I started this one year adventure over 5 years ago and feel absolutely certain giving up my apartment and job and moving into my car was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

I never expected to stay on the road this long and though I plan on continuing to travel, I’m off the road for now and have settled down in Seattle.  As proof, I offer you a picture of my garden as the acorn squash and tomatoes are starting to really spring up.

In the last year I’ve also finished up my masters degree and am currently studying for the CPA exams.  I’m still traveling when I can, but for the next few years at least I expect I will be on a somewhat more corporate schedule.  Perhaps in a few years I will have figured out how to be a traveling accountant and I’ll pick up this blog again.

In the meantime, I want to thank everyone who’s read and commented on my posts.  I’ve enjoyed the last 6 years of blogging about living in a car and am looking forward to doing more.  Until I start traveling full-time again I probably won’t be posting much on this site, but if you’d like to stay in touch, check out my website about tatting, snapdragonlace.com.

What prompted me to finally get around to making that call was the fact that I was just interviewed for an article in the New York Times Magazine about living in a car. I don’t know much about it other than it’s a short piece. Don’t know if the reporter is interviewing others, but I’m looking forward to reading it and hoping that it won’t be too “Oh my god! The economy is forcing everyone to live in their car! This is crazy!” We’ll see.  I think any publicity is good publicity and maybe some people who read the article will come here and ask questions.  I’m happy to answer them.

I like to spread the idea that car living can actually be a fun, adventuresome and learning experience. Sure, most people who are doing it are doing it because they have to, but for those who choose to do it, car living should be looked on as the same category of adventure as backpacking around Europe, hiking the Appalachian trail, biking across the US or RVing to all the national parks.

So here we go!

Basically, about 4 years ago I started a new job at a public radio station.  I work for them for only part of the year, but when I do, it’s full-time on their fundraisers.  We hold 3 pledge drives a year and I start work on them about a month before and then go through a week or two after they finish.  In between drives, I travel as much as possible.  By living in my car, I’m able to save enough on rent that I can work for only about 5 months out of the year and still afford to travel.  I’ve done mostly road-trips around the Western half of the states, living in my car as I go, but have also spent a month in Australia and New Zealand, two months in Hawaii and just recently a month in the UK.

For me, this job was a means to being able to travel.  I’d originally been planning to quit my job and take off for a year on a massive road trip and then come back to a regular job and regular schedule.  Having a job like this means that I’m able to take off for a few months at a time and not have to worry about running out of money or finding a job when I do.  We’re never more than 4 months from the next pledge drive.  I started the job in May of 2007 and moved out of my apartment at the end of June.

Over the last year and a half or so my travel has been a bit more limited because I’ve acquired two apartment buildings in Yuma, AZ.  I spent a couple months out there when I first got them.  Then this last September I started a Masters program in Accounting in San Diego, so I’ve been spending a fair amount of time there, (staying with my parents).

I have a website about living and traveling in my little Prius at AYearInACar.com.  I stopped posting in it in July 2009 because my computer was stolen in Reno.  I took about a month to get around to replacing it and by then I had gotten out of the habit of posting.  Since I was basically living in one of my apartments in Yuma for a couple months, I didn’t really feel I had much new to say about living in my car.  When I went back to LA I was still living in my car, but wasn’t traveling by car, (my traveling in 2010 was basically “fly and stay” trips to the East Coast, Seattle and to the UK. Each of those for a about a month).  I couldn’t figure out how to get started again in writing for the website, especially when at the end of the year I began my Masters and stayed at my parents’ house for a couple months.  (And yes, they charged me rent.  The first rent I’ve had to pay in over 3 years! I have to admit that living in a car had spoiled me.  Even though it was just to my parents, that first rent check was hard to write.)

All that being said, my upcoming April-June classes will be online so I’m going to be hitting the road again at the end of this week (just finishing up our latest pledge drive.)  I’ll have about 3 months to drive up to the Pacific Northwest and work my way around back down. I’ll be taking my classes, as well as working on a few projects for the station so it won’t be “full-time” travel, but I’m really looking forward to being back on the road.

So there you have it!  An semi-explanation of what I’ve been up to for the last year and a half.  Like I said, I’ll hopefully be hitting the road at the end of the week so more to come.  In San Francisco I’ll be meeting up with a friend who moved into a van about a year ago so I’m interested in seeing what he’s done with the place.

I think if I had made a list of “things to do” at the beginning of July and compared now it to a list of “things done” at the end there would be only a few things that overlapped.  Feel like I’ve been amazingly productive for as few things as I’ve actually gotten crossed off my list.  Ahh well.  At least I already know what I be working on in August.

