morning. Jason did about 2.5 hours before he asked for a break. 5 hours to go and we would be home.

Jason fell asleep quickly and I was thankful to have every Dave Matthews Band album at my fingertips. I started from the beginning and listened to each album, singing my way through New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and then Rhode Island. I was full of love and appreciation and just wanted to get my family home safe. The three of them slept (as well as they could while I was singing 😜) until we got into Warwick. Patch noticed first and began to stir. I put the windows down to smell the ocean air. We were home. Home sweet home.

With no gas left in the tank, we pulled into our driveway having driven 6319 miles to see our friends. 6319 miles of adventure.

Will we do this again? Absolutely. To be continued… 2019? 2020? You’ll have to wait and see.

August 11, 2018

New Orleans, LA to Nashville, TN

Drive Time: 10am – 7:30pm

Morning

Today we leave NOLA to head to Nashville. We repacked the car to have as little as possible in it and have everything we could in the roof rack bag. We are just expert packers at this point and got it all packed, loaded, and tied on in under a half hour. We both were a little “groggy” this morning and didn’t want to eat so we just figured we could eat snacks on the way. Jason took a few minutes to photograph the inside of the house so we’d remember.

This part of the country was so lush with greenery on the sides of the road. Massive vines draped everywhere and over everything. Definitely different than our drive out west. We saw some sugar canes which is a major crop down here.

Lunch

We drove through Mississippi and Alabama and stopped in Tuscaloosa, AL. We looked online for a place to stop and eat and Jason’s deli came up. How could we not stop there? We assumed it was a small Mom and Pop place, but upon our arrival it was more like a Panera Bread of the south.

I got a panini that had spinach, avocado, and tomato. Jason got a grilled zucchini sandwich which looked really interesting too. They amazingly had a vegan vegetable soup that was incredible! Loved it! We got wild hibiscus iced tea and that was perfect for this hot day. We sat under a tree and had a picnic. The dogs played and rolled around. This park had a playground structure that was MASSIVE, probably 40-50 feet in the air.

We left Tuscaloosa and finished the trip to Nashville. Tonight we will be staying at an actual hotel that is dog friendly about 30 minutes south of Nashville in Franklin.

Aloft

We’ve stayed in 10 different locations at this point, and this is the first hotel. Aloft is a dog friendly hotel and we were super impressed. We arrived around 7:30pm and Nashville was already drunk 🤣. There was a man outside who was definitely upset about something and when I went to check in his partner was frantically asking the hotel not to call the police on him. She just asked for 10 minutes to pack upstairs and she’d get him out of there. I was like uhhhh what’s happening?? Haha 😆 The receptionist was amazing and they got us checked in quickly. They even gave us a little doggie bag that was full of cute items! A zip up water bowl, a bone shaped doggie bag dispense with dog bags, a frisbee, and hand wipes.

We get to the room and it was amazing. Huge bed, cool glass shower, and the set up was different than most hotels.

We totally forgot to get pictures of this room but I was laughing at an all white bed in a dog friendly hotel. We have two black haired dogs, sooooo sorry Aloft! Haha

By the time we showered and got ready, we decided to just hang out in the hotel tonight. The pool was open til 11, the hotel had a pool table and a bar with food. And we were basically told there was a concert in Nashville tonight so it was going to be crazy in town. The pups got to stay with us so they were happy too! We grabbed a few drinks and got to playing games at the pool table. The bartender informed us they only had 3 options for food this late at night so I slightly panicked. But low and behold, one was vegan buffalo cauliflower bites! What are the chances! They weren’t fried either so I didn’t feel guilty at all. As you can see the dogs basically stayed under foot the whole time. I made a bet with Jason that I could beat him in overall games won, the loser having to take a shot. Well I lost 😂. So I took the tequila shot like a champ! We started talking to another couple who wanted to play pool now that we were off the table. She was from Cape Cod! We talked about our road trip and they said they had wanted to buy a camper soon. Of course we totally encouraged them and told them of our whole trip. They invited us to follow them to the next bar they were heading to across the street (which was dog friendly). Jason really wanted to swim first before the pool closed so he went and changed and I brought the pups upstairs to rest for a minute. Well by the time Jason got upstairs after the pool the 3 of us were asleep on the bed so we never did meet up with our new friends.

Who ever thought the hotel bar would be so much fun!

August 10, 2018

New Orleans, LA

Breakfast

We are getting an early start today because we want to get the full NOLA experience. I found a restaurant named Satsuma right up on Dauphine St where we are staying that has vegan breakfast options and a dog friendly patio. We drive over and settle in to this cute place. There was a cat sitting on one of the tables and apparently that is his table and you are welcome to sit there as long as you pet him. He was adorable!

