A Year in a Car For No Apparent Reason

Trick question. There’s someone living in both of them. Or at least there was at the time of this photo.

Before a friend of mine moved back to the east coast she had three weeks between giving up her apartment and finishing at her jobs heading out. I like to think that I was a partial inspiration in her decision to try out living in her car for that time.

This picture was taken the morning after we had a “sleepover” in a grocery store parking lot. She finished work at midnight, and we met up at the store. I went over to her place for a midnight snack, (chips, soda and gossip), and in the morning she came over and had breakfast at my place. My only regret is that it didn’t occur to me to dig out some nail polish for the more complete sleepover experience. Would have been just too funny.

Yeah, I know.  I’ve just skipped a bunch to get from Spokane to Death Valley.  I’ll explain later.

Tomorrow, I’m going to be visiting the lowest elevation in the continental US.  I’m certain that while there I’ll be tempted to dig a hole and make it even lower.

I’m in Spokane at the moment for the tatting conference. Today was a very fun first day, and I know that when tomorrow night rolls around I’ll be very sad there’s only two days.

I’ll probably post a bit more about the conference later, but I make no promises. I may be too busy playing with my new thread.

For nearly the first time this trip I passed by a truck stop, (been doing most of my traveling on smaller highways), and I had a chance to take a look at some of the 12 volt cooking appliances. I have been feeling a definite lack of hot foods this trip. Or perhaps I should say ‘cheap’ hot foods since I’ve been visiting with a lot of old friends this trip and we usually end up going out to eat.

That’s fine with me, of course. I think that’s part of the fun of travel, but as time goes on I’ll definitely be wanting to do some more of my own cooking here in the van.

Which is why I will probably end up getting the RoadPro cooking pot. (Sorry, no links right now. I’m posting this with my phone and can’t do them).

They have a couple different appliances, including a skillet which also looks pretty sweet, but knowing what types of things I’d actually cook on a regular basis the pot would be better.

There’s a crockpot, which Tara, from Hobostripper.com, says is not very good and a little oven which is also tempting, even if only to say I have an oven in the van and can make fresh cookies when I want. As neat as it is though, I’m not sure I’d use it enough to justify the space.

There’s a small electric water heater which I like the idea of, but might not be necessary if I get the electric pot. Still, when I was traveling in the winter I constantly had tea heating in my, -now broken-, SmartMug. Maybe that’s something to consider for the winter.

Now that my curtains are finished, (at least they’re up and working and I’m unlikely to put anymore time into them even though they’re less than elegant), my next little project of the van is figuring out the cooking stuff. Anyone tried any of these?

I’ve made it up to the Seattle area where I’ll be for the next couple days, visiting friends and getting some other stuff done, (mostly involving updates to the websites though not things that will actually go live for a while). I traveled sloooowly up through Oregon and Washington taking time to spend a couple days not doing much but finding a nice place to park and reading a couple books I’ve been meaning to get around to.

Sometimes I fall into that trap of confusing movement, (as in time spent driving down the highway), as a progress of some kind. I need a couple 0 mile days to remind myself that it’s not about checking as many things off the tourist list as possible. After all, this is more than just a vacation, this is my life. :)  Despite what I mentioned earlier I suppose I am still adjusting to the idea of semi-permanent travel. I think it’s the difference between traveling and living nomadically. In my mind, when you’re traveling, you’re focused on the new people and places you find, comparing and contrasting the experiences to those from other places. When living as a nomad it’s part of your daily routine to incorporate new people and places into your life.

There is a distinction in my mind between the two, but I don’t think I’ve actually made it clear. I’ll have to keep thinking about it and get back to it.

I lived in Seattle very briefly four and a half years ago, so I’ve spent part of today driving around the old neighborhood. Surprisingly little has changed, but then again, I was only here for two month so I didn’t get a really good sense of all the details anyway. Also, I spent a lot of time at the mall. Not because I was shopping, but because I was dead broke and working in the music department at Barnes and Noble trying to get by until an internship that was promised to me would actually start. In the end, the internship fell through and I left Seattle for KCRW in Los Angeles. Leaving the better city for the better radio station. (At least, that’s what I felt at the time. Los Angeles has grown on me since then.)

I did end up spending the afternoon at the mall because I wanted to eat at Pasta & Co, one of the best places to grab lunch I’ve ever been to. Along with Pike Place Market, the view of Mt. Rainer, and Olympic National Park it was one of the things I missed most about Seattle. I was very pleased to discover it was still there. On my way through the mall I even made a quick run through the Barnes and Noble, just for old times sake. The only thing I’ve noticed that’s changed about the mall is the addition of an Apple store. Which works out quite well for me since they have wireless that reaches the parking lot here.

Just a quick note to recommend ActiveDiner.com. I’ve been using it the last couple days to find restaurants in whatever city I’m in.  In California, Yelp.com is good, but outside of California they’ve got a more limited selection of cities, (I believe it was started in San Francisco).  ActiveDiner though has an fantastic number of cities covered.  Last night found a nice sushi place in Tacoma.

Also, as a side note, I love having the internet on my phone.  It’s been amazingly helpful to be able to look up directions, or restaurants, or directions, gym locations, or directions, or phone numbers or, you know, directions.

Did I mention how handy having GoogleMaps on the phone has been?