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Our first days in Willy were nothing short of a dream!! I wish I could put into words how good it feels to be back on the road again. It’s been a long time coming with finishing up the van (more on that later), but we are so happy to be back to life on the road.
I’m currently sitting at a picnic table at a free National Forest campground. We just took showers, filtered water, and did our laundry from the river flowing just below. Georgie is out finding holes to investigate and trees to climb. And, the sun is warming up my back as we begin work for the day. Life is good.
So let’s backtrack a bit to how we got to where we are now.
We finished up packing, did some last-minute readjusting on the bike mounts, and hit the road a bit later than either of us realized. In full honestly, we probably would have stayed home for another night if we noticed the time. However, with both of us just eager to get on the road we hit it.
We needed (didn’t happen for a few weeks after this) to get new tires on Willy, however, when we got to the tire store we had called, they had four trucks ahead of us, and we were looking at a 3-4 hour wait before even getting in. This was a major no-go for us, seeing how it was in a city, getting dark, and Georgie still wasn’t sure about all the new noises. So, we jumped back on the road, making our way towards Klamath Falls, the next “city” to get tires.
Spoiler alert — the tire store we went to was totally closed down, and we’ve gone to another one that was understaffed and called another where nobody picked up the phone.. so we still don’t have new tires on the van! We’ll get them eventually!
Night One in Willy
This all brought us to spending our first night in Willy in the forest just outside of Lake of the Woods. Georgie wasn’t too sure about her new leash, or the cat run we set up for her. But she still seemed happy to just be with us!
The first night was all about working out the kinks, figuring out how exactly to make our new bed. See if it’s actually comfortable to sleep on or not, and if we even fit on it… I mean, maybe we should have done that before hitting the road, but ehh.. we survived!
Falling asleep and waking up in the middle of a forest with nothing else around you is one thing that never gets old. We woke up to Georgie snuggling in close to our faces telling is it was time to let her out. After her not totally loving her leash the night before, we said screw it and just let her out without a leash.
SHE DID AMAZING!
I mean, we both kinda thought she would, seeing how she’s always on our hip, was inside or under the van, or on the actual project we were working on the entire build (don’t worry, we have loads of pictures and videos of Georgie “helping out”)… But still.. being in an entirely new place and not knowing if she would just run for the hills, we were a bit nervous! Boy, are we glad she just explores then comes running back to the van!
Is This Fort Rock?
Leaving our campsite, we made our way through Klamath Falls, failing at getting new tires, but filling the gas tank and heading east.
After a really cold morning near Lake of the Woods, our plan was to find a hot spring to stay at for the night. However, as usual, getting to the hot spring wasn’t just a five-hour drive like Google Maps suggested. We took our sweet time. Stopping to let Georgie out for a while, and again to check out some interesting rock formations we came across near Christmas Valley.
At that point, we decided to camp closer to the rock formations to get to camp before dark and allow Georgie to adjust to another new place for a bit before bed.
Night Two in the Van
You know on Spongebob where a screen pops up and says something like, “…two hours later…”? That was us arriving at our campsite. The dirt road we were on with the crazy washboard gravel, took sooooo long to drive down. The first spot we found to actually stop was a helicopter pad. That instantly nixed that idea!
Then we found the campground we were looking for, and the road was so crazy, there was no way our van was making it down it. You’d definitely have to have a high clearance vehicle to get down that road. So.. we kept driving.
We ended up parking in a massive sand parking area right at sunset. The views were perfect, there was a super clean porta-potti, and we were nestled between the Lost Forest Study Area and the Sand Dunes Wilderness Study Area.
As the sun was setting, Jay was taking pictures, I was making dinner, and Georgie was out doing her perimeter check, it really hit us that we were doing this again. Living out our dream, exploring the Lord’s Creation, and just truly being.
Now, the not so glamorous part, but something that’s too funny not to include in this update…
Waking up the next morning we were freezing. We had our coffee, both used the porta-potti as our bathroom, and not knowing it.. we were both thinking that the porta-potti was so warm! After Jay went to the bathroom and took his baby wipe shower, I followed suit. Coming out of the porta-potti, Jay and I simultaneously said how warm the porta-potti was and how much it was like a sunroom in Scotland!
Hahaha.. I’m literally laughing again as I’m writing this. The truth of van life! Finding warmth in a super clean, barely used… porta-potti! Hahaha — surely we are living our best life! 🙂
Juntura Hot Springs
The next few nights were spent in what you would think of as typical, Instagram-worthy van life. We found a great spot at Juntura Hot Springs, and stayed there for a number of nights enjoying morning and evening dips in our very own hot tub!
The one-night stay turned into a multi-night getaway. Georgie learned to really roam free.. maybe even a bit too much here, making her way down to the river on her own, and all the way up to the crest of the hillside, where we thought we would have to chase her down, but she came trotting back no problem.
We had our first real scare in the van.. bottoming out and literally sweating driving the road to the hot springs. However, learned on the way out that with less weight from the food we ate, drinks we drank, and water we consumed.. in addition to me walking the road back taking video and photos, allowed for a much less stressful drive out of the hot springs!
We worked, soaked in the hot springs, got a hang of the new van set up, and just enjoyed each other’s company before deciding to hit the road, making our way into Idaho.
Until Next Time..
Thanks for following along with our journey! We’re glad you’re here. It’s such a blessing to share with you the beautiful Creation we get to see, and the funny stories that go with it! We’d love an update on you too.. fill us in on your life in the comments below!
Cheers,
H + J
