A Year in a Car For No Apparent Reason

I’ve been quite free with talking to people about living the car and traveling. During the pledge drives we have over a hundred volunteers come into the station, some who already know and asked about the car from the last pledge drive. I enjoy talking about the car, what I’ve done to it, and what it’s like living in it (if I didn’t I wouldn’t have started up this website). I’m more than happy to show people the website and if time permits, the car itself. In short, pretty much anyone who knows me knows I live in a car. Those who don’t just haven’t been around when the topic came up.

A little while back, someone who I don’t know really well, but who I see on a fairly regular basis made reference to my “situation.” It took me a minute to figure out what this person meant. At first I thought they were referring to the fact that I keep coming and going. Spending a month or so in LA and then two months on the road. Then it dawned on me that “my situation” is just that I live my car. As if it’s something too horrible to actually name; it must be hidden behind the phrase “your situation” like it’s the 1950’s and I’m unwed and pregnant.

On the whole, I get mostly positive reactions when I tell people I live in my car. (Many are very amused, but they’re willing to accept it.) This comment made me wonder if perhaps I’m just seeing what I want to see, or people are smiling and humoring me on the outside, but inside are thinking: “That poor, poor girl. How sad it is that she must suffer the horrors of having to shower at the gym. If only there were something I could do so that she could experience the joys of outrageous rent and a 90 minute commute.”

Maybe I haven’t actually been doing a very good job at getting across the point that this is exactly the situation I WANT to be in.

This got me wondering why it is that vandwelling might even need to be defended? When I tell someone with a big smile on my face that I live in a car why might they ever consider that I’m actually miserable and just trying to put a good spin on it?

I want to make it clear that 95% of the people I talk to about vandwelling think it’s awesome even if it’s something they’d never consider doing themselves. In this post though I’m trying to figure out what’s going on in the minds of the other 5%.

Earlier this year my brother spent a month and a half wandering around New Zealand. He carried all he needed in a backpack, hitched rides, slept in campgrounds or on the sofas of people he just met, or sometimes just spent the night the city park. He had no itinerary and no paying job, but it didn’t matter.

Talking about our travels with other people, he and I might get the some questions about logistics or safety, but his travels are not something that would be discussed in hushed and secretive tones. Part of it, of course, is just the portrayal in the media of people who live in vans or cars. (Cue Chris Farley.)

I suppose that does make some sense, backpacking around the world is not something that people are often “forced” to do, while moving into a car or a van is more often than not something done out of economic necessity. Not for me, but usually.

So I suppose backpacking around the world is not really a fair comparison.

Well, what about an RV then? If I were traveling the country in an RV I doubt I would get this reaction. I would argue that traveling in my car isn’t all that different than traveling RV. What is it about the existence of a bathroom that makes that type of travel more acceptable?

Perhaps it’s because I’m not traveling full-time yet. The person who’s comment started me off on this train of thought only sees me while I’m in LA working. During that time I’m staying put. Maybe this is the big difference between traveling in a van/car and living in a van/car. Traveling is acceptable, living is not.

Because as we all know, (from tv shows and such), people who are living in vehicles do so only because they have no other choice. And so of course some people will assume that must be the case for me as well.

Inexplicably, this has not translated into people offering to buy me lunch. Perhaps they think I’d be insulted. (Really, it’s ok. Insult away.)

I spent three years saving, planning, and waiting until the time I’d be able to do this. I work only five months a year at a job I enjoy and spend the other seven months traveling. I am not touching a dollar of my savings. In fact, over the course of last year I’ve still been putting money away into savings. I’m visiting old friends, meeting new people. I have the time to read books, work on my own projects, or do absolutely nothing at all if I feel like it.

That is my situation.

And that is precisely why I talk to everyone I meet about living and traveling in my car. There’s nothing so bad about it that it needs to be discussed in those hushed tones.

The first step is to remove all the pieces of the seats that you can. Everything was just bolted down with easy to get to bolts so it wasn’t hard. Out came the front seat (slightly tricky since it’s attached to the floor by a set of wires for the seatbelt detection system (when there’s no one sitting in the front passenger seat it turns off the passenger airbag). The backs of the other seats were easy though unfortunately I couldn’t take out the bottom parts of the back seats. Now all three of these pieces will be living in my parent’s garage.

