Middle of Nowhere, WI: Que Sehra

Leaving Illinois was bittersweet.. bitter because I fell in love with the serene Gibson City, sweet because my journey is young and there is much more to see and experience. The hosts I connected with in Wisconsin sound great and I'm eager to get there. Driving out of the farmland, I was happy. Enormous windmills surrounded me and there are access roads to drive between them. The weather was warm, sunny, and breezy, perfect for riding with my windows down and music blasting. And it turns out that about 30 minutes in the direction opposite of where I drove in to the city was a bigger city with chain restaurants and stores, just in case I needed more civilization. 

Gibson City, IL: One Stoplight Town

Initially my plan was to go to Indiana after Missouri. I had a WWOOF host secured and was in contact with him when I was finally free to head that way. When I reached out to him to confirm, he gave me different information, as in he wanted me to meet him at his office, he wasn’t sure if Neville was good there, and my trailer would ‘probably’ fit. I had a weird feeling in my gut and already missed 4th of July with my friends there, so I ran the information by Mom who hated the sound of him and asked me not to go. Granted, she had been watching a lot of Criminal Minds, but with both of us feeling uncomfortable I decided to skip Indiana. I informed my would-be host of this and his responses made me happy with my decision to continue on. Chicago was the next city I wanted to be close to and I found a campground about 2 hours away in Gibson City. Once I had this destination locked in and was on my way, I felt much better.  

Nashville, TN: Wingin It

When I left Autumn Olive Camping, my GPS took my a route that I never knew existed. A one lane, dirt road, that curved around a few miles before bringing me to a highway. Over the past few days I have reached out to a number of people in the Nashville area to host me, but with no luck. I decided to go there anyway and see if anything came through. It was nice driving to my next destination and not have the car struggling uphill. Siri took me through some cute, small, country bumpkin looking towns, one of which was named Allardt: Home of the Giant Pumpkin. When I stopped for gas I FaceTimed some girlfriends and showed them the man dressed in overalls riding his tractor up to the gas station. Inside, everybody working there knew everybody coming in and there was a plethora of tobacco selections for sale. 

Asheville, NC: Solo

The last few days in North Carolina were an adjustment since it was my first time by myself. And while it is always nice to have alone time, I missed having Mom’s company. I started the day off with some yoga and went on to feed the chickens with the help of one of the kids staying at the farm. He was quite the conversationalist, telling me about wildlife encounters and what he thinks about camping in a tent on this land with his sister. I told him about the last time I officially went camping with friends in Cape Hatteras and how the adventure went from a fun and lighthearted experience, bombing our neighbors with waterballoons and having a blast, to waking up in what now looked like Lake Hatteras, with a collapsed tent and personal items floating away. And then Jen jumped in Jenn's pee puddle. What a trip! But I digress.

Asheville, NC: Farmhands

One of the things that I was curious about before WWOOFing was Neville’s reaction to chickens, since many places have them. I parked right next to the chicken coop and let the beast free. He was curious, ran around them and sniffed a few times, then basically ignored them from there on out. Good! Mom and I started off learning what the chickens ate and helped feed the pigs. They get excited like dogs do and sound about the same around feeding time. I loved it. 

Asheville, NC: The Farm

We made our way to the Asheville area for WWOOFing adventure #2. Passed by a produce stand off the side of the road and stopped for a looksee. There was a lot of locally made honey, preserves, jelly, and cheese so we picked up some snacks for the road. 

Helen, GA: Adventure

As I previously mentioned, there is plenty of down time involved in the WWOOFing experience (hooray!). The Helen area of Georgia is beautiful, but not that big. Prior to leaving on this trip I read about tubing in the Chattahoochee River and thought we'd give it a try. The website even indicated the tubing is dog friendly- not that that's an option for Neville. He would not appreciate just sitting there, half wet, and would probably pop the raft in an attempt to escape. So he stayed behind while Mom and I went on what I thought would be the first leisure activity of our trip.

Helen, GA: Stovall House

573 miles later, my crew and I arrive at our first official stop: Helen, GA.

"Life is a journey; not a destination." That quote is the theme of this trip so far (points to anyone who sang it as they read it). Instead of focusing on all that has gone wrong in the first 48 hours- and believe me, there has been a lot- I'm choosing to be thankful for all of the things that have gone right. All two of them.