It’s been so good to finally slow down a bit this week. We’ve finally been able to relax for the first time since this adventure started. We’ve taken a few motorcycle rides. We’ve had tasty food and local adult beverages (I highly recommend Whiskey Kitchen for both). We raced go-karts. Trisha has done some amazing cooking over the campfire, everything from heating up toasting bagels to cooking steak, green beans, and fries in our cast iron pans. Living the van life does NOT mean you can’t eat well.
Trisha managed to take herself to the beach, thanks to the roller skates we picked up for her soon after arriving. Places down south have these strange inventions called sidewalks, which let you walk (or skate) safely alongside the road without actually being on it getting run over. We don’t have many of these up north where I come from. But here, they do, so she got herself around while I got work and laundry done at the same time.
Lister seems to be recovering from the F/A-18 Incident. He hasn’t ventured outside as much, but he’ll sit in the open doorway and watch what’s happening outside. He’ll also come out and climb in our laps sometimes. It’s very cute. He hasn’t been as interested in exploring as he was before, but I’m hoping that with time he will be, once he realizes that those evil airplanes aren’t going to eat him or something.
It hasn’t been all play and no work, either. I’ve continued working my day job. I got my Verizon account straightened out and reconfigured for van life. That means splitting my ex onto her own plan (all arranged and coordinated so she doesn’t lose her service or phone number), bumping mine to unlimited data, and adding the hotspot a friend gave me to the plan. They took care of everything and gave me exactly what I wanted.
We’ve also gotten our Escapees mail forwarding and Florida domicile arranged. It took quite a bit of wrangling to figure out what to do and how to do it, but we managed and should be all set to get ourselves established in Florida once we get there. So from here, we’re planning a slow roll south to stay at Sumter Oaks RV Park, which will technically be our new home in Bushnell, Florida. We’re not required to stay there to establish residency, but it’s right there, and who knows how many times we might have to go back and forth to bring the paperwork they told us to bring, then go back with the paperwork we actually need that they didn’t tell us about. When dealing with licenses and registrations, you just never know, so we’ve planned a week stay in Bushnell to work it all out. The price is reasonable, less than our stay here at the KOA.
Tomorrow we move on to Weldon Mills Distillery just over the border into North Carolina. This is the first place we’ve booked through Harvest Hosts, so we’ll see how it goes. Stopping has been a good, much-needed, and well-deserved break, but I’m ready to hit the road again. We’re not quite finished with getting stuff done, and I’ll be able to relax even more once all that is complete.
Smokey Da Van 