Traveling in a van vs. living in a van.
Jessica | March 4, 2008 8:58 pm Sometimes one of the great things about living in a van is not the ease of traveling, but the ease of staying put.
I’ve been back in Los Angeles for the last month working at KJAZZ, (America’s most listened to jazz and blues radio station according to the latest numbers), on the pledge drive. During the prep time for the drive I work out of the station’s offices in Westwood, but the drive itself is run from the studio in Long Beach. Most of the drive staff, of course lives near the Westwood offices, meaning that they had somewhere between 1-2 hour commutes each way depending on the day of the week. Not much fun to face when you consider that our work days were 12-15 hours long. With my little van serving as my home base, however I was able to stay down in Long Beach and skip all that crazy traffic on the 405. From the time I arrived in Long Beach on the evening of Feb. 20th to when I headed back up to Westwood on March 2nd I traveled all of 40 miles. Not bad.
I used to do something similar for the month when I lived in my van while working Monday-Friday in Westwood for KJAZZ and Friday-Sunday in Sherman Oaks for Premiere Radio Networks. (Yes, both places on Fridays, unfortunately. Thankfully it was only for about five weeks and the weekend job consisted of sitting in a studio with nothing to do unless something went wrong on the show.)The two places had only ten miles between each other but since I no longer had an apartment to go home to at the end of the night I finally got around to exploring Sherman Oaks, a place I’d worked for over two years. Turns out there’s some very cool restaurants there and an awesome park I’d never known about. If I’d still had my apartment in Santa Monica I would have driven back each night and stayed home.Not that I had any time to explore Long Beach during the pledge drive. At least not this drive. The first pledge drive I did get an evening off and I hung out at the Bolsa Chica Lowlands.
This post is, of course, a subtle apology for not writing more during the last two weeks. Despite the lack of a commute I’ve been too busy with the pledge drive to consider writing anything of much substance. If I had, I doubt it would have been coherent.
I’ll be in LA for the rest of this week and then will go down to my parent’s in San Diego for a couple days to pick up my bike and camping gear. Then I’ll be heading back out on the road, this time going north mostly along the coast. Eventually I’ll make it to Spokane for a two day tatting conference in April, then back to LA by way of Yellowstone and a few other possible places. Here is a very rough idea of the route. (Sorry for not embedding it, Google Maps and WordPress don’t seem to get along.)
Unfortunately since I’ll be coming back to LA for the next pledge drive in May I won’t be on the road for long this time, only about 6 weeks. This is a significantly longer distance than what I did in November and December of last year so this will be an interesting contrast. I should also be able to do a few short trips from LA once I get back and get started on the next pledge drive. After all, with no apartment to hang out at on the weekends I’m more likely to actually explore.
I’m looking for suggestions for places to visit for the next 6 weeks, so if you have any favorite spots between here and Spokane and back please send me an email, jessica (at) ayearinacar.com or, better yet, leave a comment so everyone can check it out.
3 Responses to “Traveling in a van vs. living in a van.”
Grants Pass! Crater Lake! Okay, I wouldn’t say that Grants Pass is a “favorite” place, but definitely let me know when you drive through; we can have dinner or something.
And you definitely shouldn’t skip Crater Lake, especially if you’ve never been there before. I particularly recommend hiking up Mt. Scott on the east side of the crater. It’s about 2.5 one-way, so not too long, and the view from the top is really neat! I recommend hiking it in the morning, if possible, because you can get pictures of yourself and the lake. Last time I did it in the afternoon, and the sun’s just in a really bad place. Oh, wait, I just remembered, they probably have the east rim closed until July because of snow, which will make Mt. Scott inaccessible until then. But you should still stop at Crater Lake. :-)
Will definitely be stopping by Grants Pass to see you. I’ll give you a heads up once I figure out when I’ll be nearby.
I’ve only spent one night there, but Crater Lake is one of my favorite places in the US. I’ll be back up in the area again in August, (I’m pretty sure I’m going to the Shakespeare festival in Ashland), so that is probably the better season to spend a bunch of time there.
Speaking of the Shakespeare festival, Professor Groves is lecturing there this year. Are you going? I’m trying to figure out if I can go with the alumni group, but without paying for the accommodations.
California:
- One of the redwood parks – I’ve been to Humboldt, but I’m sure the others are just as nice
- Mendocino’s supposed to be cool
Oregon:
- A labmate suggested the Oregon Dunes National Rec Area
- Powells
Washington:
- Me!!!
- Leavenworth (In Washington, it’s not a prison. Instead, it’s a town that’s done up like a Bavarian village.)
- The Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park is worth about a 1 hour stop – it’s apparently not as good as the Petrified Forest in AZ.
- At random points along I-90 there are Oregon Trail Museums, which are kind of neat
Utah:
- Arches National Park
- Bryce Canyon National Park
- The same labmate as above suggested Goblin Valley National Park
Care to comment?