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Destination Unknown
  • John and Kimberly Haviland
  • John and Kimberly Haviland

Destination Unknown

Traveling in our van in search of the setting for the next chapter of our lives. Making sure to have a blast along the way. Leggi altro
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  • Inizio del viaggio
    5 maggio 2022
  • John and Kimberly HavilandDestination UnknownViaggiatore
    1

    Twin Falls, Idaho

    6 maggio 2022, Stati Uniti ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F

    Larry heard we were in his stomping grounds, so he joined us in checking our Twin Falls. The Snake River Gorge was breathtaking! Shoshone Falls as well. Nice size town with good vibes with incredibly friendly people. Unfortunately, we found it rather far from additional areas of recreational interest and a major airport.Leggi altro

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  • John and Kimberly HavilandDestination UnknownViaggiatore

    Leaving Idaho

    8 maggio 2022, Stati Uniti ⋅ ⛅ 57 °F

    We planned on spending a few days in Idaho Falls, ID, but it was unseasonably cold and blustery. After talking with locals and finding that it is extremely windy the majority of the year, we decided to head down into Utah. We passed through Pocatello, Idaho and found it gorgeous. Maybe something to revisit when we are older and not as active? At this point in our lives we want more than a three month summer. Stayed the night in Farmington, Utah and had snow & hail throughout the night.Leggi altro

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  • John and Kimberly HavilandDestination UnknownViaggiatore

    Salt Lake City, Park City, Heber City

    10 maggio 2022, Stati Uniti ⋅ ☀️ 57 °F

    We both agree that Salt Lake City (downtown proper), was awesome. Little traffic, clean, meticulous landscaping, flawlessly maintained historic homes. We took a nice morning walk along a creek gorge beside the capital. Beautiful!
    (John wants me to make sure and add that on our way out of a Salt Lake City suburb Costco, we drove past an active homicide crime scene. 🫤)
    Headed into Park City loop to check it out. We didn’t bother stopping. For being such a world renowned rec area, we felt it had nothing on Tahoe. Not really any trees on the mountains. Looked stark to us.
    Heber City was awesome, but real estate is too expensive ☹️
    The drive back to Provo was beautiful with several waterfalls along the way. LONG day! Quick stop at Planet Fitness for workout & shower. Found a great site for the night at Utah Lake State Park.    Leggi altro

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  • John and Kimberly HavilandDestination UnknownViaggiatore
    Morning coffee at Utah Lake

    Seeking warmth!!!

    11 maggio 2022, Stati Uniti ⋅ ☀️ 72 °F

    We both woke up before dawn and felt the need to move. Tired of the cold, yet terrified of the heat wave coming as we head south. John got a wild burr up his butt and decided on the spur of the moment that he needed to hit Fifth Water Hot Springs. Beautiful 2 1/2 mile hike into the spring along the river.
    Left late afternoon and between sunscreen & sulphur, I was feeling pretty ornery for a shower!! Showers have been an issue since we left because we only planned on using the outdoor one and it has been too damn cold! (See video)
    Headed south and tucked into the Cracker Barrel parking lot in St. George just after dark. Actually not bad. Felt safe with several other rigs and free to stay. 👍🏼    Leggi altro

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  • John and Kimberly HavilandDestination UnknownViaggiatore

    Getting our shit together!

    12 maggio 2022, Stati Uniti ⋅ ☀️ 68 °F

    After adjusting our living situation to deal with the cold… We hit St. George Utah last night with a massive heat wave blowing into the area. Overwhelmed by the idea of boonedocking and finding out too late that our air conditioner’s circuit had blown, or the reflectors I had made for the window weren’t applicable, or our fridge couldn’t maintain coldness, we decided to take the two hour trip to Vegas and cop a squat at my brother Eric’s home to catch our breath. Learning the operations of the van on the fly is way too stressful. Wanting to keep it fun, we will take a few days here to breathe, fine tune cooling tricks and enjoy being with family.Leggi altro

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  • John and Kimberly HavilandDestination UnknownViaggiatore

    Ready to head out.

