After less than 24 hours in San Diego, Malia said “I’m moving here!” Ivy has also been enthusiastic about the state, but she wants to live in Hollywood so she can “see pop stars!”
After a 2 1/2 hour drive from Palm Beach that turned into a 4+ hour drive because of traffic, we arrived at our friends’ house in El Cajon (a suburb of San Deigo). Our girls were excited to be back in a house with other kids besides each other. The Larsons have 4 kids. Their youngest was about Ivy’s age and they hit it off almost immediately. Mark had fun catching up with his Bible school buddy, Jeremiah. It was their first time seeing each other in over 20 years and my first time meeting this really awesome family. They were great hosts and we loved getting to know them.
Our family day in San Diego included watching the hundreds of Sea Lions at La Jolla Beach, watching surfers at Pacific Beach, and taking in the views over Sunset Cliffs.
To get the full experience of seeing the pile of sea lions relaxing on the shore, you need a video with the sound on. They really make a lot of noise.
And here is a video of the surfers. It was cool to watch them from up above.
Mark and I had a date (no kids) walking the Coronado Beach and admiring the historic Coronado Hotel. We decided we would like to stay there someday….maybe for a future anniversary.
Thank you, Larson family, for a great weekend in San Diego! We loved it!
Part of me thought we would never make it as far West as California, but when my sister said she and her family would be spending spring break at two National Parks in California, it got me to commit. We also remembered at the last minute that Mark’s aunt and uncle live in Palm Desert, which is not far from Joshua Tree. Like I’ve said many times, it’s almost as if God is planning this trip and we are just along for the ride to applaud His brilliance. Every time a seemingly odd coincidence falls into place, it’s as if God is winking at us and saying “I really like that you are taking this trip. You can trust me to take care of you. I’ve got you!”
We arrived at Ron and Kay’s house in Palm Desert to a meal of chicken and rice with apple crisp for dessert. After a few days of fast food, this was a nice treat. The table was set so nicely. The girls had to ask why there were two forks. That made me realize we haven’t done much fine dining yet.
The next morning, we set out early for Joshua Tree. It’s a National Park famous for its unique Joshua Trees. What I didn’t realize was that it is a rock climbers paradise with giant rocks for miles. It also has an incredible cholla cacti garden.
The kids had a blast climbing the rocks and hiking the dusty trails through the the desert plants and lizards. After our hike and a picnic lunch near skull rock, a stroll through the cholla garden, and contests to see who could climb the highest rocks, we headed back to the Bergen family campsite. Ivy was most excited about boiling water over the fire to make ramen noodles. It’s funny what things the kids look forward to. When we went grocery shopping for our day at Joshua Tree, we filled the cart with sandwich fixings, hotdogs, chips, pre-packaged salad, and ramen noodles. Ivy said as we were checking out, “Wow, we are really going all out!!” Here are a few more photos and videos of our one awesome day at Joshua Tree. It is a HUGE park and we didn’t explore even half of it, but I loved every minute of the day with some of my favorite people.
We just finished a month stay in Vail, Arizona at Solquest Retreat. Vail is a small town within driving distance of Tucson. We were able to explore Saguaro National Park, Sabino Canyon, Madera Canyon, Mount Lemmon, the Desert Museum, Medella Vina horse ranch, and the Tucson rodeo and gem show.
It snowed 3 times during our month stay, which is unheard of in Arizona. Many days were cold enough for us to need our winter coats. It was still much nicer than back in Minnesota though. Our family back home experienced record snowfall and blizzard conditions on and off all month.
I went into this month seeing it as an intentional personal retreat. I joined an online group to go through the book The Artists Way by Julia Cameron. One of the assignments was writing “morning pages”. These handwritten journals entries helped me uncover some harmful thoughts that have been hindering me from living my best life. I was able to recognize and release some fears and forgive myself for things I regret. Mark and I had some good talks that were important in strengthening our marriage.
Lisa Kindle, who we stayed with, is an artist. She supplied us with art supplies and a space to create. One of Lisa’s passions is the power of words through affirmations. You can learn more about Lisa’s work here.
She encouraged me to create my own personal affirmation cards and gave me the cutest little box to put the cards in. The front of the box says: “Give it to God” and the inside says “She is clothed with strength and dignity and she laughs without fear of the future”. Proverbs 31:25
Here are some examples of my affirmations. I will speak these aloud to myself until I begin to believe them and live them out.
Being able to walk outside the front door and be surrounded by mountains was a great feeling. We drove up Mount Lemmon and took pictures at a place called Windy Point. It was spectacular.
Another new experience was walking a giant prayer labyrinth right outside our door.
On our last weekend here, Dean and Lisa hosted a Disco in the Desert with Mark as the DJ. There were costumes, a photo booth, yoga with Kaeli Hines, fondue, and tie dye cookies. It was a fun night!
