We head out Saturday for a 2 month cross-country trek, and we are so incredibly excited! So, the big question, where are we going for 2 months? It is amazing how quickly that time filled up when we were planning. Between National Parks, major cities and lots of family and friends along the way, we had no trouble filling 8 weeks with 26!! different stops.
Here is our rough plan, although none of these stops are currently confirmed. We have zero reservations as of the writing of this post, we are just going to plan as we go and see how it goes!
April 29 Little Rock, Arkansas
May 2 Waco, TX
May 4 Amarillo, TX
May 5 Bandelier National Monument
May 6 Albuquerque, NM
May 7 Grand Canyon
May 10 Mesquite, NV
May 11 Red Rock Canyon
May 12 Joshua Tree & Hoover Dam
May 13 Palm Springs & San Diego
May 17 Thousand Oaks, cA
May 18 Fresno, CA
May 22 San Francisco
May 24 Yosemite
May 27 Lake Tahoe
May 29 Fort Bragg, CA
May 31 Redwood National Forest
June 2 Portland, OR
June 4 Seattle, WA
June 7 Port Angeles
June 9 Hope, Idaho
June 13 Glacier National Park
June 15 Yellowstone
June 18 Mount Rushmore
June 20 Denver, CO
June 23 Colorado Springs, CO
June 26 Lyons, KS
June 29 Wilmore, KY
July 2 CHATTANOOGA
Keep updated on our travels with The Blue Beluga instagram account and #thebluebeluga.
We have been working crazy hard on the trailer the last few weeks and had hoped it would be done by the end of this month. We are heading North to Gettysburg, Philadelphia, Boston and NYC to see family and enjoy some cooler weather. Unfortunately we just couldn’t get everything done in time. But, it is looking significantly better than when we started!
Remember this?
This is where we last left off. Paint and wallpaper were done!
Since then, we have built the bed frame (it will essentially be a futon).
We also installed the floors but then immediately covered them with protective paper while we continue working. (they are a gray laminate from Lowe’s) Next, Daniel built an “L” shaped storage bench and a table! We decided to paint the bench and kitchen cabinet lowers a dark gray/blue to add a little color. My Mom helped me upholster some cushions for the bench, but they are stored safely inside away from the paint and dust.
Here is the kitchen in all its glory! This has been our major project the last few weeks. We rebuilt the upper and lower cabinets, designed and installed the counter top, and installed the sink, faucet and stove top. We have the cabinet doors ordered through The Cabinet Joint and I can’t wait to paint and install those! (We also ordered the kitchen cabinet doors in our house through them, you can read about it here)
We adjusted the original kitchen layout a bit to give us 2 more lower cabinet, which I think was a great idea! For the counters, we cut and installed 2 sections of 3/4″ plywood to get us our shape and then covered that with higher grade wood planks using glue and staples. We then sanded it down, stained, and topped it with a coat of Minwax Finishing Wax to keep the wood protected and waterproof.
We decided we really needed the storage space under the stove top more than we needed an oven, so we chose not to refurbish the original trailer oven (see below)
While I am a little bummed we couldn’t get the original piece into the final design, we just had to assess what our priorities were and I just don’t see myself cooking with an oven much on the road.
The kitchen back splash is a work in progress. I started installing some beautiful minty green tile sheets by Tic Tac Tile and I quickly ran out. It is going to be a very expensive project, to say the least. I was also having some trouble getting the tiles to stick to the wall properly. I need to think through that some more. I either need to add an additional adhesive to get it to stick permanently (they are meant to be temporary) or consider another option like a stencil or wallpaper to mimic a traditional back splash.
We finally picked up a new window today! We have had to keep the whole trailer covered in a tarp to prevent rain from leaking in through this missing window (it is still covered with unpainted plywood on the inside from when we replaced all the walls). We had the window custom made at a local glass place and will hopefully be installing it in the near future!
