Adjusting to Life on the Road

We have left. It only took 3 pre-garage sales, 3 actual garage sales, countless trips to thrift stores, 3 goodbye parties, and some tears. 

We have left.

Actually leaving took much more effort than I expected. We could have gotten rid of 2/3 of our stuff years ago and not missed a thing. We still have too much stuff. Just today we dropped off a couple large and heavy camp chairs at a thrift store in Marquette, MI. 

We left 10 days ago, and we’ve already re-packed the car twice, and we can now see out of the back window! 🙂

Our home – unpacked

Our home – packed

Actually, leaving was anticlimactic. We just got into the car and drove out of town on the same road we’ve driven hundreds of times before and headed to Martin’s parent’s house. We ended up staying with his parents, with a friend, and with my parents for the first week on the road. Nothing we were doing was new, but we had fun visiting our friends and family one last time.

Martin and his dad work on rigging the day sailer.

After all the goodbyes had been said, we headed to Superior National Forest for a night of camping. 

Sand Lake, MN

We spent the next day in Two Harbors, and it was a little rough. 

We suddenly realized that if we were going to couchsurf along the way, we needed to start sending couch requests, which meant we had to figure out where we were going and when! We also didn’t know where we were going to stay that night. This made me feel very anxious, until I realized that it didn’t matter where we stayed. We could stay wherever we wanted. We ended up camping just outside of Two Harbors 

Two Harbors, MN

I’ve been enjoying cooking outside, but our set up is quite cumbersome and time consuming. I did have the kitchen tools in one container and the food in another container. Now, I have the tools and food we use more frequently in one container and the tools and food we use less frequently in the other container. My hope is to eventually reduce the kitchen to just one container. Soon!

 

Keeping food cool has been a challenge. Washing fresh produce has been a challenge. I’m learning to buy baby carrots so I don’t have to wash or peel them. I’m learning to buy frozen vegetables so they can double as ice for the cooler. So much more to learn. I have time. 

Marquette, MI

Most of our time has been filled with finding WIFI, cooking meals, and repacking the car. As we have gotten more efficient with daily tasks, we have begun to wander around a bit too. 

Our itinerary now is to drive through Canada via Sault Ste. Marie, Ottawa, and Montreal over to Maine. 

On another note, I have been tweeting and updating Facebook occasionally too, so if you are interested in more frequent updates, you can follow/like me!