Good news. I have an offer on my building and I’ve accepted it. I expect to be moving out at the end of March. Of course, when I say “moving out” I mean I will empty everything I own that is still in the building, and take final inventory of my van (which I’ve been living in since September 21 of last year) and barring any surprises, I’ll be getting on the road.
Where am I going? I don’t know exactly. I’ve thought about this for almost 2 years and it changes from month to month. My first inkling is to head south. I almost certainly will do that, so I can de-winterize the van and have running water once more. But “south” is a big place, right?
I have friends in North Carolina, and I’d like to see them, so I suspect that will be among the first stops in April. Most of my friends that I’ve not seen for many years are on the west coast, and I will certainly be heading there at some point to visit all of them. I have some good friends in Wisconsin, and I want to see them sometime between mid-May, to early September. I don’t know if I can go out west and visit everyone I want to see from San Diego to Seattle and still make it back to Wisconsin before it starts to be too cold to be comfortable in a van. So, I’m leaning toward starting in the Carolinas, and then meandering my way up to Wisconsin, stopping at a few (or maybe many) National Parks along the way. I can stay at National Parks for free (once I get my senior pass, which is good for my lifetime). From Wisconsin, I can head back east, see my family again, and stop in on some friends, then back across the northern route during the warm weather, to Seattle and then head down the coast.
This is all off the top of my head. I truly have no idea of where I’ll go other than I don’t want to live in the winter anymore. I will have two rules (and those of you who know me, know that I don’t often go by the rules, even if I am the one making them). First, I won’t drive more than 4 hours or so on any given day. This journey is to get out and see the U.S. as well as every friend I’ve made so far in my life. I think I’ll call it my “stop and smell the flowers” tour. You can’t smell the flowers if you drive from dawn to dusk, so I plan on deciding each night before bedtime, or each morning as I have my coffee where I might end up by the end of that day. Rule #2 is to not commit to being any given place at any certain time. If I go to a National Park or Forest, I can stay free for up to 14 days. If I’m enjoying it, I may do just that. If not, then I may move on after a day or two. So even though I’ll have an idea of which friend I’m heading to see next, I probably won’t have an exact time of when I might actually arrive there.
I expect to leave around April 1st (no foolin’). I’m open to ideas and suggestions. Just know that a) I don’t want to be in cold weather and b) I am going to be on a very tight budget so I won’t be staying at campgrounds very often. I’m looking for free places to park for the night. My solar package was shipped yesterday, and I hope to have it installed and working by the end of February. So I should be fully self-sufficient except for needing to fill my fresh water tank every couple weeks. If you are reading this and would like a van in your driveway overnight sometime, or parked in front of your home, let me know. I’m making a list of places to go and people to see. You can’t be first, but you could possibly be next! 🙂