East Hampton, CT: Prestash Family Adventures

We just wrapped up a very fun and productive week at Curt's parents house.  It was really nice to be back there and it almost felt like we never left. It certainly didn't feel like we had been gone for almost a year!

We had a relaxing beach day in Niantic our first full day back. Paddle boarding and kayaking and lounging around. Then we had a nice dinner at Grandpa Chuck's house (who had just returned from Florida) and sampled our New Glarus beer with Uncle Dave and Aunt Jill.

The next day we borrowed Grandpa Chuck's truck and Uncle Dave's trailer to help Jut move out of his apartment. We got everything in one trip and upgraded our sleeping situation from leaky air mattress to queen sized bed!  We also borrowed a battery charger and got Curt's Subaru up and running. We hope to have it back on the road in time for winter so we cleaned it out and got a hole in the exhaust system fixed up so it'll pass inspection when the time comes. For now it'll stay in CT though but it's lookin' good!

Our streak of productivity continued when we helped with some screen printing and we also watched an entire season of New Girl on Netflix... so productive! We got to test out our recipe for the upcoming Jell-O shot competition at Kim's family reunion and it came out really good- Irish car bomb shots! We're gonna win! We also whipped up an awesome stir fry for dinner and Teri got to try tofu for the first time! Curt's dad tried tofu for the first time too but it was also most likely his last haha... Tuesday night we got to squeeze in a visit with our friends Steve and Nidia and we were happy to see their money tree (that we got them as a wedding gift) was going strong.

Wednesday we washed the van and got ready for an epic cookout. We made a bunch of kabobs and Jut and his girlfriend Vicki made a sweet Arnold Palmer vodka concoction. We celebrated Kim's birthday with an amazing chocolate cake and a bunch of fancy cupcakes (and more Jell-O shots!) and even got to try some of Curt's cousin's fiancée's homemade beer (thanks Shane- it was delicious!)

We left early this morning and immediately hit a bunch of traffic but now we're on our way to New York to meet up with Kim's family at her grandfather's house. We'll be celebrating August birthdays, 6 in all!

Trip almost complete!

Horsham, PA: Molly & Spanny Round 2

When we last left Molly Gove we were just embarking on our adventures way back in August.  We visited her and her family in Camden, Maine and helped her build a cornhole set for her high school reunion.  After traveling to our first farm and making a pit stop in CT to visit Curt's parents the next stop on our trip brought us to Delaware to stay with Molly's boyfriend, Patrick Spanninger (aka Spanny).  We helped him conduct agricultural science at the University of Delaware and he introduced us to the concept of couchsurfing, which ended up being a great way for us to meet people and save some money on our trip.

We're now in Horsham, PA staying with both Molly AND Spanny, all at the same time!  Horsham marks the last new frontier for us (on this trip at least) and it seems fitting we ended up with friends that helped us get our trip off to the right start.  When we arrived in Horsham Molly busted out the old cornhole set and we played a few games while we waited for Spanny to return home from a long day of science conducting.  He's still doing his thing at the University of Delaware and Molly is in town to go to nursing school.  While we're bummed we won't be seeing them in Burlington any time soon we're glad that they at least get to be with each other.

We had some drinks in the backyard (including an awesome dandelion wine!) and met neighbor Bill who regaled us with stories of attending Grateful Dead shows in his youth.  The next day we were fortunate enough to become Spanny's farmhands yet again as he continued his experiments in the field. Last time we saw him we helped him plant a bunch of lettuce and spinach.  This time around we helped him and his accomplice Rafi plant some tomatoes.  The experiment was the same as last time- plant crops and then spray them with different levels of E. coli to see what effect it has on the fruits.  Luckily none of the plants had been sprayed yet and we were able to help ourselves to a harvest of green tomatoes which Molly fried up that night for dinner.  Yum!