    16 maggio 2022, Stati Uniti ⋅ ☀️ 91 °F

    The last 4 days have been uplifting! Leslie was out of town, but Eric was a great host. Got to know the van better. Dropped things we weren’t using at donation site and purchased a couple of things we realized we needed. Retirement paperwork done and no wondering where to shower!! Relaxed…we will head out tomorrow after visiting with Leslie when she returns from her trip tonight.Leggi altro

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  • John and Kimberly HavilandDestination UnknownViaggiatore

    Leaving Las Vegas

    17 maggio 2022, Stati Uniti ⋅ ☀️ 84 °F

    Leslie sent us packing with our tummies full of bacon & eggs! Hard to say good bye! Visited a much raved about pie shop once back in St. George. (Chicken pot pies did not disappoint!) Groceries, gas, etc, before heading towards Zion Natl’ Park.
    Both of us have read a gazillion articles about the ‘endless free camping on BLM land’ between La Verkin and Zion. Weeeelll, long story short, we drove around until it was pitch black and saw nothing but endless “No overnight camping” signs 🤬!! We finally turned off on a little dirt road and found a tiny patch to pull over. I expected someone to rap on the window and tell us to get the fuck out all night.
    It was worth it… the view in the morning when we woke up was pretty amazing and we weren’t even in the park yet.    Leggi altro

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  • John and Kimberly HavilandDestination UnknownViaggiatore

    Zion Emerald Pools

    18 maggio 2022, Stati Uniti ⋅ ☀️ 84 °F

    MAN did we accidentally score with our camp site. When I checked last Sunday night someone must have just canceled their reservation here. We are located right behind the visitor center at the main gate for Wednesday and Thursday night. Beyond perfect!
    Took the short Emerald Pools hike first since this was an unplanned stop. Spent the remainder of the day basking in the view from our campsite after enjoying some ice cream in town!    Leggi altro

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  • John and Kimberly HavilandDestination UnknownViaggiatore

    Hiking The Narrows

    19 maggio 2022, Stati Uniti ⋅ ☀️ 82 °F

    John and I find it hard to believe we will ever have a more amazing hike. The majority of the time, you are walking through the Virgin River flowing through towering canyon walls. Unbelievable!
    Thank goodness we rented cold water footwear and walking sticks. I would have been on my ass several times without the support of the staff. And our ankles and toes thanked us for the support of the boots over the rocky riverbed!
    (Sorry about no sound on the video. It was just the sound of the rushing river. Still haven’t figured out our Mac 🙄)    Leggi altro

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  • John and Kimberly HavilandDestination UnknownViaggiatore
    Love the typo!!!!!!

    Green River, Utah

    20 maggio 2022, Stati Uniti ⋅ ⛅ 59 °F

    After being so inspired at Zion, we decided to head for Arches Natl’ Park. Of course, there is nowhere to camp anywhere near the park itself without reservations! We drove to Green River Utah and will go from there.

    We had a great day driving. Stopped at a small town bar and had awesome fish & chips + tall beers for $25!! Exceptional service and laughed our asses off! An elderly gentleman approached us while we were eating and inquired about our “outfit” (the van). Embracing all the different people and lifestyles as we travel through the states!    Leggi altro

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  • John and Kimberly HavilandDestination UnknownViaggiatore
    1
    2

    Interesting day 😏

    21 maggio 2022, Stati Uniti ⋅ ☀️ 59 °F

    Well, we left Green River and headed into Moab as planned. After parking at the visitor center, John kicked off his flip-flops and asked me where his running shoes were (kind of chilly). I sarcastically said, “I don’t know - maybe you left them at our camp site.” To which he replied, “God damn it, I left the fucking van step and my shoes!”
    We resigned to the fact that we would have to backtrack 40 miles (one way) to collect said items.
    After we farted around Moab, we headed back to Green River. We stopped at the little Green River history museum and local grocery store.
    It worked out. The campgrounds have pristine showers and lovely owners. Super quiet, no street lights and train running through periodically 💞.    Leggi altro

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  • John and Kimberly HavilandDestination UnknownViaggiatore
    2
    3221

    Amazing Utah!

