Tag 0 - Allow us to introduce? Gretchen.

Isn't she great? For us, she is a source of joy. Sure, there have been exhausting days with her, moments where you wonder if she is worth all the effort, money, sweat, and blood. But in the end, we would choose Gretchen again and again.

Reading it like this - it's actually no wonder that in the past months we have occasionally been mistaken for (expecting) parents. And somehow Gretchen is also part of the family. Even though she's just a bus.

Because she is so much more than that. She is our long-term project, a home, a dream come true. The idea of ​​traveling for longer than just a few weeks had been on our minds for a while. Until we realized that we were serious about it and just had to go for it. And at once, Christmas 2017, we bought a bus. The next time was exciting. What about Gretchen's "inner values", how do you even convert a bus, does everything work out as we imagined? What do we take with us, where do we go..?

In hindsight, it is impossible to say how much time went into planning and conversion. But now, 9 months later, a somewhat run-down workman's car has become a camper. And finally, the journey, our big, joint adventure can begin. Actually, even the time before that felt like a huge adventure. We planned, tinkered, cursed, needed second and third attempts, and expanded our horizons with some skills. Gretchen is certainly not perfect, but she has character.

At this point, a big thank you to Thomas, who thoroughly checked Gretchen, to Jürgen, Zdenko, and everyone else for their help with the conversion, to our sewing wonders Iris and Elke, to Lena and Jan for our cool logo, and to friends and family for the extras for camping equipment.

So now it starts - Germany will not see us again in the next 5 months. Honestly, I am still waiting for the moment when we really realize this. We don't know exactly what will happen during this time besides climbing and driving. Thanks to Bernadette and her powers of persuasion, we will keep you updated here on the best wild camping spots, mild and moderate disasters, and changes to our travel route.

Until then, climb on!