Northbound

Today will be my last day in Florida. I did not expect to spend three whole months here. On the one hand, Florida has been a great host. It provided warmth and sunshine and a stable place to build my van from scratch, while the northeast experienced one of the coldest winters in living memory. On the other hand, these days it gets up into the 90s and the sun is intense. Sunshine state, indeed. The bugs have started to proliferate. The love bugs are a minor annoyance, they’re everywhere but harmless. But the other day I was attacked by a yellow fly that left me bloody. Nasty bugs. It’s time to go.

Tomorrow morning I will start my journey north. I have a fully functional kitchen, plenty of fresh water, and an electrical system that still needs some adjustments but should work fine for this first trip. I am all moved in, with bins and boxes. It’s going to be a tight squeeze fitting all my belongings into the van, with a full set of power and hand tools and a road bike, but I played Van Tetris the other day and I have a plan for how to do it.

This will be my first extended roadtrip in the mostly built-out van. I have 6 days to go 1,100 miles. That’s an average of about 3.5 hours of driving per day if I space it out evenly. Rather than stealthing my way up the coast, I decided to use Harvest Hosts to reserve some cool spots. It’s a national membership-based directory of vineyards, golf courses, and private residences where you can park for free for a night. My first night will be spent at a blueberry farm in Georgia, then a brewery in Charleston, the beach in North Carolina, and a winery in Virginia. I’ve left the last couple nights open-ended.

The big excitement this week was emptying the gray water tank for the first time. I am sure the novelty will wear off, but this first time was actually fun. I drove to my nearest Love’s Travel Stop, paid the $10 fee, and received a key to the dumping station. My 10-foot RV dump hose was still clean and new, fresh out of the box. I hooked it up and everything went smoothly. Having an empty gray water tank feels like a fresh start. One more vanlife milestone unlocked.

As I’ve mentioned, Florida has grown on me in the three months I spent here. This week I found myself acknowledging a series of lasts. Last time at the grocery store I’ve been going to every week, the Lowe’s I’ve been to almost every day since I arrived, and the multiuse trail along the lakefront in Clermont. I will miss this place a little, it’s been my home for a time.

But home is now where I park it. There’s something deeply comforting about carrying my daily life with me wherever I go next. The view outside may change every morning, but inside I’ll still have the same bed, the same coffee mug, and the same tiny space I built with my own two hands.