Mark did an awesome job, as always, bringing the music and lights.
As our time in Arizona comes to a close, we are so grateful. Our next stop is California. We have been on the road traveling for 4 months now! It’s hard to believe that we will be home in St Paul on May 1st. If you’d like to cheer us on toward the finish line, you can join our Patreon. It’s a $6 gift that will go straight to our gas money fund, and we will send you a postcard as a thank you! The Patreon will end when the trip ends so there is just one month left if you’d like a postcard.
Thanks for following along. We would love to hear from you if you’d like to host us in your state. Especially if you live in Oregon, Idaho, or Colorado.
When you are traveling, there are bound to be a number of rainy (or snowy) days when your outdoor plans don’t go as planned. Here are a few fun things we have done on the days when we need to be inside.
GAMES
Since we have very limited space in the van, we could only choose a few favorite games to bring. Here are our the top 3.
Scrabble – a timeless word game that never gets old. To be fair, we didn’t bring this game along. We borrowed it from people we stayed with. It’s a game that most people have sitting on a shelf, even if it doesn’t get played.
Quiddler – Another word game involving cards. In round one, players get 3 cards to spell a word. In each round, one card is added. By the end of the game, players have 8 cards to make as many words as possible. A bonus is given for the player with the most words and the longest word during each round.
Monopoly Deal – I always hated monopoly because it took too long and involved too many small pieces. This version of the game can be played in less than 30 minutes and all you need is the deck of cards. Anyone who is able to read can play. No difficult math skills required. It helps to have someone who has played the game before teach it to you. It’s worth learning because once you get the hang of it, you will LOVE it.
Scavenger Hunts
Most kids enjoy scavenger hunts. Especially if there is some type of prize at the end. I created these two and used them with the kids on the trip. One is for the grocery store and the other for the library. I’ve included links below to the printables I’ve created. If you have trouble getting to them, just send me a message and I can email them to you. Free downloads below ⬇️
A few other little activities we have done almost every day rain or shine are:
Wordle – the online daily game put out by the New York Times. You have 5 guesses to figure out the chosen 5 letter word of the day.
Marco Polo – a great free app where you can send videos to family and friends and they can watch them on their own time and return videos back.
License Plate Search – when we are traveling, we are always on the look out for new license plates. When we find a state we haven’t seen before, we take a picture of it. Here are just a few.
Feel free to share your favorite games and travel activities in the comments. We still have 2 months left and could use some fresh ideas!
As I write this post, our home state of Minnesota is getting dumped with snow and I am thrilled to be missing out on the shoveling. I do miss the feeling of being cozy in the house while the cold wind blows outside, everything is cancelled, and we are forced to hunker down and do a jigsaw puzzle. We have not needed to double layer our socks or wear long underwear at all this winter. We’ve spent our time in Georgia, Florida, Texas, and now Arizona.
We arrived in Vail, a quiet little desert town about 20 minutes South of Tucson on February 7th. We are staying on a gravel road off the beaten path at the home of Dean and Lisa Kindle for about 4 weeks. They have given us new experiences such as learning about our life path color, providing us with art supplies, and introducing us to a cacao ceremony. Dean and Lisa have named their property Solquest Retreat and that is exactly what we were seeking. We craved a few weeks to slow down in one place, center ourselves, and listen to God for direction. Part of this trip’s purpose was to rekindle our marriage and family relationships and re-center our lives for the next season.
There is a labyrinth in the front yard, and each morning we’ve been able to walk the stone-lined path to the center of the 40 foot circle. Before beginning the walk, we remember what we are grateful for. The walk to the middle is a time to release (intentionally let go of the things that are troubling us). In the center, we take time to receive what God wants to give us for that day. The walk back out is a return to our work and play for the day. It is an active form of prayer and reflection.
Some of our daily outings in and around Tucson have been driving up Mount Lemmon, attending a rodeo parade, hiking in Sabino Canyon, studying saguaro cacti, riding horses at Medella Vina Ranch, and playing tennis at Reffkin Tennis Center in Tucson. We will end our month here with a Disco in the Desert on March 4th. If you are in the Tucson area, you are invited!! Here are some photos of our adventures in the Arizona mountains.
Rocks are all the rage here. We went to a gem show the first weekend and now we can’t stop seeing rocks everywhere.
We watched the Super Bowl at a little restaurant in Vail called Dos Hermanos. We had the place to ourselves and they served the best tacos we have tasted on the trip.
Being so close to mountains has been a highlight from this part of the country. The kids had never seen a mountain before this trip.
The road has become home (for now) and it’s hard to believe we have made it almost 4 whole months. Next stop, California!
#2. What’s the most dangerous thing you’ve ever done?
My answer to these questions before this year would be
# 1 – NO
#2 – I don’t believe in doing dangerous things!
