Entry Six- Vanlife In a Hurricane September 26th-31st

One experience I didn’t expect to have while living in the van would be attempting to ride out a hurricane. When we landed in Orlando we had about one day to prepare and make moves for our and the van’s wellbeing. My parent’s got sand bags, prepared their home, and got ready to ride out the storm. They have lots of very large trees that hang over the driveway, so for the safety of the van we choose to evacuate.

Cracker Barrel Hurricane Party

Mark spent some good time looking at hurricane and wind maps before we made our choice to head south east due to the low risk of the hurricane turning towards the south east coast of Florida. We packed up, filled out water and fuel and headed down to a cracker barrel in West Palm Beach.

We spent a day in a library parking lot, before they closed for the storm. Then we moved to our Cracker Barrel for the night. Many other RVer’s had the exact same idea and before we went to sleep every RV Spot and many normal spaces where full of overnighters.

Thankfully that was a good choice to go south! We experienced very little rain and just mild wind gusts. I still didn’t sleep very well due to the anxiety that a incredibly strong storm might hit us.

Back at home my parents have a pond in the backyard, but no significant damage and no one in either of our families was hurt. We are so lucky to have made it out so well when so many people lost loved ones, their homes, and all of their possessions. I can’t imagine what I would do if I was in that terrible position. Unfortunately with climate change on the current pathway, hurricanes are going to become more frequent and stronger and more loss will continue.

I had to take a day to comprehend the loss people experienced and allow myself to feel sad and upset for being so helpless against mother nature.

The New Adventure

When we returned from the coast it was time to get ready to leave Florida long term, for at least a year. We planned meetups with friends, organized our belongings, filled out water and gas tanks and made our way up the coast of Florida and started our month long cross country adventure to Gresham OR!

I have a temporary seasonal job with Amazon Camperforce for 6 weeks in November and December. When we aren’t working we will be spending time on local adventures and seeing the great Anders!

For the next few weeks we will be packing in driving, working, and National Park going as we cross the country for the 3rd?? time this year.