100 years of racing

May 26, 2016 by Sandro Rhoads

Hello all. Day 338.

I'm in Indianapolis.. I rely on my iPhone's autocorrect to spell "Indanapolis." The city is pretty busy because it's the 100th race at the Indy Speedway. It's the first time in 50 years that it's sold out, so locally they won't black it out on TV. The locals are pretty exited. It's interesting from a TV/Radio background. I guess. Our goal today is to be in Illinois by the end of the day. We don't have a place to sleep planned out, yet. I'm kinda looking forward to stealth camping or knocking on a farmer's front door and asking to borrow some of 'ye ol' land.' If you know what I mean? The app Warmshowers has been awesome so far. All the people on the app hosting are very generous. I'm about to use it all the time when I get back to #VanLife.

That's all for now.

My snapchat has been bumpin', so if you want to check that out. ADD ON SNAP

Til next time y'all! Heading west to San Fran!

Ohio State

May 22, 2016 by Sandro Rhoads

Day 334..

Prior to yesterday, I had no clue Ohio State University is located in Columbus. The city itself was pretty empty. It was raining heavily as we rode around. Columbus is a very bicycle friendly city, lots and lots of bike lanes and paths. Tomorrow, the plan is to make it to Springfield, Ohio.

I hate to say this but I don't really miss the van. It's been raining a lot on this trip but I'm still glad I took the leap. To be honest, it was really hard for me to quit my job. While visiting the OSU campus today, I thought about my time going to Rowan University. The only reason I went to Rowan was because I really liked to radio studio they had on campus. Lucky for me it sort of worked out, because before I graduated I started working for CBS Radio in Philly. I tweeted out to two stations in Columbus. I wanted to show them the cool hello sign I have on my bike.

Even if I don't end up finding a job in radio after this trip is over, at least I'll have an amazing experience to share with others.

Stay tuned.

Nothing New.. Everything New.

May 19, 2016 by Sandro Rhoads

331 days living rent free. Nothing new there.

18 days of riding a bicycle.. That's sorta new.

For a while I didn't know if I was going to make it out of Pennsylvania. The hills were out of control and I packed way too much stuff onto my bike. I'm planning on mailing clothes and other items back to New Jersey on our next rest day. Now that I'm in Ohio, there are less hills and riding is much more enjoyable. Especially since it's not raining everyday and we've had some really nice, sunny days.

I'm posting a lot of videos and pictures on Snapchat and my other social media. Check it out!

www.facebook.com/NJ2CA2016

Day 304.. SAY WHAT!?

April 22, 2016 by Sandro Rhoads

Today is a bit of a scary day.. It's officially my last day of work. OMG! What am I doing with my life? I quit my full time job to ride a bicycle across the country.

Actually, THIS IS AMAZING! Two months on the road, peddling towards the Pacific Ocean. Besides getting to the Pacific Ocean, my only other objective is to not get eaten by a bear. We pretty much have all our equipment for the trip. We still need to get smaller items like bug spray and suntan lotion. Oh.. and we still need to figure out exactly where we want to start in New Jersey. We all agreed we want to start at the Atlantic Ocean, but we haven’t decided what town.

Also, I did a few searches on Google Maps and it looks like getting out of New Jersey on a bicycle going east to west is a challenge. I hope we make it.

Thanks for “Liking” our Facebook Page. I’ll keep posting on here but for all of our perspectives on the trip and not just mine, the Facebook page will have all the good stuff.

I’LL MISS YOU VAN MORISSETTE!

www.facebook.com/NJ2CA2016

Side note.. Sorry Prince, but I'm going to act my shoe size, not my age, for the next two months! RIP

Our general route traveling East to West.

Coast 2 Coast Bicycle Adventure 2016

April 12, 2016 by Sandro Rhoads

Day 295..

July 1st marks one year living rent free… On April 29th I’ll be downsizing from the van to a bicycle for about two months. Van Morissette will be missed. I find it a bit funny that the final weeks leading up to my one year anniversary of #VanLife, and I might be thousands of mile away from the van. No need to worry, the Dude In Van will still be posting even though I technically won’t be in a van. I have some plans for the future of this website, and I’ll be testing them out while I’m on the road. If it makes you feel better you can type www.onlysandro.com into your search engine, instead of www.dudeinvan.com.

Most of you know I don’t really talk to my parents that often. In fact, they don’t know I live in the van. I did tell my father about the bicycle trip, last week, because he emailed me inquiring about vacation time in April or May. His reaction was the same as Phil and Nick’s parents. Our parents in general are not pleased, to say the least.

I understand my father’s concern. I am his son, he reminds every time he emails me. (He starts off all his email with “Hi Son”) I just don’t agree with him implying that I’m ruining the rest of my life and career by taking a two month break to ride a bicycle across America. That’s a tad bit dramatic. Regardless, I’m excited for this trip, as you know. Quitting my job hasn’t really set in yet because I gave them a 6 week notice. I’ll give you an update in two weeks before I leave. Maybe by then I’ll be freaking out.

If you want to follow along with me and my friends, Nick and Phil, you can do so by clicking “Like” on our Facebook group Coast 2 Coast Bicycle Adventure 2016. We are planning on posting pictures and videos as we roll across the country.

Also, we have self-funded the trip. We bought touring bicycles, tents, all sorts of gear for the biking/camping, cameras, maps, and more. We are planning to camp and not using any hotels to keep our costs down. If you’d like to support the trip with more than just kind words, you can do so by visiting out GoFund Me page! www.gofundme.com/NJ2CA2016 Our plan is to use this money for food and bicycle maintenance.

