We had this dream for a long time, to cross the USA in a camper van, taking our time. We decided two months ago to leave for three months.

For this, we drove our van VW California by boat from Antwerp (Belgium) to Canada. We flew to Montreal and from there we started our trip. We travel with the two youngest of our children, Zoé 16 and Cerise 8 years old.

We entered the USA via Detroit, this city and its history seemed to us a good starting point for this adventure. We took Route 66 as our main road and we plan to take the small roads on the left to see where it leads!

As it was the case this past week, the road led us to a village of 2000 inhabitants, the majority of whom belong to an Amish community. We stayed overnight with an Amish couple, it was a very strong experience for our girls and us.

This trip is an adventure. We decided to go from Chicago to California, through the Midwest, to see all the faces of this country and all its paradoxes. Understanding the USA is understanding how the world has come to what it is today. It also allows us to open our mind and ourselves to others.  

Our girls are used to traveling and are curious and open to new experiences. They keep a travel journal. Every day, we try to give ourselves a quiet time during which they write and stick tickets or stickers in their journal.

We will not be going to big cities because the idea is to travel at a lower cost. We plan to do wild camping or state campgrounds, or we will see depending on our meetings! Our route, however, includes Chicago (Illinois), Austin (Texas), Los Angeles and San Francisco (California). We plan to make some national parks like the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley… our final destination will be Lake Tahoe where we will meet friends who live below.

When we return, I plan to write a travel book that will mix photos, texts, songs and personal reflections.

 Follow Lili's road trip on her instagram account to discover more about this interesting family trip.

@liliinthemoon

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