MA to AZ and beyond

[rob cote]

Friday, I had a stated goal of finishing this air compressor installation. I basically achieved what I set out to do, although I didn't realize at the time that I'd have to make a slight adjustment after the fact. First, Braden and I did some basic troubleshooting of his Jetta's air conditioning system to confirm that the compressor clutch is faulty. Now he can decide whether to repair it or not.

Okay. So. I had roughed out everything before we went to Vermont, right? And then, while we were traveling, I made what further progress I could. However, once everything was installed, I realized there were a couple minor issues. Most importantly, I couldn't get the hood alignment quite right, so it was making very slight contact with the fender when I'd open or close it. That HAD to be fixed. I just opened up the bolt holes in my bracket slightly and that was resolved. The other issue was that there was some extra material on my bracket. I didn't know exactly where the compressor would want to land when I was building it, so I made the bracket as big as I could. But I didn't want to be running a cutoff wheel at a campground; no one wants to hear that. So, while I had some time at the shop, I trimmed off the excess. Finally, there was the issue of raw steel. So, I sanded the brackets down, cleaned them with alcohol, primed them and painted them black.



I let them bake in the sun while I set to work on wiring the compressor up. This is pretty straightforward, just 12V constant and ground. Generally, we'll only run the compressor when the engine is running so as not to kill the starting battery, but I wanted the option to run it with the engine off, too, just in case. If I'm blowing up an air mattress or something for someone, it would be silly to have to run the engine for that. So, I removed the alligator clips on the air compressor wiring and extended it a couple feet on each lead and snaked them through the firewall with the driver's side harness and routed them into the driver's seat base. Once there, I installed ring terminals. There is a good chassis ground in there, but it's hidden under the plastic carriage holding the...stuff. I dunno most of what's under there, but they look like assorted control units. Probably a body control module, maybe one for the head unit. I dunno what else. But there's a ground under there. There's also a 12V constant terminal. I forget the nomenclature, but I think it's Terminal 30? Anyways, this isn't the tech forum, and I don't have a picture but, in any event, the one I used was wrong. I mean, it worked, but it only supports 25A. I didn't really think about capacity at the time. I'd learn this lesson soon.

By then, the paint was dry, so we did a final assembly of everything and bolted the compressor down onto the brackets for hopefully the last time. It's pretty simple to install and there are no interferences with anything. I used a spare Velcro strap to secure the hose to the compressor body for storage. Long term, I might make some slight adjustments to the hose setup for even more ease of use. But it works great as is now. Pop the hood, connect the hose, and flip the switch. No more opening the rear doors to dig the compressor out of the trunk, unbagging it, and hooking up the alligator clips. Plus, we have that space back in our trunk now, too!



I put the interior bits back together and then we headed over to my sister's again to hang out for the night. I spent a long while getting my new phone up and running because the automatic data transfer didn't work like it did last time. As the shadows grew longer, Loki joined us at the big kid's table.

 

[rob cote]

I'm gonna put a whole week here but be prepared - it's not that interesting. Saturday, we spent pretty much the whole day at my dad's house, celebrating his wife's birthday. We offered up a couple van tours to some folks who were interested, but otherwise we stayed out of the van for the most part. Sunday, we prepared Mandy for a quick trip to Wisconsin. She packed her bag for a day trip, and we ended the day at my mom's house. She sits on a pharmaceutical committee to review drugs prior to their entry to market. It only meets once per quarter for half a day, but it pays well, so she stays on. Every bit of extra money coming in helps us, you know?

Monday morning, she flew out of Manchester, NH. Loki and I spent some time at a park in Nashua until our appointment to get the van professionally aligned at 1:00pm. Unfortunately, the alignment took three attempts, and so we spent the entire afternoon in their lobby. Somehow, I don't fully understand, the electronic steering assist was causing the steering wheel to be crooked after the wheels were aligned. They could have called it good and sent me on my way, but I appreciate the extra effort in getting the steering wheel to actually match the driving wheels. With the alignment complete, we found a quiet spot to park for the evening and I worked on writing forum posts. Unfortunately, my creative writing brain just wasn't there, so I scrapped what I put together and just did nothing instead.

Tuesday, I basically had a whole day to kill because Mandy's return flight wouldn't land until 11:30pm. Loki and I spent the day at my sister's house. Loki and Scooter did dog things in the yard all day because the weather was ideal. I filled up our water tanks because they were super low. They were so low, in fact, that Monday night the water pump had sucked up some air into the system. I didn't realize it until Tuesday, but I kind of suspected it. The pump was kicking on and off repeatedly, even with no taps open. My paranoid brain just assumed there was a leak, so I took the sink cabinet apart to inspect the plumbing. Of course, everything was dry. The only other bit of plumbing is the line that goes to the water filter, so it must be a leak in that line. I shut off the valve I installed back in Arizona in that line, and of course the pump stopped kicking on and off. Confirming my leak theory. I checked every bit of it that is accessible, and of course found nothing. I turned the filtered water tap on to let the residual pressure dribble out, then I closed the tap. Then, I turned on the valve to the filter inlet, and then ran the faucet again for a few seconds. Then, when I shut it off, I waited. And waited. The pump never kicked on and off. So, there must have been some small air bubble inside the reverse osmosis filter. So, that was resolved. I put everything back together and continued to hang out on the patio.

Loki and I picked up Mandy later that night, and then we drove a short distance from the airport to a parking lot for the night. We were all exhausted, so we wanted to find a sleeping spot as soon as possible. We parked at the airport diner and crashed immediately. Wednesday morning, we hung around Manchester for a while. We figured it was a decent opportunity to explore a new area, so we parked at Arms Park and walked the river trail. Or, at least, we tried to. It was actually really difficult to find the trail in a lot of spots. It seems like it could be a really nice trail, but it's been poorly maintained. And the planning was probably subpar as well since it's so disjointed. But we made the best of it and walked around a while anyways. Afterwards, Mandy worked on a mountain of paperwork for her new contract job, and I made some breakfast and read a while. She developed a nasty cough and sore throat, so just existing was becoming somewhat challenging for her. Afterwards, we returned to my dad's house to investigate issues with my brother's car and come up with a junkyard plan.