I’ve been living in an apartment here in Yuma for the last couple weeks.  It has been nice to spread out a bit.  I’ve only brought the stuff that’s normally in my car with me, but I’m amazed at how much floor space it takes up.  I really do pack up the little Prius tight!  Astounding how much I manage to get into the car comfortably.

I should spend some time reflecting on living in an apartment (however briefly) as opposed to a car, but I can’t think of anything philosophical about it at the moment.  It’s different.  Some things are better about living in an apartment, some things are better about living in a car.  The weather, however, makes the apartment a necessity while in Yuma.  112 degrees is not uncommon right now. Even walking outside at night feels like an oven.  The only plus is that there’s very little humidity and almost always a breeze.  If you can get some shade and don’t have to move at all it’s not too bad.  I’m very happy with the AC, though starting to get a bit stir crazy.  I’m craving the chance to go for a walk, but it’s just not going to happen here in Yuma for a while.

Lucky for me then that I’m leaving tomorrow for a little while.  I head up to Vegas where a friend and I will be roadtripping up to Reno, NV for their big street festival “Hot August Nights”.  I know very little about it.  Another friend will be meeting us there and we’ll spend a couple days before Friend #1 and I head back down to Vegas.  After that I’ll go to LA for a few days work at KJAZZ and then head back to Yuma for a week, THEN back to LA again for about a month and a half. Will be both good and strange to get back on the road for a short trip to Reno like this.  Looking forward to it though. I expect August and September to both be quite busy.  I need to map out everything on a calendar.  I’m starting to get confused about where I’m going to be when.  :)

Any Reno/Tahoe suggestions are greatly appreciated!

My favorite picture from this trip. Taken in Point Reyes National Seashore.

Despite the fact that we’re now halfway into July, and plenty has happened since my last roadtrip in April and May I wanted to go back and post about it.

This trip felt a bit more choppy than the other ones I’ve taken.  I think because I tended to travel in big spurts and then stay put for a while. I had a hard time seeing the trip as a while.  Actually, that seems true for my whole life in general at the moment and I think that’s part of why I haven’t been posting.  I wanted to work it out in my own mind first so this journal wouldn’t be too all over the place.  Well, that and also I was lazy on the road, then sick and then busy with work.  Now I’ve finally got the perspective, health and time to write it up.

So here’s a quick run down on the April/May trip.  I want to come back and write more about each part separately, but at least this is a start.

I worked my way up to the Bay area along Highway 101 which roughly follows the second half of the de Anza Trail.  Spent a few days visiting with college friends and then on to Point Reyes National Seashore (still one of my favorite spots in the US). I volunteered at The California Artisan Cheese Festival in Marin Country and had a very fun there weekend and then I spent a few days in Sacrament researching the Pony Express.

I zoomed up to Portland to visit with two new friends I met in Hawaii in January, and explore the end of  the Lewis and Clark Trail.  Then had about two weeks in Seattle visiting with more old college friends and another new friend from Hawaii.  I broke up those two weeks with a trip up to Vancouver during the week while they were busy with jobs.  Then I headed out to Spokane for the Shuttlebirds tatting conference.  More great fun was had visiting after which I made my way out to Missoula and then started up to Glacier National Park.

Glacier National Park

This is where things took a turn for the worse.  I got sick with stomach pains and spent a day in bed in the Walmart parking lot in Kalipsell, MT trying to move and eat as little as possible since both seemed to turn the dull pains into sharp pains.  This day in the Walmart parking lot was only about half as much fun as it sounds.  I tried to sleep through as much of it as possible.
the next morning my stomach still hurt, but I could walk around better so I continued up to Glacier where I discovered it probably would have been a good idea to have done a bit of research while still in Missoula since everything was still mostly closed for the winter.  I was about three weeks too early to travel the Going to the Sun Road.  So I took some photographs, sat by the lake and wondered if I should be concerned that the pains were coming back, (though still not as bad as the day before).

Later that evening I had a ridiculously long and heated internal debate between heading over the pass to Great Falls (Lewis and Clark trail) or making my way back toward highway 15 the way I came.  Concerned the pain might be something serious I decided it would be a good idea not to be in the middle of nowhere if I needed to have my appendix or gallbladder removed.   I gave up on this side trip to explore Montana and started heading south.

The ultimate goal was Las Vegas where I could stay with a friend and I pretty much drove straight down there, which meant skipping all the rest of the exploring of the Lewis & Clark and the Nez Perce Trails in Montana and stopping in Salt Lake City to check out all the trails that went through there (the California, Oregon, Pony Express and Morman Trails).

