Day 23: 3/13/22 1:38am
We are back in Tampa!
These past two days have been a whirlwind. Yesterday (Friday 3/12) Zak and I got a ton of chores done in Safety Harbor, FL. Our laundry was overflowing, we had no water, and we hadn’t showered in forever…. We love Vanlife, but it is SO inconvenient!
While I was doing laundry, I met a super nice lady named Patty who was also living out of her RV! She was traveling with her 100lb. chocolate lab and her boyfriend, Matt, who is a retired forensic psychologist. (I think this is SO cool!) We must have talked and folded clothes for 2 and a half hours. It is so awesome meeting new people on the road.
Right after laundry, we ran to Anytime Fitness to shower. We love Anytime Fitness because it gives us a place to both work out and shower– with hot water! Our one-year subscription cost $511.43 each, but we both decided that it is nicer to worry about one large payment up front, rather than pay $20 every 2 weeks. $511.43 was a huge sum of money for me, but it also has motivated me to go more often and see how much each shower costs us. Yesterday was our 6th visit, so our shower “cost” us $85.23.
After we got cleaned up we headed to our old CrossFit gym, CrossFit St. Pete. Yesterday was the last CrossFit Open workout of the year, which they call “Friday Night Lights”. It is an awesome way to build camaraderie among the members and to celebrate a lot of hard work. There was food, drinks, dogs, kids, and a lot of cheering people on! CrossFit St. Pete is such a special place. It is so, very supportive. The coaches and owners treat everyone with respect and facilitate that community feel!
It was so awesome to see all of our gym friends and to show everyone the van! Auggie also got to see her favorite friend in the world, Adam! (We left Auggie with Adam for a few days last year while Zak and I went away, and ever since, Auggie has loved Adam almost as much as my parents… which is a LOT of love!)
While a ton of old members are still at the gym, it now has a ton of new members too. We met an awesome gal who lived in Thailand for 5 years! She loved sharing her story with us, and it was so inspiring to hear about her experience. Zak has been wanting to travel to/ live in Asia for a while, and I think talking to Andie (our new, adventurous friend) might have convinced me!
After seeing our friends at the gym, we headed back to our friends’ house. We met Georgia and Justin at CrossFit and they are some of the coolest, sweetest people that we have ever met. They even helped us build the floors in the van! Georgia’s brother, Lee, and his girlfriend, Johana, were also visiting from England/ Columbia! That night, we all hung out in the living room, ate Indian food, drank beer, and caught up from the last 9 months we had been away. It wasn’t until about 2am that we all got to sleep! Since it was very hot and muggy out, instead of sleeping in the van, we slept in the living room on the air mattress.