Thursday, Braden and I set out to Billerica, MA to get a few parts at the junkyard to restore his parking brake to functional, and a couple other minor things. We left Mandy to hang out with Loki at the house, since she was feeling pretty crappy. Upon return, Braden and I threw all the parts at the car. We discovered a couple parking light bulbs that were blown, so we took a bike ride to AutoZone to get replacements. After throwing those in, we determined the car to be inspection-ready, and we relaxed by the pool all night.

Friday morning was pretty uneventful. We just chilled for most of the day. Friday afternoon, though, we headed over to Rindge, NH. We arrived after dinner and hung out with my mom and sister and brother-in-law near the lake. We spent the evening socializing before heading to bed in the van in the yard.

Saturday, we pretty much chilled the entire day. Besides hanging out around the house, we walked down to the water for a bit and let Loki swim a few laps. We returned to hanging out in the yard. I told you guys at the beginning it was not super interesting! But it was my mom's birthday, so we had cake and ice cream and spent the day with her. Some friends of hers took a tour of our van and loved it. As it got dark out, we headed to bed.

Sunday, we woke up and my sister and Nate had already left. Their infant, Max, was not feeling well, so they hurried home. We hung around a while with my mom through breakfast, and then left. I had made plans to take care of one final project on Braden's car, so we met up with him to get started on that. We had to take a ride to Haverhill, MA to borrow a friend's welder, and to use my press brake which is stored there. Once there, we set to work making up a couple frame notch filler pieces and burning them in. All in, the work only took a couple hours and went pretty easy. After that, we cruised back to the van which was parked at my dad's house again. We hung out in the yard all night until the bugs started to eat us alive, at which point we went to bed.

 

[rob cote]

We've just been planning and visiting with friends and family around New England mainly for a couple weeks. I'll probably just skip over the day-to-day because it's not been very interesting. I can catch you up to speed even with glossing over most of it.

We had to drive to several state motor vehicle inspection stations, and ultimately made an appointment for the following day, but my brother's car passed. That was a big relief, even though it wasn't my car. It's always a bit nerve-wracking; will they find something we missed that needs addressing? Ultimately, they had a few minor findings which were things we already knew of and are on the to-do list, but no showstoppers. He was pumped. It's not his first car, but it'll probably be the first one he drives on his own license.



I think I mentioned this before, but Mandy was finally able to secure another short-term work contract as a pharmacist. We were anticipating her starting work on the August 29th in Lebanon, NH. So, we didn't want to travel too far, and instead spent our "last few minutes" of freedom with friends and family. We went bowling one day with my sister and brothers and took them to lunch. It was also their final few days of summer break before heading back to school. We explored some parks in Nashua that we should have spent more time in last year but just never made time. We had some pool days and afternoons on assorted patios.



We spent most of a weekend at some friends' new house who we typically only get to see for a few hours at a time and that was really nice. When we had "normal" lives, it felt like it was always a rush to do all the socializing over a dinner and then get home before it was super late, or hurry back to let the dog out, or whatever. But being able to live in their driveway, and them having nothing to do allowed us to actually spend a lot longer hanging out. We all came and went at our leisure, too. They attended a concert one night. We met up with other friends nearby for the night. We reconvened over breakfast the next day. They hardly have any furniture yet because they're still in the process of moving in. And none of us cared. It was actually really special somehow. They did have a new 3D printer setup, though, so we spent some time messing around with making some small parts. This was awesome because we broke a GoPro mount that I've been unable to source for a reasonable price. We made one for free instead.



Some friends requested a small welding project of me, so I came up with a plan for that. We sent notes back and forth until I was able to make a drawing. They revised it. Basically, they live near a museum and people think their house is part of the museum all the time and so enter their house. They wanted a blockade for the front door on which they could hang a "Private residence" sign to help curb the unwanted guests. All I had to do really was weld some chain links to a couple pieces of rebar. The rebar got hammered into the ground on either side of the steps, and chain was strung across the gap and the sign attached to it. It sounds kind of silly, but then, people are idiots. I think it should alleviate the issue. Best of all, I got paid for my work which felt really good. It's been a while.



We got a software update installed under a Mercedes-Benz recall. I believe it was new software for both the engine and transmission control modules. I haven't noticed any difference in drivability. It was free and reasonably quick, and Mandy got her nails painted at the complimentary salon. Loki got treats and I got a coffee. So, we were all happy.

Unfortunately, we had been playing the whole week one day at a time. Mandy had gotten a pretty nasty cough which was diagnosed as bronchitis the week or so prior to her original start date. We both suffered a lack of sleep for her coughing through the night. The Thursday before she was set to begin working, she requested to push the start date one day to Tuesday, just in case. She improved quite a bit over the weekend, thankfully, but Sunday they were still waiting for her background check to clear so she couldn't start Monday anyways. Tuesday was the same thing. So, we assumed she'd possibly start Wednesday. On Wednesday it was beginning to feel like she probably wouldn't start on a Thursday or Friday, but we didn't get actual confirmation of that until Thursday. Not much time to plan to do a whole lot, but at least we had through Monday because of the holiday.

We made plans to see Mandy's family and drove up to Bangor, ME. We stayed at her sister's house for a few nights and their parents and grandparents came by for a day. We didn't do much while we were there, just visiting with everyone and walking Loki around the neighborhood mostly. He really liked the last few weeks of not much driving around. Mostly hanging out at familiar places with familiar people. And familiar dogs. He even let a few of them near the van. I think he remembers old friends and they get a pass of sorts. Unknown dogs would do well to stay far from the van. Ideally, they wouldn't even look at it, as far as Loki is concerned.

We had to return to southern NH before heading to Lebanon because Mandy realized she needed some different clothes for work's dress code. On our way south, we stopped in Portland, ME to check out the Portland Head Light. We were mainly just looking for a spot to spend some time for an afternoon, walk around with the dog for a bit. What we found was a park way bigger than we expected. There were a ton of people around, too. We parked and walked over to the lighthouse and then hiked a bit on the shoreline trails. This was a pretty awesome unexpected stop. We had paid to park for two hours but were approaching the end of our paid time. We investigated and found the further-away parking lot appears to be free. It's hardly further away so I don't really get it, but we moved anyway so we could cook some dinner. We made coconut rice and Indian butter chicken. By "we", I mean Mandy. Loki and I just chilled outside. It was delicious, as always. We tag-teamed cleanup and then started driving south some more. On the way, we decided to just head all the way to Nashua.