I probably could have stopped in Salt Lake City, since by the time it took me to get down there I was feeling better.  At that point I was so sick of driving I just wanted to keep going and get most of it over.  I wanted to get down to Las Vegas where I could hang out with Roberta and know that I was only a few hours behind the wheel away from Los Angeles.  Besides, I hadn’t contacted or arranged anything with the people I wanted to interview about the trails.  So I kept driving.  1100 miles in less than 3 days.  Way too many.

Berta about to start her riding lesson.

I spent the next week at Roberta’s starting work on the next pledge drive while she was at school (high school bio teacher) and hanging out with her in the evenings.  I was feeling pretty much completely better in time for our college reunion in the next weekend.  More fun was had hanging out on campus and I started up again at work in Los Angeles on Monday.
The postscript is that on Tuesday the pain came back (with lots nausea this time).  I moved the general check up I had scheduled for Friday to Wednesday and headed down to San Diego.  I’ll spare you the details, but the next two weeks were a long boring story of intermittent stomach pain, nausea and vomiting, doctors visits and blood tests, but it all came to nothing.  I feel fine now and the last round of tests came back completely normal.  Current theory is some sort of infection.  I think it’s gone for good this time, but it certainly complicated my schedule trying to get ready for the next pledge drive (starts this Wednesday!)  I so rarely get sick that when I do it completely throws me off.  Having a doctor in San Diego while trying to work in Los Angeles didn’t help much either.

There’s the run-through!  I have a lot more free-time this month and semi-regular internet access so there’ll be more to come, including pictures of the coolest wedding cake ever!

Yeah, I’ll come back and explain them over the next couple days, (afterall, I did write an article about doing that a while back for the Indie Travel Podcast) but I figured this was a nice quick way to get back into posting. We’re in the middle of the Summer Pledge Drive here at KJAZZ so things are busy. But sometimes it’s when I’m busiest that I manage to actually do the most posting.

If anyone can tell me how to rotate the vertical pictures in WordPress that would be much appreciated.  They open correctly in every other program.

[Show as slideshow]

The article is a quick run down of what I think are the most important things to do to modify a car for living out of. These are only the basics (I only get 800 words an article), and can be done in one weekend or less. They mostly deal with privacy issues. I’m thinking that for the next article I’ll do a run-down of what you might want to add in the next weekend to make it more comfortable. What do you guys suggest? A cooler? An inverter to charge electronics? A hotplate? What modifications or items have you found most useful?

I hate planing very far in advance. Normally while traveling, I don’t know in the mornings where I’ll be sleeping that night. I may have a general idea of where I want to go, but this whole having to plan and book rooms/campsites is cramping my style. Too much stress! I suppose I’ll get the hang of it though. When I get to the Big Island I’ll stay longer in each place and that should help.

Tonight I’m trying out my tent for the first time. It’s pretty windy, but I guess that’s why it’s called the windward coast. I’ve got my tent all set up on a nice spot next to the ocean and even though it’s only 3 in the afternoon I plan on just hanging out here, not doing much and putting off worrying about accomadations for the rest of my trip until tomorrow.

Hostels are nice, but I still got to say that traveling by and sleeping in a car is much, much simpler.

Any suggestions for things to see or do on Oahu, Kauai or the Big Island would be greatly appreciated!

Now I’m back to work and am updating my links page (“Other Stops on the Road”).  I know I’m missing a lot of great pages, send me your suggestions.

That being said the one question I get more than any other is about showering, so I’ve written an entire post about it. Also common is questions about good places to park.  For that one I’ll refer you to an article I wrote for the Indie Travel Podcast website.

Hope that some of these pages help answer some questions!

Don’t think it’s going to happen for the next couple weeks.

I’m down in San Diego which is going to be my home base for the next four weeks or so before I head out to Hawaii for two months. (No the car is not going with me). Between now and then I’ll mostly be finishing up work, packing and planning for Hawaii, working on a couple projects (including the website), hanging out with some friends, and a whole lot of cleaning and reading of books so I can get rid of them.

That’s basically what I’ve been up to the last two weeks and pretty much all I’ll be up to for the next month

I do have an article up on the Indie Travel Podcast website that I haven’t mentioned here, and I’d better mention it soon since I have another one going up later this week. The current one is about starting up conversations with people on the road. I’d love for you guys to read it and leave comments with the ways you start conversations with people.

You may have noticed that I’ve also added a page about tatting. Eventually I’d like to set-up a better page, but this is a start.

I don’t really know what to go and see/do in Hawaii. I bought the plane ticket because I had an airline voucher I needed to use before it expired and the ticket to Hawaii was just the right price as to be practically free. I’ll be going to Oahu, Kauai, the Big Island for sure, possibly to Maui, and anywhere else that’s recommended as well. I have two months, so plenty of time to see a lot.

