The plan was to start with the shows in New York and then drive south until the weather felt just about warm enough to sleep in a Ford Escape. Turnpike rest stops in New Jersey post prominent “NO IDLING” signs, but I didn’t see any in Blacksburg, Virginia so twice during the night I started the ignition to get my little burrow back up to survival temp.
With a thick sleep mask and swimmer’s-grade earplugs, the rest stops are actually more, well, restful than sleeping out on the access roads. Perversely, the more remote a spot I choose, the more conspicuous I am, in a solitary vehicle, to the cops and the robbers. At the rest stops I can snug in between two other cars and no one will notice me for hours, maybe even all night. That has always been Circus Ninja’s north star, anyway: Hide in plain sight.
I found out a thing about Tennessee that I did not know previously. If you work your way up from the bottom there, STARTING AT THE SNOWFLAKE, you can see that most nights in the camper weren’t that much different from sleeping on the turnpike outside Freehold, and I already did that the previous week.
It was the same situation almost all the way to Mobile. Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit paying rent.
title credit: J.W. Teller
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