Right away a man sitting in the corner began a conversation with us. He told us ALL about the history of Louisiana and NOLA. He is an aspiring author who has been in New Orleans for almost 5 years submersing himself in the culture to get his book going. His name is Clifton Thuma, and after 2 hours listening to him, we felt we knew everything we could about the city. It was amazing! What a gem 💎. I had an amazing tofu scramble with homemade jam and it was pretty awesome.

Clifton told us that we were two blocks from where “A Streetcar Named Desire” was written so we walked over to it to get a picture of the tiled street sign.

It had just started to rain so we drove toward Bourbon street to see where we could find parking before walking the area. We walked two blocks before the skies opened up. The poor pups were soaked. Jason ran back to get the car and by the time he got to us the downpour had ended. We still decided that it wasn’t worth doing that again so we drove around the city looking for places Clifton pointed out or we read about the night before. Jason has always wanted to go to a Louisiana cemetery because the graves are above ground. He grabbed some amazing pictures.

We also drove down Bourbon St and caught a band walking around and playing.

Definitely some nice daytime fun!

Lunch

Well lunch time was eventful! We had trouble finding both dog friendly and vegan availabilities. We headed over to Magazine St because it seemed to have the most possibilities. First we walked through what we thought was just a regular old back gate to a bar named Bulldog. They mostly had beer, which hasn’t been my favorite on this trip, and I just wasn’t feeling the food options so I asked Jason if we could go to the Mexican place next door that said it had pitchers of margaritas. Much more my style lately! We walked out the same gate we went in and *ALARMS BLARING!!* yup, it was a security door. It must not have been clicked in all the way when we walked in but we slammed it shut when we got in there so it had to have set it. The dogs got all freaked out so I just dragged them out while Jason went to tell the bartender. Yeah, we were those people. It made no sense.

So we hopped right next door to Arañas. They had tacos I could eat and margaritas. I think Jason is a little sick of Mexican food at this point but I love it. We shared a pitcher of jalapeño, pineapple, and cilantro margarita and he was happy.

I got mushroom and spinach tacos with a poblano sauce and we shared Mexican rice and veggies as a side. So tasty!

Dinner

Yes, I’m talking about dinner already. I made Jason go get our dinner now because we knew we wanted to walk Bourbon St when it was on full swing as well as go to other places later at night too. I wanted my dinner ready for me at home. I had one place I wanted to go to in NOLA, and that was Sweet Soulfood. All soulfood. All vegan. Here was their menu for Friday.

I walked in and man it smelled insanely good. I couldn’t believe it was all plant-based. The owner was there and she was so super sweet. Here you select 4 items that fill a to go box. I couldn’t pick 4, so I got two boxes, filled with every item she had.

These probably weighted 5 lbs all together. Look at how beautiful!!! I can’t even pick a favorite. If you are in NOLA, you need to go to this place. I don’t care if you aren’t vegan. This is what good cooking is.

We headed back to the house and let the dogs rest. Our plan was to leave them for no more than 2 hours, come home again for a few hours, and then head out one last time. We figured this would keep them as calm as possible.

We walked Bourbon St, and ended up seeing 4 different sets of people whom we had met randomly throughout the day. It was crazy!! A local overheard us talk about the weird coincidence and said “NOLA is a small city, happens all the time.” Amazing!

Bourbon St for me is a place I will go to once and say I’ve been there and done that. And I did. It’s done for me. I’m not a huge fan of crowds or loud craziness out in public. We of course stopped and grabbed a drink and walked the street, but walked back on a calmer street. I believe Jason probably would’ve loved it if it weren’t for the fact that he knew I felt uncomfortable. He definitely was in protecting mode which I know isn’t fun. A Friday night on Bourbon St was certainly a crazy time! We went back to the house and chilled with the dogs. I finally ate my dinner and loved all of it. Vegan soulfood. Perfection. We went out one last time to Frenchman St, which we heard would be less hectic and more musical. It was definitely not less hectic. We didn’t last 10 minutes. We got in the car and went over to a place my mom suggested, Cafe du Monde. Jason grabbed a coffee and the beignets, which were not vegan, so I just people watched. A little of everything could be seen. Families, couples, bachelorette parties. The people watching in NOLA is bar none! Very interesting. The next morning was going to be a “red dress run” and we saw some men and women already dressed and partying, ready to go. It was a sight to be seen!! We got home and crashed with the pups. Nothing better than being home. 💜

August 9, 2018

Dallas, TX to New Orleans, LA

Drive time: 10:30am- 6:30pm

Wake up

We woke up probably a little later than we intended but we did just drive for 11 hours! It was thundering and lightning and down pouring! Needless to say we were not in a rush to drive in this weather.