At any rate he’ll be in the US later this month and is looking for other people to talk to about their experiences. here’s the paragraph he wrote for me to put up here:

Nick Rosen of the Off-Grid website is in the process of writing his book “Off-Grid America”.” He will be in California through October and New York State through November and he is looking for car-dwellers, van-dwellers, in fact any sort of off-gridders who have a story to tell – most of all, what are your reasons for living off-grid, and what do you especially like (or dislike) about it? Do you have a particular philosophy of off-grid living? Where do you live off-grid? How do you live off-grid: on a homestead, in a cabin, in the city, or on wheels or water? Have you adopted all the technical advantages of renewable energy, or do you live the way people lived before there was a grid, or is it something in-between? He’d like to know what obstacles and challenges you’ve encountered along the way. Tell your reasons, your means and ways, to Nick for his new book “Off-grid America.” Contact Nick at nick (at) off-grid.net or 877-706-7423.

Always happy to help out public radio I told him I’d post something on my site.

If you’re a Canadian vandweller and are interested send me an email at Jessica at ayearinacar dot com and I’ll forward it on.  If you’re not a Canadian vandweller, but you know one, please forward on this post.

Thanks!

I read all the time on other people’s blogs about how nobody gets it and people are rude to them because they live in a car, but honestly, I can’t think of one time in the last two years I’ve ever gotten this reaction.  I have started to wonder if perhaps vandwellers are too quick to jump upon any slight as being proof that we’re being trod-upon and snubbed by society.  We are generally so proud of our rebel/anti-conformity outlook that maybe it’s easier to justify a “screw you” attitude to society if we can cultivate the belief that society has a “screw you” attitude to us.

Like I said in the earlier post, there’s a small percentage of people who I haven’t managed to convince that I’m doing this because I want to and not because I have to, but I can’t think of a single time I’ve encountered rudeness or snobbery because I live in a car.  I’m sure that eventually I will, but it just doesn’t seem to be as prevalent as someone considering living in their car my get the impression of from surfing the web.  I would hate to think that it would discourage anyone from trying it because it’s just so damn awesome to live this way.

Maybe I’m too wrapped up in myself to notice I’m being snubbed. Maybe I just hang out with the right people. Either way, it’s time I ask this question of all the vandwellers out there.

Who has snubbed you for living in your car?  I’m not talking about people pitying you because they can’t comprehend you’re doing this because you want to.  I’m not talking about people being annoyed that you’re sneaking into a campground to shower.  I am also not talking about communities passing laws that make it more difficult for vandwellers.  I’m talking about personal rudeness or snobbery in a one-on-one situation in which car living or vandwelling is the ‘reason’ for it.

I want to know how often people are being snubbed on a regular basis specifically for living in their car/van.

I’ve been putting off this post because I’ve been trying to figure out how to write it so it doesn’t offend anyone, but here you are.  This is is something I’ve been thinking about for a while and would really like to get a discussion going on it.

That being said, there’s more coming, I promise.  But we’ve only got 7 more days before the KJAZZ pledge drive starts so that’ll will be keeping me busy till the end of the month.  I’ll still be posting, but shorter and less frequently.

The problem I always have is that I can’t bear to just throw things away. If I want to get rid of something I feel the need to either use it up or find a home for it. And books, of course must be read before I can even consider getting rid of them. I don’t buy many books anymore, but I’m still working my way through all that I got when I volunteered an NPR and picked up 4-5 books each week from the shelves where the reporters left the ones they got from publishers.

Anyway, progress made this last week. Being far away from my stuff certainly helps me realize how little I actually need/want around me. Moving from the van to the prius, even more so. Just got to figure out what I can get rid of completely. Every little bit I do here will make the boxes of stuff easier to deal with once I decide to settle down.

I am constantly astounded by the number of people who make comments about beds when I tell them I’m at my parent’s place.  “Must be happy to sleep in a real bed for a change.”  I always get the same comments about hostels as well.  Come on people, What do you think I have in my car?  It may not be a “real” bed, but I assure you it’s pretty darn comfortable.  Certainly more comfortable than any hostel bed I’ve ever had.

/rant

One of my projects for this weekend down in San Diego was to take my car to the dealership and have them reset my airbags.  When I took out the front passenger seat I had to unhook the cables that run between the weight censor in the seat and the airbags.  Unfortunately, it turns out that doing so disables the airbags.  I thought they’d just be able to reset them, but apparently it creates an open circuit and it can’t be done.  So, thanks to the fact that I have no front passenger seat, I also have no air bags and Toyota can’t do anything about it.

