2024 in Review
Happy New Year to all our family and friends! We hope this post finds you happy & healthy. We are very thankful for another wonderful year spent together, filled with a healthy balance of working, traveling, and time with family. I’m tempted to say this year felt a little uneventful for us personally, but I know that sounds ridiculous when we spent every month in a different state. But compared to the past few years, we didn’t have any major life changes such as changing jobs, health issues, big decisions, or moving in the traditional sense. It was simply just a year of us going about the routines we’ve created and travel/work assignments we’re given, which at this point feels normal to us. But I know that this normal we’re so accustomed to is not at all what is considered normal for most, so I’m going to spend some time reflecting on the places we visited and the things we’re thankful for this year!
If you’ve been following along with the blog this year, most of this won’t come as a surprise to you, but for anyone new here (and for our own sake, honestly!) let’s start with a run down of where we’ve been, with posts linked to those places if you’re interested in reading more:
We began this year celebrating the holidays in Iowa, then began our 2024 travels on January 2. We traveled South, following the Mississippi River down to the Gulf Coast, across the Florida panhandle, and up the East Coast to Wilmington, NC for Curtis’ first assignment of the year. After that, we had a week and a half before his next assignment, and we spent that time in the Appalachians around the NC/GA/SC tri-point. Curtis’ spring work schedule took us from Alma, GA, to Ottawa, IL, to Davenport, IA, and finished in King of Prussia, PA. Once that was finished, we had a month and a half to be where we wanted, so we spent that time with family in Michigan, celebrating Curtis’ sister’s college graduation in the Upper Peninsula, then took a week to travel South through Wisconsin and Minnesota to visit my family in Iowa.
Our summer schedule started with a week and a half long road trip back to Wilmington, NC, where we spent almost 2 weeks. Next we made our way up to Mentor, OH for a few days. After that, we had 6 weeks before Curtis’ next assignment in New York, so we spent that time taking a big road trip up to New England and into Canada. We spent 3 weeks exploring Quebec, mainly the Gaspe Peninsula and Cote-Nord region. Then we returned to the states and spent a week and a half in New Hampshire and Vermont. We made our way South to Massachusetts where we spent several days with Curtis’ brother and got to know his fiance better. At the end of July, we celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary with a quick trip to NYC. After that, we had one more week before Curtis’ next assignment in Oswego, NY, and we spent that time in the Adirondacks.
Curtis’ fall schedule took us from Oswego, NY, to Wilmington and Southport, NC, and back to Oswego, and then we were given a month and a half break. With that, we decided we were officially done with the East coast for the year, so we made our way West, stopping to see family in Michigan and Iowa and friends in Nebraska on our way to our main destination for October: Colorado. We were able to attend my cousin’s wedding in Denver at the end of September, as well as see relatives on both sides of our families. We then spent the next few weeks camping in Colorado and New Mexico, until there was a change of plans and Curtis had to fly out to the East coast with little notice, leaving me to drive the van and Charlotte back to the Midwest. We were reunited in Nebraska, then continued on into Iowa at the end of October.
We kicked off November with attending the Eras Tour in Indianapolis with two of my sisters, then drove to Joliet, IL for Curtis’ next assignment. We returned to Iowa for a couple appointments, then spent a week camping, hiking, and county counting in Missouri. Then it was back to Iowa to celebrate Thanksgiving with family, and attend a few more appointments. Curtis had to fly to Georgia for one more week of work, and I spent that time getting my wisdom teeth removed and recovering from that. We celebrated an early Christmas with family, then set off on our winter migration to the desert!
We obviously did a lot of moving around this year, but we agree that some of our favorite times this year were when we could stay in one place for several days, not have to move the van if we didn’t want to, and could easily go on hikes or kayak right from that spot. Places that fall into this category this year include most everywhere on our Quebec trip, our time in the White Mountains in New Hampshire and Adirondacks in New York, and several spots that we found in Colorado and New Mexico this fall.
Some of our favorite memories from this year include spending a warm and sunny day on an empty beach on St. George Island, revisiting Savannah and Charleston, hiking in Pisgah National Forest and on the Blue Ridge Parkway, whale watching on the St. Lawrence River, seeing the aurora for the first time in Iowa, and second in New Mexico, visiting NYC for our first time, having a bear and bighorn sheep walk right up to the van (on separate occasions), and seeing our first ever coati in the wild.
Curtis is still enjoying his job, and continues to improve and learn more at every site he visits. We enjoyed having the opportunity to travel to his assignments in 6 different states. Our first in Alma, GA wasn’t exactly the most interesting place to be, and he had to work every day of that assignment so we didn’t have much time together, but we enjoyed our stay at the Blueberry Plantation and eating at their restaurant several times. Returning to Ottawa, IL (our favorite assignment from last year) felt a little like returning home, especially with the friendly ladies at the hotel remembering us and showering Charlotte with love. We enjoyed spending our little free time hiking in Starved Rock State Park and walking around Ottawa, and revisiting our favorite restaurants from last year.