Did I mention how cool Grady is? He left food and drink for guests to have in the fridge at no cost! That’s amazing. He had Texas beer and wine, water, dairy and nondairy creamers, soda and also some frozen breakfast sandwiches. One of them was vegan!! I was so excited!!

Jason ran back and forth in the rain to load the car. At this point he has figured out a science to packing these bags to give the dogs maximum space. Each time he ran back I would hand him bags at the door. We got it done quick and got on the road. We stopped to get gas and Jason walked in to pay. He saw a woman making tamales and frying corn tortillas. She was very boisterous and entertaining! He had some funny interactions with her and grab himself a sandwich and a coffee. He grabbed me a hot cinnamon spiced cider that was very tasty!

More driving

Leaving TX I didn’t see any cattle farms, so I was happy. We noticed many changes in vegetation on the way to New Orleans. The Louisiana Bayou was very lush this time of year. So many different plants and animals. We saw flamingos flying above us! Whaaaaat? We again just finished off some snacks we had in the car mostly. I had a yogurt from Kite Hill and ate a bunch of dates. Jason finished off a quinoa salad and bought grapes and pineapple when we stopped to get gas. Definitely saving money by having the cooler filled with options.

NOLA

We arrived in New Orleans and texted the Airbnb hosts so they could let us in. Chet met us and gave us a tour of the shotgun style home we’d be staying in. This place is funky and eclectic. Chet tells us he is an antique and vintage dealer so it explains the cool furniture. We take the travel bag off the top of the Subaru and brought everything inside. At this point it was getting late and Bear was basically protesting all the movement by hiding in a corner under a piece of furniture. My heart broke for him. We decided to stay in, read some of the Louisiana books that were left in the house, plan our day out for the next day, and make a soup. We made Da Kind’s vegetable soup and it was delicious.

As you can see Jason was pretty happy about it!

August 8, 2018

Taos, NM to Dallas, TX

Drive time- 7am to 7pm. 11 hours plus lost one due to time zone change

Longest. Drive. Ever.

Morning

This is what Taos looks like at 6am. It was early and I didn’t want to leave. The heat in Taos was perfect. The skies opened my eyes to the world. This is a place that will live in my dreams for some time to come.

Thankfully we packed almost everything that night before. After a quick clean up, we put the final bags in the car. Then the mountain sunrise happened.

Just stunning.

Bear loved it too.

We also encountered some loud noise coming from the airport. We had seen some planes land the first night, but this sounded different. And it was. It was a powered parachute!

So crazy!!!

There was also a hot air balloon in the distance.

Before we left Judd, we took some pictures of the interior to share!

And of course Patch and I showing you where we are. Do you like my poncho jacket? It’s the best clothing piece ever! (It’s not wool, it’s acrylic)

Breakfast

We stopped at a place that had a huge sign out front saying “Vegan Frito Pie Wrap”. I wanted that so badly but since we were on the road so early I guess it wasn’t opened yet. So we traveled a little up the road to a place named Michael’s Restaurant. My dad’s name was Michael so this was a logical stop for us. Unfortunately Jason came back with news that they had no nondairy milk, but they had tons of donuts.. for him. Haha. Since I knew Jason was going to take the brunt of the driving today, I didn’t mind eating a few granola bars on the way.

Driving forever

So we basically hauled it today. We stopped only 3 times the entire way and never for more than 10 minutes. We’d get gas, let the dogs out, switch spots, and go. We listened to Johnny Cash, Chris Stapleton, Willie Nelson mostly while Jason drove. While I drove, Jason slept in the back with the dogs while I listened to the Dave Matthews Band. In total, I drove for 3 hours and Jason did the other 8. He’s such a champ. We just ate snacks we had in the car, nothing crazy.

We passed many cattle farms in the Texas heat. It did not smell good and I felt sick looking at the conditions these poor animals were in. More years were shed and I said a prayer for these guys.

Dallas, TX

We had no intentions of stopping anywhere in Dallas for dinner. We wanted to get to the camper and get the dogs outside. Tonight we rented an Airbnb that was a 32′ airstream called the Urban Cloud.

As you can see in the pictures, this place was amazing! Grady took great care about all of the details in this camper. We loved the decor and different materials he used throughout. The dogs were super comfy too! They loved being outside and having no other dogs around (besides the two tiny dogs that we think belonged to the neighbors because they left once our dogs got out of the car) It was over 95 degrees when we arrived at 7. We only unpacked what we had to and just stretched our legs out.