The guy at Toyota did make a suggestion for finding someone who can fix it though.  When I get back to LA I’m going to try to find a company that makes modifications to cars for the handicapped.  Since they take out seats all the time they may have a solution.  In the meantime, I’ll just have to hope I don’t need them.

Now you can have both!*

A Year in a Car For No Apparent Reason is now syndicated on LiveJournal.  If you already have a LiveJournal account it’s easy to add the feed to your friend’s page.

Special thanks go out to Dominic for setting this up.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about you probably don’t have a LiveJournal account and can ignore this post.

*Ok, technically you could always have both, but now you can have both in the same browser window.

It was the 4th of July weekend so I didn’t stay long.  Spent one night up in the mountains and then enjoyed spending a couple hours driving out of the park stopping and taking lots of pictures.  This was a chance for me to play around with my camera a lot.  I learned I really needed a tripod if I expected any of my early morning shots to come out nicely.

This was taken while standing right off of the continental divide.  This picture faces West to the Pacific.

Tomorrow is the start of the New Media Expo here in Vegas.  I’ll be hanging out at the OC Podcaster’s booth, hopefully recording some interviews for a super-cool project I’m working on.

No, you’re not going to get any more details beyond “super-cool” just yet.  Stay tuned!

I’ve decided to skip Glacier since I spent so much time in Yellowstone and I don’t want to rush though it or the drive south afterwards.  I have a friend who’s moving to Vegas in about a week so I’ll be hanging out with her soon.  This is that strange transition period when I’m not back in LA yet, but I’m already getting back to work.  Ahh the joys of the internet.

But Yellowstone has been awesome.  As my article will describe I’ve been completely taken by the geyser area.  Been spending the last 5 days exploring the area, watching geysers, and (the most fun of all), waiting for the geysers to erupt while talking to the people around me and working on sewing a bunch of tatting on to my skirt.  I’m almost done with the skirt and will post pictures when I do finish it.  I figured it out the other day and I think there’ll be about 70 hours into it when I’m done.

I’m rather enjoying working on the absurdly large and tedious projects.  I have plans to start two tablecloths soon one of which will be at least a hundred hours and the other a couple hundred.

But here I am rambling on about tatting and you’re more curious about the travel.  Unfortunately as much fun as I’m having here in Yellowstone it’s not the sort of fun that really translates to the (web)page.  Mostly a lot of sitting around waiting for geysers to erupt.  What’s made it fun is all the great people I’ve met from all over the country (and world, got to practice my Japanese the other night).  Been getting lots of suggestions for places to check out while I’m traveling as well, and hopefully those people will come and leave comments here, because of course, I haven’t been writing them down and have probably forgotten a bunch already.

(The picture, by the way, is Castle Geyser.)

Thinking that it was due on the second Monday of the month and not the third I spent most of the day writing my next article for the Indie Travel Podcast website.  So I didn’t get to all the other stuff I’d wanted to, (including sorting through all the pictures I’ve taken over the last couple weeks).  I have only this one pictures for you now because the library is going to close soon and I’m getting hungry for dinner.

Before heading into Rocky Mountain National Park I stopped at a turn out to get a picture of the road and the mountains.  There were chipmucks everywhere!  They were there, of course, because people were feeding them absurd amounts of snacks.  (I was surprised that the chipmucks rejected outright all the processed foods like chips and Cheetios and would only eat nuts and seeds).  So I ended up spending at least an hour and a half there playing around with my new camera and snapping pictures of the chipmucks.

Yet another reminder to stop whenever you get the chance.  You never know what you’ll find.

For along time I have been wishing we would get rid of the penny.  Australia and New Zealand have both done it and are somehow managing quite well (actually New Zealand has gotten rid of their 5 cent piece as well, the smallest denomination is the 10 cent piece).  Unfortunately, there’s soon to be four new designs for the back of the penny coming out in honor of Lincoln’s 200th birthday so it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting rid of it anytime soon.

One more thing.  The rim on coins?  It’s there for two reasons.  First is to keep the coin from wearing out so quickly and secondly to make it possible to stack coins.

The tour guide also mentioned the average lifetime for a coin.  I think it was twenty years, but don’t quote me on that.

Spent the day in Boulder, Colorado which is a very nice town.  Thanks Adam for the suggestion of Big City Burritos.  I went there for lunch and then since I stopped later in the same shopping center for my helmet went there again for dinner to try the potato burrito.  Very tasty.  I’m still quite attached to the rice at Chipotle, but I’d say that everything else at Big City was at least as good or better.

In between lunch and dinner at Big City Burritos I went to the Redstone Meadery and had a nice little tour and tasting.  They said there were about 100 companies in the US making mead.  I may have to set aside an hour or so sometime to do a bit of internet searching and put some of the others on my map of places to go while touring around the country.

