Our Hammock Hangin' Honeymoon

Plus, Two Interviews in One Day

Since we seem to be “hanging around” this summer, I will stick with my theme.

A few days ago, Dan and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary. I am incredibly blessed to be married to such a wonderful man, a perfect match for me. At some point, I will share our engagement and wedding stories, but here’s a bit about our honeymoon.

What is a honeymoon if you are traveling most of the time? We feel like we will always be on our honeymoon, but for the sake of clarity, we are discussing the two weeks following our wedding ceremony.

I longed to gather river-rounded banded agates, quartz pebbles, and smooth, water-polished jaspers along the shoreline of the Current River in Southeastern Missouri, as I had in my childhood days, and then again in my mid-twenties, near my Dad’s childhood home. We had a little hang time between events so we planned to boondock, play in the river, and recover from the festivities at a nearby no-frills campground.

We were dragging caboose when we arrived, but chalked it up to pulling off a simple but hasty wedding just one month after we got engaged. We walked along the river, gathering up half a coffee can of amazing treasures before setting camp. By the time we made it back to our spot, neither of us felt like doing much except the bare minimum to get through the night. We usually hop to it right away, and THEN relax.

Hanging hammocks is always the first order of business. Once hung, we each crawled into ours and lay there motionless, dripping sweat from the high humidity and ailing in a variety of ways.

Headache, body ache, sore throat, and a cough landed upon both of us, hard and heavy. We forced fluids, took all the natural stuff, and stayed mostly in full recline position for a couple of days. It was all we could do.

A handy rural doctor diagnosed strep throat and bronchitis for both, with a bonus double ear infection for me. We found a pharmacy, gathered pills and necessities, and headed for a dog friendly motel with a fridge, microwave, and coffee maker for three nights, the only hotel stay of our nomadic life together up to that point.

Oh, what luxury! We cranked on the air conditioner, closed the curtains, and slept or laid around every moment when we weren’t walking or feeding dogs. Dan found a phone solicitor to torture back. He spent a big part of his time returning his call and aggravating him, which seemed to make him feel better. I spent most of my time soaking in the bathtub, alternately feeling happy and sorry for myself. It was a rough patch, indeed, but we got through it together, as always.

We landed at the Midwest Vanlife Gathering in Mark Twain National Forest at Camp Manitowa-Cedar Point in Slabtown, Missouri, on May 24th, 2018, a few days past the end of our two week “honeymoon”.

As the flaggers waved us in, we saw that the field had not been mowed. I was hot, sweaty, anxious about the grass (ticks, snakes, no-see-ums, mosquitoes, dog poop), and worrying about getting camp set quickly before the spontaneous and immediate van tours started.

The dogs were loudly announcing their arrival to all of the other road dogs as Dan pulled to a stop. I got busy opening hatches and turning on fans, as it looked like a zero shade camping spot this go round.

As the thick, humid air rushed into the van, and I prayed that our solar panels had enough charge to keep multiple fans running, at least at night. There was a good chance of storms the entire weekend. That didn’t seem to bother the early bird crowd, nor anyone else who might be heading in to camp regardless of the weather. The field was already packed. Most road folks are resilient.

I could hear Dan talking to someone. He opened the van door and motioned me out. There, a reporter stood from CBS Sunday Morning, prepared to do an interview with the nomadic “newlyweds” that they had heard about. Immediately.

We couldn’t deny it. we still had the “just married” sign hanging in the back window.

We closed the dogs up in the van and shared our love story, our lifestyle choice, and our adventures out on the open road. I was both melting and being fiercely munched upon by mosquitoes, but still managed to look pleasant and to add a few comments here and there.

The reporter was offered the grand tour and shot some footage both inside and outside the van. We were told that we might see ourselves on an upcoming episode of CBS Sunday Morning about nomadic life. The 8-minute segment later aired, minus the Cordray interview. You can see it here:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/this-week-on-sunday-morning-may-26/

Immediately thereafter, we were interviewed by Doug Davison of the Houston Herald, a local newspaper. The photograph of us with the pups and those of us being interviewed by CBS were taken by Mr. Davison. You can read his article here:

https://houstonherald.com/2018/05/at-home-on-the-road

We met some great friends at that event! We and Ray and Sharon Du Faux became fast friends. They just came to see us here at our desert oasis! We usually camp at their place in Missouri as we are passing through, so we were thrilled to have them come hang out at Camp Cordray, at least for a day, while they were visiting family in Phoenix.

Just like us, they bring the fun to any gathering. We are always excited to see them and have a hard time leaving when we are camped in their field. How cool that we have had so many visitors since we have been home!

The gathering was a constant tick-check weekend with lots of bug bites and three severe thunderstorms that had us endlessly packing up, setting stuff back out, or lounging in the van for hours until the bad weather passed.

Some danced in the rain, bellowing out tunes, while others tucked in-house or under tarps to de-mud and relax. Raffles, potluck, yoga lessons, paddle boarding, and all sorts of activities happened anyway, in-between the torrential rains and magnificent displays of lightning. At least it cooled things off. Dan did his part by carrying a squished copperhead snake around to show people what to avoid. Safety first!

The fog was heavy and kept us damp, but we made the best of it. Freedom lovers rejoiced, and had a ball en masse, regardless of circumstances. The event was a roaring success. Jayme and John Serbell of “Gnomadhome” did a fine job of hosting this, their first vandwelling gathering. You can read Jayme’s article about the event here:

https://gnomadhome.com/2018-midwest-vanlife-gathering-reflection/

So there you have it, friends, a combination of honeymoon and vandwelling gathering memories, a wet and soggy, sniffly, coughy, achy, but still satisfying series of events that managed to make both the paper, and the cutting room floor.

Even with all of that, I love that on our honeymoon was when we learned how to be sick at the same time, which came in handy back in February. I also love that we connected with quite a few people that we would see again many times, somewhere down the road.

Happy trails!

Brenda Cordray

“The Desert Rose”

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