We are on tour!

Who would have thought - about 2 weeks ago we stopped working and now we're already on our way to new adventures. Why not until 2 weeks later? Well, we still had a few things to do. Since we are going straight back to Germany after our tour, we had to clear our beautiful house in Corning, New York, hold a yard sale, prepare things for the move to Germany, convert the van, celebrate goodbyes and and and. Yes, you can already say that it was 2 very exhausting weeks, but also kind of nice. Here in the USA, the vaccination against Corona went very well and quickly, so that we were already vaccinated in April and could now enjoy a little more life outside of the house. So we had a lot of joy a few more times to see our dear friends here in Corning and also to be there at one or the other live music event.

But now it's time to create new memories, enjoy freedom and just live.
We want to cross the USA and Canada in the next 4 months.

We start our journey on Monday, June 14th, 2021. The whole morning is still needed to pack before we leave in the afternoon - in the rain - which unfortunately prevents us from stopping by our dear neighbors again. Lynda is not that good at saying goodbye anyway and so we leave our house and Roberts Avenue after a tearful goodbye.
Our first stop is supposed to be Upper Darby in Philadelphia.

Here we want to visit our friends Georg and Stephen. Unfortunately, our plan will not work, because after about 2 hours of driving there is a short rest break and the tie rod falls off at the exit and we can do nothing else than stop right there. The guys who converted our van forgot to attach cotter pins to the nuts. Lucky in bad luck - if the whole thing had happened on the highway at high speed, I would probably not write these lines anymore.

The matter quickly becomes clear to us. We have to stay here at the rest area and Joss has to go buy the parts the next day and put the whole thing back together properly himself. That succeeds and we can continue on our route.

Oh yes, the planned route … since we only got off a week late, we unfortunately have to skip a few things. Our new course is: off to the Grand Canyon.

So we stick to the south-west in order to get to the Grand Canyon relatively quickly. We are still spending the night in places offered by Harvest Host. So we end up at a herb farm and also on an alpaca farm. Here your heart opens when you feed the sweet alpacas.

Another stop at the Paint Rock Farm gives us great insights into the world of stars - a really great starry sky. But we think the Grand Canyon Region is sure to get even more impressive. We are really excited because everyone tells us that it will be a once in a lifetime experience when we are there.
Our path leads through New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee.

It's Friday June 18th. A short stop at Dunkin Donuts should only bring us coffee - but something is wrong with Sir Quigley again. Does the heat bother him? The engine makes strange noises and the brake feels different too. What to do?

At the repair shop, the guys tell us that it could be the vacuum pump. This makes total sense as it can cause these noises and can also affect the power of the braking effect. Well then … spare parts will be available tomorrow morning - until then we have to spend the night in the Cracker Barrel’s parking lot due to the lack of camping facilities. Good as well 😉

Saturday, June 19th: After we have picked up the spare part at the Napa Shop, we look for a nice place in the nearby park to do the repairs. This works great - of course, very exhausting for Joss, because the right 13 nut is not available at exactly these moments 😉 and it is also incredibly hot - but he manages it and lo and behold, the noises are gone and the brakes work again. It should be mentioned here that the City Councilman Tim came by and wanted to see what we were up to. Probably someone called him and reported us 😉 He invited us directly to visit the city with him, should we be in Harriman again with more time.

In the heat everything is very exhausting, so we don't want to drive that far today and find a great place right on the water (recommended by Chris from @venture4wd). The site is sponsored by the local nuclear power plant - so the site is free of charge. Thus it is also used by many, which unfortunately shows up in widespread garbage. Nevertheless, it is nice here and the other campers are always fascinated by Sir Quigley - which they also like to tell us. The further south we get, the more the slang changes, so that Lynda sometimes finds it really difficult to understand people.

We enjoy the day a lot, stow some things in the van, put on decorations and also go swimming in between. The sunset can also be seen - so this place is highly recommended.

Sunday, June 20th - we drink our coffee in the shade and go for a swim before we set off. Without any problems we drive 4 hours through Tennessee, cross a time zone and find a great spot in Mousetail Landing State Park right on the Tennessee River.

The first week is now behind us. So far so good ;). Today we will land in Memphis. And what happens next you will find out next week.