Sitting at the ugent care facility waiting for the doctor to see me took up most of the rest of the day so I still have one or two things I want to see in Boulder before heading out to Rocky Mountain National Park.

If nothing else at least it was a good excuse to just sit around and read.  I’ve been working through a couple of books on American history, most notably one called “The River of Doubt: Theodore Rosevelt’s Darkest Journey”. (Did you know he hated to be called Teddy?)  It’s about some exploring in South America that he did after being defeated for a third term as president.  Before reading this I also read a quick biography of him called a “Lion in the White House”.  I didn’t realize how little I knew about him before.  I’d highly recommend River of Doubt.  I didn’t intend to read the whole thing yesterday but stayed up until 2:00am to finish it (which I think sort of bothered the security guard since I was just sitting in the front seat of my car reading from 8pm till 2am).

Did some other sightseeing while I was in Denver as well.  Toured the state capitol, the US Mint, and the National Renewable Energy Labs (yes, I am a nerd).  Made a pilgrimage to the first Chipotle restaurant.  I don’t like to go to chain restaurants while I’m traveling, but Chipotle is one of the few I’ll make an exception for so of course I had to visit the original.

The prius has been preforming admirably though will take some rearranging.  I haven’t been moving easily enough this last week to take care of that.  I also need to find a better set up for the front seat.  Right now I have large drawer underneath the board that extends from the bed in the bad.  Keeps everything out of the way, but the problem is the drawer is too damn heavy.  Not sure yet what will put there instead.  May move the drawer to sit on top of the board since I can bolt it down there and right now everything I put there ends up sliding down into a pile on the floor.

Next Boulder and Rocky Mountain National Park.

Thanks for the emails asking where I was and why I haven’t been posting.  I’m moving slowly, but very happily, and loving my helmet right now (4 cracks on the helmet and nothing on my head except a scrap on my chin)  I got a ride today back to my car and I’m about to head out now to rejoin the group.  Tomorrow is actually the last day of the trip.  I’m going to spend it leap frogging them in my car as they ride and taking some action photography in the beautiful Colorado Rockies.

Pictures of the prius conversion have been taken and uploaded. I’ll be posting a complete run down of the process soon. I don’t have curtains yet, but that’s something I’ll be doing within a day or two. I hadn’t realized how much I really, REALLY liked having the curtains on the van. The velcro left a lot of sticky residue on the van (that I forgot to scrape off before I left, Sorry dad!) and I’d rather not have that on the prius.

I’m very excited about this switch.  I had originally been thinking that the prius would be best for travel and that when I’m back in LA working I’d want to trade with dad again for the van (I know he’d switch because he grew to love the prius) but as I look around it I think it will be just fine for in town as well.  I’ll know better once I actually get out on the road, but since the whole bed from van has been moved to the prius it would take a bit of work to switch it back and, as we’ve already established, I’m lazy and probably won’t want to bother.

When I leave I’ll be heading straight up to Colorado for a 6 day intro to self supported bike touring from Adventure Cycling.  Getting my bike in order is a large part of what’s taking so long to be on my way, but since I need to be there on the 21st so I have to leave soon.

I put aside Blue Highways for the moment to finish this one first. Wanted to read them in “order” as it were. I think I’ll be doing a lot more reading during this next trip out. I’m looking forward to spending more time just staying put and enjoying whereever it is that I happen to be.

Which reminds me that at some point I’ll have to figure out where I’ll be going. I know I’m heading up to Colorado at the end of this month for a biking thing, and then I know in August I’ll be in Vegas for a convention. July is still up in the open. I wasn’t able to see Yellowstone last time I was out because of the weather, but hoping that it will be clear by July.

All this is on my mind because I’m spending all day here at the KJAZZ pledge drive and our volunteers keep asking me about my plans. At some point I’ll actually have to figure them out myself. Until then I’ll continue to enjoy the pledge drive. No really, I enjoy the chaos of it. Though, that being said, I am getting very excited about being back on the road again. Another week and a half.

Whew.  I really hope they don’t upgrade again anytime soon.  That took way too long.  For about 3 hours there I was pretty certain I’d deleted the entire website.  (Had a backup copy of everything saved on my computer, I’m not that much of an idiot.)  Actually, I did have to delete it a couple times, and I’m very happy to have it back up and running.

Over the next couple days, you might see a couple small broken things, (I need to make sure my pictures are all up in working order, for example).  Hopefully, I’ll have caught everything by the end of the weekend, but for now it’s nearly 5 in the morning and time for me to get some sleep.

On the whole I think I’ll be happier with 2.5.  From what little I’ve done with it I like it better, but “5-minute install” my ass.