It was our 10 year anniversary today! This was one of the reasons we took this long road trip. We played Farkle and laughed our butts off at jokes probably we would only think are funny at this point. It definitely has been a crazy adventure so far. 💜

Dinner

We really didn’t want to cook even though it was SUPER cold inside of the camper. I put leggings and a long sleeved shirt on and I was still cold. I had picked up some vegan ramen at Nooch in Denver so I figured that would be enough for tonight.

Adding a few veggies that we had intended for a salad made it super tasty and quick!

A long day of driving meant early to bed for sleeping. Tomorrow is NOLA!

August 7, 2018

Taos, NM

Land of Enchantment

Morning

We stayed up late so we slept in a little bit. We had a lot we wanted to do today so after eating a couple of granola bars we got on our way. First up this morning was the Manby Hot Springs. These are natural and free hot springs that occur next to the Rio Grande and as Jason kept saying they were “a gift from the gods”. We told Bear this was the last tough walk he’d have to do and thankfully he did well. The drive in to Manby was AWESOME!! I finally got to see what the Crosstrek could handle! Jason is a very good driver and he thoroughly enjoyed the bumps and valleys he had to navigate through to get us to the trailhead. (we did it Kevin!!)

I forgot to take more pictures because I was just having too much fun!

Going down is the hardest for Bear right now, and we needed to go a little more than a half mile down. He was a champ and took his time. Luckily there were lots of stone steps so that helped a lot. We also passed by this group of bighorn sheep. Thankfully the dogs didn’t notice! When we arrived at the bottom, both hot springs were occupied, so we decided to let the pups play in the Rio Grande until a group left. This place is clothing optional since it’s a little off the typical path and some groups did choose to do that. Another group had their dog swimming in the spring with them. It was definitely a freeing place. We waited our turn and it was perfect.

We were soon accompanied by a man and his dog and he played the flute by the water. It was seriously magical. It felt so calming and relaxing that we almost didn’t want to leave.

We trekked back out to continue on our adventures, thanking the man who we found out was a native of Taos for the music. So serene.

There used to be a wagon road on this trail to get down to the water. I cannot even believe that a horse could walk down there dragging a wagon! So dangerous and awful.

SHOPPING!

We left here to go to a place I’ve been waiting to go to. This little shop has colorful tiles, jewelry, blankets, and New Mexican art and I love the vibe. Jason brought home some from the last time he was in Taos and I wanted more. We took turns in the store so the dogs could stay in the car with the AC on. We grabbed some items and headed to our next adventure.

Taos Tattoo

No, I didn’t get another tattoo.. but Jason did! We had called while up in Colorado to see if they had any openings today and they said walk-ins were welcome. When we got there Jason spoke to the artist and he said he would be ready in about 30 minutes. We took a quick ride over to Cid’s which is a small grocery store Chris told us we would be able to score vegan items at. I grabbed some noodles, tofu, and snacks for the ride to Dallas and NOLA, and grabbed a vegan “sushi” roll with tofu, kale, avocado, carrots, and cabbage. Delicious!

Back to Taos Tattoo

Jason went in and the dogs and I sat on the porch outside. He was getting a quick tattoo so I didn’t feel like I needed to leave to go anywhere. He met with the artist, he drew up the design, and Jason kept coming outside to show me placement and such. Once it was perfect he got started.

This is a picture through the window since we were outside. 😂

This was Patch annoying Bear and I the whole time. She even managed to push open the door once. Can’t. Be. Away. From. Daddy. 🙄

Drumroll please…

Here is Jason’s new tattoo! It is the Zia symbol. It’s commonly seen and used throughout New Mexico. It represents the 4 seasons, 4 directions, 4 stages of life, and 4 times of day. It also suggests you should work on your mind, body, spirit, and community. He has wanted this symbol for over 20 years since his first time in NM. It looks amazing!

Adobe Bar and Taos Inn

Chris suggested that the Adobe Bar makes an incredible margarita and they had a vegan tequila that I like called El Tesoro. This bar also had Soyrizo tacos on their menu and Daiya cheese so I wanted to go!

Unfortunately, they were out of soyrizo, so I settled for chips and salsa and green chili with Daiya on top. I was so hungry I forgot to take the picture…. oops! 😜

Home Base

We stopped at a few more thrift shops on the way home. We decided not to go to the Pueblos this time around because we couldn’t bring the pups with us and they proved they can probably escape from the camper if they wanted to. When we got back to Judd we packed up the car for the next leg of our adventure. We had to be up the next morning EARLY for an 11 HOUR DRIVE so we didn’t want to get up early to pack too. After getting that secured, we headed over to the Taos Mesa Brewery, which was a few hundred feet away! It was in the same compound, which was so exciting. Tuesday night is Trivia and two dollar tacos, so how could we say no?