After science time we got treated to some rope-swing action before heading home.  The pond was owned by the DuPont family (same ones from that big company) but no one was there and we had a refreshing swim with some great rope swinging!  Check out the video of Molly multi-tasking below!

The next morning we went for a short hike with Molly and Turbo (Spanny had more science conducting to do) and then hit the road.  Back to CT to spend the next few days at Curt's parents' house.  Even though we're done going to new places it's always nice to see familiar faces!  And we're still on vacation 'til we get back to Burlington! Check out some more pics here on the Facebook, All Good and Horsham!

Thornville, OH: All Good Music Festival

After waking up Thursday morning in the Walmart parking lot to a party of festival goers, we loaded up on ice and headed down the road to check in with our volunteer coordinators, CleanVibes, to get our wristbands for the four days of music and camping (and picking up trash- yay!)

We headed into the festival grounds to have our van searched before finding our camping spot. We were a bit nervous because you aren't supposed to bring in any glass at all and we had a bunch: peanut butter and jelly jars, olive oil, the 2 twelve packs of New Glarus, etc. after explaining to them that this was our house and we had no other choice, they waived us on our way!!!

At first we thought we'd camp in the van, but by golly gee willickers, IT WAS HOT in that sun and humidity and we were parked pretty close to the woods so we made a cool little camp with our hammocks and tent right by a little creek! We were getting lots of compliments and were pretty satisfied! We quickly made friends with our neighbors (who we exchanged info with and they might be coming to VT in October to hike and hang with us!) and we all had a few drinks and walked to the music which was like 5 million miles from our site... Jk, it was probably a mile tops. 

We had a blast the first night and got to see John Scofield Uberjam Band, Toubab Krewe, Papadosio, Lettuce, and Yonder Mountain String Band. We brought a handheld garden sprayer and had tons of fun spraying down the very appreciative crowd! We left the venue around 12:30 AM and missed Beats Antique, but we had to be responsible and get to bed so we could get up and work at 7:45! Yaya!!!

Sleeping in the hammocks was great and we got to our first shift early Friday morning! The clean vibes crew was pretty cool and although we wouldn't go as far as saying the job was 'fun' it certainly wasn't as bad as we thought. The crew started with the main stage area (which was always the worst part) and we'd all form a line and do sweeps like a vacuum cleaner until the entire venue was clean again. It was pretty satisfying to see the clean grounds! We ended up being part of a small team that got to clean the backstage area and then got set loose to roam the camp areas looking for trash and treasure.

We picked up trash/recycling till 12:30 and got back to the site just in time for a crazy thunderstorm to roll through. The trickling creek had become a mini rapids and we had some fun watching people try and cross it. There were a few spots for the daring to try and jump across and we ended up building a log bridge complete with a hand rope to help people up the impossibly muddy banks. We missed the Bright Light Social Hour (recommended by Barbie and Bobby) due to the weather but got to see Dark Star (acoustic!) Leftover Salmon and Primus late night. Due to the weather we slept in the Zinger and again got to work on time!

 

Saturday was a turning point for All Good  as Friday's storm had really been a game changer bringing the cooler weather but more rain was in the forecast. It's never a festival without a good downpour (with the rare exception of High Sierra) but All Good ended up getting pretty wet. We got rained on twice while picking up trash and our campsite got soaked. When we returned from work we were dismayed and saddened to discover one of our hammocks had been stolen. Luckily everything else was in place, even our other hammock... The rain came in waves the rest of the day, alternating between hot and humid sun and outright downpours. We spent the afternoon sleeping in the van, resting up for the main event of the night, Furthur, with fingers crossed that the rain would be over by then.

The rain did hold off and it ended up being an awesome show! We stayed up later than normal but made it through our final work shift on Sunday without being too tired. The music scene on Sunday was pretty casual (as the last day of a festival tends to be) and we dozed through most of it on our blanket.

