One of the interesting things about the pledge drive was meeting new people. And meeting new people usually means at some point telling them about my trip. It’s not: “Hi, how’s it going? I’m living in my van. Nice to meet you.” At least not quite. I have heard that one of the first “rules” of living in your vehicle is not to tell anyone that you’re living in your vehicle, but that’s one that I break all the time. Supposedly it causes problems. You’ll be fired or something. I don’t know. Maybe you’re supposed to feel ashamed that you’re living in your vehicle. That just not true for me.

Anyone at work who doesn’t know I live in my van just hasn’t talked to me very much in the last couple weeks. I suppose I’m in a slightly different situation than most people living in their vehicle. I work in white collared jobs; I have the immediate excuse that I’m taking off on a road trip and not sticking around in town indefinitely; I don’t sleep anywhere I work; and most importantly I work with cool people, many of whom have done things like backpacking around Europe when they were my age or younger.

It works out for me. So if you’re here because you know me from KJAZZ, KCRW, Go Country 105.1, NPR or Clear Channel then welcome. Hope you enjoy this blog and don’t think I’m too crazy. If you do, then that’s fine too. I’m enjoying myself.

As for an actual update of what’s going on with the trip… Well, I’m flying out to a conference in Chicago on Thursday, back on Monday. Then a couple more days in LA; A couple days in San Diego at my parents to celebrate family birthdays, (mine, my dad’s and my cousin’s); Then I head off to Anza Borrego, the Salton Sea and other places further out east. At one point I was hoping to head out of town on my birthday, Nov. 5th, just for the poetry of starting the trip on the day I turn 27, but since that’s not going to happen I’ll just relax and leave the week later.

While in San Diego, (stalling until a birthday party over the weekend), I’ll be doing further work on the website and getting the podcast up and running. So I promise that little link on the right will be working soon.