Thanks mom and dad!

Next came building a support for the bed. I pulled the main board of the bed out of the van and was just plopping it down in the prius. In the back it just rests part way down on the “floor” of the trunk, but in the front it needed something to hold it up.

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A friend just sent me a link to a blog called Daniel’s Big Trip. I haven’t had a chance to read through it all, but enjoyed what I’ve read so far.

The pledge drive is OVER and I can now start thinking about other things. One of the big things on my mind is the possibility of moving. For those who don’t know, I don’t own the van I live in. It’s my dad’s. My car is a Prius and we’ve traded for my trip. While I love the van, I like the idea of spending less on gas and also like the idea of forcing myself to simplify more and take less stuff with me when traveling. As I look around at the van I’m fairly surprised at how much stuff I carry around with me that I never use. (It’s pretty easy to use very little when you’re only gone for 1-1.5 months at a time.)

I’m heading back down to San Diego on Wednesday and staying through the weekend so I’ll have a chance to take a look at the Prius in person and figure out how I’d want to modify it to move in. When I first ‘lived’ in a car it was in a ‘93 Camry (the old Camry’s were much smaller than the current ones) so I’m pretty sure I’m not over-estimating the amount of space I would have. There’s a number of things very different about living in a car versus living in a van and I’ll have to consider which I prefer for the next couple months. At some point soon I’ll write up a post about those differences. I do prefer the van for when I’m staying in one place and working.

I’m heading out to Colorado next and I’ve been warned that the little Prius isn’t going to be able to make it up the mountains, but I think I’ll give it a shot anyway. I’m 27. I can’t possibly be expected to learn anything from the advice of my elders, I need to try and fail on my own for anything to sink in. Besides, that’s how you get the better stories.

Also, I have to admit, it would be nice to actually be driving around the car that I paid for, rather than letting my dad enjoy the (most likely now gone) new car smell.

I have a friend who dresses up everyday. When I say “dresses up” I’m referring to more than just the quality of the clothes. In fact, lots of her clothes were bought at thrift shops. Some required repair and all require accessories.

I think sometimes that when she’s getting dressed in the morning she’s not thinking “what do I want to wear today?” but “who do I want to be today?

A flapper-ish dress means she takes the time to do her hair in a 1930’s style, (complete with a feather or two), find a long beaded necklace, and a pair of two-toned shoes. Another day, she might go with a gingham farm dress, pigtails and a sunbonnet.

I don’t want to imply these are outrageous costumes she’s wearing to work. I think of them as “outfits.” There is a theme, there is a plan and there is a great deal of thought that goes into each day. There’s also a very large closet involved. She takes pleasure in the everyday activity of picking out something to wear.

I admire her for it because she always looks great, but I haven’t the interest in shopping or patience to consider spending this amount of time on clothing. Or, at the moment the space. I’m sure she will shudder to see this picture. This box, (a drawer, really), and my gym bag are my clothes for the next month or so. (Well, plus a shoebox of underwear that’s already packed away in the van.) It’s probably more than I need, but since I’m working for the next month I’ve got all my nice office clothes along with the normal jeans and such.

The fact that I’m repacking, of course, means I am back in San Diego. I’ve been lax about posting lately, but the quick run through is that I made it back from Death Valley to the LA area, went to my college reunion, (more on that later, perhaps), and back to work for a week and a half. I came down to my parent’s in San Diego over the weekend, and now I’m packing and heading back up to LA later today. For about the next month I’ll be working at KJAZZ on the next pledge drive, then back on the road again.

Posting has been lax largely because of computer trouble. Technically nothing that actually made it impossible to post, but along with restarting work things that took too much time. Also I’m going to buy a new DSLR camera soon so I’ve been busy researching that.

Other things on the way as well, but I’ll get into those later. Hopefully will have all this computer mess sorted out soon.

Damn you zamboni-like parking lot sweeper! Why must you keep circling back to the places you already been?

I don’t see how running these things for a couple hours a night can possibly be a cost- effective way to clean up the trash.