Van Life 2020: Mountains, Coastlines and Deserts
In the winter we are a family of three: a photographer, a writer, and a canine companion. A traveling trio seeing the country while living out of a Sportsmobile camper van. We envisioned 2020 as the year we camped our way from Northern Michigan to Tennessee’s Smoky Mountains, from the Atlantic Coast to the Gulf Coast, from the Chihuahua Desert in Texas to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, from San Diego to Seattle, before turning east and heading home to Michigan. Our version of a loop around the country. We traveled half of our itinerary before COVID-19 migrated from an overseas news item to a pandemic sweeping across the country.
In mid-March we were exploring the Anza-Borrego Desert, located 80-miles east of San Diego, when we realized the virus was on the verge of rolling across the country. We decided to race home. Slow is our normal speed. Our journey from Michigan to Florida, a trip spring break sun-seekers cover in two days, took us three weeks. Pushed along by a growing sense of panic we drove the 2,343 miles from Borrego Springs, California to Cedar, Michigan in three and a half days. Trading the welcomed heat of desert sunshine for Michigan’s frozen inland lakes and a spring cloud cover so thick that the sun seemed to be hibernating, felt like madness, but we arrived home, safe, secure and virus-free.
Before our mad dash life was good. We walked barefoot on the beach in South Carolina, experienced temperatures that hovered nearing the freezing mark in Florida, marveled at the live oak trees in Louisiana, watched an onshore flow creep beyond the high tide mark in Texas, camped at the base of the Superstition Mountains in Arizona, and visited the Anza-Borrego desert in California.
These photographs chronicle our shortened winter 2020 trip. As you travel with us from national parks to state parks, from mountain tops to coastal islands, and from small towns to ghost towns, we hope you enjoy the view.
Jenny and Joe