Monday was a poopy rain day, so we just spent the morning doing laundry in my mom's house and designing new business cards and stickers to give out to people we meet along our way. I've been working on optimizing our social medias, mainly YouTube videos, for searchability. I've learned a bunch, and I'm sure there's still a ton I don't know. But I'm trying to be better. So, I did a bunch of that, too. We made lunch plans with Shaun and Jenny, who you guys may or may not remember we met up with for a week in Florida. They're up here working a short contract as well because Florida got too hot. Fall in New England is pretty nice, provided you have a decent raincoat. It was great to see them again. After lunch, we packed up the last few things we needed, and we hit the road north.

It rained the whole way to Lebanon, as forecast. We arrived around 5:00pm. We'd had a pretty big lunch, so we skipped dinner for lack of hunger. We toured the hospital campus to get the lay of the land and figure out where Mandy needed to be in the morning. We still don't have her schedule beyond 8:00am start time Tuesday morning. Since the weather was pretty dreary and was forecast to remain so, we opted to stay at Walmart for the night. We wouldn't be doing anything outside anyways, so more extravagant accommodations were unnecessary. We just chilled inside reading and watched a couple shows before passing out pretty early. We wanted to make sure Mandy got plenty of sleep and got up on time for her first day at a new job.

 

[rob cote]

So, I mentioned planning at the beginning of the last post. We're here in and around Lebanon, NH until 12/2. That's the last day Mandy has to work. It will probably be getting pretty freakin' cold by then. But we should have plenty of money saved up unless something radical happens before that time. Our plan is to head south at that point, although hopefully not as fast as we bombed to Arizona last winter. We want to take a bit more time this time, and we're not exactly sure of the route we'll take, but we're targeting Baja, Mexico. So, we've done the east coast route from Florida to Nova Scotia. We've done the east to west route a few times (albeit not ALL the way each time), once south across 40, once in the middle on 70, and north across 90. Although the trek west across 90 was not in our van, for whatever that's worth.

We aren't trying to decide on a route just yet; we want to see what the weather is like as it gets closer, and what some friends and family are up to and whatnot. A strong contender, though, I think, is to take 90 west all the way (or perhaps a parallel, off-highway route) so we can then take the Pacific Coast Highway south. Mandy's never seen the redwoods and I'd love to see them again; it's been a long time. But perhaps it will be too cold, and we'll want to cross the south again, I dunno. We'll see. But our plan is to get to Baja not quite as quickly as possible. But not super slowly, either. And then we'll drive all the way south and catch a ferry to mainland Mexico. We want to see Oaxaca and Mexico City. Perhaps we'll go back to Cancun. Then we'll continue all the way through Central America to Panama. From there, we'll roll onto another ferry to get us into Colombia. We have to figure out how to catch a boat for ourselves and Loki. Once in Colombia, we want to drive to Ushuaia. The end of the world (not really, the earth is a sphere and so there is no end). Tierra del Fuego - Land of Fire. IDEALLY, and we won't know if this is an option until we get there, we'd love to catch a cruise to Antarctica when we get there.

I think that's our best shot at ever getting to all 7 continents. Not that that would be the 7th, I just think it's the most difficult to get to unless you're involved in research which I'm not, though I'd be very interested. Anyway, after Antarctica, I think the rest are totally doable. Africa has been on our list for years, but it's waiting until we're "done" with the van (or if we come into some money and can swing shipping it there). Australia is probably the lowest priority (no offense, Australians!) only because of the duration of the flight. Why did they have to put it so far away? I think our favorite plan to get to Australia at this point is to make it a long trip that stops at least a few places along the way. I'm really averse to flying directly there; I can't sit that long without a lot of discomfort.

But anyways. That's a look at our plans for at least the near term and the middle term. It's going to be a little boring for a time, but I'll try my best to keep it interesting for you guys. Hopefully come December we have lots of interesting content consistently for you guys. And hopefully you choose to stick around until then. If you guys have suggestions for us at any points along the approximate route I outlined, now's the time to submit them. We're very flexible at this point.

 

[rob cote]

Tuesday morning, we geared up in our raincoats. All three of us. Then, we walked Loki around the parking lot in a slow drizzle. His hood doesn't stay on because his ears are so big, so his head eventually gets wet. So, we went back home and cruised over to the pharmacy at Dartmouth and dropped off Mandy for work. Communication regarding her schedule hasn't been great, so Loki and I hung out in the parking lot all day. It was raining anyways, so there wasn't much to do. I did work on the laptop while he lazed in bed all day. We weren't sure if Mandy would need a ride to the main campus to get a badge or parking permit or anything else, and we weren't certain when she'd get out of work. So, there were a multitude of reasons we stayed right outside all day; mainly just in case.

After work, there wasn't much to do since it was still rainy. We got some groceries at this awesome little co-op right next door to work. Then, we found a parking lot to park in overnight and we walked Loki around again. We circled back to the van, and we put together ramen with pork, shiitake, green onions, and carrots. The pork was leftover loin from dinner a couple nights prior, and this was the perfect use for it. And ramen was the perfect dish on such a dreary, rainy night. We soft boiled a couple eggs to serve on top and dug in. It was so good! After we cleaned up, though, there wasn't much else to do but lay down and do some reading before bed.



Wednesday morning, we dropped Mandy off at work and then set out to secure a campsite. The weather was supposed to clear up and warm up a bit. I figured Loki - and me, too - might go a little stir crazy if we didn't get outside. Campsites are awesome because we have our own little spot that people don't tend to enter without first asking. I can secure him outside the van and leave the sliding door open and we can both come and go as we please. It's so much easier for both of us. Generally, he just wants to lay on the ground outside.

We went to Quechee Gorge State Park. The registration booth doesn't open until 10:00am, and we were early. Instead, we drove across the gorge and parked in the day use area. We hopped out and took a walk around. We tried to go into the woods, but he wasn't interested. Instead, we walked across the bridge and got a great view of the gorge. It's so deep! We wandered around a while before circling back to the van to make breakfast.