    22 maggio 2022, Stati Uniti ⋅ ⛅ 64 °F

    Dang! We never comprehended how diverse the landscapes of Utah truly were until visiting! Canyonlands Natl’ and Dead Horse State Parks. Staying in Moab for 2 nights. We would love to come back for an extended stay sometime. So much exploring yet to do.Leggi altro

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  • John and Kimberly HavilandDestination UnknownViaggiatore
    1

    Cisco, Utah

    24 maggio 2022, Stati Uniti ⋅ ☀️ 66 °F

    We had a great day today! Slow morning with coffee and a load of laundry. Some tourist shopping downtown Moab. Felt good to be dressed normally. Tired of dusty, dirt gear! Took a gorgeous back road along the Colorado River from Moab Utah to Cisco Utah.
    Arrived at Buzzard’s Belly General Store (**Harvest Host) late afternoon so that we could organize pics/videos, cook some supper and call mom & dad. We will head to Grand Junction, Colorado in the morning.
    (** harvest host is a membership with businesses (wineries, breweries, museums, etc) that let you stay overnight for free. There is no obligation to purchase anything, but most people that stay find a little something they can’t live without. Benefits both parties.)    Leggi altro

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  • John and Kimberly HavilandDestination UnknownViaggiatore
    Quick side excursion to Colorado National Monument.

    Things don’t always go as planned!

    25 maggio 2022, Stati Uniti ⋅ ☀️ 48 °F

    Well the plan was to spend a few days in Grand Junction and then head to Glenwood Springs for a couple of days. GJ has tons of recreational lakes and waterways and is a good sized town for emenities. Glenwood Springs was recommended to us by friends.
    The day started out with us falling in love with Fruita, CO. Unexpected small town west of Grand Junction. We had the best experience in a little coffee shop downtown. Quaint little town with friendly people. Unfortunately, a woman who was chatting with us looked John in the eye and said, “good luck on your trip and finding where you’re supposed to
    be. “ He feels it was a sign to move along.
    We then drove to Grand Junction. It took us all of 10 min to drive away. It felt like we were back in California. (Not like Sonoma County. More like Vacaville.)
    And long story short with Glenwood Springs. Due to a driving kerfuffle… We ended up missing the historic downtown turn lane and shot back up on the interstate. We decided that Glenwood Springs would be more of a vacation spot for us… Not anywhere to settle. Too remote and too expensive. Dropdead gorgeous though!
    We continued on our way and settled in for the night at Chief Hosa Campgrounds just 20 min west of Denver. We aren’t sure what we will do tomorrow. We might pick up a pet sit since it’s memorial weekend? 🙂    Leggi altro

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  • John and Kimberly HavilandDestination UnknownViaggiatore

    Long Drive to Texas

    27 maggio 2022, Stati Uniti ⋅ 🌙 81 °F

    Hold on to your socks…this is what happens when I tell John it’s his turn to post! 😁….

    To make a long story long. As we posted earlier I was super conflicted with Fort Collins. I was getting crazy mixed messages from my guides. We love Colorado but like California it has shitty roads, shitty traffic, lots of homeless people and expensive in Denver and Fort Collins

    I left my credit card at a bar in Eagle Colorado the day before. No I was not drunk, only lunch and one beer. Eagle is about the size of Geyserville in the middle of the Rockies. I had been calling them but no one answered the phone. I finally called the Eagle Police Department. An officer went to the bar and called me. They had my credit card and their phone was not working. I started talking with the officer and told him about Fort Collins. He said he lived there for a year prior to moving to Eagle in 2015. He loved Fort Collins, but he said it was a crazy hectic college town with crazy traffic and no matter where you are in town it takes you 15 minutes to get to the freeway.

    Anyway the moral of my long story longer is even when you are having a hard time with things, keep listening to your guides. They will help you know, sometimes even in the most subtle way, what is best. In this case, clarifying that Fort Collins probably isn’t the best place for us.

