Oof.  It’s been a jam packed crazy past few weeks.

Between 2+ weeks heading down to Florida to be with my mom last month. And returning to the boat in Savannah just to prepare and evacuate for Hurricane Dorian.

We’ve hardly had a chance to rest and catch up.

We waited out Hurricane Dorian’s path a couple hours inland at the gorgeous George L Smith State Park in Twin Cities, GA – it was peaceful and perfect surroundings when so much worry was going on inside.

Thankfully, Dorian diverted enough offshore that he didn’t have much impact on Y-Not on the hard in Savanah or my mom down in central Florida.

But wow, what a punch he packed for the Bahamas and coastal regions north of us.

We got incredibly fortunate this time around.

Plans Emerge

While on evacuation, and also reliving flashbacks to our Irma experience two years ago – we made a decision on our short term path forward.

As Y-Not was already safely on the hard and in queue for maintenance projects at the boat yard – we were now committed to not being on the boat for at least a month.

This boat yard doesn’t allow living aboard on the hard – not that we’re even remotely interested in doing so in this heat (our marine ACs need raw water to operate.)

Between the trip down to Florida and evacuation, Coop has grown surprisingly comfortable for us as we make small adjustments.

We saw two primary options ahead of us:

Option 1

We figured we could just tool around the southeast in the van, circling back to Savannah to check in on boat projects.

We could push the yard to get us launched later this fall after peak of hurricane season, and still enjoy some cruising before coming up with a winter plan (return to the bus? head to the Bahamas? repeat recent cruising territory north or south?).

Option 2

We have a strong call to get Zephyr out of storage and back on the road. It’s been too long.

It just didn’t make sense to launch the boat, cruise a month or two and then have to immediately find winter storage.

So we talked with the yard and set out a game plan.

Y-Not will remain on the hard through the remainder of peak hurricane season.

And they’ll continue tackling our project list as they have time with an aim of us returning in February.

February?!?!  6 months not on our boat?!?!

Yup, we made the decision to return to RV life for a bit.

It seems surreal after nearly 2.5 years of Y-Not being our super comfy cruising condo.

The Plan Ahead

So what’s ahead for us is we’re making a slow roll back to Austin to get Zephyr out of storage and back on the road.

We’re not exactly taking the direct route and we’re going to enjoy some extended van time on the way.

We’re stopping in to see friends and ending up in the St Louis area for time with family by end of this month.

Then on into Texas, hopefully after the peak of summer heat.

Once Zephyr is road worthy again (we know for sure she needs new tires and regular engine maintenance… plus a thorough cleaning), we’ll attend a couple of events and then head on out to Arizona for the rest of winter.

We’ll caravan the bus and van out west. While we have some events on our radar, we’re not making any firm plans quite yet.

So… Hello Van Life

We’ve now been van-based for about a month since we headed down to Florida, and spent most of this past week getting Y-Not ready for long term storage and Coop upgraded with some quality of life modifications.

We’re excited for the road ahead and we have a bit of content to catch up on (travelogues, van mods, etc.).

But for now.. hello #vanlife!

If we’re coming your way and you’d like to meet up, let us know! Especially if you have van parking.

YouTube Live Tonight

We’ll be going live on YouTube later today at 6:30p Eastern and sharing these plans there, hanging out and taking questions on nomadic life.

Feel free to pop on over and join us (click the ‘Set Reminder’ button to be notified):