After I ate and cleaned up, we went back to the campground and checked in for a night. We found our site and I set up dog outside with his bed and a tether. I worked on the laptop a while, then we took a walk around the campground. It's quite a nice campground. The grounds are really clean and well-kept. The sites are large, private, and flat. The three main criteria for a good campsite. They check all the boxes. There are a few that are rather close together, and one or two that aren't super flat, but the majority look like excellent sites.

Eventually, it was time to circle back to pickup Mandy. We headed straight back to the campsite, parked, and took a hike. From the campground, there's a trail to the gorge. We followed that about a half mile to Quechee Gorge to see the sights. The trail is pretty easy but would take much more effort going the other way, as it descends into the gorge most of the way. The views of the river aren't bad, but also not great. The best vantage point is definitely on the bridge.

Rather than hike back the way we came, we completed a full loop, returning via the trail to the visitor's center. The hike was nice and it felt good to be out in the woods again. It feels like so long since we've walked between the trees. Once back at our campsite, we reheated some leftover Indian butter chicken, gobi Manchurian, and coconut rice for dinner. It was even better than the first time, I think.



We cleaned up I showered for $0.50 at the campground showers. I cannot recommend this shower. The shower heads are all but useless; the stream that comes out is only the barest trickle, and only a few inches from the wall. It's super awkward, but at least the water was tepid. Smallest waste of money ever.

Afterwards, we ran over to the dumping station to empty our grey water tank and fill up with fresh water. While we were filling up, Tammy stopped by to introduce herself as the other Pebble Grey owner in the campground. She had to stop by because the color is so uncommon, she said. She was really friendly, and we ended up talking for quite a while as it got dark out. She's traveled all over in her Revel and put in a vote for us taking 90W to the west coast, and then the coastal highway south on our way to Baja this winter. Noted, Tammy! We still haven't decided, though.

With our water tanks full, we headed back to our designated spot and tucked in for the night. We listened to the soft hum of the neighbor's generator all night.

Wednesday's weather was supposed to be even better than Tuesday's. Which isn't saying much. But it was supposed to be actually good weather, so we were looking forward to that. We took a walk in the morning before heading out to drop off Mandy at work. I took advantage of the available cell service there to put together a blog post and send it out to the ether. It's long since I should have been getting that caught up, but it's really tough to block out time to write when we're surrounded by friends and family. I write best when I have an uninterrupted block of time. If I'm constantly trying to be social in between, I'm not at all productive, and the writing comes out all disjointed and doesn't flow good.

Loki and I circled back to the campground to get a different site. We were shown which sites would be vacant for the night, so we walked around the whole campground to find the best option. We didn't really have to be super picky; like I said, they're all great sites. We picked one that was far away from the generator people and walked back to the registration hut to pay. Then, we moved over to the new site.

Once there, I setup Loki outside with his bed and did some yoga. It was finally getting decent outside, though not super warm yet. It seems like each night around here a heavy fog settles in. It takes most of the morning to evaporate it off. Some days it seems the fog doesn't lift at all. Around noon was the first time we actually saw direct sunlight, so we basked in it. I did some more work on the laptop, preparing a blog post to send out for the next time I was in an area with service. There is cell service at the campground, but it doesn't seem to be enough to load the blog editor for whatever reason. Other websites work, albeit slowly.



That took up our whole afternoon until it was time to pick up Mandy at work again. We cruised back to the campground and took a walk around the campground again. It's a decent size, not huge, but it's not a bad walk to do the whole thing. Afterwards, we relaxed outside for a while and worked on our weekend plans. When we got hungry, we reheated up the ramen and filled up our bellies. We cleaned up and I took a shower at home instead this time (MUCH BETTER), and then we slowly made our way into bed.

I'm really sorry about the lack of relevant photos. In my defense, it's been grey as heck for the most part. And I've been trying to get my bearings in a new space meanwhile catching up on months of work. I'll get better at it.

 

[rob cote]

I haven't written you guys in 10 days. I'm a slacker, what can I say.

Friday was just another day for the most part. Mandy had to work. We're still trying to find and fall into that groove. It's been a bit challenging because her work schedule is not fixed like it was at her previous job, in Arizona. Her shifts start anywhere from 8-10am, and I think maybe even 11am but she hasn't had one of those yet. It's a 4/10 schedule, but the days on vary, too. So, in an ideal week, there will be 4 days on followed by three days off. But we haven't had one of those yet. So, her "weekends" are one day at a time, usually in the middle of the week. Unfortunately, we can't do much with that. If she gets out at 7 or 8:00pm, we don't feel much like driving very far. So, there's only one day to explore before we have to be back mid-morning for her to go to work again. It's a little frustrating (mainly because she was told before starting to expect working every 4-5 weekends, but in reality, it's every other, or ever 2 weekends), but we're making it work.

Right, so, Friday. Happy anniversary! Mandy and I have been married 5 years. To celebrate, we took the dog for a walk and then headed over to the pharmacy to drop Mandy off for work. Loki and I just did some general hanging out. I spent most of the day on the internet. I started trying to educate myself on diagnostic tools for modern vehicles. I'm somewhat familiar with older onboard diagnostics capabilities, but the technology has changed a lot in the past few years, and I've fallen behind. It's definitely a lot to take in, and this spiraled into a much larger learning experience than I anticipated. To be continued.

Mandy got out of work and then it was time to actually celebrate. Well, not quite. We'd planned some activities for ourselves, but it was over the course of a few days, just because of the nature of when things were available. So, first, we cruised to Nashua. On the way, we were craving tacos as much as we were craving not cooking dinner and so we stopped at Baja Taco because they are the best authentic street tacos in the area. I ended up getting a burrito, though, because I was really hungry. It was great but the tacos are better.

From there, we went to my mom's place to park for the night because it's flat and we had an appointment in the morning, so we wanted to leave Loki somewhere safe that wasn't inside the van alone. We parked around dusk and took a walk around for a while. We did a big loop through neighborhoods and circled back to the van to tuck in for the night. The moon looked pretty awesome.

