Fresh off our first real van-adventure of 2026, we continued north up Highway 101. We still had one more family member to visit on our route up to Washington State, but in between was nothing but weeks of coastline and dirt roads—or at least that was the plan. The small...
With most of our family and friends visits out of the way, we had time to take our first adventure of the year. The Lost Coast has been on our todo list since last year’s drive north through California. It’s a stretch of coastline through California’s King Range—good for temperatures...
Now officially on the wrong side of the Sierras—and a few days too early to deliver Marcel to his winter resting place—we called an audible and dropped in on family friends down in Placerville. A little moochdocking in a quiet, comfortable driveway followed. The days passed easily: eating, chatting, and...
We aimed Marcel toward Mono Lake on what might be the most aggressively side-to-side rolling dirt road we’ve ever driven. Not the gentle up-and-down kind — this was full-body sway, the kind that makes a tall van question its life choices. Marcel was not a fan. Neither were our cabinets....
We were on the final push now. Mojave behind us, the plan was simple enough: head north, cross the Sierras, and get Marcel settled in for a long 6–8 month hibernation while we disappeared halfway around the world to go sailing. Simple plans, of course, are rarely executed simply. Originally,...
After striking out at Castle Mountain National Monument, we found ourselves wandering a web of dirt roads inside the Mojave National Preserve, passing the still-operational Hart Mine along the way. Not long into the wandering, we were stopped cold by a fallen Joshua Tree sprawled across the road. This was...
Immediately we were traveling by the worst way; by a schedule. In just a few short days we needed to be at a predetermined destination to link up with my brother & wife to visit my eldest brother near Clearlake, California. This, at least, allowed us to drop in at...
LTVA stands for Long Term Visitor Area (I think… sounds good enough). These are areas within BLM lands in which someone can pay a one time fee to be able to stay for an entire season, as opposed to having to move every two weeks. As you can imagine, they...
I feel like it has been ages since we last got to boondock in the van, and it has. With our route slightly changing, thanks to snow in Interstate 80 the morning we left Kerri’s parents, so did our first week’s location. Instead of spending it off the 395, we...
