They Slept in the Space Shuttle

Our friends Mark and Nancy have been traveling this summer in their RV – last week, as they crossed the border from Canada into New York, I saw a post that they had traveled 13,000 miles since leaving home in San Diego a few months back.  The whole odyssey has been chronicled on Nancy’s blog (here, or in the blog roll on the right) and via their prolific Instagram accounts. 

…Speaking of which, their visit inspired me to start using that app again.

As I understand it, they begin planning the trip around a visit to the Newport Folk Festival, which annually takes place in August.  They got their logistics all set up back home and then hit the road, first to the Pacific Northwest, then across the northern tier, via Chicago and Pittsburgh, and then to the fest.  After that, up into Canada for a few weeks, and now they’re on their way back home – so they slipped in a quick visit by Hawksbill Cabin and then Harrisonburg (Nancy’s a JMU alum) en route.

We’ve had some great visits with them over the years, whether at their place on the west coast, or when they’ve come to the DC area, although Mary and I haven’t made it down to San Diego to see them – they used to live in Santa Barbara.  I was able to spend some time with them Saturday and Sunday hearing about their adventures, and showing them around Luray and New Market, before they got on their way again.

On Sunday morning, they gave me a tour around the Airstream (named Feona) and showed me how the four of them got along in there; they’re traveling with their dogs Dax and Trixie.  It takes a little getting used to – they took three or four shake down trips in California before they launched on this adventure.  It didn’t feel anymore cramped in there than it does in a hotel room in Manhattan, although you do have to get yourself organized and stay that way, like you would on a boat.

As we parted ways in the parking lot of the New Market Battlefield on Sunday, a couple from North Carolina came up to chat with me about the vehicle.  “That’s a nice rig,” they said, “all the way from California, too.  Seems like you see more of that kind of travel out west.”  After I explained that Mark and Nancy were visiting and on the way home now, this couple told me about how they hoped to take a similar trip someday.  There is an entire national community of people who want to do that, in fact.

It took about 20 minutes of planning to park it for the night on Saturday, but they were satisfied with our sloping driveway.  I invited them into the house for the night, but they declined:  “That would break our streak,” Mark said.