 

[rob cote]

Saturday morning, we left Loki inside the house while we ran some errands and went to an appointment. We found a spot in Burlington, MA that looked like a good breakfast spot - plus, we were hungry - so we popped into Twist Bakery & Cafe. We got some breakfast sandwiches which were great, and coffees to go. Along our way back to Loki, we made arrangements with Shaun and Jenny to meet up. We ended up just grabbing Loki with the van still running, then heading over to the high school. A quick pitstop.

The high school abuts a bunch of trails through the woods which leads to - or is? - Mines Falls Park. I'm not sure if the park borders the school property or what, it's not important. But there's a ton of great walking trails all through there. So, we walked with our friends and their 2 dogs and Loki for a while. It's cool that they're up here while we are, too, even though their house is all the way down in Florida. Shaun picked up a short work contract like Mandy did and by chance the dates are mostly overlapping. So, at least we have some friends kind of in the area.



After we made our way back to our vehicles, we parted ways. Loki was pooped because it was pretty sunny out. We brought him back to my mom's house to drop him off and head out to another appointment to get our nails done. We'd just gotten pedicures with Mandy's sister in Maine, but it was so bad we wanted to get another one so we could forget about the bad one. Plus, a manicure helps me stop picking at my cuticles for a while. We cruised back down to Burlington on a recommendation from a friend. We went to Mane and Mani, and they did fantastic work. It was a little more expensive than typical, but we figured we're worth it.



After our nails were dry, we had one more stop to make. When we were building the van, there's a spot we went to a handful of times for dinner and came to really enjoy. It's only pizza, but it's really well-made pizza. And it's not very popular, nor very big. It's just a bar and a few tables. Every time we've gone to this Whole Foods, we've been able to walk right in and grab a seat, no wait. The bartenders are great, too. But really, it's the pizza. We wanted one as it will probably be one of the last opportunities for a while, so we cruised up to there and enjoyed a BBQ chicken pizza together before returning to the dog and winding down for the evening after a walk.

 

[rob cote]

Sunday Mandy had the day off again, which was nice. It was only a two-day weekend because Monday had been a holiday, so she worked her four days Tuesday through Friday. We finished washing some laundry and then hit the road late morning to head back to Lebanon. We cruised to a spot on the Northern Rail Trail near the Mascoma River. We hopped out and started walking.



The Northern Rail Trail is a pretty sweet trail. Since it's a rail trail it's obviously pretty flat, wide, and straight. Very easy walking, and pretty popular for bikes, too. We didn't bring our bikes since it's not paved, but we spent a while discussing bikes and looking at some options online while we walked. We haven't made any decisions, but we're thinking about swapping out the road bikes for something more universal but also cheap. The road bikes weren't very expensive - actually at the extremely cheap end of the scale as far as road bikes are concerned - but it would still be crappy if they got stolen. Sometimes the bikes on the back feel rather vulnerable. But mainly, something that would be more comfortable and stable on mild gravel trails would probably get a lot more use, since that's where we find ourselves a lot of the time.



We walked to the "end" of the rail trail before turning around to head back to the van. It wasn't exactly clear if it was the end of the trail or not, but it seems like the continuation on the other side of the parking lot goes by a different name. So, it's the end of the Northern Rail Trail, but it's more like an intersection of trails. It seemed like a good spot to turn around, though. We went back to the van and drove to the same spot where we turned around. There's a large parking lot downtown at a park that has decent signs. Sometimes if it's not clear that we can park overnight somewhere, we'll skip it, just in case. Here, it's clear that you can park overnight, for now. I believe it starts December 1, there's no overnight parking, probably for snow removal purposes. So, we found a spot next to an island where Loki could chill in the grass tethered to the van and got to work.



Actually, Mandy got to work. She edited our video, and I took out my bike for a ride. Loki laid next to the van in the afternoon sun. It wasn't long ride, but it was nice to cruise for a while. I tried to see if I could get to the hospital, but I started off in the wrong direction, and only rode half as far as I would have needed to so that was a total bust. But whatever. I rode until I felt like turning back, basically. There were some hilly sections that gave quite a lot of speed, which I love. The pavement was pretty banged up though, so it was a little sketchy in some corners. No issues, though.

Back at the van, we just hung out for the night, finishing up the video and getting it posted, and making dinner, cleaning up, etc. We stayed put for the night and slept right there. No issues.

 

[rob cote]

Monday, we took a walk around the park with Loki in the morning, and generally had a pretty leisurely start to the day. Mandy's usually worked starting around 7:00am, give or take, so the 8, 9, 10 o'clock starts are weird. We cruised over to the pharmacy, and she made breakfast while Loki and I hung out. Once she went into work, we set off on a hike. There's a ton of trails all around the hospital, which is just down the street from where she's working. We can easily access the trails by setting off from the van parked just outside her work. We don't even have to drive to them.



So, we walked down the road and picked a trail at random. There's a lake somewhere in the midst of all the network of trails, so I figured that would be a good target. Most of the trails show up on Google Maps, so that makes it pretty easy to get where I'm trying to go. I took a picture of the map at the trailhead, too, just in case. It's good practice to take a picture of the maps available, in case you don't have service or whatnot along the way. We made it to the lake in probably about an hour. It was pretty easy hiking, and there were no other people out there on the trails that we saw. It felt really isolated and the woods were so quiet it almost made my ears ring.



Loki hopped in the lake for a few minutes to splash around and scare off the fishes. Eventually, I coaxed him out. I've been trying to catch a slow-motion video of him shaking off the water but it's SO HARD to time it right. He always does it as soon as I put the camera away. Anyway. We started to follow the trail around the shoreline, but then I checked the map and realized the trail didn't really connect to anything without going really far away first. I said, "nevermind, dude," and we turned around to go back the way we came. We eventually made it back to the van and I set to work making some lunch.



We chilled inside for the rest of the afternoon. It felt silly at that point to move the van anywhere, just to have to come back to pick up Mandy at the end of her shift. So, we stayed in the parking lot. I worked on researching further diagnostic tools and service intervals for our van. Fall is coming on and very soon it will be too cold outside to do any work comfortably. And then we'll be heading away from places we can service the van ourselves without getting hassled. I want to take care of as much as I can ahead of our trip to Patagonia, as well as be prepared for any issues that may arise on our way there and back. It's a lot to learn everything involved.

