I only stayed a few days in Florida after buying the van. I did some shopping and got everything packed up. I had a long drive ahead of me.
The first day I basically did the whole state of Florida. From Fort Lauderdale to Panama City Beach. I think it was about an eight hour ride. Pretty smooth – no traffic outside of that first stretch. Not that much to see and that was to be the story for most of the way.
Meghan is living in Panama City Beach and I was able to stay by her place. She came back to the states from Australia shortly after I did. Her parents started a business in Florida and she was there managing the store.
It was really good to connect with her. We went out to dinner and had drinks the first night. And then we did some time on the beach the next day. I stayed over for the extra day because the states I had to travel through were getting pounded with rain.
The next leg of the drive was from Panama City to Shreveport, which is in northwest Louisiana. So I basically drove the length of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana on day two. Not much to see. My first night sleeping in the van was in a Walmart parking lot. Not exactly what I was thinking when I bought the van but it worked out just fine.
Then we had Texas. It was a pretty cool drive, watching the terrain change slowly. At first, it was very green with a bunch of prairies. But it slowly became dryer and browner and more like a desert. I drove a lot the third day. Probably 12 hours or so. I mean I drove the whole length of Texas and that state is huge.
I ended up in Raton New Mexico and then crossed the border into Colorado and slept at one of the rest stops there. Wow was it cold! A sign of things to come. Thankfully I had a few more blankets than I thought I needed. So I stayed relatively warm.
That next day was the home stretch and I just drove the length of Colorado to Denver. Way more scenic – just driving along the mountains most of the time. I got back to Alexandra’s place around lunchtime and took a much-needed day to relax and recuperate.