I’ve officially been living on the road for one year! Let’s look back at what vanlife has been like through the months…
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Mark your calendars! Jupiter & Venus will be side-by-side in the western sky on June 8TH – 10TH. Find me back in San Diego for three nights only as clouds allow.
December 2024
I was invited to speak at the i-STEM program in Idaho, keynoting six conferences around the entire state. I started planning a road trip around this, and by February 2025, I had decided I would take advantage of this opportunity to leave Florida and move to Oregon.
I’ve wanted to live in Oregon since the early 2010s, a desire strengthened by two trips there for two separate eclipses in 2017 and 2023. Now I had a reason to get to that side of the country, and a means to make the first couple months viable as I searched around for teaching jobs.
April 2025
I left my role at my nonprofit, Sidewalk Science Center, which I’d been running since 2018 (and as a nonprofit since 2022). It’s no longer in operation, having formally dissolved in December 2025.
There are reasons I chose to leave–but my core mission has not changed despite that. The mission of SSC wasn’t just a company mission, but my life’s outlook, my personal purpose that I applied to that org. SSC was an embodiment of what I want to bring to the world, but not the only form that mission could take.
It was around this time that I began my more formal transition into the Hiking Astronomer persona, and I would more fully realize my mission later in the year.
May 19, 2025
I left Florida, and I didn’t know when, or even if I’d return (though as we now know, it’s a good wintering spot for sidewalk astronomy).
At this point in time, I lived out of my Kia Soul, tent camping everywhere I went.
June 2025
I started sidewalk astronomy in Sedona, Arizona in June 2025. Just a few days, enough to get used to where to set up that would bring people to the telescope for Moon viewing.
Then I left for Idaho, driving all the way up through Utah, stopping at a friend’s house near Salt Lake City before continuing up to Idaho Falls for my first conference, then Twin Falls and Boise.
Along the way, I stopped at Craters of the Moon National Monument, Shoshone Falls, and Jump Creek Canyon.
From there I went to Vancouver, Washington to visit friends for a few days, then jutted back over to Coeur d’Alene for my fourth conference, then, during another break, camped at Priest Lake and Elk River.
A fifth conference in Lewiston, followed by a drive across the state and camping in the mountains near Challis for a night before popping out again near Mackay, and I drove down to Pocatello for the final conference–where I discovered a small wildfire had broken out the week before, as evidenced by the pink flame retardant coating the hillsides I hiked through.
With the conferences behind me, I drove south down the other side of Utah. At first my destination was Moab, but when I realized where I was on I-70, I pulled a sharp right and drove south to my favorite place in the country, which I had visited for a few days in 2024.
The next day, I drove south through Monument Valley and Tuba City, then got back on 89A and returned to Sedona, where I hosted sidewalk astronomy until the first few days of July.
July 2025
My first “micro adventure” followed, with a brief detour out to the Hoover Dam, then Needles, California–where I tent camped and immediately discovered that the Mojave didn’t drop below 95 degrees in the summer, making for the sweatiest, most uncomfortable camping trip I’ve ever had.
I do not recommend camping in the Mojave without AC. Camping in that was awful. Beautiful! But awful.
After a terribly sweaty night where I guzzled water and electrolytes half the night, I got up and drove to Twenty-Nine Palms, bound for Joshua Tree National Park. But my dog-mode activated, I saw a cool roadside attraction, which included driving my Kia Soul through…sand.
And got stuck.
I knew I would get stuck. I told myself not to get stuck. But I did it anyway, and it resulted in stripping a tire and lopping my way five more miles down the road to a tire center, the owner of which graciously expedited new tires from Yucca Valley.
I managed to get to Joshua Tree just after that, then booked it all the way back to Phoenix the same night (a 3.5-hour drive if you don’t stop, and a drive I’ve now made four times).
About two weeks earlier, however, I had decided…no. Maybe moving to Oregon right isn’t what I should do. Maybe I like living on the road. I’d heard about vanlife, seen videos, followed people who did it on social media, and the more I thought about it, the more I evaluated my sidewalk astronomy work, the more I realized…yes. Vanlife might be for me. Traveling around setting up telescopes in different cities, exploring when I can? This could work.
And so, after three weeks of researching around, I found a van and bought it on the same anniversary as my Sidewalk Science Center work: July 11th.
I built it out to be a camper in 8 days in the 110-degree heat of Phoenix. Let’s be honest: if I relegated myself to only working on it at night to avoid the oppressive Arizona heat, it would have taken two months!
When all was said and done, I finally got on the road again to camp for a few days before returning to Sedona, so I could learn about the van and myself for a bit before jumping back into work.
August 2025
Because I was limited to doing sidewalk astronomy only when the Moon was out (no planets would be out during regular viewing hours until September), I returned to Phoenix in early August, left my van at my friends’ house, then drove my Kia Soul across the country to Pennsylvania to leave it with my parents (and eventually sell it).
If you’ve been following me for a while, this is also when I went to South Carolina for a family vacation and I used a pizza to teach about downforce while riding a bike. Good stuff. Video.
Then I returned to Arizona, diverted to Tucson during a haboob, and got back to sidewalk astronomy in Sedona–only for a tropical storm to pass through.
