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Welcome back to our travelogue! You last saw us here in Fall 2022 when we were about to cross the Colorado River into California to complete a 3-month-long cross-country trek in our new conversion van, "Morgan." Named after the hard-working 19th-century American horse breed first sired in Vermont (hey, if boats can have names, so can RVs!), Morgan has every convenience we need for life on the road.

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Our plan back in October 2022 was simple: visit with family in California (Kathy’s sister Laura and her husband Bob, together with their extended clan), explore some southern CA sites, and then reverse course and head back--leisurely--to the East Coast by Christmas. We were having a blast in the Golden State—parties and family gatherings; day trips to local sights; camping at Joshua Tree National Park and on the Pacific Ocean in Laguna Beach—when we were ripped from the laid-back beachy world of Orange County and thrown into the sterile environment of a local hospital. Mark underwent abdominal surgery on November 30, and we stayed in CA through the holidays for his recuperation. Dodging winter storms, we drove back to CT in January 2023 for Mark’s final semester of teaching. We spent a few blustery months in rented houses on Long Island Sound, our trustworthy Morgan parked just outside.

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After Mark retired in May 2023 we beelined back to California in our van for his follow-up medical treatments. By late summer we would be exploring the Rockies and points beyond, we thought, with a return to CT by the holidays. Instead, we had the shock of our lives when Mark’s second hospitalization lasted six grueling weeks. Owing to the healing power of prayers from folks across the fruited plain, together with topnotch medical care and family support, Mark fought his way back to health. Our jubilation soon mixed with grief when Mark’s older brother passed away in September after a brief illness. Dave was a big supporter of our decision to become "vanlifers" and we miss him everyday.

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We have been out West (California and Arizona) since Summer 2023. We miss our sons, Ryan and Evan, but we're glad that they came to visit us here twice. Mark has kept the whiskers he acquired while in the hospital as a kind of badge of honor of everything that has transpired over the last year and a half. He now looks like a cross between a gold prospector and a French chef.

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We have transitioned into a retirement groove of mixing camping with stays at the homes of family and friends, together with short-term property rentals in intriguing locales. We continue to be huge fans of Harvest Hosts, a membership program that directs us to over 5,000 unique private properties (farms/ranches, museums, restaurants, entertainment venues, wineries/breweries, golf courses) where we can spend the night in our self-contained little RV with the understanding that we will support our hosts by making a purchase of their products or services.

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The accounts of our travels to Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, and Arizona in 2022 are posted at the bottom of this home page, with the year added to the file titles to distinguish them from our current and future postings. Unlike our first year on the road, when we proceeded in a linear course through the Plains and the Mountain West, our new entries (with links directly below this text) are chronologically diverse and arranged more thematically, a reflection of how we have ricocheted about. The earliest photos in this section are from California, where we landed in fall 2022, which we hadn't yet posted due to Mark's medical situation.

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We hope you’ll join us on VanBrights as we continue to explore this vast and spellbinding country of ours!

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