A funny thing happened on the way to the wedding… we decided to convert our Honda CRV into a camper van and drive from Washington State to Maryland. We are fortunate to have some liberty with how much time we take. Initially, we were thinking a month, but as we begin to plan, five weeks seems more reasonable. To plot our round-trip route we are using an application of Google maps – My places.
View Cross Country Wedding Trip in a larger map
Our travels will be a mix of Interstate and back road driving, and we are searching for our copy of Blue Highways: A Journey into America by William Least Heat-Moon. First published in 1982, this is the story of the author’s journey in an old van, to see the real United States driving only the lesser roads (marked on the map in blue). Jay remembers enjoying the interviews of characters he met along the road. And describes the book being about the journey versus the destination – the idea that as we slow down we see more.
Here are some other books that cross country travelers have enjoyed:
- Road Trip USA: Cross-Country Adventures on America’s Two-Lane Highways by Jamie Jensen
- Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck
- Roads : Driving America’s Great Highways by Larry McMurtry
Hearing that we will be touring South Dakota, visiting both Badlands National Park and Bear Butte State Park, a good friend of ours, Robin, suggested we read The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn by Nathaniel Philbrick.
Jay will be posting soon on How to Convert a Honda CRV into a Camper Van… In the meantime, let us know what books you would recommend… audio book suggestions are welcome as well.
Please follow us on our journey. See “Stay In Touch” on the right sidebar and sign up to get our posts for free via email, RSS, or Twitter. Here are links to blog posts from the journey, as they happen:
Beartooth Hwy to Chief Joseph Scenic Hwy in NW Wyoming
Crazy Horse Memorial in Custer, South Dakota
Bear Butte in the Black Hills of South Dakota
Pit Stop in Rapid City, South Dakota
Cincinnati, OH and Covington, KY too
Martin Luther King and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorials
Lexington, Kentucky and the Bourbon Trail
Ingrid says:
Have a great trip. I really enjoyed listening to The Help; the accents are delightful.
Eric says:
Getting ready to take a long road trip in my CR-V myself, and I’m wondering if Jay ever got around to posting the camper van conversion instructions. Any ideas?
nelleke says:
how did you convert your crv? we would like to do this also
best regards Nelleke
the netherlands
m says:
would like to know about crv converted to camper….thanks