FAQs

As we began telling people about our trip, we’ve gotten a lot of questions.  Here are some common ones:

1. Are you working on the road? No.  We both quit our jobs and have saved up enough money to be able to do this for a year.
2. Do you have a route planned? Relatively.  Our route was made due to weather; our goal being to stay around the 70° mark during the day and 40s at night.  After we purchased MichelVangelo we found out that it did not have A/C… so for that reason we would like to avoid extreme heat!  We are starting our year-long trip in Manitowish Waters, WI shortly after the 4th of July. From there we will head West, jumping up into Canada a few times but mostly staying along the perimeter of the United States.  Our end destination will hopefully be Manitowish Waters, WI July 2019.
3. Where are you going to go to the bathroom? Gas stations, water bottles,  holes in the ground, state parks/campground restrooms… aka our van does not have a bathroom.
4. What if the van doesn’t make it?  We have a contingency fund set up as part of what we have been saving for van repairs.  Once that fund is “dry” we would probably call it quits. Let’s just hope it doesn’t get to that.
5. What if you get sick of each other? Well, we guarantee this will happen at various points along the trip.  We met when Katie was 15 and Jason was 16 and have been together pretty much ever since.  Katie has also been listening to podcasts on how to travel/live in a small space with your spouse (yes, seriously), so those will come in handy we’re sure!
6. What about your pets?  We have a lovable pit-bull mix named Lucy, and an adorable (can do no wrong) cat named Lola.  When we first started this process we were convinced we were going to take both animals with us on the road.  Plans changed when we had both animals in the van and after multiple attempts both animals did not enjoy traveling in it.  Katie’s parents have graciously offered to watch both pets for the year that we are gone.  Not being able to tell your pets when you’re leaving and when you’re coming back has been the hardest part of all of this.
7. What are you going to eat?  We will be doing the majority of the cooking ourselves.  We have a refrigerator powered with our solar panels and we also have a propane camp stove.
8. Are you crazy?  Yes.
9. Where are you going to live when you get back?  We don’t know that answer.  We sold our home in Des Moines, IA so we can live anywhere when we get back.  In Katie’s opinion, the people make the place and most of our people live in Iowa/the Midwest.  But, we are keeping our options open. We know that we are leaving a fantastic network of family and friends that we are going to miss tremendously while on the road.  We’re hoping for many visitors along the way!
10. Where are you going to work when you get back?  Also another great question that we are not thinking about until we get back from our trip.
11.  Why are you doing this?  We would ask, why not?  There is so much to see in just the U.S. alone.  With working full time, there was never enough time to see it all.  Katie’s saying at her previous job was that she “lived and died by her PTO” many times she only had a few hours or was in the negative with all of her travels.