Then came the decision to travel for 6 months. We moved out of our house of 10 years and hit the road with a rough plan, but many details yet to fill in. I struggled with how people would react to this choice we had made. It seemed reckless and crazy. It was out of character from the play it safe environment I had been raised in. What would people say about us? Would we fail, and come running home to a chorus of “I told you sos”. Would our younger kids resent us for taking them out of school? How would our older kids react to not having a home to come back to on breaks? What if there was a crisis or things didn’t go like we expected?
We packed up our van and hit the road on November 1st, 2022. I felt confident that this was the year to take this trip, and that God would take care of us and take care of our big kids who were not with us.
I had read that when you know that you are meant to do something and you step out and move toward that idea, things begin to work in your favor. That’s exactly what began to happen. People got excited for us and began to give us gifts, introduced us to people they knew, and offered practical suggestions.
“Leap, and the net will appear” is a phrase originally penned by James Burroughs, and re-quoted in countless other places. I clung to this phrase in the days before we left when I felt scared or unsure.
Oftentimes when we take a chance, others respond with help, and circumstances align in our favor. Julia Cameron in her book The Artist’s Way calls this synchronicity. The miracles of everything falling into place to support our travel vision cannot be denied or dismissed as luck. Many times during the trip, we have seen God open doors for us to stay in places we weren’t expecting.
If we wait until we are ready to do something that seems big or scary, we may never do it. We will never feel ready to take a risk. Living this creative life takes faith and trust.
I don’t pretend to have it all figured out. I still struggle with fear and doubt, but taking risks gets easier the more I do it.
I’ve been looking at the life of Jesus lately and have been noticing that He never called his disciples to be safe. If Jesus were walking with me right now, I believe He would not say be safe, but instead, be brave.
Brave means stepping outside my comfort zone. Brave means doing things that scare me. A few examples for me are
saying yes to being a guest on a podcast
becoming who I want to be instead of who others expect me to be and
calling myself an artist and a leader
What does being brave look like for you right now? Is there something you need to step into, but don’t feel ready? Take a couple steps forward. You can do it!
Our 2nd National Park visited was only 3 hours from Carlsbad Caverns, so these two amazing wonders could be seen in one weekend. They are both in New Mexico. We stayed the night in El Paso and then drove the hour to White Sands in the morning. Nothing can quite prepare you for this park. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. There are over 200 miles of white sand. A road winds through the park and there are several places to stop and park.
In the pictures, you will see that the sand can almost be mistaken for snow. Especially since they give out sleds at the visitor center for visitors to slide down the massive sand dunes. We didn’t see many other people there in January. It was a bit chilly and we needed our winter coats, but the sun shone brightly so it was comfortable. We spent about 2 hours wandering around, just us and the sand…..miles and miles of it. I could see how it would be easy to get lost since there are no paths and everything looks the same. The only landmark is a paved road winding through the center of the park. The kids said it wasn’t as fun as sledding in snow – of course! We wrote words in the sand, took deep breaths in and out, and just enjoyed the peace of this sacred place. Here are a few videos to give you a glimpse of the grandeur of this magical place that looks like snow in the desert.
It’s nothing like sledding down and icy hill. It’s SAND. At the bottom of the hill Malia yelled, “that was leisurely!”
Three months into our USA road-trip, we finally visited our first National Park. Carlsbad Caverns is located in New Mexico and is home to an incredible cave that you can walk down into and explore. Millions of bats live in the back of the cave and fly out at sunset. The bats stayed well hidden on our walk through. I watched videos ahead of time, but nothing could prepare me for the massiveness and wonder of this cave. After reserving an entrance time online and paying your entrance fee (free with a National Parks pass) we took the 1.5 mile path down, down, down into the cave. There is an option to take an elevator down, but we opted to walk down.
The great room on the bottom of the cave is 750 feet below ground, so it is quite trek down. It was not very busy the day we were there, so it was dark, quiet, and eery. Ivy, our 8 year old, was scared and had a hard time enjoying the cave. I can imagine those with high anxiety in dark places may want to take the elevator. It was quite a workout on my leg muscles since the entire path was a steep downward slope. Once you are in the great room at the bottom of the cave, it is well lit and the ground is all flat. To walk through the entire cave it can take about 2.5 hours – it’s HUGE. We skipped the final mile loop so spent about 2 hours total from start to finish with lots of breaks to rest and drink water (bring a water bottle!) Here are some photos of the cave. I highly recommend visiting this natural wonder. It is truly a work of art that far surpasses the beauty of any church or cathedral I’ve ever visited. It almost felt like a holy place.
The road into this National Park is about 7 miles long. When we arrived it was so foggy we couldn’t see much more than a few feet in front of us. By the time we left the park, the fog had lifted and we were able to see the beautiful landscape leaving the park. As we drove from Carlsbad to El Paso, Texas, we had the most gorgeous views of the Guadalupe Mountains.
