This blog is super special to me because I believe this will be a pivoting point in this website and blog. I am so excited to announce that I bought a 2015 mercedes springer van and Jimmy and I will be going on the road all summer! We have plans to head out to Colorado and eventually drive to the Pacific north west as that is where we hold sentimental value.

Making this decision was not an easy decision on if we were going to pack our bags, leave our friends and family all to try to travel. But I can tell you this is one of the most exciting dream come true moments of my life. I can not even count on my hands the amount of times we have spent at night, camping, or traveling trying to figure out how we can do this all the time and for lower cost. If it works great, if it doesn't then we will figure it out as it comes.

Here are some of the basic questions I have been asked so far on this journey.

How are you going to make money?
What about Blue Jeans (the cat)?
What are you going to do with all of your stuff?
What do your parents think about this?

How we will make money on the road:

We are both photographers, one of the goals of building out this van and traveling is to work and focus on our photography. Jimmy and I both sell prints and our goal is to make that our main income in some time. As of right now we have savings to live off of and Jimmy has a part time remote job. We are also both always open to opportunities we find along the way and both of us being photographers we will always be on the look out for sessions, and headshot clients as we go.

Blue Jeans:

Blue Jeans the cat will be coming along on this journey. We are so excited and have plans to curate into the van to make sure she is a happy kitty. She has always been a ball of energy and loves going outside but only if we are close by, this lets me know that she will enjoy this experience. However, if she does not get the hang of things, or gets sick from driving, or leads us to any belief she is unhappy, we will come home. She is like a child to us so she is our number 1 priority when it comes to her health and happyness. She is currently working on being leash trained and she has a air tag collar and QR code with all of her information on it.

What are we going to do with our stuff?

Jimmy and I have built a beautiful apartment with lots of nicknacks and treasurers, however one of our goals is to really embrace living small. I have always been drawn to things but one thing I have found over the years is alot of that stuff is pointless. I however am worried about what clothes to bring. I do not struggle with things, i do struggle with clothes. We will sell some things, other thing I have the luxury of being able to store it at my parents. We will still have most of our things when we are ready to settle down in a place.

What do our parents think about this crazy adventure?

If I am being completely honest about what they think, my mom is doing better than my dad. I am an only child and have lived in Tennessee my whole life. The longest I have ever been is 45 minutes away for long periods of time. Moving and not seeing them at least once a week will be new for us. I am so lucky to have the family I do though, without their encouragement, and their support of telling me I can be anything I want to be. I wouldn't even begin to imagine this is something I could do. I have a backbone to fall on and Jimmy and I have a place to go in case we need to land somewhere. We are eternally grateful for our families who will support us along this journey.

Now for the fun part: THE PLAN

We have a few goals we want to accomplish on the first leg of this trip, one being getting to balloon fiesta in October. Our plan is to start in Colorado, then up to Wyoming, Montana, Washington (where I can not want to eat at the first place Jimmy and I ever shared a meal), finishing our first leg.

The second leg of this trip will be down the coastal highway! We have plans to stop in San Jose and see friends, go all the way down the coast and then to Joashwa Tree National Park! After that we make the journey to Albuquerque and spend some time with some family while we are there. Ultimately returning to Tennessee the first week of November!

The BLOG:

We have exactly 60 days until it’s time to leave for this first trip! In this time the van will be built, our things will be sold, and we will be getting ready to go! I will post van content on this blog so if you want a deport dive into our thought process or just want some more information then what you are seeing on socials, this will be the place. I am so excited to bring you new travel content as we hit the road. Let’s go make an adventure.

You can check us out on socials:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jimmyanderin