We signed up for trivia as the Rhode Scholars (from Rhode Island) and had some lovely conversations with people traveling and sitting around us. This place is dog friendly so the pups settled in on the ground, soaking up the attention from passers by.

They had tofu tacos (for $2!!!) and I grabbed some fries as well.

This trivia was HARD! We were doing well but were having so much fun! They had a “physical challenge” portion where Jason went up and had to make an origami animal. He succeeded and made a penguin! He now guides us on our way across the country.

When the last round came around and it was almost 10pm, and they announced “golf” was the final round, I suggested we settled up our bill and headed out.

We tried to grab a fun picture but my camera ran out of batteries during the shoot.

I stared for a few minutes up at the Milky Way and thanked it before heading to bed. We will be back, Taos. 💜

August 6, 2018

Salida, CO to Taos, NM

Drive time- 3 hours

Sleeping in a two person tent sucks. We both slept terribly and just wanted to get on the road. Patch does make the mornings better.

Breakfast

We found a gem this morning. We drove out of Salida forgetting to stop for coffee ☕️ so we stopped a little ways away at the Villa Grove Trading. I totally judged and said this place wouldn’t have non dairy milks for me, but I was wrong! They had 2 choices, both hemp and almond! Jason had a great conversation with the owners and workers. They looked like they just had picked veggies from their garden for the restaurant and told Jason that they made a mean breakfast. He declined today but does want to come back to this place! They had handmade jewelry and crafts and was a very hippie kind of style. Love it!

Great Sand Dunes?

Apparently (obviously) not sleeping doesn’t put me in a positive mood. As we approached the Great Sand Dunes from a distance I thought, that’s it?? It looked like a mound I would build at the beach. I was certain I was taller than the dunes, questioned why anyone would call them great, and suggested we skip going and head right to Taos. Jason rolled his eyes, having been here before, and kept driving. Needless to say, I was wrong. They were pretty great.

We did not stay long because even though we got there early, the sand was hot! We stayed barefoot so we would know if it was too hot for the dogs to handle. FYI- these dunes can be as high as 750 feet. I’m 5’3″. I’m definitely not taller.

Taos bound!

I have been so excited for Taos. The drive felt like it took forever because I wanted to just be there already! We were basically on the road alone so we stopped to take some pictures. Yup. We stopped and took pictures in the middle of the road. We could never do that at home!

We stopped at a viewing tower for UFOs too… because why not?

Earthships

Jason has had a few conversations along this trip about earthships. These are homes that are self sustainable using the environment and recycling of items. They use water 3 ways before they use it to flush the toilet. The man at the end is using a brush to pollinate the indoor plants since they don’t have bees! Very interesting.

Planes?

We saw two huge planes flying very low to the ground. Jason suggested it was military practice. Who knows?

TAOS

We got to Taos too early to check in, so we drove around town to find lunch. My HappyCow app lead us to a bar named Eske’s. Great outside patio with a space for music. I informed our waitress that I was vegan and asked about a burrito with rice, beans, and green chili (my new favorite food). She told me that the flour tortilla has lard in it…… I didn’t even know what to say about that. So I shifted gears and got the green chili as a cup with beet salad with pepitas and balsamic.

I still am not sure about lard in flour tortillas…..

Hotel Luna Mystica

Kevin and Chris have never steered us wrong! When we said we were coming out, they suggested we absolutely try to stay at Hotel Luna Mystica and if at all possible, stay in Judd. Well 5 minutes later I booked Judd for two nights. He is so cute!! Hotel Luna Mystica has taken several old school campers and turned them into rooms. So awesome! I counted maybe 10 of them on the property. And we got the one with the best view!

Judd is a 1953 Vanabond. Just the best Taos color too!

Look at those mountains!!

Sunset was insane here too. Apologies for all of the pictures. I can’t choose.

Dinner

We decided to eat in tonight. Da Kind soup to the rescue!! Coconut Dahl with rice and lentils. It was so creamy without having any dairy! Love.

Starfest ⭐️ 💫 🌟

Well I thought I had seen all the stars up in Crested Butte, but I was wrong. Taos gave me all the stars. And over 10 shooting stars as well as the Perseids dazzled us all night. We stayed up til 1am, right before moon rise.

Did I mention the Milky Way?? Omg the Milky Way!!! Jason basically had to convince me to come to bed because of the Milky Way. So awe inspiring!