Once Mandy got out of work, we headed out of town on the highway. We cruised up 89 all the way to Burlington. Or just shy of Burlington, I'm not exactly sure. We parked at a mall for the night. We arrived pretty late, so we didn't do much before tucking ourselves in to sleep.

 

[rob cote]

Tuesday morning, we took Loki for a short walk around the parking lot, but it started to drizzle shortly thereafter, so we didn't get very far before he was done with it. We hopped back in the van and set out to downtown Burlington. Once there, we met up with a dog sitter from Rover named Gwen. She took the three of us into her apartment and Loki met her cats. He actually did awesome with both of them, no issues. We told Gwen what we were up to, and we just needed her to keep an eye on Loki for a few hours.

From there, we drove across town to where we'd scheduled a massage class. It was just Mandy and I and our instructor for two hours. This was the final part of our anniversary gifts to ourselves. We originally searched for a couples massage, but we figured a lesson would be more useful moving forward. I went on the table first and Mandy got a bunch of instructions. I listened to her training, but it's really hard to tell what's going on exactly. Eventually, we switched spots, and I got some training on how to give a massage. It was super informative, actually, and well worth it, in my opinion. We're obviously not experts at this point, but I feel like I could do a much better job than before we had our lesson. Plus, we felt great!

After the massage class, we were feeling kind of hungry. The weather wasn't great, but we figured we'd grab a bite to eat somewhere since we rarely can with the dog. A final treat for ourselves. Gwen said everything was going fine and to take our time. We ate at The Farmhouse because they had outdoor seating that was covered. It was forecast to rain, and we weren't sure when it'd start. We were thankful to have made this choice, because it started to rain as soon as we finished up. But mainly we were thankful because the food was delicious! We paid and then moseyed back through the drizzle to the van to go pick up Loki.



Loki was pumped to see us and hopped right into the van no problem. Probably at least in part because of the rain. Gwen said he was awesome and he's welcome back any time. Perhaps we'll find something to do in Burlington again soon. We began making our way back towards Lebanon, but soon encountered a section of highway that was closed. No detour signs. I checked out the map since Mandy was driving and found a parallel-ish minor highway and navigated her towards that. Unfortunately, this was pretty much the only move, so everyone ahead of us had done the same thing therefore the road was very overloaded. And for reasons unknown, this route had been excavated; all the pavement was gone and it was just gravel. Also, it was raining pretty heavily, so the road was mostly washboard. So, we crept along at about 8mph for hours. We had to go 15 miles until there was another onramp to the highway. I think sections of it were one lane, alternating traffic because a few times Mandy shut the van down since we were stopped for so long.

The traffic situation seemed dumb, but we were already home, so it was really not that stressful. We felt bad for other people who were just trying to get where they were going. And also, why would you tear up the pavement all along the detour route when you close a highway? Anyway, we eventually made it to Walmart and parked. You can see why we weren't in much of a rush to get to our destination. We stayed in because it was rainy, ate and eventually went to sleep.

 

[rob cote]

Wednesday, Mandy had to work again. So, we dropped her off in the morning. What's nice about the later starts is she has time to make breakfast before she goes in. I think the days usually goes better when you have time to eat something first.

Loki and I went to Quechee Gorge again to grab a campsite for the night. I spent most of the day cleaning the van. The sink had been neglected, so it got kind of gross. It got a full cleaning and a wipe with stainless polish wipes. I did the faucets and backsplash, too. And since I had the wipes out, I moved on to the shower. And then the windows because dog slobbers all over them. Mainly the windshield; it gets bad. Then, while I was up there, I figured I should do the dash, too. Then the freezer needed deicing, so I took care of that. We have a soft cooler bag that works great for holding the fridge stuff somewhat cold while I empty it out and let the ice melt. I loaded everything back up, dumped the greywater, and then went to pick up Mandy from work.

We circled back to the campground and took a walk around before dinner. It wasn't a particularly exciting day, but it was good, even if it sounds boring. It feels so nice when everything is freshly cleaned inside. Well, not everything, but you know what I mean.

Thursday was my brothers' birthday. They're twins. Would that be brothers' birthdays? It's the same single day. I dunno what the proper grammar is there. Anyway, as such, we were going to be present for the celebration. We didn't have to rush at all though. So, we took it easy in the morning. We filled up our freshwater tanks on our way out of the campground and cruised down route 89 to 93 and on to Nashua.



It's beginning to feel like we're heading there all the time. I'm not sure why, but it feels somewhat frustrating. There's a lot of cases where it makes the most sense. But we've been there for so long already (especially me!), and we want to explore new places. Regardless of all that, we were still excited to go to the birthday party. We hung out at my sister's house for a while with her before the party was to start since she wasn't working. We went to my dad's midafternoon and spent the night hanging out with everyone. It was a good time. They're 16 now and will be driving soon. Well, driving on their own. So that's exciting. We ended up spending the night parked in their yard again because we didn't really have anywhere to go except work in the morning.

 

[rob cote]

Friday, we got up reasonably early and hopped on the highway northbound. One nice thing about the late-starting shifts is that we don't necessarily need to be nearby the night before. We cruised up to Lebanon with plenty of time to spare before Mandy had to work. And then Loki and I set out. We picked a different trail near the hospital and set out to see where it leads. It's rather nice walking all these trails during normal business hours because we're usually the only ones out there at all. Most of the way, this one was the same, but shortly before we got back to pavement, another dog caught up to us and passed us. Back on pavement, we did the loop all the way around the hospital before making it back to the van.



Once there, we continued researching van maintenance. All that reading takes so much time! Also, by "we", I meant me. Loki does not give a heck about maintaining the van. I'm learning a bunch, though, and I think I have a mostly clear picture of the path forward. I've also picked up a ton of things and tucked them away in the back of my mind for future reference. I began putting together a list of things we need to buy. I also reached out to a couple local dealerships, mainly to see how much money we'll save by doing the maintenance tasks ourselves. About $700 by my count.