And so, I went on a micro adventure.
September 2025
First I drove to Needles, California. It was still blisteringly hot, but this time, having the van allowed me a bit of AC, and my portable fan kept me…cooler?…than tent camping in the Mojave in July did.
The next day, I arrived in San Diego and learned where to set up the telescope, and hosted sidewalk astro there for a few days before moving on to Yosemite National Park. Unfortunately I had to cut my time in Yosemite short due to the Garnett Fire that was pouring smoke into the valley.
Then I hopped down to Sequoia National Park, drove the mountain, camped in the forest at one of the campgrounds. All the while, you could watch the firefighting helicopters gathering water and flying over the mountains over and over.
After returning from Sequoia, I met up with my friends for one of their birthdays and we camped out in Prescott with other friends. When the weekend was over, I spent another 4-5 days camping alone in the national forest, where I finished edits on the next installment of my sci-fi series, Purnell.
Then it was back to Sedona, passing through Jerome up on the mountainside, and returning to sidewalk astronomy.
October 2025
Eight days into October, another tropical storm passed through, so I again went on a micro adventure, taking six days to visit Page, AZ; Kanab, UT; North Rim Grand Canyon; and Lee’s Ferry (which is where my favorite hike in Arizona is!)
When I returned to Sedona and got back into sidewalk astronomy, I met a lady who runs a bus tour company and was looking for an astronomer to lead stargazing during her next excursion with an older adult group in New Mexico. Long story short, we got it set up, and 10 days later I booked it from Sedona to Roswell, then Roswell to Alamogordo for the stargazing tours, then from there back to Phoenix (on my birthday, of all days).
In all that, too, I officially released Purnell, which I’d been writing since 2021.
November 2025
I finished my final stint of the year in Sedona, climbed to the top of Arizona’s highest mountain, and on November 13th, traveled through Nevada for two days as I wound my way up to Vancouver, Washington again. Along the way, I stayed at Trillium Lake just south of Mount Hood and got some wonderful shots of the mountain at dawn.
I sort of did a figure-8 from Vancouver to Salem, then Astoria, and then I spent the next week tripping around Washington’s Olympic peninsula before returning to Salem for Thanksgiving with my friend and her family’s friends.
December 2025
Following Thanksgiving, I drove down the Oregon coast for two days, then California for two days, and ended up once again in San Diego, where I hosted three weeks of sidewalk astronomy.
From there, I booked it literally all the way across the country to Pennsylvania for the holidays.
January & February 2026
I drove from Pennsylvania to Florida, stopping off in Savannah, Georgia, where I’d started Sidewalk Science Center 7.5 years prior. I always love coming back to Savannah; it’s my favorite city on the east coast and the only one I’d ever consider permanently living in the east, too.
Back in Florida, I hosted sidewalk astronomy for two months in St. Pete, just west of Tampa. Traffic was way down from previous years by about 52%. I’m used to getting 7-10,000 people per month in St. Pete, but between January and February, I only got 8,000 people this year.
With all my data through the years, you have to look at what changed to see which variables impact visitation like that. To me, it’s obvious the political climate in the US is the driving factor of low attendance: my out-0f-state/international tourism stats were WAY down from previous years. Hostile politicians, profiling policies, and aggressive rhetoric more than impacted visitation.
March 2026
I left St. Pete on February 28th and drove back across the country to White Sands National Park in New Mexico, then backtracked to Alamogordo and stayed the night at a campground.
Overnight, magic played out in the sky: the March 3rd Total Lunar Eclipse.
Then I returned to Phoenix for a few days, went on a few hikes, and then kept going to Sedona, where I hosted another month of sidewalk astronomy. Throughout that, I also brought a private stargazing event to Joshua Tree, CA (the town) and another in Phoenix for a family from Austin, TX.
April 2026
I finished up my time in Sedona on April 8th, and then meandered my way through California up to San Jose for a week, where I was hosting a private stargazing event for a husband’s birthday and their friends.
Then I zoomed on down to San Diego again and hosted two more weeks of sidewalk astronomy, met up with friends, and went on micro adventures to the Palomar Observatory and Anza-Borrego Desert during a stint of cloudy days in SD.
May 2026
After finishing up in San Diego, I met my sister for a few days during her work trip to CA, and then I high-tailed it north, up I-5 all the way to Mount Shasta, then up to Crater Lake in Oregon, out to the coast, up to Astoria, around to Mount Hood, down to Sisters, and back out the bottom to the Eastern Sierras, hitting up Lake Tahoe, Mammoth Lakes, Bishop, and, once again, Joshua Tree.
If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve seen all this in the past two weeks or so, and you know about my break downs along the Oregon coast that grounded me in Astoria for two days.
Then it happened: May 19th, my one year anniversary. I woke up against the backdrop of the Eastern Sierra. I drove to 10,500 feet to see the oldest trees in the world, walked along a dry river made of lava, and slept outside Joshua Tree NP again.
Now I’m back in Phoenix about to go camping on the Mogollon Rim with my friends again, and Year 2 has just begun.
This world is beautiful.
Alex
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