Settling down in West Michigan for a few weeks

Good morning! Happy Monday. Well it has been a few since we’ve posted. Last time, we were in Vermont, in a small town called Danville. Since then, we made our way west, through New York State, the upper edge of Ohio, and finally up in to the Michigan area. We are currently parked outside of my in-law’s home in a small town in Western Michigan.

Here’s the latest video chronicling our trek up to Michigan.

We’ve been enjoying our time here. The weather has been absolutely fabulous. Most days it’s mid-to-upper 70s during the day, with night-time lows in the 60s. You can’t beat this weather when most of the West Coast is on fire with blazing heat.

We’ve been using this opportunity to buy things we’ve needed to buy for the van, as well as make some needed upgrades.

We bought these really nice window covers for the front cabin of the van. They serve 3 functions! 1, they keep the heat out of the cabin. 2, they give us additional privacy when we’re in the van. 3, they are a security mechanism as well. If, for some reason, we were to be parked someplace, and either had a knock from a stranger or heard someone trying to break in to the van, we could quickly move in to the cabin, removing just the front windshield cover, leaving the side covers in place, and make a quick escape. Hopefully something that never happens, but it’s good to be prepared.

I also installed a small flip-up desk that is accessible when the sliding door is open. I’m looking forward to more nice days in scenic places where I can stand outside of the van and get some work done. It was easily achievable by attaching a walnut cutting board to some flip-up brackets.

Also holy crap. You should look in to Calyx Institute even for personal internet use. They offer a 5G plan that’s truly unlimited and it works really well! After the first year of about $65 a month, the price goes down to about $43 a month. I think when we move back in to a home again I’ll just keep that. They basically send you a hotspot modem with a SIM in it. That’s it. Then you basically have unlimited internet wherever you go. It’s perfect for us because both Verizon’s unlimited and Google Fi ultimate unlimited plans are still… Limited. They’ll throttle hotspots after 30gb or so for the rest of the month. I can burn through 9gb a DAY at work. In June I actually spent about $300 in overage penalties with Google Fi. So Calyx has already PAID for itself.

Once we leave here, we’ll be headed up the West Coast of Michigan, over the Mackinaw Bridge, and in to the Upper Peninsula! So excited to check out that area. I think we will probably spend a good chunk of time in the UP, because the weather will be cooler there. We are not anxious to head to the West Coast, where it is still so hot.