If you notice anything that’s broken, please let me know!

Also, I’m proud to announce that I’ve begun writing articles for the Indie Travel Podcast website. The show is hosted by Craig and Linda, a couple backpacking around Europe. I’ve been a listener for a long time, so I’m looking forward to being remotely involved with the show (and having an excuse to email Craig and ask him questions about how I can make my website as cool as theirs). I’ll be writing once a month. My first article is more of an introduction piece, future articles will vary from being about living in the van to travel in general to some locational pieces about the places I visit. They’ve graciously told their writers that we can write about pretty much anything we want, so hopefully I’ll come up with some good ones.

Check it out, and if you’re into that whole social networking thing, give it a recommendation on StumbleUpon or del.icio.us, or whatever it is the cool kids are checking out these days.

More than happy to take suggestions for future articles.

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.

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?

Anyone have suggestions for a good wordpress plugin for uploading pictures easily?  The current process is driving me nuts.

And of course, once they’re all done I’ll take pictures.

I can barely stand to wait. I’ve already gotten the van half packed up, and I’m looking forward to spending the next month at KJAZZ working on the pledge drive. A very busy 1.5 months on and then 2.5 months off might possibly be the world’s most perfect working schedule.

In the meantime I have an absurd to-do list that I wrote up on the flight back home. Taxes to do, a new computer to buy, some changes to the website to make, a couple pieces for This Week in Science to put together, and still boxes of stuff here at my parents to sort through. Slowly but surely, I’m working my way through all my possessions with the hopes of paring down the stuff that doesn’t matter. Living in a van helps to take a second look at what you really need to or want to keep in your life, but living out of a suitcase helps zero in even more.

But I’m splitting this hour of time with my brother and it’s just about his turn. I’m surrounded by shouting teenagers playing video games so apologies for what I’m sure will be a scatter-brained post.

There have been many pictures taken that I’ll share with you later.

We’re in Christchurch, New Zealand at the moment. Just got back from a morning and afternoon at the Antarctic experience, half museum and half penguin display. Very cool. Reawakened my desire to visit Antarctica. Maybe after “A Year in a Car” comes “A Winter in Antarctica?” We’ll see.

New Zealand appears to be no better than Australia at figuring out what makes a good milkshake (called thickshakes here). If you order a milkshake you get what’s essentially chocolate or strawberry milk. Thickshakes are made with ice cream, but not nearly enough. We haven’t had any that have been very thick.

The same goes for smoothies. It’s a very sad state of affairs on that account as well. But they do have Tim Tams and that makes up for a lot. If you’re in the states I’ve been able to find them in some Cost Plus Marketplace stores, but only in the original flavor. I’ve become quite fond of the dark chocolate ones, but have never seen those in the states.

Alright. My brother’s hovering over me so I’d better give up this computer. More on traveling out of a suitcase as opposed to a van later.

But one more month and I’ll head down to San Diego, pick up my bike and camping gear and head out onto the road. I’ll have about a month and half or so before I head back to San Diego for a family trip in January (more on that later), so I won’t be heading all the way to the East coast yet, but I’m thinking I might check out the biking in New Mexico. All depends on the weather.

People keep asking me where I’m heading first. I love being able to answer, “Depends on the weather.”

Can’t wait to get out on the road. One month left.

And just as I’m looking out at beach wondering how I’m going to attempt to describe this later I look up past the water at a flock of birds taking off against a rainbow in the background. Amazing. So I watch as they fly off, think about my trip and about how nice it would be if it rained sometimes this week. Other than about half an hour one afternoon about a month ago there still hasn’t been any rain since I moved into the van.

I couple years ago, when I lived in Seattle, I took a weekend trip to Olympic National Forest. I took advantage of the weekend to get out of town because I was so sick of hearing people complain about the rain, (at the time, really just a sprinkle). It’s Seattle, folks. Surely the novelty should have worn off by now.

I spent the first day driving until I felt like stopping (more about my obsession with driving aimlessly in a future post) and spent the second day curled up in my cozy car with a book looking out at a spectacular thunderstorm. I have always thought of that weekend as the epitome of relaxation and slow travel. Just sitting and enjoying the weather that others are taking as burden. Enjoying the smell of rain and having no plans to speak of; secure in the knowledge that anything I want to explore will still be there when it stops raining and I’ll still have the time to explore it.

I don’t remember now what book I was reading. But I do remember the story I started writing inspired by the couple I saw as I walked by their RV while they sat at their table enjoying a glass of wine and the view of the clouds and a rainbow over the ocean. I remember cooking ramen with the car as a windscreen, and exploring an inlet of the Washington coastline later when it stopped raining, and I remember thinking, “I need to do this more often.”