Since we had no where in particular to be immediately following the music we hung out at camp and got a good night's sleep in the van. We packed up Monday morning before the next rain storm rolled through (welcome back East huh!?) and made a 4 hr drive to a hotel somewhere in Pennsylvania. We took real showers, watched some TV and treated ourselves to some Chinese food. We still had a bunch of food leftover from our big day of food prep at the lake cabin and we're still enjoying it! Talk about eating cheaply!  We're now en route to Horsham, PA to reunite with Molly and Spanny who we saw separately way back in the beginning of our trip. This time we'll all be together! Woohoo!

Elroy, WI: Lake Cabin Getaway

We know what you're thinking- 'that's not Wisconsin! Why that's Minnesota by gosh durnit!' Technically you're right. But why'd you have to swear?

If you've been following our travels on this blog you'll recall that we last left South Dakota heading East and according to our wooden map (that we made ourselves) Minnesota comes between South Dakota and Wisconsin. Now that that's all straightened out we don't really have much to say about Minnesota... There were a bunch of windmills and lots and lots of cornfields. Wisconsin turned out to be more of the same but unlike Minnesota we were excited to be in Wisconsin because we had been offered a free place to stay that was not a Walmart parking lot! Thank goodness! (We're actually headed to a Walmart right now which is kind of funny but mostly annoying)

Kim's dad's cousin Jerry learned of our whereabouts a few days prior through Facebook and invited us to stay in his lake cabin in Elroy, WI which was right off our route (social networking at it's finest!)

We arrived at the cabin Monday night and had all day Tuesday to relax. If it weren't for the van troubles we had had in SD we would have had an extra day to hang out but who's counting right? We can't get mad at the Zinger (we're happy it got us to the cabin at all!) Having a nice bed to sleep in and a real shower was priceless. It had been a few days since we'd felt clean (Curt's last shower had been in Reno!) And to make matters worse, ever since the middle of South Dakota it's been extremely humid (something we haven't dealt with in months). It really doesn't help the whole feeling clean thing!

Tuesday morning we got to meet up with cousin Jerry. He was passing through and stopped in to say hello. It was nice to be able to thank him in person. The rest of the day was spent doing food prep for our 4 day camp out at the All Good music festival in Ohio. We hit up the grocery store and came back with ingredients to fill 5 one gallon ziplock bags with breakfast burrito filling, tuna mac salad, quinoa and veggie salad, and potato salad. For under $60 we'll have good food for both of us for at least 4 days, 3 meals a day. If you do the math it definitely ends up being worth the couple of hours it took to make it all!

We also followed the recommendations of our friends Talia and Donny (from the Yosemite Bug) and picked up some New Glarus beer to enjoy while cheffing it up. WOWZER! They were so good we ended up visiting the brewery on our way out of Wisconsin! Unfortunately they only sell their beer in WI but some of you blog readers might be lucky enough to try some of the beer we are smuggling back with us! Yeah, it's that good. It's smuggle good!

After food prep completion we checked out the lake which was pretty warm and inviting. A little dinner and a movie and it was off to bed. We hit the road early this morning and are still driving. We've been through Illinois and Indiana and are currently in Ohio heading towards that Walmart... ugh. Lake cabin we miss you already! Starting tomorrow we'll be at the festival for the next 4 days. In exchange for free tickets we've volunteered to help keep the festival clean by doing garbage duty Fri, Sat, and Sun at get this- 8AM! Woah! 8-2PM to be specific. Looks like we'll be the responsible ones at this thing! We had originally volunteered to do 2 full day shifts after the festival but the company we're working for lost the bid on that specific contract or something... Whatever- we've been on a road trip all year, we can handle anything!

Well Internet, we'll see you in 4 days! We'll try to take more pictures this time around.

South Dakota: The Breakdown

We left the Badlands and drove through endless farmland on our way to Sioux Falls where we intended to rest up and have lunch. Several hours later and only a few miles outside of the city the Zinger had had enough. After so many days of amazing (almost unbelievable) driving, a breakdown was pretty much inevitable. Driving smoothly down the highway, all of a sudden the 'something's wrong' lights came on and we quickly pulled over. Somehow all of the belts attached to the motor had come off and we had lost a bunch of coolant. We called AAA for (only!) the 3rd tow of our entire trip.

