Road Trip and a Turkey Coma

Thanksgiving break is upon us here on campus. Time to take off for a week and mooch off my parents for free food and laundry. Yay for family gatherings! My uncles and cousins will pop the hood of my van, or in this case, the front seats, and fix as many problems as they can. My Mom, aunts, sisters, and grandma will chat in the kitchen and sip on eggnog we spiked when Grandma wasn't looking. We will play poker till dawn and have biscuits and gravy for breakfast every morning. We will play horse shoes and listen the Christmas music. We will go out dancing and sing every song we know at full volume. I will have three square meals a day, snacks in between, midnight snacks, walk away ten pounds heavier with armloads of freshly washed clothes, and I didn't have to pay for any of it. I love going home to see the family.

So the departure time is 0600, though it will more likely be 0930. My projected eta is before 1600. I have a long trip ahead of me. Mr. Miyagi is packed, clean, and ready. Tomorrow we will depart before dawn with four piles of dirty laundry, two cats, and two girls. This is Mr. Miyagi's second road trip and he is in excellent condition due to his recent operation (more on that later). I am optimistic.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and if you are travelling, travel safely. I will try to post despite the inevitable turkey coma. Even though it is cheesy, try to take a moment and think about what you're thankful for. I am thankful for Mr. Miyagi, my friends, my family, my cat, and my new found material liberty. Thank you to all the pioneers and gypsies who went before me. It is truly a joy to feel so free.

The Bad, the Ugly, and the Good

Hello everyone. Yesterday was quite an adventure for me, fraught with all sorts of experiences unique to vandwellers. I believe in ending with Good news so I am going to give you the 'un-fun' stuff first.

The Bad: Yesterday was the first real rain storm we have had in a month, which is unusual for the area, but it worked in my favor for a few weeks. Yesterday I discovered a leak in Mr. Miyagi. It isn't horrible, just inconvenient. Water leaks through at the hinge edge of my hatchback door. Right now all I can do is roll up towels underneath it and clear everything out of the back of the van. This leads me to the worst part of yesterday.

The Ugly: I chose my parking space for last night based upon the inconvenient presence of a leak in my van. I did, however, have an excellent place to park. My church has large covered driveway areas on each side of it for dropping people off in the rain. There are also external electrical plugs. I was set up there, shielded from the rain and hooked up to shore power. The night looked promising. Bible study goes on every Tuesday night at my church and I attend as often as I can. I was already hooked up there so I had no excuse not to go. As soon as bible study was finished Em and I decided to hang out inside the fellowship hall for an hour or two before leaving.

The bible study group left and we got comfortable. Three minutes later a couple of guys came back to the church and banged on the doors. Em and I went and opened it for them. They told us that a man was lurking outside the church, that he was watching through glass doors from the outside. I freaked out. I don't scare easily and I never ever panic, but for some reason this just really got to me. If they hadn't noticed him I would have gone to my van and gone to sleep and a strange man lurking around in the dark would have seen the whole thing. Em and I packed right up and left. I spent the night out at her place last night. I know I prepared myself for the dangers of living in a van, especially in an urban area, but this was the first time it was brought home to me.

The Good: Yesterday I met a remarkable young woman, her name is Misha. I was sitting in my van reading a book with my cat and the door open. She came up to me and asked if I lived in my van. At this point I kicked myself for not being more discreet. I gave her the usual run around about a long commute and needing a place to relax or sleep a few hours rather than a long drive. All true, just half truths. She introduced herself and offered her home to me. She said that if I ever needed a place to stay that my cat and I are more than welcome at her apartment for as long as we want to stay. This young woman's courage is remarkable to me. She opened her home to a complete stranger.

Reflecting back on this event earlier yesterday, I can deal with the scare of last night. Her courage and compassion remind me of my belief that humanity is mostly good. Yes, there are those who are cruel and violent, people who may hurt you if given the chance, but there are also those who will help you. Most people are not bad, just as most people are not overly generous and compassionate. I believe that everyone has goodness in them and that most of the time we can appeal to that goodness inside of ourselves and in others.

So, of course I am scared that some lurking man in the dark will see me crawl into the back of my van for the night; but I am also confident that that fear will not keep me from boldly living as I choose and meeting others like Misha.

Improvisation and Soda Bottles

Hello everyone. Sorry I disappeared for a while. Things were definitely hectic here. So much has happened in the last two weeks I barely know where to begin. I have promised you all updates on my progress as well as comprehensive outlines of my construction projection. I am working on them all right now and they should be posted very soon. In the meantime I would like to review my first week as a vandweller.

My first night in my new home was November 4. The lease on my apartment officially ran out on the first, but the people moving in are good friends so they let me stay on for a few days while I got things straightened out. I slept in their living room. When I did start sleeping in the van it was parked in front of their house. They are truly generous friends and my thanks go out to Kay and Magnus. I have plans for a brilliant house warming gift after the holidays.

The days before moving into Mr. Miyagi were filled with outfitting my walk-in closet. I always wanted a giant walk-in closet and now that I have moved into a van I finally have one. Magnus, Kay, and Em all spent many hours helping me outfit my little 5'x10' storage room into a wonderful space where I can keep my wardrobe, bulk dry foods, tools, and books. It really looks like a walk-in closet and I adore it.

The second step was to outfit the van. I have only finished construction on the floor which sucks because I am way behind schedule, but it is good enough for now. So I threw in my twin size mattress, fit a suitcase, a rubber tub, a basket, and a toolbox around it and stuffed all of the bare necessities in. Privacy right now is kept by crude cardboard cut outs that fit into the windows. I hang quilts over the back window and behind the driver seat for complete enclosure.

The cat litter box is upfront in the passenger floorboard. - I got a covered litter box at 50% at the pet store because one of the snaps was broken. - My construction tools live in a box on the center console and my backpack and coat sit in the passenger seat. Cesare, the plant, lives on the dashboard. The cat food and water sit on my toiletries box behind the driver seat. There is a lot of trial and error involved, but improvisation is getting me through.

Sleeping out in the van was a little unnerving for the first few hours, but I finally got some rest. One large challenge was the need to urinate at night. Normally I get up three times a night to pee. I drink a lot of water though I am trying to cut back after 5 in the afternoon now that I don't have a built-in bathroom nearby. When I parked at Kay and Magnus's place I just used their toilet. When I parked out at Em's new place in the sticks I just peed outside. Recently, though, the weather has been getting cold and wet so peeing outside isn't as easy. Also when I park in town I really only have the option of peeing at Walmart. I could continue doing this but I don't like parking at Walmart at night and I hate wasting the gas driving down there. So I improvised. When I have to pee and I can't leave the van I use a funnel and an old soda bottle. It actually works really well, though I have already ordered a little john with a lady J attachment. I am relieved to know that if I need to, I can pee in the van without any problems.

Hadassah is adapting beautifully. She wears her jacket during the day most of the time and whenever the door or windows are open I just put her on her leash and she roams about freely. She still isn't sure about moving about so much but she is much calmer now than she was five days ago. I am sure that Hadassah will adapt quickly to the new lifestyle and be back to her old self soon.

That is about it for now. I will be resuming construction on the van this weekend and hopefully I will have the ceiling done by next week and the walls by Thanksgiving. Take care and enjoy the fall.