    When we got up today we checked out Pueblo, which is actually a really nice town. In 1984 the steel company gave pick slips to 6,500 employees devastating the local economy. The city really has not recovered and there is a lot of run down homes and shuttered business. Even so Kimberly and I liked the town but decided to head south.

    Kimberly was really interested in Trinidad Colorado because it was smaller and supposedly up and coming. We liked Trinidad and stopped for lunch and a beer of course. Town was cute but still pretty economically depressed and not enough water for paddle boarding.

    Here comes Texas. Yes it was time to head for Texas. We drove through the north east part of New Mexico and there was nothing there. Onto north west Texas and wow still nothing there. It was all super flat and ranch land and the oil. We drove until it got late and slept in a truck stop parking lot south of Lubbock. No that is not a country song.

    Long day with a long drive tomorrow.    Leggi altro

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  • John and Kimberly HavilandDestination UnknownViaggiatore

    Squatting at the Potter’s

    28 maggio 2022, Stati Uniti ⋅ ⛅ 84 °F

    Well, we left our truck stop after about six hours of shitty, broken sleep. Who knew? Evidently big loud trucks come in and out all night and keep waking you up. Last time we will consider that an option!

    Driving through Texas during the early morning hours was actually quite enjoyable for both of us. We had our coffee cups in hand and the sunrise was spectacular. We pulled into Abilene Texas with intentions to visit the Air Force Base where my dad was stationed, only to find out that the aircraft museum tours were closed on weekends. Really?… even Memorial day weekend? 🤬

    Continued south with our destination being Canyon Lake. On the way we fell in love with Johnson City. Home of LBJ. Unfortunately, recreational water would be quite a drive, so a no go! Took our time and checked out several other little communities before arriving in Canyon Lake.

    Tanya (former Healdsburg officer) and Steve Potter are currently building a new home in Canyon Lake. They were gracious enough to allow us to camp in the driveway of their unfinished home. The canyon behind their home is gorgeous! We were visited by a fox and deer. They have a lovely community of homes and several homeowners gave us local tips and welcomed us. We were even invited to a little street party.

    Can’t wait to check out the lake and surrounding area tomorrow!    Leggi altro

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  • John and Kimberly HavilandDestination UnknownViaggiatore

    Texas hot is a whole new beastie!

    29 maggio 2022, Stati Uniti ⋅ ⛅ 88 °F

    Daaang!! Sweaty! Because the Potters are in such a nice community and neighbors were out and about, we did not want to run the generator last night. For those of you who don’t understand the ramifications of that… No air-conditioning! When we went to bed it was 93° in the van. Let’s just say you should envision naked starfish on top of the sheets! Thank God we have a king size bed in here because we wanted to be nowhere near each other!!!
    This morning we drove all along the lake and checked out communities and campgrounds.
    Headed into New Braunfels and had some lunch at a local brewery.
    Checked out the town of Gruene, which is on the Guadalupe River. John was so sweet. He was encouraging me to do a little shopping, but I was so damn sweaty that I wasn’t enjoying myself. Wanted to dunk my head when we walked down to the river edge. Really cute little town, but you would not have believed the amount of people. I asked the shop owner if it was because it was memorial day weekend and she replied, “No, it’s because it’s summer. It will be like this every weekend now.” Too crazy busy for my liking. The water sure was beautiful though.

