Eastern US Road Trip

A lot has happened since I last checked in. After our weekend of Winter Camping, Mac and I spent the rest of March attempting to get our lives in Burlington in order before the big move. We packed up and moved out of our little apartment, said goodbye to our respective jobs (more on that below!), and spent Easter weekend with my family. This past week has been split between my parents’ and Mac’s parents’ homes where we’ve been organizing our things and doing some research/planning for our upcoming Eastern US road trip!! (Thanks, parents!! You’ve been lifesavers while we’ve been going through this transition. As a token of our gratitude, please enjoy time spent with our beloved kitty and our oh-so-neatly-packed-away belongings!!)

Goodbye Parties

It’s pretty obvious I love St. Catharines. With its abundance of vegan eateries, bakeries, and pure charm, there’s a whole lot to love. Pair that delicious vegan food with some pretty incredible company and you’ve got a wonderful evening. Two of my coworkers dear friends surprised me with a night out in St. Catharines to ensure I got to visit one more time before I left. We had an awesome meal at Rise Above, and got some killer delicious doughnuts from Beechwoods of course! I’m so thankful to have built such a wonderful friendship with these ladies and I’ll miss them greatly.

Continuing with the surprises, I was totally shocked when during one of my last shifts at work, my lovely coworkers threw me a surprise going away party! There was pizza (that I unknowingly made for the shindig!), a chocolate cake, brownies, fudge, cookies, and so much more. I went to bed vibrating from all the sugar that night!! The past 1.5 years at the restaurant I worked were incredible and I’m so lucky to have worked in such an amazing, supportive & compassionate environment with some truly awesome people. I’ll miss this place and these people a lot, but I’m so looking forward to seeing this business grow and thrive. I’ll definitely be back for a burger sometime soon (and a pizza. And likely fries, too).

Lastly, Mac & I had a going away (again) party with our friends this past weekend. Unlike my new friends from work, this isn’t the first time we’ve up and left to go travel, so the reality of saying goodbye isn’t so hard. We had a really great evening with lots of laughs, board games, and food.

What’s Coming Up Next

Now that our goodbyes have been said and our belongings have been packed away, it’s time to hit the road!!! We’re planning to start our US Road Trip by moving fairly fast to get as far south (and away from winter temperatures) as we can! We’re going to base ourselves in southern Tennessee and spend hopefully almost a week exploring the abundance of National Forests, mountains, and trails that surround the area. Afterwards, we’ll head south to Florida where we’ll continue exploring before we get ready to attend a family wedding!! Following the wedding we’ll be zooming back up to Canada to have another few days to prep for our departure to Paris!!!

We’d Love Your Help!

Aside from driving down to Florida as a kiddo with my grandparents, I really have no knowledge of the eastern United States aside from the seemingly endless I-75. Mac and I have a growing list of things we’d love to check out, but we’d SO appreciate any suggestions of super awesome things we must see and do! Our goal for this US Road Trip is to camp and hike and surround ourselves with nature as much as possible.

Our current (very) rough route plan will take us through Detroit, Cincinnati, Chattanooga, Asheville, then south to Florida. We’re always up for adventure and taking the road less travelled. If you have any tips or things worth seeing and doing, send them our way!!!

I’m hoping to check in on the blog during our Eastern US Road Trip, but forgive me if my next posts are a bit delayed. To get you through the potential absence, I’ve prepared a few posts recapping some of the best hikes we did in New Zealand. I had a lot of fun going back through my journal and the blog archives to put everything in two concise posts (one for each island). I hope you enjoy them (and that they might inspire you to spend some time outside!).

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