On August 9th, we left the comfort and safety of our front yard in South New Jersey and began our journey North to Rockport, Maine. We were hired on as camp hosts for the rest of the summer at a gorgeous campground by the sea!

The drive took us through scenic valleys, around giant mountains, over historic bridges and through tiny New England towns. The journey took twice as long as what we originally estimated due to Buddy’s lack of speed when traveling uphill. By the time we drove 12 hours and got to New Hampshire, it was almost 10pm. We stopped at a Walmart and had our first parking lot sleepover in Concord, NH.

On the way up, we learned that the drawers in the bus needed more reinforcement to keep them shut. Several drawers were busted when we finally arrived to Walmart and we spent quite some time cleaning up and repairing the drawers. Jake purchased some child-proof locks and installed them and they worked like a charm.

We got up early and had breakfast and continued our road trip towards the coast. We arrived at the campground at around 1:30 pm and met some of the other camp hosts on duty. We were given an awesome local guidebook that had tons of info about things to see, food to eat, mountains to climb, boats to ride, islands to visit, and more! We spent the night reading the book, adding pins to our map, and having a nice quiet dinner.

It was surreal to think that just a few hours earlier, we were on the road to our first destination on the bus and on our way to living a more fulfilling life. Now we’re living in our same home but over 700 miles away from where we started. All of this year’s hard work was totally WORTH IT!