    We scored a campsite on Canyon Lake for three days tomorrow. We can’t wait to get on the water!    Leggi altro

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  • John and Kimberly HavilandDestination UnknownViaggiatore

    Real estate & water

    30 maggio 2022, Stati Uniti ⋅ ⛅ 86 °F

    H.E.B. Plus??…YES PLEASE!! We started out in new Braunfels today getting groceries for our upcoming three days on Canyon Lake. OH MY GOD! The biggest, most gorgeous selection of veggies and fruits I have seen in my life. Varieties of meats & fish as far as the eye could see! We were literally walking through the store with our jaws hanging open. We could have spent hours in there! The first time on our trip that I wished for a fridge that was 10 times bigger. Unfortunately, they are only throughout Central and Northeast Texas.
    Anyway…. Drove back to Canyon Lake to check into Potter’s Creek campgrounds, only to be told that we couldn’t enter the park until 3 PM (it was 12:10pm 😕).
    Not a whole lot of businesses in the area, so we started driving around to the different waterways, boat ramps and neighborhoods. We found that we prefer the north east corner of the lake. Less people and traffic. Probably not doable for us. We really want to be on or close to the water and those homes are over 1 million.
    Our campsite is awesome and the lake is a gorgeous clear blue. Not many people since clearing out memorial day weekend campers. Hoping the wind dies down in the next couple of days so we can check out the inflatable paddleboards.
    Deer are grazing by the van!    Leggi altro

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  • John and Kimberly HavilandDestination UnknownViaggiatore
    21

    2 Days of leisure on Canyon Lake, TX

    1 giugno 2022, Stati Uniti ⋅ ⛅ 86 °F

    Not really a fitting title because no day in the van is leisurely. It’s surprising how much work it is to live in a small space. Nothing can really be left laying around and re-organizing is constant.
    We had two beautiful days to swim and make plans. The paddle boards would have been a pain in the ass with the high winds. We weren’t too thrilled about that, but the water was perfect in every way! ♥️
    Heading back to New Braunfels tomorrow morning to re-supply and get some laundry done.    Leggi altro

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  • John and Kimberly HavilandDestination UnknownViaggiatore

    Initiation into Texas BBQ

    2 giugno 2022, Stati Uniti ⋅ ⛅ 84 °F

    Saying goodbye to Canyon Lake and heading out to do laundry 😖.
    John researched the best of the best in Texas bbq. We will hit a few places on our way up to Travis Lake.
    Lockhart today - which is considered the states official bbq capital of Texas. We will hit “The Big Three” in the next 24 hrs.
    Smitty’s Market for lunch today.
    Kreuz’s Market & Black’s Market for lunch & supper tomorrow.

    Eww, how much barbecue can one person eat in such a short period? I would get sick of it really quick. Yes, those were my thoughts exactly, until I tasted my lunch this afternoon! Holy shit… I can’t wait for tomorrow! Food was otherworldly and atmosphere pumped! ♥️    Leggi altro

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  • John and Kimberly HavilandDestination UnknownViaggiatore
    11

    Chasing BBQs

    3 giugno 2022, Stati Uniti ⋅ ⛅ 84 °F

    Personal hygiene can become very public while living in our van. Because we had no cell service at our campground last night, we parked in a nice shady spot in town to make some phone calls and update banking. Our van slider was wide open because it was a nice breeze. A delivery truck, clearly on his lunch break, parked next to us and was watching me give myself a pedicure. John was booted outside to clip his toenails so that there weren’t any escapees left on the van floor. You get used to funny looks!
    Still on our quest to find our favorite barbecue while in Texas. Had lunch at Kreuz’s Market today. John liked his jalapeño smoked sausage better than yesterday, but I did not care for mine today. The bbq sauce tasted more like A-1 sauce to me. John agreed and felt it was very vinegary like Kansas City style, which he doesn’t care for. Nothing like the bbq sauce at Smitty’s yesterday (nummy!).
    We decided to hit the local cinema to see Top Gun Maverick. We wish we had taken a picture, because it was such a small establishment. Clean though and had kettle corn, so I was happy!
    Afterwards, we poked our head into Black’s bbq and it looked awesome! Unfortunately, after seeing the movie, we felt it was getting kind of late to be arriving at our Boonedockers Welcome location, so we headed to Lexington in preparation to get in line for Snow’s bbq by 7am tomorrow morning.
    Our Boonedockers location is in really beautiful country! We seem to have left the humidity behind us…for this evening anyway. Beautiful green pastures & woods all around. Nice breeze coming through the van. A joy to not have the air conditioner running!    Leggi altro

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