Back to the Boat in Sanford, Wrapping up 6+ Months of Van Travel

We have arrived back to Sanford to Y-Not, and are getting settled back into boat life.. and boat projects!

So before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s do a little re-cap of our last month of our extended van meandering.

First, the video version:

Xscapers New Years Eve & Bash

We ended out December in Benson living aboard Zephyr at our co-op lot. But we then packed up the van and headed out to join up with our Xscapers community in Quartzsite for their New Years Eve Meet-Up.

We were honestly hesitant about this event and Bash – for Omicron was predicted to be peaking at just about the same time. It was awesome to get back our into open desert boondocking at the very least, but we played it really low key on the social side.

We took a break from community and moved over to Dome Rock for some time on our own, before we met up with our friends Erik & Kala pre-Bash for some quality social time and prepping for our joint mobile internet presentation.

Ferris wheel at Bash

Hiking in AZFe

Teaching Poi at NYE

Dancing with Margot

On stage with Erik of MMH at bash

Bash was even more intimidating to attend with a larger crowd and more organized events. We came in for the opening night and it was such a mix of emotions of wanting to return to what the event was 2 years ago, but not quite feeling the timing was right.

So we opted to grab a first come first serve dry camping site at the nearby state park to be back on our own, and just headed back for a couple nights mid-week for our presentation with Erik/MobileMustHave and enjoying smaller meet-ups with friends.

All and all, it was good to dip our toes back into community, and are glad we could find our own balance of participation that felt safe.

Back to Florida

We had already planned to leave Bash early to get a head start on our long drive back to Florida. We made a quick stop back in Benson to swap out the wardrobe and get Zephyr into the storage lot so we could leave our lot in the rental pool (we already have multiple reports of followers staying on our lot.. how cool!).

And then, it was time to get on I-10 and see nothing else for a while.

We took about 11-days, and broke it up with stops at:

• Rock Hound State Park in Deming, NM – we have never been before, and loved it
• San Lizario, TX – a dairy farm with a petting zoo just outside El Paso
• Junction, TX – a two night stop at the free city park in Junction to get caught up after the very long driving day across west Texas
• Bastrop, TX – A delightful few night stop to visit with my brother and his wife. The van also had developed a wobble on the way in, and thankfully the Dodge shop right nearby was able to take a look immediately. Turned out, we needed new front axles (all covered by warranty, and done same day! Incredible!)
• Sea Rim State Park – A stop outside of Port Arthur, TX to meet up with a team member over at the Mobile Internet Resource Center. It was great to finally meet Andy in person, and we filmed some in-depth antenna educational videos for our members together. We also stopped in Houston on the way in to have lunch with friends Shawn & Teal.
• New Orleans, LA – We overnighted Faubourgh Brewing in NOLA, one of the busiest Harvest Hosts locations we’ve been to with over 15 RVs parks (and plenty of room for more!). A restful stay with nice walking trails onsite.
• Three Rivers SP – We snagged a last minute reservation at this new to us state park near Marianna, FL, and arrived just in time to snap a lovely sunset photo.

Getting Zephyr into storage

Rock Hound SP

Rock Hound SP

Rock Hound SP

Driving next to the border in El Paso

Dairy farm Harvest Host neighbor

Junction City Park

BBQ at Lum’s in Junction

Antenna geek fun with MIRC team member Andy

Lunch with Shawn & Teal

Hanging with my bro and his wife

Meeting Andy & Wendy (MIRC team member)

Enjoying a chilly day on the beach

Mobile AL!

Florida.. finally!

Three Rivers SP

And then, one final long driving day – and we were back to Y-Not, wrapping up a 2076 mile drive over 11 days. We arrived exhausted, but it was good to be ‘home’.

Van Trip – A Wrap!

We left Sanford on July 14, 2021 with no specific plan. We didn’t know if we were going out meandering for a few weeks or a few months.

Neither of us really thought it would be the end of January 2022 before we’d return.

Our van trip took us a total of 9228 miles around the country – exploring the Blue Ridge Parkway, New England, St. Louis, Colorado and Arizona. So many friends we got to meet up with and rekindle connections, and so many amazing places we visited.

It’s been glorious. And Blooper is more comfortable than we ever imagined for such extended adventuring.

We averaged 14.24 mpg in the 2020.5 Travato GL for the trip. Which is a bit less than the 15.73 mpg we averaged in Cooper, our prior 2016 Travato G.

There’s definitely a fuel economy hit for charging the massive Volta Power system off of the alternator. But the increased flexibility of lots of dry camping locations – like Harvest Hosts, driveway camping and boondocking – is well worth it.

And it was really good to get a couple months back in Zephyr, even if stationary on our lot in Benson.

We really do love how each member of our nomadic fleet fits into our lives.

What’s Next?

We’re back in Sanford, and getting back into the grove of boat life. We’ll be here at least a couple of months as we attend to boat projects, catching up with friends & family and getting caught up ourselves on overdue routine medical check-ups.

We also have a big work transition to attend to in the year ahead, which will dictate just how much travel feels manageable.

For now, we’re not making any plans and we’ll see how things shake out. There could be boat travels or van travels. Or both.