Our First Coast to Coast

The PurzyckisPersonalTravelEmma and Ryan

Mar 26

Written By Emma Frances Logan

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Karl is all packed up, although riding a little low in back.

I think the sign speaks for itself.

Made it to Wyoming!

We can just feel us getting closer and closer to Oregon.

We saw some pretty bad weather on the radar for Wyoming, so our 9 hour driving day, turned into 14 and yet we still ended up in the middle of the snowstorm. We had to pull off the highway and find a motel. Not exactly what we had planned, but we were just thankful to be safe from the snow.

Poor Karl.

Entering Utah!!!!

Went to Gigi Pip in Salt Lake to find Emma a hat; just a lovely lovely shop.

*note the new hat

First In-n-Out in quite a while! Thank you, Salt Lake City!

We’d unpack the outside cargo and bring our stuff into the hotel each night and strap it all on again in the mornings. By the end of the week, we had quite a smooth system going.

A little caffeine pick-me-up from Push in Pour in Boise. We’ve been to Boise a couple times and we can still say, we’re fans of Boise.

Fans of Boise

We made it to Oregon!

Oh, we love Oregon. So happy to be here.

For the last few years, we’ve been talking about this trip. “Someday let’s live on the road.” Well, that “someday” is finally here. As we drove across the country we kept having to remind ourselves of the current reality… “We’re in Wyoming. Right? Yeah. Okay. We’re in Wyoming.”

For those of you who are new to The Purzyckis, here’s a bit about our life. Ryan is from southern California and Emma is from northern Virginia. We met at UNC Greensboro, got married in 2019, moved to Asheville, North Carolina and then, BOOM, the pandemic happened. The beginning of married life looked a lot different than what we had expected. We spent most days with just each other, and we got used to being in one space: our sweet little apartment. With the utmost caution, we stayed home and stayed safe. But we quickly began to realize what was happening. We were preparing for 2021 - the year we would live on the road.

*Just before we reached Salt Lake City, Utah. “Karl” was quite the trooper, trekking those 3,200 miles across the country.*

We learned that just being around each other, without much of a community or social life really was okay. Of course we missed our family, friends and typical way of living, but learning to be just the two of us was rather sweet. We like each other, okay? Another thing with staying home for so long was being able to save money. We really didn’t buy much, besides a few plants here and there, some of which will join the bus life.

In about five days we traveled from North Carolina to Oregon, our home for the next few months. The drive out here was pretty low key and uneventful, besides one wintery, snowy night that put us in a motel in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming. We’re so thankful we got out of that snow storm safely. It was a bit scary at the moment. But you better believe that we took photos along the way. Check out the gallery above or our highlight reel on Instagram.

We’re currently living with Ryan’s sweet grandparents on their tree farm. The nature, fresh air and wonderful company are so good for our souls. We’re on the hunt for a mini school bus. Our hope is to find a bus that still has all those many seats in it, have a demo day (with loud music blaring, getting all the bad vibes out in the process), and make that bus into a home.

When we tell people what our way of life is going to look like this year, we receive one of these two reactions:

Woah, that’s amazing! or Why would you want to do that?

Before we started dating we each dreamt of living the road life someday. What a relief it was when we realized that we both hoped for the same future. When we got married we started seriously saving for this adventure. It really feels unbelievable that we’re here, in Oregon, looking for our home on wheels. Now is our time to inspire those who think this way of life is pretty cool and show those who think we're crazy just how amazing this life can be.

Thank you all for all the encouragement and support in this new feat for the Purzyckis. We’re so excited to share our progress with you all through videos and photographs as the work begins for us.