2023 in Review
As is tradition for this time of year, I’ve been reflecting lately on 2023, and how certain events of years past have led up to who we are now. Recently I recalled how in high school (and probably college), Curtis used to wear a shirt that read, “Why be normal?” It was kind of a joke, or a running theme in our friend group, to accept our abnormalities and embrace our inner weirdness, which maybe led to us questioning what actually is normal and commonly accepted in society, and challenging those ideas. Flash forward to now, I look back on what we did this year, and I honestly think high school us would be proud, to say the least — but maybe also a little freaked out. I also think back to where we were 5 years ago with the military, even leading up to last year before getting out, and I remember the things we prayed for and the post-military life we dreamed about. And honestly, after one year with this new job, I realize that God had something planned that was greater than what we had hoped for — though it didn’t come without trials. So it is with a spirit of deep gratitude that I share our year in review, feeling in a way as though we’ve come full circle.
We began 2023 in Michigan, wrapping up our holiday celebrations with family. At the time, Curtis had been with his new job for two months, and had spent most of that time in training. We weren’t sure how the remote work and travel thing would work out, and were indecisive about our living situation. But given the chance to travel for another week of training in North Carolina, we decided to take advantage of our “homelessness” and spend a month down South, avoiding winter weather and adventuring in the Appalachians.
January 2023 in the Southern Appalachians
It didn’t take long for us to realize that somehow, this situation was better than anything we had hoped for in a post-Navy job: We had plenty of time together and time to travel between work assignments, and yet Curtis could still pursue a career in the nuclear power industry. All this resulted in one of our favorite months we’ve ever had together: almost every day spent hiking and exploring somewhere new, bouncing around between different towns in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. We began to dream big for where the rest of the year might take us, and put any thoughts of settling down and buying a home on hold.
Spring 2023 outage season locations: Ottawa, IL; Oswego, NY; King of Prussia, PA
February brought about the start of Curtis’ first outage season — the time of year when most power plants have regularly scheduled shutdowns for maintenance. First on our schedule was a plant near Ottawa, Illinois. We moved into a hotel room for the month with high hopes that Curtis’ first assignment would be a positive one, and that he would enjoy the job he had signed up for. Things started out slow with him having to wait for a badge to actually get into the plant, and the month didn’t go by seamlessly with us dealing with health issues and winter weather. But we genuinely enjoyed the town of Ottawa and all the outdoor recreation opportunities it had to offer. We weren’t even upset when the project was extended by almost a whole week. At the end of our time here, we left with a little more job experience, good memories from a new short term home, and a little assurance that we made the right decision when choosing this path.
Curtis’ next assignment in Oswego, New York, went even better than the first, and we once again enjoyed getting to know a new-to-us town. As the job was wrapping up, we started to make big plans for the weeks we had between assignments, hoping to recreate the freedom and adventurousness in the Northeast that we had experienced during January down South. But two days in to that trip, tragedy struck and altered the course of the month, and our lives in whole.
After two happy days filled with snowshoeing in the Adirondacks — a place that’s remained close to our hearts after living there several years ago and that we were elated to return to — Charlotte woke up from a nap, and immediately we could tell something was wrong. She had suffered an injury to an eye a few months prior, but had been to a vet several times and we had been treating it, hoping it would make a full recovery. But all in an instant, she had become blind in both eyes, and we realized that we were dealing with something much worse. A trip to the vet confirmed our fears that this was glaucoma, the blindness was irreversible, and the best course of action was to remove her eyes. We have gone back and forth over all the ways we wish we had gotten her better care sooner, but unfortunately, glaucoma is a hereditary disease and it always ends the same way — not if, but when. And now, Charlotte was blind and in pain, we were heartbroken for our baby, and questioning our future, and how we should continue forward.
April 2023 in New England
In the midst of this trial, God was good to us, and we saw His hand in so many ways. We know it was no accident in how the timing worked out — this all happened during the month that Curtis had “off” so we were able to walk through each day and vet appointment together. He put the kindest veterinarians and vet assistants in our path that comforted us and helped us understand how we could best care for our blind puppy. He opened up appointment and surgery time slots within a week of Charlotte going blind, so she didn’t have to remain in pain with her eyes for long. He also provided places for us to rest and recuperate around Vermont, near where Charlotte’s optometrist was located. And while we were so, so sad that this was the hand Charlotte was dealt, and we miss looking into her beautiful brown eyes every day, we are thankful for our bond that’s grown stronger, and for how it brought about the next big step for us.
