My vanlife journey has started. Almost a year and a half after I sold my property management business. Covid kind a messed things up.
Building the jeep Camper kept me busy during 2020 Covid and I enjoyed that form of travel but now I have something I can truly live in and go all over the country doing the “old guy on sabbatical” thing. Try to find myself, find a new purpose in life, and all that.
I left out of Austin today, and came up to Dinosaur Valley State Park near Glen Rose TX. I went for a long hike this evening and this place is fantastic. A kid’s paradise. But also super awesome for adults who love nature.
Not my first night sleeping in the van, which I purchased right before the snow storms, but the first time driving it to a campground fully loaded and camping. First on my list is to figure out how to make left turns without the refrigerator door flopping open and all my shit falling out and two giant oranges rolling up to the front under my feet.
It seems to be latched when I close it, but it kept flopping open multiple times. I guess that’s part of the hazing ritual of becoming a campervan owner. It may put me through a gauntlet of pranks that I have to debug.
Tomorrow I’ll head to Sherman north of Dallas to visit my mom for a day or two, then will ramble up toward New England to the tippy top northeast corner of Maine, and explore New England, and maybe Canada if they’ll let me in, then to New York City to visit Caroline and try to stealth camp on the street at Central Park.
After that I don’t know for sure where I’ll go next.But for tonight, I’m living my dream of “living in a van down by the river“. RIP Chris Farley. I will post sporadic travelogues as I go.
Dinosaur Valley State Park 