Unfortunately it was Sunday and no mechanics were open so we had the tow truck driver drop us off at our favorite hotel- Walmart. The next morning we got towed to an All Tune & Lube in town which was the only place that would take a look at our van and wasn't busy 'til next week. They replaced the belts and we were psyched it wasn't anything more serious. They said the thing that held the dipstick tube had broken and it had rubbed up against one of the belts causing them all to bounce off. We topped off our coolant and got on our way. Luckily we decided to gas up and check our oil right down the street. When we went to pull the dipstick out we discovered the mechanic had 'tied it down' in such a way that we couldn't even pull it out. Um, hello? We drove back and had them redo it the correct way.

We hit the highway and made it a mile further than where we had first broken down and then the bad lights came on again. We pulled over and much to our dismay found out a belt had come off again. This time it was only one but when we gave up trying to put it back on ourselves we had to call AAA to get our third tow in 2 days. Luckily all the tows were totally covered by AAA. Back to All Tune and Lube we went. Third time's a charm we figured. This time they put the belt back on and we heard them rev the engine for a while (which they had not done the first time around). They said the belt connected to the air conditioner was probably the culprit as it was flapping around wildly. We suspect they were just covering their asses and what had actually happened was when we brought the van back to get the dipstick properly positioned they took off the belt (that came off the second time) and didn't properly tighten it when they put it back on...

All the work after the initial repair was pro bono (except for the fact that we used up all our free tows) and since we never used the AC anyways (it puts too much stress on an already stressed out motor) we told the mechanic to just cut the belt and take it out. The reattached belt (feeling nice and tight this time) worked out fine and we hit the highway.  They weren't bad mechanics, just not very thorough. Vans like ours definitely were not their specialty but the only VW place in town was super busy (as most good VW shops seem to be). We were able to swing by the VW shop and have them confirm that everything looked good before leaving town. Hopefully this will be our last vehicular incident of the trip. Fingers crossed like always!

South Dakota: Adventures of the Midwest

Howdy y'all! Time for some catchin' up on the ol' bloggity blog! As some of you may be aware we've been posting pics on the Facebook pretty regularly but we've slacked off on our journalistic commitments a bit. Now that we have another long stretch on the road we can reflect back on the past few days! Ready!?

Our departure from Jackson, WY ended up being our most scenic day of driving... ever! After leaving the amazingly beautiful forests of Yellowstone we drove a few hours through Wyoming desert before encountering an unexpected mountain that went up and up and up... Definitely the craziest hill we've encountered. The Zinger handled it like a pro and we rewarded it with several breaks to cool down. When we eventually reached the top we realized we had entered Bighorn National Forest, an unexpected bonus which solidified the day's 'most scenic ever' status.

We rolled into a Walmart in Burley, WY around 11PM and crashed for the night. The next day we embarked on our South Dakota scavenger hunt. We found Kim's dad's childhood home in Rapid City and explored the Black Hills searching out Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial.

Both of these historic rock carvings cost money for parking. More money than we were willing to spend so instead we just drove by real slow in order to savor their magnificent splendor. The final spot on our scavenger list was a free campground located in the Badlands National Park. We grabbed some cool looking South Dakotan beers and ventured back into the desert. 

In the middle of nowheresville, the campground was nothing more than a small circle of a dirt road encompassing some dried out desert grass with some shaded picnic tables scattered about. It was HOT out and even when the sun went down there was no relief from the intense heat. We made the best of it, attaching our hammocks to the picnic shelters, sipped our cold beers and planned out the remainder of our trip.

It's pretty crazy to have the end of our trip in sight. We've got everything all mapped out and there's less than 4 weeks 'til we're back to 'normal' life in Burlington. Weird!