Thanks for following along and all the support!

#NJ2CA2016

Day 226

February 03, 2016 by Sandro Rhoads

Day 226...

I used a slow cooker today to cook my dinner tonight. I made some chicken dish. Sorry I don’t have any pictures. I'm also considering to sell my solar driven generator. I haven't used it much this winter and I'm thinking of downsizing for the summer. I'll keep you posted on that.

Yes, this is a blog post.. So you know what that means. No podcast this week. It’s funny the week I get two podcast cancelations is the same week I kind of missed out on a great opportunity because I haven’t booked any “BIG NAME” guests in my career. I’m sure the old me would get real mopey and start dwelling on where I went wrong, but honestly I’m okay with it. Now I can focus on my two month bike trip.

Living in a van is easy. The hard part is being creative and adventures enough to follow through with actually doing it. My life hasn’t changed much in the last 226 days, and the things that have changed are mostly a change for the better. I’m not talking about the morning I woke up and my brakes weren’t working.(Click on the Social Media portion of my page and scroll down my twitter feed to catch up on that) That change wasn’t fun. I’m talking about my life socially and personally.

I’ll keep this short. We are all busy and I don’t want to pull you away from your life too long. I’ll leave you with this.. Remember to think outside the box from time to time. I know what I’m doing doesn’t seem normal at first but if you take a moment to really think about me living in a van you’ll see it’s really not that crazy.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the picture above! (I know it's messy.. I'm messy!)

sandro@dudeinvan.com if you have any questions or interest to be on the podcast.

Day 186- Merry Christmas!

December 25, 2015 by Sandro Rhoads

Day 186

Merry Christmas! Happy Birthday Jesus! Nice seeing you Santa!

The last few years I’ve been working Christmas Day. This year is no different. Mainly because I don’t typically celebrate the “family” holidays. So I rather give others the opportunity the be with their families. No matter what you celebrate or even if you don’t celebrate anything, I truly believe this time of the year is a perfect time to reflect on the past and to get ready for a fresh start. In a way this is my last obligatory good deed. I like working in radio and I love being behind an audioboard. So why not spend Christmas Day in the studio? Don’t worry I’ll be spending some time with friends and familia later today.

It’s been over half a year in the van. I’m still working on the website, but for the most part van life has been great. The weather has been awesome! It’s 70 degrees today!

I’ve been running around for my birthday and getting ready for the end of the year. Maybe I’ve been skimping on blog posts and podcasts too. More to come in the near future. Today I’d like to repost one of my podcasts that are more in season.I posted a podcast with Mike Drake- The Krampus Expert on October 9th (Original post/podcast is up for download HERE) It’s kind of a reminder that 1. I’m still here and 2. Some people celebrate this time of the year differently.

I wish everyone all the best and Happy Holidays!

Day 175- Birthday

December 14, 2015 by Sandro Rhoads

Day 175!

Currently, I am sitting by the Starbucks in the Trump Tower @ 57th & Fifth. Once again I'm taking advantage of the free wifi. I'm spending the day walking around New York City without any plans. Maybe I'll go to a show, maybe I'll buy myself a fancy meal, maybe see the Nets.. tickets are around $5, or maybe I'll walk around with an empty cup begging for change. Either way I'm continuing my random birthday weekend.

This morning I took the train in from New Jersey with my friend Tray. She bought me a birthday cup of coffee. On my way towards Central Park I walked past the Good Morning America set, I took pictures of Time Square like all good tourists do, I stood outside of the SiriusXM building and pretended they finally hired me and I swiped right on Tinder for a little.

I usually don’t do much for my birthday but I figured this year, what the heck. I’ve been spending the last 175 days trying to figure out who I am and, I’ve been trying to experience new things. So I figured since I was at Disney on Friday and Atlantic City/Philly yesterday, it only makes sense to visit New York City today.

If you have any suggestions of places to visit today send me a message on Twitter or Instagram @onlysandro.

Thanks in advance for the birthday wishes.

-On to the next stop.

Day 168- One Day Trip

December 07, 2015 by Sandro Rhoads

Today is day one hundred and sixty-eight.

My birthday is coming up. Cool, right? Well it wasn't so cool until... I BOOKED A ONE DAY TRIP TO DISNEY BY MYSELF! ...ummm yeah... kinda seems lame now that I typed it out.

I digress. This is the 10 step plan.

Friday: 1. My plane boards at 6am. 2. I arrive in Orlando at 8:30am. The parks are about 20 minutes from the airport. I'm still trying to figure out what park I want to go to, but they open at 9am (I think). 3. Either taxi or shuttle over to the park. 4. Spend all day at the park. 5. Take pictures with many Disney characters. 6. Head to Downtown Disney, fill my face with tons of food and beverages till 3am.

Saturday: 7. Head back to the airport after 3am. 8. Sleep in my terminal till 9:30am, when my flight boards. 9. Back in the van before noon. 10. Plan the rest of my birthday weekend.

Objectes I'd like to achieve.

1. Have fun. 2. Snapchat the experience (SC: onlysandro) 3. Find a woman visiting the same park, solo and marry her before the end of the day. 4. Don't get put on the "No Fly List". (I heard young males that travel alone without bags have been put on this list)

I'm in need of some help. Please give me suggestions on what park to visit and the best way to get from the airport to the park.

-on to the next stop!

Day 162

December 01, 2015 by Sandro Rhoads

I want to take a moment to thank all the people who have visited my page because of the post I slapped on to a reddit feed. I've gotten some positive feedback from most of you. I hope in the next few weeks we become better acquainted over the air!

Rock on!

onto the next stop.

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