Where Will Vincent Van Go?

Our trip to the eastern half of the US draws to a close. After the last post we had the privilege to spend several days at Uchee Pines with Julie's brother Raymond, his wife Sha, and their son Ruel. During the week Julie discovered that our van would be improved with some sort of AC, so we have started looking into how to make that a reality. It turns out this part of the country can be quite hot and humid in the summer months, which is less pleasant without some way to cool off. And now we are heading west again! We spent yesterday morning at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis TN where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. It is definitely worth stopping to see what many people of this country went through in the past to bring about change. And what others in this country would do to try to stop that change. It has given me an opportunity to look inward, to see if I am willing to value those who are treated as worthless in our world. And now we are in Arkansas, onc...

It turns out that when you live in a van the local weather has a strong affect on what you do and where you go. Our plan was to spend the weekend in Florida at Pensacola Beach and Fr. Pickens State Park. We made it to the beach on Friday night, and got Vincent all set up and ready so that we could wake up and see a beautiful beach view in the morning! Then we went to sleep. Then we woke up around midnight with crazy intense thunderstorms all around us. Pretty much as far as we could see in every direction there was lightning strikes. I would estimate there were lightning flashes every 10-15 seconds consistently for about an hour. It was an amazing show! It also caused us to ponder our choice of parking spot. There aren't many tall things in that location, so we were one of the taller targets for a couple miles. That didn't increase our comfort level. We decided to reposition to a location near some buildings so they could absorb any lightning that headed our way. Then the storm...

 We are in Tennessee! Heading south towards the Florida Gulf coast for Julie's birthday, gonna spend some time at the beach there. Hopefully no tornadoes! As we travel both Julie and I have been working in the mornings. We haven't gotten a system fully dialed in yet, but it seems like what will work best is for one of us to work at the table, one of us on the bed. We had thought about working from the front seats (they swivel) but there isn't a good table for those places. So far I like working from the bed best. It is super comfy, surrounded by pillows, the windows allowing fresh air to come in, it is awesome! The table provides a better workspace, but it just isn't as cushy. Although the cushions Julie made for the table bench seats are pretty fantastic! The LED lights do tend to cause a bit of a fun affect on video calls. Because of the way the LED dimming works they are technically blinking all the time, and the camera on the computer catches that and makes a sort o...

The trip to Oak Basin Farms is over, and we are off again, heading South towards Alabama, the Yellowhammer State. Or the Cotton State, depends if you are into plants or animals. Also, I just discovered today what a Yellowhammer is. Also called a Northern Flicker, it is a woodpecker that lives in most of North America, eats insects primarily, and is sometimes migrates (the ones that live in more northerly areas in summer do head south, the ones in the south just hang out). Our time in Indiana has been good. We also hopped over to see a friend of ours in Dayton Ohio for a day (only about 4 hours from the job site, hi Graham!). I finished up the last of the things on my list yesterday, then we took off. Then I discovered there were more things I could have done, but alas, we will have to figure out a different strategy. Hopefully I can get remote access to the site soon and we can finish off the rest of the items. Such is life at a site commissioning. It was really cathartic for me to be ...

Vincent arrived in Indiana on Sunday and we checked into the Fairfield Inn at Fair Oaks Farms! We are here for a work trip, I am working on a new gas digester installation at one of the local dairy farms, and some gas upgrading equipment at another nearby farm. The plan is to be here for the rest of this week, then head out sometime next week to Alabama, where we anticipate warm and humid temperatures. As we don't have AC, only a fan to move air, it could be a very sticky situation, but we will have fun, persevere, and see some family! Fair Oaks Farms is a dairy farm located in Fair Oaks, IN that is about more than just the raising and milking of cows. There are tours of the farm, the robotic milking system, and a high ropes course (among other things). There is also a hotel with a pool and hot tub, and a restaurant which we are planning to eat at tonight! (Hopefully they will have some vegan options, although a restaurant at a dairy farm may not have too many, but we'll see!) ...

Today we are in Iowa, heading for Indiana. We have been doing a good amount of driving this week, starting from Oregon on Wednesday afternoon, but we are nearly to the destination and can relax now that we are cloes and take our time, which is nice! Vincent has been doing great, our months and years of planning and prep have paid off! Most things are working how we planned for them to, and the things that aren't... well, that is life. Our plan to live in a van started in early 2020 when we were reviewing where we were in life and considering our options. We lived at a youth camp in the Cascade Mountains (Big Lake Youth Camp) which was a great place to live and work for me, but it was more difficult to Julie. In the winter she had to ride a snowmobile out to the car at 5:30 a.m. and dig it out if it had snowed, then drive an hour to work. A very long commute. Because of the camp schedule it was difficult for us to go on adventures, which is something we both want to do, so we were d...

Well, who would have thought that the 2nd post would be years later and introduce our first voyage with Vincent! Julie and I have finally finished the build to a state where we feel we are ready for life on the road, and we have begun our next adventure! In our first post in 2020 we suggested that we wanted to document the build process for Vincent. That did not happen as you may have guessed. We took pictures sporadically through the process, and I may write a post later with some of the highlights, but we decided not to focus our time and efforts on the documentation since we didn't know what we were doing. During the build both Julie and I changed jobs and we moved to a new location to finish the build (thanks Mom and Dad for letting us use your tiny house!). Julie now works as a clinical denials nurse, reviewing denied insurance requests and writing letters as part of the process to request that the denial be overturned. I (Paul) work as a roving Electrical Engineer for Tent En...