We cooked a simple but tasty dinner: quinoa, veggie broth, garlic, and vegan sausage (we're not vegetarian but sometimes it's nice to not have to worry about the mess). As the campground slowly filled up we did our best to try and get some sleep in the heat. A late night thunderstorm brought the most rapid fire lightning strikes we've ever seen and thankfully some cooler weather! We left early in the morning and encountered some local wildlife. At first it was single buffalo that was walking in the middle of the road. Then around a corner we ran right into a herd of over a hundred! The herd was lounging about in and around the road and luckily they didn't mind our intrusion (some where as big as our van!)

After safely navigating the wild buffalo herd we got back on the highway and left the Badlands for what would end up to be a less exciting part of the country...

P.S. - there's pictures up on Facebook but because we're making this post from the phone we can't link to them. If you go back to any old post that does have a link you can find the new pictures in Curt's photos. Enjoy!

Jackson, Wyoming: Grand Tetons to Yellowstone

After a night at the Boomtown hotel casino in Reno NV, we traveled a few hundred more miles through Idaho and shacked up for the night in a town called Burley at another Walmart parking lot. These Walmart parking lots are not our favorite but definitely economical while we make our "sprint" back east!

We awoke and traveled the five more hours eastward to Jackson Wyoming. The Zinger did an amazing job traversing over the Teton Pass with endless miles of 10% grade uphill and down! Wahoooo! We were disappointed in how little time we gave ourselves to explore this part of the country as we were getting so many suggestions from friends of people to meet and places to check out. We'll just have to come back!

So we made it to Jackson where we met up with our old coworker from the Yosemite Bug, Colleen and her boyfriend Chris! We all decided after a few tasty brews to pack up and hike into Phelps Lake in the Tetons. The hike was a leisurely 4 mile hike in. We had a couple hours before sunset and enjoyed some drinks on a beach before we cooked up some canned chilli and loaded all the rest of our food into the bear lockers for the night. We then bundled up and hit the sack (literally since sleeping in hammocks is pretty similar to sleeping in a sack). In the middle of the night a creature decided to use Kim as a jungle gym and ran all over her making for an exciting story. At least it wasn't a bear!

In the morning we awoke, packed up camp and made our way to a twenty foot rock to jump off into the lake. We decided it would be a good alternative to coffee haha and that it was! After giving a free show to other hikers ("those kids are crazy!") we made the 4 mile trek back to the van. It was time for a beer and grub at Snake River brewery! 

We all could barely keep our eyes open after the brewery so we went back to Chris and Colleens apartment and watched a couple movies before getting some shut eye as we all were planning an early morning this morning. Colleen and Chris went off to work and we got our laundry done and an oil change. We're currently en route to South Dakota, driving through a short part of Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone. We're excited about this route because it's so scenic: we've already spotted a bear, a group of elk, steaming geysers, waterfalls, lakes, rivers, wild flowers, and friendly fellow VW Van wavers!

Onward and Eastward!!!! We'd love to hear what's making your summer amazing! 

Quincy, CA: The High Sierra Music Festival!

Leaving Bozeman and heading back west we had a record-breaking day of driving. It was our longest single stretch yet, clocking in at just over 15 hours on the road! We also drove through the hottest weather we've ever encountered with the temps reaching up over 100 inside the van. And to top things off we spent our very first overnight in a Walmart parking lot in Winnemucca, NV! What a day! The Zinger drove like a champ and maintained safe temperatures throughout the day.

The next day was a relatively short 5 hr drive to Quincy. We arrived well before the festival gates opened (a full day and several hours to be exact) and spent some time swimming in the local river. We even took river baths! (Don't worry, we have safe soaps) We stocked up on supplies at the local grocery store, which at this point was being overrun by a happy mob of festival goers and VW vans of all sorts! When Barbie and Bobby showed up they had some good news. They didn't have their van but they weren't selling it either, it was still at 'the doctors' getting fixed for thousands of dollars less than they had originally thought. 