We passed the day between walking and laptopping until it was time to get Mandy from work. And by "get" her, I mean she just had to walk outside to the parking lot. Loki's taken to doing this thing whereby he gets himself really worked up just before Mandy gets out of work each day. How he knows what time she's getting out is a mystery, but it's always late enough that I can't really drive us somewhere to go for a walk. So, Mandy got out and we were somewhere out there on a walk that Loki insisted on. We covered approximately 8 miles this day by my estimation and Google Maps-ing. Unfortunately, Mandy got out late and had to work early, so we just stayed right in the parking lot at work. It didn't make sense to drive away at 7:00pm just to circle back for 8:00am. We just chilled and had a boring night.

Saturday morning, we did yet more walking. I thought if I could tire him out early, then I would be able to work uninterrupted for the rest of the day. We set out on a new road we hadn't yet walked. We ended up eventually cutting through the parking lot of the hospital on our way back and Loki plopped in some grass and was content to just lay there forever, apparently. We ended up spending like a half hour just anchored there until finally he was ready to move on.





Back at the van, I did some more parts shopping for a little while, but he eventually grew restless again and so we walked some more. I think the issue is that he's become something of a momma's boy since Mandy's been not working for the past several months. Whenever she's away, he gets antsy. He just wants his whole crew together at all times. We're working on it. I think he's slowly adapting to her being gone; it's getting a little better day by day. I hope. It could also be the cold and rainy weather.

Anyway, it was not a big, exciting day, really. Once Mandy got out of work, we found a spot to park for the night and we both crashed. It was something of a Friday night for us, since the following day would be without work for Mandy. We did it up big. Not.

 

[rob cote]

I haven't writ in a minute. No one said anything so I lost interest. Plus, we weren't moving much. Mandy was working for 3 months. Loki and I chilled most days and he was lazy so we didn't even get to walk all that much. I dove into van maintenance things, and learning diagnosis tools and variant coding things. But anyways, we're on the move again. This time we're headed to Patagonia for real (although we have stops to make along the way first). I want to make an effort to write more regularly, but first I have to catch you guys up on a few months. For now, here's a video we made:

 

[rob cote]

The short story is that Mandy worked another 3-month contract, this time in Lebanon, NH, and that's what we've been up to. In more words, we spent a lot of time around the pharmacy and middle-ish New Hampshire and Vermont. It felt like we didn't have as many adventures as we did when she was working in Arizona, and that's probably accurate. The schedule was 4-10s, but it was never the same 4 or the same 10. Shifts started anywhere from 7am to noon, and it was only 4 days unless she had to work weekend days, which were 8-hour shifts, and then she'd have to do 5 days in a week because the weekend is split between weeks. Basically, a lot of the "weekends" were only one day long in the middle of a week. It was annoying. It was a real bait-and-switch in my opinion, because what they told her before she started was it was only every 4th or 5th weekend, there were always at least a few pharmacists on, 1:4 pharmacist:tech ratio, etc. There were times she and a single tech were the only ones on.

My point is that it was not fun for her. And I feel like as a result, it wasn't fun for me. Loki was decent at walking early on. Actually, he preferred walking at all times for the first week or so, which was a little frustrating. He was like petrified of the parking lot, so getting him to go home was a challenge. But then we figured out a parking arrangement that he was okay with. And then he shifted towards only wanting to walk with both of us. So, after several long walks, it became only short walks unless it was a day off. Once the campgrounds closed mid-October, we mostly stayed in the pharmacy parking lot so Mandy could come out for lunch breaks. I felt bad to leave and go do a hike with Loki somewhere since it was the only break she'd get in 10 hours. I wouldn't want to have to stay inside the same place if it were me. So, it felt like I was just making food and washing dishes all the time. Which was totally necessary support and I get that, but it wasn't how I had envisioned spending those couple months.

Since there was really nothing interesting happening to write about, I gave up. No one said anything here or on another forum, so the easy assumption was that nobody cared. I know some of you do care, but it was depressing and that was a whole other challenge for a while. It felt like my days were mostly stuck in the van with Loki except a half-hour walk once or twice a day, just waiting for the whole thing to be over. Thankfully, now it is! I spent the intervening time trying to educate myself as best I could about van maintenance and then I started to dive into variant coding to get a better understanding of how everything is controlled. Once I had a handle on maintenance intervals, I sourced parts, and we started spending free time heading to Nashua to freshen up the van at family's houses. The van was approaching 40,000 miles (and has since broken that), so I replaced the engine oil and filter, engine air filter, transmission fluid and filter, fuel filter, cabin filter, front and rear differential fluids, transfer case fluid, brake fluid, brake pads and rotors, and tires. Some of those things weren't necessarily due right then, but we were also looking ahead towards our (long overdue) travel plans, and so we decided to do them early to get us through as far as possible.

Our goal is Ushuaia, Argentina. That's obviously a long way to go and we'll need another engine oil change along the way. But at least we have a fresh start on that counter. The tires still had a little bit of life left, but in New England, you never know how early winter will start. They were really too bald for any legitimate snowfall, and we would have to get Mandy to work on time. Ultimately, we lucked out and it only snowed one day fairly lightly (only about 2" accumulated), but we wanted to be safe anyway. The differential fluids still aren't clear to me when they need to be changed, but I figured a fresh start wouldn't hurt there. The brakes were an interesting story. The fronts still had plenty of life left in them, and I thought the rears did too. My plan was to take everything off and keep it organized, so that when the new stuff wears out, I could squeeze the rest of the life out of the original brakes before buying new brakes again. Rather than have to replace them in the middle of who knows where. Once I got the rear end apart, I could see that one pad on each side was down to nothing, because the calipers must have been sticking at some point. There would have been life left in them, if they had worn evenly. The fronts still had plenty of pad left, and the rotors were in decent shape, but I had to smash the rotors into several pieces to remove them because they were so stuck onto the hubs with rust that they refused to budge. Yes, even with heat.

So, that all filled up at least a few weeks. We did some other stuff around the house, too. I greased the fan bearings to stop them squeaking. We put up a curtain behind the seats to help the heater run less in the cold. I swapped out an electrical connector for our oven that wasn't sized appropriately and was getting too hot. A bunch of little things like that, that get hard to remember when they pile up. Basically, we approach everything with a continuous improvement sort of mindset. The van is great and we love it, but there's always some small detail that could be made a little bit better. I think you all here get that, too. It's never "done", right?

