My Van Life: Day 56
Thursday, October 14, 2021
Port Lavaca, TX – Victoria, TX – La Grange, TX
Well, as much as we wanted to wake up and have our van magically charged back up to 100%, unfortunately that was not the case. In fact it was quite the opposite. We dropped down to the low 20s (!!!) and not only that but there was absolutely no sun in sight. In fact there was a river flood warning (whatever that means?!) in the area today and nothing but cloudy skies and rain expected all day long. Trouble in paradise for us as we depend on the sun to gain our very necessary energy for the van. I know I've said it before but it's such a predicament because while we of course want the sun to come out in order to charge the van back up, at the same time the sun is strong and when it comes out, I immediately start sweating so I prefer the clouds and overcast weather personally. However, the van does not. Somehow the sporadic sunshine and cloud coverage over the course of the last few days has given me a glorious tan, which I am not complaining about one bit. On the other hand, I do think it’s contributed to my overall high body temperature however which is not as welcomed as the natural bronze. Win some you lose some I guess.
We woke up earlier than usual after having gone to bed early so we had a bit more time in our morning routine. Which for this morning really just meant a bit more time to figure out what the heck we were going to do given our predicament. After teeth were brushed and faces were washed the clouds did part a bit in the horizon and the sun slowly started peeking out but unfortunately not enough to give us more than maybe 1% charge in an hours time so we made the decision to hit the road. We drove to the nearest Starbucks in Victoria, TX which was about a 45 minute drive. Not too bad. While we left Magnolia Beach (Port Lavaca) to drive toward some sunshine (or at the very least a place to charge up our technology), we ended up driving straight into the storm. It absolutely poured on the way there. Our tire light went on (we have a slow leak in the back left tire) which made me a bit nervous especially with all the pooling water on the ground but we managed to make it to Starbucks and procure some coffee and a parking spot to post up for a few hours. It’s funny how the weather can have such an affect on you. After driving through the rain and being surrounded by clouds and overcast weather all morning we were both feeling kind of sleepy.
We enjoyed our morning coffee and an easygoing morning in the van before diving into the work day. The van actually managed to stay pretty cool until early afternoon when it started heating back up again. We couldn’t really open the doors in a tight, small Starbucks parking lot like that so we decided to drive to the nearest park to post up and make lunch. It was only about a ten minute drive but afforded us the ability to park and open the slider once we arrived since it wasn't too crowded. Today unexpectedly ended up being a day of bopping around, almost like the old van life days but not quite as exciting. We weren’t bopping for particularly good or exciting reasons, like visiting Mount Rushmore before it closed or looking for ideal parking in Washington, D.C.. At any rate after lunch we were on the road yet again and drove back to a Planet Fitness we had passed. Thankfully there was plenty of parking here so we posted up once again to give each other time to take care of work while the other person worked out. More than anything I desperately needed to shave my legs and that is a CHORE in the van shower (as I'm sure you can imagine) so I was really looking forward to a thorough Planet Fitness shower (after a great workout of course). We realized we were only a little over an hour outside Round Top which is our goal destination for the weekend so after we both worked out and showered we started driving that way which has placed us back in an all too familiar spot for the evening – a Walmart parking lot. Yep, Van Life is back alright.