yep, we know. it's been weeks since we posted. heck, it may even have been a month. & we promised there'd be a new post by last friday. & there wasn't. we're sorry. please don't hate us, & please don't take it personally. it's us, not you.
though it may not be a very good one, i do have a reason for not posting. up to now our laptop has had to be plugged in when in use [ it was free & the battery has never worked ] so we have to be somewhere with electricty for me to write. & when you live in a van the only access to electricity is either a coffee shop or a pub. while writing at a coffee shop is cool - we can do it when we have our morning iced coffee [ the most budget friendly coffee beverage on the starbucks menu ], writing at a pub is anti-social, & i don't like to be anti-social, so i don't do it. so there you go.
ok, so since i last wrote we've driven from charleston, south carolina, to west palm beach, florida, flown out to ireland, flown back to west palm beach & now we're in the keys. [ phew. that's a lot of travelling ].
in my last post i was telling you that while in charleston we stumbled upon folly beach, a seaside surf town just a short drive from the city. well, i'll tell you now that within fifteen minutes of arriving we fell so in love with it's vibe we decided to spend a few days living the beach life. this spot was so laid back that, like, ninety six percent of it's establishments didn't require we wear either a shirt or shoes for service. once stripped down to the minimum amount of clothing we could get away with there was no way we were going back to the city where we'd have to cover up & dress 'appropriately.' [ for our age, for our [ my ] weight, for our surroundings. no way ]
i'll also tell you that it was in folly beach that we stealth parked for the first time. like, truly stealth parked [ we'd always parked at the beach or in a mall parking lot, never on a city street ]. one of three nights we stayed in the area we slept in the van, directly in front of a woman's house. i mean, we were just a step away from her front door for twenty four hours, changing from street clothes to swimsuits to pj's [ shout out to the homeowner. she said hello to us the afternoon we arrived & good morning to us as we climbed out of the van at nine o'clock the next day. she wasn't at all bothered or surprised by our being there ]. the spot was perfect - a block away from a twenty four hour supermarket [ with a bathroom for those middle-of-the-night pees ] & two blocks from the beach. we would have stayed all three nights but the bugs were something awful. & they loved luke. so we spent the other two nights in a walmart parking lot [ luke's favourite. for real. he's become a parking lot connoisseur. whenever we drive by or into a parking lot that has palm trees or a view or shady spots he'll say 'now that's a beautiful parking lot'. i find it highly entertaining ].
the first two days were spent at the beach swimming, napping & beach combing [ you know, the usual stuff ], but our third & last day in town was spent at [ i never, ever thought i'd ever be lucky enough to type these words ] a crawfish festival. yep. a crawfish festival. we acquired two free passes from a band that invited luke on stage to play harmonica the previous night & excitedly cashed them in the following day for an afternoon of crawfish eating, alligator holding & cold draft beer. swoon.
our next destination was savannah, ga, & though it was only a six hour drive we opted to make an overight stop in the quaint town [ village? ] of beaufort to break it up. this stop was also scheduled to enable us to make a trip to palmetto bluff [ recommended by friends ]. it was stunning. while there we saw dolphins [ ! ], used the bathroom of one of the most beautiful churches we've seen [ it was simple & bright & had a stunning view of the water ] & had a a glimpse into how the other half live [ estates, yachts, fancy restaurants, oh my ].
like charleston, we found savannah to be a city for those that have money to burn [ or at least a holiday budget instead of a vanlife budget ]. & while we got a kick out of the open container law [ we took a walk with a couple cans of beer just because we could ] & thoroughly enjoyed walking down bull street [ picture park after park with fountains, spanish moss & benches for people watching ], the main strip, river street, along the waterfront, was, well, a shit show. a tourist trap. it reminded us of new orleans, lined with bars full of rowdy tourists, tacky souveniers shop & restaurants that advertise with photos of their food [ never a good sign ].
we spent one sleepless night [ it was, like, 40c & humid ], woke the next morning, walked the city for a couple of hours, decided it was time to move on, scanned google maps, selected our next destination, packed up & headed out of town.
the destination we chose that morning was fernandina beach, right at the tippy top of the A1A & we made it there with a few sunlight hours left to enjoy the scenery.
fernandina beach was a small seaside town, similar to the outer banks in that it ran along a main road, with holiday homes, beach access points & local establishments on either side. upon arrival we stopped at one particular beach access point that had a public restroom, boardwalks running through a protected tortoise nesting ground & a covered area with picnic tables perfect for a couple of van dwellers like ourselves to make & eat dinner al fresco.
after dinner we checked out the local watering holes. the first was a dive bar with buckets of beer so inexpensive it was like they were giving it away & homemade chili two [ very inebriated ] local woman were actually giving away. from there we made our way to the tiki bar on the beach. we couldn't resist - it had swings in place of every second stool at the bar [ ! ] & a parking lot we could spend the night in [ ! ].
as we go to bed well before the bars close we didn't fall asleep quickly, but the view from van the following morning was well worth the lack of sleep. lucky for me i woke at 5 o'clock to a stunning sunrise, enjoyed that for a time, & was able to walk a mile to the local starbucks for iced coffee [ lucky for luke as well because that kept me occupied, meaning i didn't wake him ]. when i arrived back with the coffee, luke was stirring so we tidied up, had a little breakfast, did a workout on the beach, hopped in van & headed toward west palm beach.
to be continued....
