I’ve been a little slow with getting this update out, but here goes.

Back to July 4th, 2023 – the day dawns bright and early, and we rise to tackle the last of the packing + preparations. The day of departure has come, and we are still slightly surprised this is actually happening…

Austin + Kaylynn and Kynlee arrive around 9 o’clock with a delicious breakfast, which we eat on the front porch. Before leaving, we quickly sneak over to Honeysuckle Café yet, to wish Elise (my boss) a good summer and grab some iced drinks for the road.

11:59 a.m. – we roll out the driveway, headed north. Our first destination: Bridgewater, Maine. The first few hours of travel are fairly uneventful, although our stops take us a little longer than planned.

6 o’clock – all is not well… We had been merrily driving down I-79 in West Virginia, when Jesse happened to see rubber flying off one of the camper tires. We pull off to the side of the road. A shredded tire it is… What do we do now? We do have a spare, but do we have what we need to change it?

The next few hours are rather stressful. With the help of a kind stranger who lends us a tire iron ( no, we did not have one that worked with the camper tires… we do now.) we do eventually get the spare on, and limp along another 30 miles or so. Around 8:30, we park for night. Our backyard: Walmart.

I must say, the skoolie that was parked not too far from us was rather intriguing to me. It looked a little uninhabited at first glance, with the stacks of pizza boxes and other junk on the dash, and the wire crates that could be seen through the windows. Appearances can be deceiving… The next morning, we woke up to the sounds of roosters crowing. Needless to say, I was a little confused at first, as that’s not exactly a common Walmart parking lot noise. When I emerged from the camper with Siegfried to take him on a morning stroll, a big German Shepherd poked his head out of one of the skoolie’s windows and barked at us. He was immediately scolded by a voice from inside. Never know what you’ll see in the Walmart parking lot, eh?