WE DROVE OUR VAN 1,461 MILES ACROSS AMERICA

I wasn't sure if all the driving was going to be worth it. But after hours of driving past nothing but flat, flat farmland, these just appeared out of nowhere.

We're Kara and Nate. We've spent the last four years traveling to a hundred countries. But 2020 brought us back to the United States or where we purchased a converted sprinter van to spend the summer exploring our home country. Her face is so sweaty. After a few weeks of renovations and upgrades, it was finally time to hit the road when we discovered that our fridge was broken.

Yes.

Woo. So our first stop as full time van lifers was a refrigerator warehouse in Lexington, Kentucky. After a quick repair, we resumed the original plan and started heading west through southern Illinois farmland. Our first stop was St. Louis, Missouri, where we frolicked under the world's largest arch and devoured a few local favorites at our friend's barbecue restaurant.

So last night we just slept in front of our friend's house and now we're.

We'Re just hanging out in a Target parking lot trying to figure out what the plans are for today. We've driven 550 miles over the last two days and the goal is to get to Estes Park, Colorado in the next three or four. So we still have over 900 miles to go.

The drive was not supposed to be this rushed. We had hoped that we could take our time, stop at a bunch of cool places along the way. But after buying this van, we ran into a lot more problems than we expected, which pushed our schedule back an entire week. So unfortunately, that means.

Jordan. Hey, what's up? Where are you? In the middle of nowhere.

We have just arrived in Kansas City, which is home to the world's largest.

Shuttlecock. I have no idea why this is here. I feel like Missouri must be into having like the biggest somethings because in St. Louis they have the biggest, biggest arch, and then here.

Hey, Siri, why does Kansas City have the largest shuttlecocks in the world? Here's what I found.

So the great thing about traveling, it's really hard to put a mask on with one hand. The great thing about traveling in the US is that this is where the majority of people who follow us are from. So we've been getting a ton of recommendations and Kara asked while we were driving in, what's the one thing that we can't miss when we come to Kansas City? And so many people said, a gas station. Specifically a place called Joe's that serves barbecue inside of a gas station.

Okay, I flipped two gmail.

Oh, this smells incredible. So our Goal on this trip is to enjoy as many local favorites as safely as possible. So we're taking the barbecue back to the van.

Quickly. So the thing to get at Joe's is a sandwich called the Z Man. And we talked to a local while we were in there, and he told us that we had to get the Z Man with burnt ends, which I had never heard of before. So we'll see what that means.

So a Z Man sandwich is a toasted kaiser bun with fresh pickles, fried onion rings, barbecue sauce, melted smoked provolone cheese, and burnt ends, whatever those are. This is going to be awesome.

I don't even.

Where do I. I'm like, I have such high expectations. Okay.

Oh, my gosh. Burnt ends are amazing. The meat is so, so smoky and so soft. And I think my favorite part is the crunchiness of the onion rings with the super soft meat and super soft bun. It's just like the marriage of all of these textures in my mouth with the melty, hot cheese, it's to die for. I'm gonna get in trouble for saying this because Nate's uncle owns a barbecue restaurant, and we ate at our friend's barbecue restaurant last night. Both are great, but this is the best barbecue sandwich I've ever had.

It's worth coming just for the french fries. I see why so many people told us to come here.

Well, we saw the world's largest shuttlecock and ate some delicious barbecue. I'm not sure what more you could want from a city.

There's a fighter jet.

Wow.

So after two days of rain and clouds, the power that we get from our solar panels was running low. So last night, we decided to get a campsite so we could charge everything back up. Unfortunately, when we plugged it in.

Nothing. So I stayed up past midnight trying to figure that out and eventually gave up, which is a huge bummer because I've already spent so much time working on this, and I thought I finally had it figured out. But this morning, well, yeah. Didn't even have enough power to make coffee. Nothing is worse than trying to diagnose an electrical issue before a cup. Before we go any further, we wanted to say a big thank you to surfshark for continuing to support our channel and also keeping our online identity safe. We spent the rest of this day using the campground free WI fi to get some work done on our computers.

One of us is actually working right now. And as usual, we use surfshark's VPN to keep our data safe online. It encrypts all the Information sent between our computers and the Internet so that no one can steal our personal details.

But a VPN can be used for more than just security. Whenever we're done working and we're ready to watch some Netflix, we use ours to unlock content that isn't available in our area. It's super easy to change the virtual location of our computer and get access to a new content library.

Kids, in the fall of 2010, if.

You don't already have a VPN, we highly recommend Surfshark. We've been using it since the beginning of this year and we love it. And it's the only VPN that offers one account to use on unlimited devices. You can use our code karanandnate to get 85% off plus three extra months for free. And there's no words to try it out because you have a 30 day money back guarantee. To get started, just click the link in the description below.