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though it may not be a very good one, i do have a reason for not posting. up to now our laptop has had to be plugged in when in use [ it was free & the battery has never worked ] so we have to be somewhere with electricty for me to write. & when you live in a van the only access to electricity is either a coffee shop or a pub. while writing at a coffee shop is cool - we can do it when we have our morning iced coffee [ the most budget friendly coffee beverage on the starbucks menu ], writing at a pub is anti-social, & i don't like to be anti-social, so i don't do it. so there you go.
ok, so since i last wrote we've driven from charleston, south carolina, to west palm beach, florida, flown out to ireland, flown back to west palm beach & now we're in the keys. [ phew. that's a lot of travelling ].
in my last post i was telling you that while in charleston we stumbled upon folly beach, a seaside surf town just a short drive from the city. well, i'll tell you now that within fifteen minutes of arriving we fell so in love with it's vibe we decided to spend a few days living the beach life. this spot was so laid back that, like, ninety six percent of it's establishments didn't require we wear either a shirt or shoes for service. once stripped down to the minimum amount of clothing we could get away with there was no way we were going back to the city where we'd have to cover up & dress 'appropriately.' [ for our age, for our [ my ] weight, for our surroundings. no way ]
i'll also tell you that it was in folly beach that we stealth parked for the first time. like, truly stealth parked [ we'd always parked at the beach or in a mall parking lot, never on a city street ]. one of three nights we stayed in the area we slept in the van, directly in front of a woman's house. i mean, we were just a step away from her front door for twenty four hours, changing from street clothes to swimsuits to pj's [ shout out to the homeowner. she said hello to us the afternoon we arrived & good morning to us as we climbed out of the van at nine o'clock the next day. she wasn't at all bothered or surprised by our being there ]. the spot was perfect - a block away from a twenty four hour supermarket [ with a bathroom for those middle-of-the-night pees ] & two blocks from the beach. we would have stayed all three nights but the bugs were something awful. & they loved luke. so we spent the other two nights in a walmart parking lot [ luke's favourite. for real. he's become a parking lot connoisseur. whenever we drive by or into a parking lot that has palm trees or a view or shady spots he'll say 'now that's a beautiful parking lot'. i find it highly entertaining ].
the first two days were spent at the beach swimming, napping & beach combing [ you know, the usual stuff ], but our third & last day in town was spent at [ i never, ever thought i'd ever be lucky enough to type these words ] a crawfish festival. yep. a crawfish festival. we acquired two free passes from a band that invited luke on stage to play harmonica the previous night & excitedly cashed them in the following day for an afternoon of crawfish eating, alligator holding & cold draft beer. swoon.
our next destination was savannah, ga, & though it was only a six hour drive we opted to make an overight stop in the quaint town [ village? ] of beaufort to break it up. this stop was also scheduled to enable us to make a trip to palmetto bluff [ recommended by friends ]. it was stunning. while there we saw dolphins [ ! ], used the bathroom of one of the most beautiful churches we've seen [ it was simple & bright & had a stunning view of the water ] & had a a glimpse into how the other half live [ estates, yachts, fancy restaurants, oh my ].
like charleston, we found savannah to be a city for those that have money to burn [ or at least a holiday budget instead of a vanlife budget ]. & while we got a kick out of the open container law [ we took a walk with a couple cans of beer just because we could ] & thoroughly enjoyed walking down bull street [ picture park after park with fountains, spanish moss & benches for people watching ], the main strip, river street, along the waterfront, was, well, a shit show. a tourist trap. it reminded us of new orleans, lined with bars full of rowdy tourists, tacky souveniers shop & restaurants that advertise with photos of their food [ never a good sign ].
we spent one sleepless night [ it was, like, 40c & humid ], woke the next morning, walked the city for a couple of hours, decided it was time to move on, scanned google maps, selected our next destination, packed up & headed out of town.
the destination we chose that morning was fernandina beach, right at the tippy top of the A1A & we made it there with a few sunlight hours left to enjoy the scenery.
fernandina beach was a small seaside town, similar to the outer banks in that it ran along a main road, with holiday homes, beach access points & local establishments on either side. upon arrival we stopped at one particular beach access point that had a public restroom, boardwalks running through a protected tortoise nesting ground & a covered area with picnic tables perfect for a couple of van dwellers like ourselves to make & eat dinner al fresco.
after dinner we checked out the local watering holes. the first was a dive bar with buckets of beer so inexpensive it was like they were giving it away & homemade chili two [ very inebriated ] local woman were actually giving away. from there we made our way to the tiki bar on the beach. we couldn't resist - it had swings in place of every second stool at the bar [ ! ] & a parking lot we could spend the night in [ ! ].
as we go to bed well before the bars close we didn't fall asleep quickly, but the view from van the following morning was well worth the lack of sleep. lucky for me i woke at 5 o'clock to a stunning sunrise, enjoyed that for a time, & was able to walk a mile to the local starbucks for iced coffee [ lucky for luke as well because that kept me occupied, meaning i didn't wake him ]. when i arrived back with the coffee, luke was stirring so we tidied up, had a little breakfast, did a workout on the beach, hopped in van & headed toward west palm beach.
to be continued....
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