About Us


The Open Road Project exists to spread kindness and meet the needs of strangers. We travel in a 1979 GMC Vanguard named Lily. These are our stories.

Friday, March 15, 2013

Wrapping up West Virginia

When we woke up at Greg and Cindy's, a beautiful scent was floating through the air. West Virginians don't mess around when it comes to breakfast.

We found ourselves sitting at the table with a breakfast feast before us, pinching ourselves to see if we were dreaming. Cindy had whipped us up an All-American classic: biscuits and gravy. As we enjoyed our bacon, eggs, sausage and biscuits, we discussed the possibilities of helping Greg chop some wood, since their house was heated entirely with the natural substance. Greg said he was already good to go for the foreseeable future on that front, and that his main priority was to get us up and running again.

After we ate, we went down to Lily where she was once again receiving a tow. The truck took us to Carl's Garage in the tiny town of Circleville and they had us all fixed up in an hour and a half. While we waited, we ate some delicious sandwiches made by our resident sandwich artiste, Jamie. Dorothy-Anne Bennett, Greg's mother, also came to visit us. We gave her the grand tour of the RV and she left us with some pictures of The Knob. She also showed us her art as we conversed and laughed.

When we pulled out of the garage, I felt deep gratitude. Not only thankfulness for our wonderful hosts, but also for the opportunities that I have in this life. As we drove off, we all knew that we had just made some lasting memories. Perhaps we will visit again soon; we know the door is open to us.

From here we went to visit some of Dylan's family who live just outside Eerie. We were welcomed with pizza and a cold, celebratory beer for our mountaineering accomplishments. We watched "Into the Wild," and then went to bed. We felt as though that was a fairly appropriate movie to watch after our wilderness adventure. When we woke up, we had another great breakfast and then went tobogganing with the kids. What a blast! Check out this video from our time with them.


After our fun afternoon on the slopes (we had an awesome time with all the neighborhood kids) we fired up Lily for the drive back to Niagara. As we crossed back into our mother country, we again could say that we did it. We overcame adversity, braved the elements and made some amazing memories while doing so. Although we weren't able to stop in Pittsburgh and give some clothes away, there were other lessons we learned and it's not like they can't be given to someone else. The best memories and learning come from spontaneous changes to our plans. Thank you for reading!


Home is where you park it,
The Boys

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