We also put together a party. And by "we", I mean my sister did. Our original goal was to have the van finished this past spring (2022), have a going away party, and then hit the road. We finished last winter (late 2021), though, and then we moved in, and it was miserably cold outside, and Loki was still adapting so he always wanted to be outside. So instead of waiting until spring, we left in January to go to Arizona. And we thought we could just leave from there. But then we really felt like we missed out on saying goodbye to everyone we knew because we left in such a hurry for Mandy's new job out there. So that's why we came back to the New England area, plus a wedding, and we wanted to save up a bit more money to live off of, too. But NOW we're good to go. So, Mandy had her last day of work on a Thursday. We spent a day organizing inside the van, and we looked through the couple storage bins of stuff we have at my mom's house to make sure we weren't leaving anything that might be useful. We took stuff out of the van that was definitely not useful. Then, we went to our going away party which was a great time. And the next morning, we hit the road.

If you already watch our videos on YouTube, most of that is captured in it, so you'll already know it all. But there it is in more words, and for those of you who don't watch videos or would rather read. Our next step is to get to Florida to dog-sit for some friends of ours. We had our party on Sunday, and hit the road south on Monday, December 5. We didn't get far. Just to the south end of town, actually. I had to stop in at my eye doctor to get a copy of my prescription so I could order a year's worth of contacts. It had just expired one month prior, so I had to have a fresh eye exam to get a new copy of the prescription. THEN, we hit the road. It felt perhaps slightly less climactic than the last time we'd left, but at the same time we felt more confident. The first time we headed out, back when the van wasn't even finished and we were just doing some weekend camping, we didn't know what might go wrong, or what we might be forgetting. But now, having lived in it every day for a year, we know we have the things we need (except sometimes groceries), and we know where it all is. We know nothing is going to break. It's quite nice, if less exciting. We are much more relaxed.



It was cold when we left New Hampshire, and the whole region was mostly overcast. We didn't really care to do any sightseeing along the way, at least until we got to warmer weather. We made it as far as Pennsylvania the first day. We stayed at a Cracker Barrel outside of Allentown. We chose to cruise west past NYC to avoid the traffic and horrible road surfaces. For those of you that don't know, the George Washington Bridge is always miserable, any time of day. We arrived late to the Barrel, and just crashed for the night. Tuesday was kind of the same weather, so we spent most of it on the highway. Once we got down into North Carolina, though, the outside temperature started creeping up and we saw temperatures in the 60s, I think. We found a campground at Cliffs of the Neuse State Park and checked in there just in time. This is actually a fantastic park. If you're nearby, check it out. We loved it. We saw literally zero trash, the site we had was soft-sandy, the bathrooms are super clean, the hot showers are free, and the views from the cliffs are pretty cool. We watched the moon rise from the cliffs after we checked in around dusk, and then we went home to make some dinner. It was warm enough for Loki to hang outside with the slider open, which we all loved. After dinner, we took hot showers before bed.

 

[rob cote]

Wednesday, we got up fairly early and walked back over to the cliffs and watched the sunrise. That was a great morning coffee walk. We walked down to the river, too, but it was pretty muddy, and swimming isn't allowed anyways. Plus, it wasn't THAT hot outside. At least, not at 8am. We made some breakfast, and then hit the road again. We drove through the southeast-ish part of North Carolina which we've never seen before and discovered it to be quite lovely. There are so many tiny towns that just look like time capsules. All the old brick architecture is still intact, and it just feels old; like nothing has changed much in decades. It felt like it just went on and on forever, too. Eventually, we crossed the line into South Carolina, and we met up with some friends of ours - Abe and Mel - who also live in a van. We met them in Arizona which you may remember, and then we saw them for a day in NH this fall as well. We stayed the night with them in a little campsite on a swamp and shared dinner. It's really cool to meet up with people in new places like that and explore them together. Thursday morning, we took a walk around the area with them and Loki. It was really strange but in an awesome way to see trees with autumn leaves intermixed with palm trees and lots of Spanish moss. It was a pretty unique forest and it just felt so weird to see all of that together; like tropical, but also fall.

Afterwards, we cruised on to Charleston, where we met up with Sydney and Albert. When we met them in Arizona, they were living in a school bus. They've since sold it and are waiting to begin a new adventure. They told us about it while we walked around a park in the city with Loki. They're flying to Bangkok on one-way tickets with their backpacks, and they'll be crewing on a few sailboats to learn sailing. Eventually, they plan to buy their own boat over there (which apparently many are available for pretty cheap), and sail from somewhere in southeast Asia to...? Who knows. We're excited to see how it all goes for them, though, because boat life is something that we've talked about off and on a bunch. Maybe we'll follow suit one day. But for now, we are in no rush to get out of the van. But if you think about it, a 40ft boat is twice as long as our van AND it has two floors. Ignoring the differences in width, it's at least four times as much living space as the van! That's HUGE. Anyway, leaving Charleston was kind of bad because we forgot rush hour traffic is a thing. There's only one road out of the city, I guess, and we were on it with everyone else. So, we stopped for pizza to wait it out. We went to Mellow Mushroom and got a buffalo chicken pizza on the patio with Loki. It was so awesome to sit outside and be comfortable in a t-shirt. Once we started driving again afterwards, we just drove until we didn't feel like driving anymore. We pulled into a rest area on the side of 95S and crashed for the night. Not glamorous, but hey, it works.



Friday, we hit the road and made the last push into Florida. We had a whole day to spare before we had to be at Shaun and Jenny's house, so we stopped in at Vilano Beach, just north of St. Augustine. Again. If you remember, we went to Vilano Beach this past summer, too. We like it because it's dog-friendly, which is kind of rare. Loki likes the beach, though. It wasn't as hot outside this time, but I still went into the water for a bit. We mostly just sat in the sand and listened to the waves crash though. I don't know if it ever gets busy here, but both times we've been now the whole beach has been nearly empty. It's pretty great. The sand is super soft, but it's white, so it doesn't get very hot. Plus, parking is free. It's ideal. After a couple hours on the beach, we rinsed off the sand and hopped back in the van to finish our drive to Tavares. We were pumped to see more friends, so we hurried into the house and spent the evening catching up with them and walking all the dogs.