While questioning how we could possibly continue our nomadic lifestyle with a blind pup, we took a step back and realized that Charlotte is used to this life — in fact, she thrives on it, because it allows us to all be together more, and she gets the perfect balance of mind-enriching activities and time spent resting, all under our care. The thing that was missing was consistency. And for some reason, fully committing to our life on the road by upgrading our vehicle into a “mobile home” suddenly made complete sense. We prayed, dreamed, and researched throughout the rest of April — our month of recovery — while bouncing around New England in AirBnbs and hotels. The answer became clear to me on the night before Charlotte’s last appointment: We returned to the Adirondacks to be closer to the vet, and ended up car camping that evening. After we had spent considerable time guiding her around different AirBnbs, she seemed to know exactly what she wanted, and everything she was doing was exactly what she would be doing if she could see. Maybe things would be different if she had always had one home, but since she’s spent her whole life moving across the country; cars, camping, and the ever-changing outdoors is her normal, and we were determined to not let her lose that.
Just as God orchestrated the timing of how the unfortunate events of April would play out, so also He planned out exactly where we needed to be to come across the van that would become our new home. It was located near the location of Curtis’ final assignment for the spring, in King of Prussia, PA. We looked at the van the day we arrived, and one week later on a rainy Sunday morning, we signed the papers and it became ours. We unloaded the contents of our overstuffed Subaru into the back, and began dreaming of how we could transform this empty shell of a van into our home.
Extra Charlie pictures in the Charlie collage this year because she’s still as cute as ever
I’ve been reflecting on how one of the saddest things that’s ever happened to us — Charlotte losing her vision and her eyes — almost directly brought about the thing we’ve dreamed of for years — living in a van. Even though it really makes perfect sense and fits into our life with this new job so well (after the fact, one friend described the transition as being very ‘On Brand’ for us), we were still so far off from making any decision, I truly don’t know what we would have done if all this didn’t happen. But the van has turned into a huge blessing, and I’m struck by all the profound ways that it has positively affected our life in the 8 months since we bought it.
Besides purchasing the van, we also thoroughly enjoyed our weeks in Southeastern Pennsylvania. We were staying 5 minutes from Valley Forge, which was perfect for daily walks when Curtis was working. We also visited some other historic sites, including downtown Philadelphia. And during our time here, we were able to cross the border into Delaware, which was Curtis’ 50th state, and our 50th state visited together. Most importantly, it was Charlotte’s 49th state, which meant there was really only one thing to do during our time off over the summer…
We celebrated 10 years of marriage on July 27!
After the job wrapped up in Pennsylvania, we drove our new van to Michigan and then Iowa, where we spent the second half of May transforming the van into our own little tiny home. Curtis’ years of experience in engineering, submarines, and growing up in a home that provided him with woodworking, electrical, and plumbing skills all proved invaluable to the project. Mixed with having very little remote work to do resulted in the van being complete in just 3 weeks. And with that, we set off on a road trip to break it in, and celebrate many things, including: our 10th wedding anniversary, the 20th anniversary of the day we first met, Charlotte being past the glaucoma and adjusting incredibly well, and a new job that allows us to have substantial time “off”! And what better way to do that than to take a trip we’ve always dreamed of, to the Canadian Rockies with a final destination of Alaska — at least, the closest part of Alaska that you can drive to!
A magical month in the Canadian Rockies
The trip was everything we had hoped it would be, with only a few minor inconveniences and learning moments as we adjusted to life in the van. Highlights of the trip include entering into 3 new-to-us provinces of Canada, kayaking on the unbelievably blue waters of Emerald lake, seeing 10 bears, and of course, crossing into Alaska and completing our goals of driving to Alaska, and visiting all 50 states as a family. Our favorite night of the trip was spent in a spot overlooking Salmon Glacier, North of Hyder, AK, where we were able to take in the incredible beauty of the glacier throughout the day, snowshoe up to higher vistas, and spend half the night awake not just because of the post-11 PM sunset, but because of the deep conversation and connections we made with the other travelers spending the night here. Above all, it was a relief and a joy to see Charlotte adapt so well to the van — these days, she either wants to be outside walking, sniffing, and sunbathing, or she wants to be comfortable in her bed, and this lifestyle allows her to do all of these within feet of each other.
