WE HAVE A CAMPER!!!!

Hi Questies,

I don't know if the title of this entry has already given it away but we have found The One! Actually it's more like one and a half because this thing is freaking BIG, the size of a baby whale big! But it is beautiful, and kitted out, and has more mod cons than our old house, and we now OWN IT!

Can you tell we're in love?

We were both quietly confident about this one. It was close by, it was a good price, and Brian had taken good quality photos of it. You know a lot about the quality of something that you are buying off the internet based on how well the seller has photographed it! Zora also caught the advert for it as soon as it was published, or within an hour at least. So a few days ago, feeling confident, we went and got the cash out from the bank. We also asked about getting a car loan but apparently we aren't a good investment without jobs to back us up :p.

Look at all the space!

Brian was great at showing us around. He showed us every different part of the camper, told us what he had done to fix it up and pointed out what else is left to do. He made sure we understood the drawbacks of owning a camper this size, but also showed off all it's positive aspects as well. We had fun trying to set up the sofa into a bed and back again, which we managed to achieve and which means that we have plenty of space for people to come and join us! We feel like we are very well informed about what we need to know, which is a nice change. Most people wouldn't go into that level of detail with the enthusiasm that he had.

Our guide to the truck camping world!

It was everything we have been looking for. There are small fixes to do to bring it up to scratch. They are mostly cosmetic but like every other option we have looked at the seals on the roof will need to be re-caulked. Not a problem. We also have a whole load of manuals to look at, probably a few days worth of youtube 'how to's' and of course we have got to buy a big hulking truck to get it off Brian's driveway (he's generously letting it sit there until we do). But afterwards we should be ready to hit the road!

This grand adventure has suddenly gotten a whole lot more real. It's fantastic, and a little daunting. But we are both feeling relieved that this phase of the process is finally over!

More photos to come as we start personalizing it!

We've bought our very first home together!!

We have reached base camp!

Hey Questies,

Well after months of planning, weeks of selling, shifting, lifting, pulling our hair out and tying ourselves in knots, days of recuperating after the madness, and now minutes of wolfing down good St. Louis Chinese food, we can finally say that we have officially completed our move! It has been a stress tornado but the storm has passed without too much damage to our mental health and it is almost entirely thanks to the amazing help we received from our fantastic friends. You know who you are, and how much you helped us, and we are eternally grateful!

So, as reluctant as we are to put Hawaii in the rear view mirror, we did move back for a reason and there is, as usual, precious little time to prepare for the road ahead. So far we have been concentrating on the truck camper, and not just what we are going to call it (obviously we have to meet it first, but Tristan has been working on a couple of puns). Today we went to see the second truck camper on our list, out in the county to the west around O'Fallon. It was a beautiful spot nestled in some open farmland, and the people were very nice, but unfortunately the camper itself did not suit us properly. It was a little too small and a little short on bells and whistles. We like the idea of travelling light, but we would at least like an oven and space to take a few steps. There is definitely a compromise to be made between price, age and weight. The camper we saw yesterday was a great old thing, but with 26 years of perishing on the plastic components will our head spring a leak in the middle of the desert? Also it weighs a bloody ton, so we will have to get a bigger truck, and that is going to increase our costs on gas. There is definitely a sweet spot, and it seems to be around the late 90's age wise, the high 1900's lbs wise, and the cheap as we can get it price wise.

We have put out some feelers to sellers in Indiana and Illinois, so hopefully the search can continue in the next week. If any of you guys know of a lead that we can follow please put it in the comments!

Other things that we have been extremely happy about are the weather, which has not been reminiscent of a scene from The Day After Tomorrow much to Zora's relief, and the massive surge in website views! Thanks everyone for checking out our project, following along on Instagram and Facebook, and submitting quests and suggestions! We have had some seriously good quests set in the past couple of days, and we will get around to updating them on the challenges page and map very soon. Also we got our first quest aimed specifically at helping a charity. Thanks to Bromogida for their creativity and for absolutely nailing the spirit of TGQ. If anyone can think of some quests or charities to help in Arkansas or Louisiana then hit us up! We need to get some in for the start of the journey.

As always it seems like life is going too quickly to keep up, but the ride is fun, and there are adventures out there!