I can’t put this trip into words yet, it’s a bit too raw in my memory. Katherine and I returned home a few days ago, to [temporarily] her mother’s house to decompress and clean out the van. A van we have woken up in, sipped copious amounts of coffee from, gone too slow in and may have gone too fast in, let Lucy hop into soaking wet countless times, watched the sunset from, viewed 21,000km of America pass by from, and ultimately, fell asleep in together for 148 days.

One hundred and forty eight days of nothing but seeing some amazing places in the United States, making new life-long friends, visiting family far and wide, but ultimately being present in the moment with my amazing wife. We drove up a hill much to big for us in Colorado, and had cold nights in Salt Lake City (when the furance quite unexpectedly.) Then there was a night in rural Texas where I wasn’t sure if parking in a Walmart was going to be a good idea ever again. The night(s) in Sedona with other amazing wedding photographers from all over, and the week of being sick leading up to and during Katherine’s 100km race. I annoyed mechanics and my friend Simon with questions about vans, and constantly checked the battery gauge to see how good the solar was doing. We star-gazed, sunrise viewed, sang top 40 tracks, and even caught up on all the podcasts we had missed. We made the same five dinners, but had a candle (almost) every time we sat down. We woke up to anxious whimpers from our dog, and the sound of the ocean crashing on the coast. I fell in love with my wife over and over and over. I hope she endured tolerating me and tolerating me and tolerating me. I hope whoever receives this van has as much fun as we have. We miss the trip already.

This collection of photographs is the culmination of some of our favourite people, places and adventures. We’re a little bit sad to be departing Rolland, our crazy amazing van, but the city calls us again and we’re off on our next big adventure.

I have hugged so many new and old friends on this trip, and listing them here is going to do little justice to how amazing, thoughtful, insightful and lovely they are, but Katherine and I wanted to thank you.

In order of appearance (although not everyone pictured):

Our moms Beverly Allen & Lesley Pinkney, Jeremy Sculthorpe, Simon Stiles, Dan & Elissa Hand, Elisha Braithwaite & Todd West, Brett Farrell, Jordan Carey, Jeff Fisher, Jennifer Love, Julia Montag, Tim Murphy, Brian Donnelly, Sawna Guadarrama, Robbie & Caessandra Ogden, Krystin Mullins & Karl Neimeister, Alex Xu & Betty Liu, Evan Rich & Teya Montalbano, Josh Kane Wood, Caroline Ross, Brandi Potter, Jacquelyn Portolese, Matthew Rice, Paul Woo, Kyndall Elliott, Elke Van den Ende, Ryan & Sam, Dwight & Anne Rabe, Tim & Kelly Kyle, Pat Fuller, Chris Henderson, Savannah Shealy, Gabe McMullen, Sue & Charles Scott, Zoe Scott & Will Murdoch, Jane Yager & Darren Clarke (+ the ever adorable Lucia & James) & every random stranger, fellow camper van owner, park ranger, coffee shop barista, race directors and volunteers that we met along the way. You all the real MVPs!

We love you, you magnificent humans!