Arrived.

So, based on some advice that I got from a very nice man who works here at the campground, I went down to the closest RV shop and picked up this 30amp cord for 94.99 from the crustiest old man that I have ever met, who specified multiple times that if this does not work for me, I cannot return it. So this is a hundred dollar gamble that this will fix our electrical issues.

Okay, I'm about to flip this breaker. It takes 15 seconds for the inverter to switch to charging mode. Within 15 seconds after I flip this breaker, it trips. Then we've just wasted a hundred dollars.

Oh, I feel like I heard something in the van.

So the breaker didn't trip, which is a great sign. But the only way to know for sure if it's working is if there's two lights on on the inverter.

I'm so nervous.

Yes, it's working.

It's working. Actually, it just appears that it's working. The only way to know for sure for sure is if we open the app.

It says 36.

Oh, we have positive power.

You fixed it.

So it might not seem like a big deal, like, oh, your, your battery's running low. But the thing is that we have gel batteries in this van and it's really bad. When the batteries get below 50%, it decreases the lifespan and they've gotten down to 30%. So it's just been kind of like this constant stress that's been hanging over my head of how am I going to fix this and, and get these charged back up. Oh, I'm so happy.

Our batteries are charging slowly. But surely. So we've decided that we're just going to stay here one more night to get our batteries up to 100% to make sure that we don't damage them. We've also been driving for the last three days. We have a lot of work to catch up on anyway, so we'll see you tomorrow.

Good morning. We are charged to almost 100% and we are back on the road today. We have two stops that we're really excited about, and the first one is an hour and a half away.

We've just arrived at the Tall Grass Prairie National Preserve, and it's a 10,000 acre protected area of prairie land, which sounds like a lot until we just learned that over 170 million acres of prairie land used to cover middle America.

So this is just a tiny taste of what this part of the country used to look like before Western civilization.

Now there's only 4% left. And walking out here, I can't help but feel like I'm in the old Oregon Trail computer game that we used to play in elementary school.

Good times.

I know how fast they can move. They're fast.

Its head is so big. Wow.

So much closer than a football field.

This is incredible. This is like being on safari in Africa, except we're walking.

Making a couple quick smoothies before we hit the road for another four and a half hours.

We decided to take Highway 4 instead of I70, which adds about an hour to our trip. But I am so glad that we did because we're getting to drive through all of these tiny towns and we just stood in the middle of the road for at least 30 minutes and didn't see a single other person. What a neat part of the country.

I feel like Kansas gets a bad rap when it comes to road trips, but I think the flatness is beautiful. Maybe it's because I'm from Tennessee and you never get to see for so far because of all of the. The hills and the trees, but it's been kind of nice. Also, as of today, face masks are required in public in Kansas, which I think is a great thing. We've already been doing it, but now it's the law.

Caffeine.

So Google Maps had us turn down this random dirt road and all of a sudden there was this giant field full of prairie dogs. I've never seen them in the wild before, and they're everywhere.

They were everywhere. Now they're in their holes. Please get them away.

He's watching. You see them?

I wasn't sure if all the driving was going to be worth it. But after hours of driving past nothing but flat, flat farmland, these just appeared out of nowhere.

They're called the chalk pyramids. And the only way to get here is by driving down a gravel road into the middle of nowhere. Kansas.

Our only other plan for tonight is just to go sleep in the Walmart parking lot. So I think we're just gonna make dinner here and watch the sunset.

Well, this is home for the night. It's almost 11 and going to sleep. Not exactly glamorous, but.

After six days of driving, 20 hours behind the wheel and over 1400 miles, we have finally made it to our final destination of Estes Park, Colorado. And the Rocky Mountains are right in front of us.

We had to drive about an hour and a half to Walmart last night in the dark and we hit so many bugs that it sounded like it was raining.

Never gonna come clean. It'll never be the same again.

So many bugs everywhere. Our batteries are charging slowly.

But surely. Hey Siri, why does Kansas City have a giant cuddle? What is it? Okay, I found this on the web for a while. Does Kansas City giant cuddle?

Check it out.

According to the Internet, inspiration for the shuttlecocks came from a painting in the museum by Frederick Remington that featured Native Americans wearing feathered headdresses coupled with a satellite image of the museum grounds that resembled a grassy ball court. The shuttlecocks are in the park in the lawn right in front of the art museum. Pretty random.

So the great thing about traveling, it's really hard to put a mask on with one hand. So. Dang it.

It'S only day three and we've.

Already gotten lazy and did not convert our bed back into a couch this morning. I have a feeling we'll be having a lot of picnic style meals.