Like all good things, this trip had to come to an end, and the “end” happened to be back in North Carolina. And so after our magical night at Salmon Glacier, we began our 3 week pilgrimage driving across the entire country ending up in Wilmington. We spent three weeks there in the heat of the summer while Curtis completed more training and assisted in teaching as well. The weeks were uncomfortably hot and humid, but we won’t complain when this is the trade off for being able to be wherever we want for half the year! We also see these weeks of training and at assignments as being necessary in making van life sustainable for us — when in the van, we’re usually go go go, and being somewhere with the job gives us times to rest. It also helps that Curtis enjoys what he does, and these weeks allow him to meet other people and make connections within the job.
August 2023 – Blue Ridge Mountains & Michigan
Once the training in July had wrapped up, we made our way up to Michigan, taking the scenic drive through the Blue Ridge Parkway. It started as Michigan being an in between point before going on to the next assignment, but when that job was cancelled we ended up spending almost a month there, during which time we were able to see much of Curtis’ family around the state, celebrated the life of his grandpa, attended a wedding, and traveled around up North and into the UP, resulting in us finishing visiting all of Michigan’s counties. Once again, we were thankful for how the van and the job allowed us to not only be present for all our family events, but also gave us more time with them than we’ve had in years.
Fall 2023, driving from NC to PA, and assignments in Lancaster, PA and Joliet, IL
The work schedule shifted some more, giving us another week in Iowa before returning to North Carolina for more training before beginning the Fall outage season. We enjoyed taking a new route to get down South — as we always do — and then spent another couple weeks in the Appalachians before arriving at the first plant of the season. This brought us to Lancaster, PA, and while it was a fun area with lots of good food, we were a little disappointed to not have the time to enjoy it as much as we wanted. It ended up as our least favorite assignment of the year, but we believe that if we were assigned there under different circumstances it could be a better experience. After that, we drove back to Illinois for the last job of the season, located in Joliet. In contrast to the job in Lancaster, we had been less than excited about this one, but ended up really enjoying it and still made some good memories in the area, and wouldn’t mind going back one day.
December 2023 in Arizona
With the outage season over, we returned to Iowa for an early Thanksgiving before setting off on one more adventure for the year, this time returning to our first home of Tucson, Arizona. We took our time getting there, enjoying many attractions along the way, and were happily reunited with our friends and the desert that we love so dearly. Being able to experience it in the van made it all the more special, as it allowed us to travel at a slower pace and see more sunsets — something we hardly ever did when we lived there. We made it our goal to visit places we had never been, and Curtis was able to work on his hiking goals a little more. And after a few weeks of enjoying the sun and the sights, we traveled back to Iowa in time for Christmas with family.
Looking back on this year, I know that this path we’re on is not one that is familiar to how we were raised or to what we were previously used to, but I’m struck by how it’s worked out so well and how God has used it in our lives. The van and job has not just been a way for us to travel more, but has been a vessel in allowing us to spend much more time with family and friends, and be wherever God wants us to be at the right time. It’s allowed us to grow in new ways personally and together, to see beyond normal lifestyles that are accepted in this country, to meet so many interesting people and develop quick but deep bonds over shared life experiences. We live more in the moment than ever before, after years of being with the military and always thinking years ahead. But the van (and this lifestyle) is something we hold with open palms — we know that in an instant, everything could change, and we would follow whichever new path God set before us. But for today, we’re making the most of every place we go and every opportunity we’re given, and we’re so thankful for it. We don’t know where we’ll be in a year, but we hope that if the Lord wills, we’ll continue to grow and flourish on this path, and maybe cross paths with even more family and friends next year!
2023 Travel Stats
- 39 states & 4 provinces visited
- Visited 31 US national park administered sites & 4 Canadian national parks
- 683 counties visited, with 332 being new; 2 state completions and surpassed the 50% mark
- 4 state high points
- 1 state capitol building & 1 Whispering Giant statue seen
- Living situation by numbers: 133 nights in hotels (most with company, 4 nights on our own), 113 nights camping (most in the van, 8 in a tent), 82 nights with family and friends (the longest stretch being when we were building the van), and 37 in AirBnbs (which we are glad to not rely on anymore thanks to the van!)
Previous Year in Review Posts:
2013 / 2014 / 2015 / 2016 / 2017 / 2018 / 2019 / 2020 / 2021 / 2022