Team VT arrived at the early waiting parking lot around 5pm. We were probably one of the first 100 people in the lot but because we didn't feel like sitting in line all night we definitely weren't the first 100 people into the festival. We cooked a good meal, partied with our neighbors and all 4 of us slept in the van. When we eventually got into the fairgrounds the next morning to set up camp we were surprised to find that thousands of people had already claimed spots. Apparently they had paid extra money for this privilege. For those of us just arriving it quickly turned into a mad dash to grab land that must have been similar to the old Wild West days. The flat camping spots were going quick but we snagged one in between a path and a fence for our main hangout spot aka 'The  Junkyard'. A lot of people passed through but everyone was friendly and at night we would light the path with glowsticks. Barbie and Bobby set up a tent nearby and we set ours up on the bottom of a hill a few yards away. We ended up setting up our hammocks in some trees up on the hill and when several neighbors did the same Hammock Town was formed. After the initial craziness of camp set up it was time to relax. The next 4 days were going to be filled with fun and music!

Unfortunately we didn't take many pictures but here's one of the lineup- your imagination will have to fill in the rest!

The fairgrounds contained several different musical venues: a big main stage, a slightly smaller stage with overhead shade cloth, a smaller tent venue, 3 different buildings with music and events, and a lawn filled with tightropes (aka slack lines), hammocks, and early morning kickball games! Pretty much everything in between was jam packed with tents, EZ ups and more VW vans and buses than we've EVER seen! There must have been over a hundred no problem! Everything was within easy walking distance and we could hear the main stage (and sometimes the 2nd big stage) right from our campsite. We spent the days and nights walking around to the different venues, hosing off at the solar shower, and listening to music from the comfort of Hammock Town. It was a very laid back and relaxed atmosphere. 

Thursday was the 4th of July and the highlight of the night was Robert Plant (of Led Zeppelin fame) There weren't any fireworks which was kind of strange but due to the extremely high risk of wildfires it was understandable. The nights were cool and sometimes humid but the days were hot, sunny and dusty and water and sunscreen were even more valuable commodities than beer itself. Luckily we had plenty of everything! We set up our solar shower in Hammock Town and even brought it out to a few shows, twirling it around and showering people around us. Everyone loved it!

Friday night was a crazy one, Primus was the main act and after that John Scofield Über Jam Band played late night. We dressed up and danced extremely til the wee hours of the morning! Sleeping in the  hammocks and waking up to the sounds of cheering from the kickball field was great fun! Saturday we caught VT based Rubblebucket and listened to more Uber Jam, this time from the hammocks. Bobby convinced us to check out a band called Octopus Nebula which ended up being one of our favorites and then we saw Thievery Corporation on the main stage (they were awesome live!) Still being kind of tired from the night before we called it an 'early' night around midnight. 

By Sunday people had already started packing up. Having no place in particular to go to Monday we had purchased tickets to a late night show (one strange thing about this festival was that they sold separate tickets for the 'late night' acts which didn't even start til 2am) We paced ourselves by hanging out at camp for most of the day, listening to the soul music of Lee Fields and some reggae by Steel Pulse. We eventually ventured out to catch a little more Rubblebucket, moe., and then our late night show, Papadosio.

The casual atmosphere continued during Monday morning's exodus. We drove the van right in and loaded up. Even though there were literally VW vans everywhere we still got a lot of compliments and everyone was amazed at the story of our trip. We took Barbie and Bobby back to the swimming hole we had found for some lunch and another river shower. After scoring Internet at the local library we parted ways. The next time we'll see them will be in NY at our friends Maggie and Sean's wedding. We made our way back into the desert to the Boomtown Hotel and Casino near Reno, NV (Barbie and Bobby played the hotel card as well). We passed out early and didn't even have time to gamble! Their Internet wasn't working but hopefully someday soon we'll be able to upload some more pictures! Stay tuned!