I got a text from a friend today asking how I am doing with the constant flurry of social time, jumping from house to house and being with new people more than I’m used to. Introverts who get energy from alone time, and are drained by extended periods of needing to be “on” around other people will understand this question. Today I am in a bedroom with the door closed in complete silence, and it is heavenly. I have intentionally found times to steal away and soak up this kind of “quiet time”
One of the things I find myself asking Mark and the kids each day are “what were your highs and lows?” As we reach the 3 month point of being on the road, I have taken some time to recollect some highs and lows.
BEST DAYS
I have 3 standout days that I remember most fondly. ❤️ Biking along the beach in Hilton Head, SC
❤️ Day at Cumberland Falls followed by KFC in Corbin, Kentucky
❤️ Theater of the Sea and Key West on New Years Eve Day
HARDEST DAYS
Four days stand out as the hardest. 😢 First night cabin camping in Kentucky and not sleeping at all. 😢 The car ride from Indianapolis to Cincinatti. Another sleepless night followed by frustration of not being able to find a tennis court, being hungry, and overwhelmed. 😢 The transition from Naples to Key Largo, a cold and rainy Christmas, financial pressures and family tensions.
😢The lowest point of the trip was when Mark was going back to MN with Ivy and Malia and I were staying back in a tiny, dark, casita (that smelled like marijuana). It also just happened to be our wedding anniversary. Thankfully that very day I received a surprise text inviting Malia and I to spend the weekend in a beach house nearby.
An interesting observation I made while writing this is that our hardest days were immediately followed by our best days. The sleepless night in the cabin was followed by a breathtaking morning of seeing a waterfall. The cold and rainy Christmas was followed by a dolphin show on New Years Eve. An exhausting travel day ended with being welcomed into the home of the Grigsby family. A detour that I almost refused to take ended in my favorite day at Hilton Head.
Are you in a rough season of life, feeling confused or frustrated? Are you having a bad day today? Just wait it out. You don’t know what tomorrow may bring. Sometimes we just endure some hard days in order to more fully appreciate the good days.
We have been traveling now for almost 3 months. Our travels have brought us into 12 different family’s homes to spend the night and many others for a meal or short visit. We’ve also stayed in a cabin, a tiny house, a beach house, several airbnbs, and a handful of hotels.
Our shortest stay has been for one night and our longest stay for one month. The trip itself has not been physically exhausting. We have had very few responsibilities other than homeschooling, scheduling upcoming stays, and phone calls for Mark’s business. What HAS been exhausting is the emotional toll of packing and unpacking so many times, battling our own doubts about the trip, and talking through all of the constant changes and unknowns as a family.
When you don’t have a familiar HOME to come back to, then wherever we are becomes home. I’ve even caught myself saying “let’s go home now” on nights we are staying in a hotel. Home has been the resting place at the end of the day, wherever we find ourselves.
Three months has felt like a marathon as we continue to trust that this is the best path for us. It has been incredible to see how the road has risen up to meet us. As we have asked people to host us or simply prayed and asked God to lead us, the next steps have literally appeared.
Just last week I was feeling discouraged about being alone for a weekend while Mark flew back to Minnesota to DJ multiple events. I got a text from my friend Ami in San Antonio saying her family was gifted a beach house in Corpus Christi for the weekend and with only one days notice, she asked if I wanted to join them. Her family and friends’ company was refreshing, and I came back to pick Mark up from the airport at the end of the weekend feeling refreshed and ready to move forward.
We are spending most of January in the BIG state of TEXAS. From the freeways with more lanes than I’m used to, to the vehicles with waist high wheels, to the gas station, Buc-ees, with 200 gas pumps – everything’s bigger in Texas.
Tex Mex is everywhere. Tacos, burritos, fajitas, oh my! It would be hard to be vegetarian or vegan here….or a Democrat!
I don’t think I could live here year around simply because of the heat. We are fortunate to be here in January. We went into downtown San Antonio yesterday wearing shorts and someone asked where we were from. Apparently people from Texas don’t wear shorts this time of year because this is winter for them.
The highlight for me in Texas has been seeing new and old friends. We don’t have to stay in any hotels in this state. We have friends and family willing to host us. Here are some of the people we have stayed with or spent time with so far.
Houston, TX. Carson and Alicia Clark and family Wes and Lesley Patterson and family
San Antonio – Week One Eric and Autumn Lundquist
Corpus Christi Beach House Weekend – Van and Ami Teodosio and family
San Antonio – Week 2 is off to a great start.Teodosio and Chouravong Family
Thanks to all of our past, present, and future hosts for welcoming us! Let me know if you are interested in seeing us as we head West to Arizona and California in February and March.
