After completing the first leg of our travels we spent a few weeks in Wisconsin. It was an event filled time. We visited family and friends, celebrated Tom’s father’s birthday, and my baby sister got married! Congrats sister! We also worked on Stan a lot. We made improvements to help with organization/storage, replaced some broken or malfunctioning items, and installed a solar panel. If you missed it be sure to check-out Tom’s full tour of Stan the Tan Van. The…
It’s been a few months since Hitting the Road with Stan the Tan Van so we wanted introduce everyone to our tiny rolling home. If you’re considering or just curious about vanlife this van tour will help paint a picture of what vanlife is like for us and give you some organization ideas. Living long term in a van is getting more popular by the day. There are people with vans of all shapes and sizes tooling around the world…
Caves have always fascinated me. When I was a kid I dreamed of living in a cave next to a large waterfall in the tropical rain forest. There would be delicious fruit trees outside my cave door where colorful birds sit and sing. Oh, and of course then there’s my pet tiger that guards the entrance. Hey, let a kid dream;) Cave Facts Well Mammoth Cave is really nothing like the cave I dreamed of as a child, but it’s…
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a must stop when in Tennessee or North Carolina. Hey, could 11 million people be wrong? That’s right in 2016 the Great Smoky Mountains was the most visited national park with over 11 million visitors. This was more than double the number of visitors at the Grand Canyon—the number 2 visited park. Our stay in the Smoky Mountains was full of wildlife, history, and some of the most amazing views we’ve encountered. There is…
Arriving at Shenandoah National Park felt like being transporting into an eerie, moody mystery novel. The park was socked in by thick damp fog. The kind that’s more cloud than fog. Leaving all surfaces glistening with a cold wet sheen and reducing visibility to minimal amounts. As we wound our way further up the mountains, the tree-lined road slowly appeared out of the dense white background. From the overlooks we could see only hazy outlines of tree tops below, with…
Charleston, South Carolina is an old city. Old by US standards at least. In fact, it’s so old that Charleston’s founding pre-dates the United States itself. It was settled in 1670 and originally named Charles Town after England’s King Charles the II. While we didn’t have a ton of time here, we packed our days (and our stomachs) full. Charleston captivated us in a way no other city on our travels thus far has. Food Food brought us to Charleston….
Savannah, Georgia has interested us for a while. While we didn’t see anyone walking invisible dogs or getting sucked into a murder mystery, we had a great time. There are many activities in Savannah you’ll most likely spend money on: pubs, restaurants, and parking (you will definitely be spending money on parking). However, there are always things to do and see without a price tag. When traveling on a budget taking advantage of these free activities is a must. This…
In New Orleans we stayed at our first hostel. Not first hostel of the trip. First hostel ever. In the past our lodging has been mostly a mix of camping, hotels, and Airbnb. Honestly, as far as US travel goes, we’d never really considered a hostel before. They were just rather off our radar. Turns out that most substantially sized US cities have at least a few different hostel options. We plan to primarily stay in hostels next year during…
Congaree National Park is a swamp, and it is awesome! Well, not exactly, technically it is a floodplain forest. But it really is awesome! The second National Park on the southern circuit of When You Wander may not be a swamp, but has some swamp-like qualities. When you think of a swamp you may think of mud, frogs, snakes, mosquitoes, and other nasty things. And you’d be right! Congaree National Park has all these. However, within its 26,276 acres Congaree…
Our first priority upon arriving in New Orleans was of the personal hygiene variety. We’d been camping without showers for about 5 days and I’ll just say it was time to clean up our act. After moving in to the India House Hostel—our home away from Stan for the week—and some deep scrubbing, we set out to explore the city and start getting our bearings. Typically our first order of business when we get to a new city or camp…