I've spent the last three weeks on the road. Got completely out of the city, and stayed there. First time I've done that since I've been vandwelling.
I love it. It was fantastic. I spent weeks on the ocean, up the rivers, in the mountains, in the redwood forests, and it was great.
I've got the travelling itch now. I've got the van and there's really no reason for me to stay in one place, let alone in a grungy, dangerous city.
I want to go find some land out in rural coastal California and go live there forever. I do NOT want to go back to the city again. I don't feel safe there anymore. I don't feel healthy there anymore.
After travelling back, I hung around in Marin for a few days, which was also wonderful. Then to the East Bay for a few days, seeing friends I haven't seen since last year, and then spent an afternoon being a dad again. Now I'm down the coast, wandering and hiking around the beautiful natural areas here. I have to go back to the suburbs again, and then I think I'm quite done with the city from here on, if I can get away with it.
It'll be hard to make the rural thing work, but I can much more easily swing the suburban thing.
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2 comments:
Dear Unabgi,
Hi. You probably don't remember me, nor should you. I've been following your adventures since your posts on Vandwellers. Back then you had your heart set on getting a diesel boxvan, and I'm glad to see you have reached a good point in your journey.
I wrote a response once, and only once, when you were beginning your quest for a suitable boxvan. I wrote I had a boxvan I was considering selling, but it was a
Chevy/GMC, with a 350 gasoline engine. I still have it, and it is still unfinished. I too wanted to outfit it for long term living. I have the bed installed, a shower, toilet, stove, firebox, roof vent, insulation (top and sides), and misc. stuff. Now, its sitting in an RV storage yard, costing me rent, with a dead battery, and a tire with a slow leak. It could use a new muffler and will probably have to run the smog test gauntlet this year.
However, the boxvan was never my primary vehicle. I have a four cylinder Dodge Caravan (Chrysler Voyager actually), that I live in, for now. My "homebase" is located in Hayward in the East Bay, but it seems the gods are unhappy with my unstorage-like presence in my 24 hour accessible storage unit.
For some time now, I've been spending much of my time in Berkeley, but its time for me to expand my wandering circles, much like you. Perhaps we could meet up some day and swap horror stories, or stories of hope.
There is too much to convey in a mere comment/post, but I've been vandwelling since 1983. I've not made a greater effort to communicate for a variety of reasons, mostly due to stuff going on in my personal journey, but also because I felt you had what it took to survive your learning curve. (Some things cannot be taught; only learned.) I feel you have arrived, and are now on the plateau phase of this curve. Even if you choose not to make contact, I've been wanting to let you know that you are not blogging to the abyss, and I respect your tenacity and honesty.
This message is being sent from Albany, on a laptop I finally functionalized (is there such a word?), thanks in part to some of your posts. Mostly moral inspiration, that I too could wean myself from my erstwhile "office", and desktop computer.
Good luck, live long, and prosper...(recently saw the new Star Trek movie) :-)
clif
Hey there! Sure, I'd enjoy meeting in person and comparing notes (and rigs).
I'm unabgi at yahoo.com, so email me and let me know how we can contact each other to meet up.
I don't check that email very often, but certainly more often than I check comments on my blog (which I didn't know anyone was actually reading anyway).
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