After fourteen years as a manager at a tech company, I made a radical decision. Climbing behind the wheel of an eighteen-year-old Volkswagen Eurovan called The Shoebox, I embarked on a transformative journey across the U.S. and parts of Canada. That 32,000-mile, year-long odyssey became known as No Overnight Parking – Vanlife Stories from a Year on the Road—a collection of seventy-five interwoven short stories chronicling that journey.

Liberated from a day planner, the corporate routine, and a serious work-life imbalance, I started out as a vanlife greenhorn—initially relying on duct tape for quick fixes but gradually came into my own. I traversed celebrated routes like the Hi-Line, Going-to-the-Sun Road, the Cabot Trail, and the Loneliest Road in America. I summited Mt. Nebo in Utah, Wheeler Peak in Nevada, Grinnell Glacier Overlook in Montana, and Cadillac Mountain in Maine. Nights were spent at Walmarts and truck stops, in leafy neighborhoods, and beside roadside curiosities such as a sixty-five-foot lighthouse, an eighty-foot dinosaur, and a remote grain bin on the open range.

My tales range from visiting one of America’s last video stores in Astoria, to confronting a cross-country walker on the Montana prairie, to saving souls at a Grand Rapids truck stop, to philosophizing about life at Hemingway’s favorite hangout in Key West. Story titles include Horse Cents, Snap Decision, Zoltar Speaks, Water Wars, Covid Chronicles, Biscuits, The Road with Kuralt, The Girl in the Moon, and Frozen in Time. But this journey wasn’t all lighthearted adventures.

I pondered the enormity of nature and man-made wonders, America’s philanthropic traditions, and the erosion of social connection. I was never far from adventure, exploration and meaningful coincidence—nor from the occasional loneliness that comes with traveling solo. My only companions were Rand McNally, a persistent check-engine light, and tireless curiosity. And then, just as I found my rhythm on the road, my mother fell ill on the other side of the continent, and I faced a difficult decision. When Covid-19 struck, I found myself fighting the urge to give up and go home.

  No Overnight Parking is a candid, sometimes humorous, always heartfelt collection that will reignite your passion for the road and its endless possibilities. It’s for anyone ready to rediscover their sense of adventure—a reminder that sometimes the best destinations are the ones we never planned.