But his next assignment in the Quad Cities ended up being our favorite from this year — which was a good thing, because it was also his longest for the year, being 30 days long! We really enjoyed getting to know the area better, which despite growing up just over an hour away and traveling through so many times, we had never actually done anything here before this. Now we have lots of favorite restaurants and parks to visit, and can’t wait for our chance to go back. And while we enjoyed getting to revisit our favorite restaurants and hike around Valley Forge at his last assignment in King of Prussia, PA, the job was more frustrating and after almost 3 months straight of working every day, he was ready for a break. His two assignments this fall — Oswego and Joliet — were both places we enjoyed last year, and we were happy to go back to both and make new memories. Besides these outages, we also made the most of the weeks we spent on the coast in North Carolina — we always say we’re thankful for the opportunity to come here, but even more thankful that we don’t have to live here.
When Curtis isn’t working at an assignment, a perfect day to us looks like this: waking up in the van to see the sun beams shining through the edges of our window covers, getting out of bed and making breakfast and tea. Whether we’re moving places or not, we always like to have a little activity, whether that be going somewhere for a hike or walking up and down the road wherever we’re parked. We work, we write, we read, we snack, and we plan out what we’re doing next, or plan hypothetical future trips. We make dinner, we take Charlotte for one last evening walk before settling into the van for the night just after the sun goes down. It’s a pretty simple routine, but it makes us happy, and we genuinely miss this simple life we enjoy whenever we’re not in the van.
Living in a van has really made us become thankful for basic things, such as our house battery being at 100%, our water tank being full, and being able to make a wide variety of meals on our propane stove. Figuring out that we could make pizza, cookies, and s’mores using the stove were some of the highlights of our year. We’ve learned more and more what we like to look for in campsites, and have enjoyed calling each of them ‘home’ for a short period of time. We tried out ‘stealth camping’ for our first time on the streets of Savannah, and have managed to avoid spending the night in a Walmart parking lot for another year. And here’s a fun fact for you: having now been nomadic for 2 years and 3 months, we have officially lived ‘on the road’ longer than we’ve lived in all but one home throughout our marriage…and we’re only a few months away from beating that record.
Charlotte continues to hold the title of ‘the most well-traveled basset you’ve ever met.’ Whenever we arrive somewhere new, as soon as we set her down we have to be ready to walk her because she’ll take off walking as if she knows the place by heart, despite being blind. Out of all the living situations she finds herself in, she genuinely seems to enjoy being in the van and on the road the most. She makes friends with everyone she meets and never lets her lack of vision slow her down (even when she maybe should). We’re thankful that besides that, she’s a healthy 10 year old dog who still loves doing everything with us.
While we consider ourselves very blessed to enjoy the life we have, it doesn’t come without challenges. I’d say my biggest stressor on the road is dealing with adverse weather, and I try to calm my anxiety by researching and staying up to date with the forecast for wherever we are. There were a couple times this year where we ended up using points for a hotel in order to avoid tornados, and a few others where we altered our trip plans in order to avoid bigger storms. We also dealt with a few car issues this year, having to replace the starter, battery, and windshield — but considering how much we drive, we were quite fortunate that this was all. Then there were a few times that we got stuck in mud, but thankfully only once had to call for a winch to pull us out. Finally, there are always things we’re either fixing or trying to improve with the van build — but I’m sure that would also be the case if we owned a home. We miss seeing friends and family, and while we love getting to visit them whenever we have the chance, we also wish there was a way to share our life with them. Maybe our next van will need a guest room for that to happen though. 😉
Looking ahead at 2025, we have an idea of where Curtis’ schedule will bring us, though it always seems to come with last minute changes. We see ourselves continuing with this job for at least another year (November will mark 3 years with the company). When we try to think about settling down somewhere, it’s hard to imagine us staying put long term in one place, especially while Curtis is with his current job. We joke that it’ll take something drastic happening to get us to stop moving around, which is honestly probably true, because we aren’t great at making big decisions. We also acknowledge that we would be hard pressed to find any other job that gives us as much freedom and time together as this one does, so as long as it makes sense, we’re going to keep making the most of every day God allows us to continue with it!
This year, we spent a total of 161 nights in our van, 145 nights in hotels (14 of those were on our own, the rest being for work), 57 nights with family or friends, and 4 nights in an AirBnb. We visited 37 states and 3 provinces, and spent at least one night camping in all but 4 of those. Curtis worked at assignments in 6 different states and 8 power plant sites. The top 3 states that we spent time in this year are Iowa, North Carolina, and New York. We visited a total of 714 counties and completed 2 states: Maine and Pennsylvania. We “hiked” to one state high point (Florida) and visited 25 National Park Administered Sites.
Happy New Year friends, we wish the best for all of you in 2025 and look forward to crossing paths with you, whenever that may be!
