Last Updated on November 1, 2024
Many people dream of quitting their jobs and traveling around the country, but very few actually do it. For Georgia resident Christiane Palpant, that dream wasn’t just a fleeting thought; she defied expectations and turned her dream into a reality.
After a major health scare, Palpant modified a sprinter van she named Millicent, and embarked on a cross-country journey stopping in all 50 states. (Well, she really drove across 48 states and flew to the other two, since Millicent wouldn’t float to Hawaii or Alaska).
Health Scare
Her journey began with a health scare. As she neared her 50th birthday, Palpant thought she “had it all.” She loved her career in business and finance and traveled extensively for a Fortune 200 company in a high-powered job.
It was at a client dinner when her health took a dramatic turn. “It was very sudden and literally blindsided me,” said Palpant. “I had chest pains at dinner and then collapsed at the hospital door.”
Palpant flatlined and nearly died before doctors discovered she needed open-heart surgery. An unknown virus had attacked her heart. Surgery was followed by two years of bed rest in which Palpant concluded she needed to make a major change.
“After my near-death experience, I had a divine epiphany that I needed to change my life.”
Leaky Roof
She also had encouragement from her brother-in-law who pointed out that Palpant had a “leaky roof.” He explained, “You’re like the man with a leaky roof; every time it rains, he runs around putting buckets under the leaks. When the sun comes out, he forgets about the leaks and goes about his business. When the storms come again, he does the same thing all over again.”
Palpant recognized that her leaky roof needed fixing. Being on bedrest forced her to fix it.
“It was a really awful experience, painful, and isolating,” said Palpant. “But I would never have made a career shift without it. I would never have taken this Millicent journey, and I never would have started painting. So that’s the silver lining.”
When the doctors said she couldn’t get her heart above 60 beats per minute, Palpant went down a trail of “Why me?” But she quickly realized she needed to stop asking “why” and start asking “what?”
“What can I do to keep mentally strong and keep my heart rate low?” Palpant asked herself. “Painting came to mind, but I was never an artist. My mother was a professional artist and I didn’t realize I’d had 50 years of art lessons from her.”
Art Explosion
Palpant created 60 works of art in that first year. “A lot of them were failures and many ended up in the trash,” said Palpant. “But painting really became part of my healing journey.”
Once she began posting her work on social media, people took notice. An art gallery in New York City contacted her with an initial request. “Since then I’ve had exhibitions in New York, Sacramento, Scottsdale, Miami, Paris, Lisbon, and Portugal.”
“It was a process that just started spreading its own wings,” said Palpant. “I didn’t plan it. It’s beautiful actually.”
After two years of painting while on bedrest, Palpant returned to her corporate job. “I returned to my stressful lifestyle. I was working long hours again and dealing with the pain and made no other personal changes. I was back to putting buckets under my leaky roof.”
She soon knew she needed a bigger change. And this realization sparked a new dream. This one combined her love of painting and her desire to explore America. Palpant devised a plan. She would turn a van into a mobile art studio and paint in all 50 states.
Millicent’s Birth
The process of transforming Millicent into a fully functional art studio on wheels took an entire nine months. “Customizing this van took way longer than I thought,” admitted Palpant. “There were about a hundred times during that time that I thought, ‘I’m done. I’m going back to my job. This is awful’.”
Eventually, Palpant realized that building Millicent was all part of the journey to be embraced. The van was decked out with oak cabinets, rounded corners, a bed that retracted into the ceiling, bench storage, and a spot for 40 gallons of fresh water on each side. “You have to be so thoughtful about how you design it because it’s a game of inches, and every inch matters.”
When asked how she came up with the name “Millicent,” Palpant replied, “It came from my favorite board game as a child, Masterpiece, which mimicked a Sotheby’s fine art auction. My persona in the game was always Millicent Friendly, and I thought, ‘What a fun name for the van.’”
Travel Treasures
Palpant’s first leg of the journey with Millicent took her from Cincinnati, Ohio to Chattanooga, Tennessee. That initial trip would eventually lead to 47,000 miles traveled over 33 weeks.
Along the way, Palpant set up her easel to capture the uniqueness of each state she visited. She was especially mesmerized by sunrises and sunsets. “I think I have 4,500 pictures of sunsets on my phone. I never get tired of it. I never get tired of the light and the clouds. I find that each new picture makes me fall even more in love with it.”
She described one particularly poignant scene in New Mexico as the sky streaked with brilliant colors. “I felt like I was just in this wrinkle in time,” she said. “I was almost teary with the experience.”
Palpant discovered immense beauty in America’s diversity. “From Maine to Florida to Washington to southern California to Hawaii and Alaska, I saw it all from the highest of the peaks to the lowest of the valleys to the pure light brown sands of the desert to raging rivers. It is stunning, really stunning.”
Travel Challenges
Life on the road wasn’t always easy. Palpant said she considered giving up more than once. “Everything that could go wrong, has,” she shared in one social media video posted along the way. “I have been brought to my knees on so many occasions. Not only with van trouble, personal health stuff, family stuff…”
“Gas prices went up. Everything that could go wrong with the van, physically and technologically, went wrong. I had shingles at one point. I had a sudden root canal at one point. I was being challenged on so many levels and there were many times when I thought I was just going to get rid of the van and move on with my life.”
“But I had to take a deep breath and think, ‘Okay, if I just take the next step, can I do that? Yes, I can.’ So I’d take the next step. Then I’d get a little more courage and take the next step.”
It was that persistence that kept her going, even when the path was tough.
Unexpected Companion
Most of Palpant’s journey was spent alone with Millicent, but during one week of the trip, her friend’s 12-year-old daughter came along for the ride. “That was a real learning experience, because I don’t have children. She approached travel very differently than I did. I mean, she was a kid!”
Palpant said she learned an important lesson by seeing the journey through the eyes of a child. “It was that innocence of seeing things for the first time. She saw her very first sunset. She rode a horse for the first time, went to her first rodeo, went to a Shakespeare play for the first time. There were a lot of really beautiful moments that helped me have a refreshed vision of things.”
Journey’s End
After three years, several breaks, thousands of miles, a few plane rides, and all 50 states visited and painted, Palpant completed her journey. Fighting back tears, she described Millicent as “a teacher and a healer.”
Shortly after her goal was met, Palpant decided to sell Millicent to a new family. “It’s like when you go to a university, and it’s time to graduate. It was the end of my chapter with Millicent and now I’m feeling the next chapter starting.”
Whether it’s painting in all 50 states or making small changes to daily life, Christiane’s message is to take that first step toward turning dreams into reality.
Her journey is a reminder that even when the road is difficult and full of challenges, it can offer us our greatest rewards. “The moral of this story is to find gratitude in every moment and be completely present in every moment,” she shared. “Take the risk to Grow Bolder. Be really intentional about the growing bolder journey, because it’s worth it.”
