2025 Travel Route & Year in Review

And the end of another year is upon us! 2025 wraps up 19 years on the road for us together!

We brought in the new year in Austin, TX and end is in Sante Fe, NM – with many adventures in between.

Y-Not (boat): 976.2 nautical miles – 218 nights
Blooper (van): 8565 miles – 110 nights
Other Stays: 37 nights

First here’s our 2025 interactive travel map:

The map is created by a WordPress plugin called Nomad World Map. It allows us to easily tie locations, dates, future plans and blog posts together as we go – creating a much more interactive experience. Use the arrows to scroll to different locations and/or click on the points. We didn’t write a post for every stop, but many are linked.

Video Version

Travel Re-Cap

We started the year in Austin, TX, and made the decision we would not be continuing west out to Arizona – we just didn’t have it in us to face all of Kiki’s stuff awaiting us at the bus and co-op.

Nicolai and Lunita – the two sweetest little ragdolls you could ever imagine…

So we instead meandered around south Texas, an area we had not explored before – we saw a spectacular Starship launch from South Padre Island and grabbed some AirBnB stays to ride out some chilly weather.

We also signed up for TrustedHouseSitters and landed our first house sitting gig in downtown Houston taking care of two adorable kitties.

By then spring was approaching, so started our way back east to get Y-Not out of winter storage at Atlantic Yacht Basin – with some AirBnB stays in Charlotte and Raleigh along the way.

We spent a few weeks once back to Y-Not wrapping up boat projects.

Always fun to see our boat drive past our van!

We’ve already had a visit by our dear friends Dave & Stacey aboard Stinkpot!

And then we set off northward, resuming our Great Loop. This season, we opted to focus on just exploring the Chesapeake Bay. We enjoyed many adventures visiting 50 different locations, with highlights including extended stays in downtown DC and Baltimore.

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We selected a 47′ Bayliner 4788 motoryacht as our Loop vessel.

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We found winter storage at the end of the season in the northern tip of the bay and had the boat hauled out and shrink wrapped.

We got Blooper loaded up in early November and started southward for holidays with family in Florida. In mid-December we started a westward trek with intensions of getting back to the bus this winter season.

And last minute, we scored another house sitting gig in Santa Fe for the holidays on the way.

General Life Updates

We continue to rock semi-retirement for our third full year. The Mobile Internet Resource Center continues to chug along.

We have continued to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle – albeit not as ambitious as years past. We get out running 3 times a week, and biking regularly.

Chris completed another full marathon in Baltimore.

And while I was gearing up for another full – at the end of the year I suffered a fall on a trail run resulting in a deep knee laceration and possible small fracture that will set me back a bit.

Otherwise, we’re thankful for our health and partnership, and continuing to enjoy life in motion.

Fleet Update

We continue to enjoy having a nomadic fleet on both land and water.

We could be quite happy with just the boat and van – with some AirBnB and house sitting gigs tossed in.

As soon as we wrap things up in Santa Fe, we’ll be heading to Benson to re-unite with Zephyr.

As long as she continues to start up and is able to get to and from the storage lot – we figure we’ll keep her as our AZ basecamp. But we don’t intend to ever have her on the open roads again.

What’s Next?

April 2026 will mark 20 years since Chris hit the road solo – a huge milestone to commemorate!

We intend to spend the rest of the winter season based in Benson, AZ at our co-op – and then will head back to Maryland to get Y-Not ready to resume cruising northward.

Up next will be New York City and beyond. We anticipate we’ll again be seeking out winter storage come next fall.

We also have some international adventures in the works for summer, which will cut into our Great Loop adventures if they manifest.

But we also feel it’s time to branch out beyond US domestic travels – after all, Chris intended to do that after his first year on the road!