Last summer 2021 was our maiden voyage in Lola. While we did not meet our goals of traveling out to the PNW due to the smoke and smog up in the upper peninsula of Michigan from the many many fires out west, we did wander more and experience “living” a little more fluidly. The map below shows our route this past summer/fall of 2021. If you click the white icon and then ”view guide” on the left menu, you will see a cohesive place-by-place map of our travels with pictures, notes, and a few sunsets. Keep reading here for some more details.
May 28- June 07
Like all of our adult lives, our trips are planned between hard deadlines and obligations. Summer 2021 held two major dates for us, so squeezing every drop out our first van experience was the goal. This summer, I was taking upper level university courses online, and Tyler was working 9-5 EDT Monday through Friday. Work and school aside, the first obligation of the summer was our annual Independence Day weekend BBQ trip to Ludington. We departed Orlando the last weekend of May, with the goal of reaching Ludington a couple of weeks before July 4. Before you get too anxious, we made the trip with time to spare, but it was not the easiest.
The first sprint of the trip was Orlando, FL to a rest stop North of Valdosta, in Lenox, GA. We left Orlando a little before 8pm, had some caffeine, and made it to our home for the night a little after midnight. 260+ miles and 4 hours later, the first night in the van was a success. We slept like babies until the trucks started pulling out the next morning.
We rose early and seized the opportunity to head north with the semis until our exit. As you will come to know, we enjoy taking the scenic routes and avoiding Atlanta by any means necessary. So when we saw the opportunity to drive around county roads and farm land, we took it. The scenic route was the way to go for us. Coffee in hand, we drove through the windy county roads of Georgia, stopping in Arkansas for lunch, and finishing our first part of the trip off in Kansas City around midnight.
While in KC, we spend a couple of nights visting friends and exploring the best Chiefs town has to offer: Notably, Jon’s Big Deck on a Wednesday. Did I mention we were in the MO side? Music was loud, food was great, the views were impeccable, the metro KC MO air… herbal.
Beautiful Colorado
Our time in Colorado was a bit more structured and planned, mainly due to us coordinating and traveling with the native-to-colorado-friends and family alike. At the time, I was in summer courses, and Ty was full time 9-5pm on east coast hours. We planned our activities between after work hours and where we were sleeping that night. We took in every opportunity to see beauty while we were visiting Colorado. Anyone who has completed the drive on I-70 knows that the drive is long and not the most scenic, especially when comparing to the rocky mountain state. We broke up the drive in two and camped out North of Hays, a few hours from the CO state line. When we left Kansas, we were followed behind by our great friend, Jasmine, and her blue heeler, lily. We camped in the van together, with ty on the top bunk and the ladies all sleeping below. Lily was not the happiest camper, which made for a very restless night.
JUNE 3: Welcome to COLORFUL COLORADO
Colorado was a huge mark in our trip plans last year, and 100% a place we would be more than happy to visit again. We made it to colorado a few hours after leaving the campsite, stopped for coffee in Goodland, and had to take a picture at the CO and KS state lines. Did we -really- go to Colorado otherwise? Before we could even consider going to spend some time in the city, we needed to make sure Lily was in a safe place. Remember what I said about our routes not always being the quickest? Well, we headed straight past Denver to Jasmines sister’s home in Conifer for the night. We were greeted with the most hospitality in an insanely beautiful mountain home. We spent the evening eating, catching up, and loving on their massive German Shepards. That night, we gleefully slept like babies in their basement on a real bed.
JUNE 4: DRIVE TO DENVER AFTER WORK
After resting up, Tyler, Jasmine, and I spent the day working from one of our prettiest work-from-home-offices to date (and me being incredibly sick thanks to the altitude change). I mean, does it get any better than mountain views and native wildlife as your backyard? We tried to work east coast hours, so we got off work an hour early and headed into Denver to visit my cousin, Mony, to start off our weekend. We had some uncanny starting issues, and that was enough to keep us on our toes. Our “want” to see my cousin turned into a ”need” to get to a lower elevation. Tyler chalked it up to pressure issues. After getting to Denver, Ty and I ended our night with some local wine, good conversation, and petting porch cats before heading to bed.
JUNE 5: DENVER DAY DATE
My cousin is probably the most kind hearted person you will ever meet. We woke on Saturday and did some much needed laundry before setting on a good place for a late brunch. Jasmine met us out, and we found ourselves at a brewery down the road from the house. Another excellent friend of mine, Baeh, came along around that time. We all split flights and chatted for a while. The day was moving quickly, so we decided to split up for a bit. Ty went back to the house to work on the van* with my Cousin’s husband for a while before dinner. Jasmine, Baeh, and I were on a mission to find some plants and caffeine. We ended up downtown in the -least accessible- store, it was impossible to park somewhere both legally and accessible, and the place was super expensive. Needless to say, after all of that trouble, we left plant-less. Nonetheless, the day was going great, and we went shopping a bit before meeting everyone for a tapas dinner. We headed back to Conifer that night because we had a very active and exciting morning planned.
JUNE 6: PEAK-PEAK
We woke at sunrise and met Beah at RedRocks for our Peak to Peak tour of beautiful Colorado. We all hopped into Jasmine’s Escape, and started our way to Boulder for a snack and to walk the dogs before stopping again in Estes Park. We spent a good few hours in Estes. We grabbed some icecream and headed on the byway from Estes to Black Hawk. The smaller cities in the mountains were absolutely incredible. We stopped at Lake Lily for a photo opportunity and finished off the evening with a sunset drive in RedRocks.
– She actually LOVES being held like this 🙂
JUNE 7: WORKIN HARD OR HARDLY WORKIN?
The weekend was great, but work and Lola never rests. Monday was another work day for Tyler. I finished a huge project for a client based course, and Jasmine and I took the day to explore Conifer a bit before heading to The Springs that evening. I would like to start this segment by saying Jasmine and I had every intention of having a calm breakfast and maybe working for 1/2 the day afterwards. We started off the day at a little diner in Conifer. They had a full bar and tons of breakfast ”special” drinks from the bar. We settled on having a well-deserved mimosa with our meal while we chatted. The waitress infomraed us for a $1 more, we could get bottomless. I am a woman of thrift and I know a deal when I see one. When the waitress brought us the 2 mimosas we ordered, she brought out the biggest wine gasses filled to the rim with stiff mimosa. About 1/2 way through, our plans for the day went out the window. We ended up drinking 2 each and bribing tyler with lunch to come grab us to DD us back home. Jasmines sister had the afternoon off, so we went on a spur of the moment “easy” hike (thanks to alltrails) on the mountain. We parked and went a few miles. Each step was a little more difficult. We realized we took the wrong path and ended up on the ”moderate” level hike. Nonetheless, it was breathtaking and worth the hassle (A few hours later, we learned there was a mother Mountain lion and cub pacing the trail while we were there).
Once we were back to the house, I packed for the trip to Colorado Springs, and we were ready to pull out when the inevitable happened— Lola would not start.
***More info on lola’s engine troubles next week! See you then for part 2!