Hello, I’m Robert. Welcome to my travel journal documenting places visited while living and traveling in a van with my girlfriend, Susan. Cinder is the name of our black Sprinter van and her name is inspired by a type of material often used for paths. The Way is a reference to the “traveling this way.” As well as travel information, you will also find documentation based on my interest with trains and running.
If you are have the time while visiting Boulder, CO, the little town of Nederland about 20 miles north is well worth a visit. It showcases some of the magnificent beauty of the Colorado mountains without feeling overrun with people.
In early June, we took a quick trip along the Delmarva Peninsula. The Delmarva Peninsula is full of charming little towns that are well worth exploring. We stopped at Assateague National Seashore, Chincoteague, VA and Cape Charles, VA. From Cape Charles, we went to Jamestown VA.
Along the banks of the western branch of the Susquehanna River is a Pennsylvania town offering a mix of old and new. In Lewisburg, there are interesting places to shop, eat, and walk. The shops on Market Street offer a wide range of options catering to college students and others. Lewisburg is home to Bucknell University and owes a lot of its success as a town to the university.
There is some negative commentary about Harvest Hosts because it is essentially not free since it requires a subscription and it is assumed that you will make a small purchase at the places you stay. However, Susan and I believe it is worth the money. In this article, I write about some of the places we have stayed and our thoughts on the purchases.
A summary of our van design. We are still in the build stage, but we are currently living comfortably in it. We have a full kitchen with running water and a hot water heater; the bed is permanently installed and we have the compostable toilet in place. The walls in the bedroom space still need to go up along with most of the lights and electrical outlets. Building a van is no easy task!
Our first two nights in the van on March 22 and March 27 were really enjoyable. It was a great opportunity to get familiar with it a bit. We used Harvest Hosts and Boondockers Welcome to find a place to park both nights.
Aruba is a Caribbean island approximately 35 miles North of Venezuela. It is an interesting place to visit because of its landscape that combines white sandy beaches with an arid desert landscape.
The beaches of Aruba are fabulous. They are white sand with crystal clear blue water. We stayed at a hotel right across from Eagle Beach, which is clearly one of the more popular beaches.