And this morning, here I was. Looking out over the cliffs at different clouds and a different rainbow over the same ocean, 1,100 miles away, reveling again in the idea of travel with no particular plans.

And then I went off to work.

After all, I’m not living on the road yet, just the streets. And that, to be honest, is why I’m getting out of LA. I’ve been enjoying living in the van in LA so much that part of me wonders why I’m leaving. What I need to do is just take more time off and enjoy this city. I do really like LA, I just don’t get around to taking advantage of all that’s here. It’s tempting to convince myself to stop working so many places and actually do some exploring of this city.

But I know myself. I’ve got too many places I work here and too little ability to say no to work.
That’s the problem with having 3-4 part time jobs, (and only one with regular hours). I’m always afraid they’re going to dry up so everytime I’m offered work I take it, even when that means I’m working 70 hours a week. Even now that I know that the very idea of the work drying up is crazy. It took me a while to build up to that 70 hours and I guess I just remember what it was like when I first started in LA and was working that after school program that paid $25 for an afternoon of attempting to teach 20+ kids science.

I’ve been listening to the “A Year in Europe” podcast lately and on one of the early ones Sheryl mentions that it’s taking her a while to slow down to travel speed. I know it’ll take me some time too and I think the only way will be for me to get out of town for a while. I suppose that’s generally the purpose of travel. I need to go to places where it’s harder for me to fall into work that is not what I really want to be doing long term, but entertaining enough that I don’t quit. Places where I’ll slow down and learn to focus. Once I’ve got figured out though I’ll be back to LA to explore.

Another month and a half and I’ll be out of LA and actually have the time to stick around and enjoy the rest of a gorgeous day like today.

Maybe it’ll even rain.

While I’ve got the pictures up, notice the black cloth on the left side? You might be able to make out the wooden dowel running the width of van just behind the seats. That’s my curtain, which is probably not as stealthy as I like to pretend it is.

I had to call AAA to put the donut on the van because I have no jack. Dad and I took it out of the back of the van last time I was down in San Diego. I don’t remember what the logic behind this was. Probably went something like, “Might as well leave that here. What are the chances you’ll get a flat?”

As it turned out just getting the donut out from underneath the van was enough of a pain in the butt that even if I had known where it was it would have taken forever to do it myself. Every time I get a flat tire it’s with a new (to me) car and I have no idea where the spare is. But now I’ve seen it done and I feel confident I’ll be able to do it myself. (Once I put the jack back in the trunk). Yay for increasing self-sufficiency!

My favorite part of the morning though was when a mother and her two small (maybe 2 and 3 years old) children were walking by and the older one wanted to know what was going on. She explained that the man was changing the tire because it was flat and you can’t drive on tires when they’re flat. The little boy watched in absolute fascination then turned to his mom and exclaimed “This is a very special day.” I told his mom it was a very special day for me too, but that I was hoping it would stop being such a special day soon.

It ended up being a very busy day, but nothing else particularly special happened.

While in the photo posting mood let me get some pictures up from my trip to Santa Barbara. That was a very special couple days in the good way. I give you the best of the camera dump.I was a big fan of the sunsets.

On the way down I stopped in Malibu and got a campsite at my favorite campground. If you scroll down a few months you can read my description of the sound of the waves on the rocks of this beach. I took audio while I was there, of course, so once I’ve figured out how to put that up here, you’ll get to actually hear it for yourselves.

Also, my ex-roommate’s 18 year old cat, Misha, passed away this last week. He was a great cat, even if in his old age he confused my laundry basket with his litterbox. He will be missed.

I left at midnight, but was feeling pretty wide awake so I thought I’d pull over and read for a while by the street lights streaming through the back window before driving to where ever it was that I was going to sleep, (undecided, but hopefully someplace darker). I think I made it about 4 pages before falling fast asleep until 6 in the morning.

Today I’m taking advantage of the fact that I’m working in a studio with a tape player hooked up to the board and I’m going through a stack of old tapes digitalizing everything that I want to keep. All part of the plan to consolidate as much as possible of my life. It’s a good feeling, but I got to say, the ratio of time spent to get rid of a single cassette to the amount of space gained by getting rid of it, it’s understandable how this stuff builds up. There’s always been that intention to go through these boxes and digitalized these cassettes and minidiscs (some of which are interviews I did a while back that I might eventually need for pieces), just like there’s always been that intention to read all those books on the shelf before getting rid of them. You really need something like this trip, (or at least I do), to actually force you to get it done. It’s so much easier to just through it in a box or under the desk for later.

Well, now I’ve got no desk and space for only a few boxes, so I’m forced to do it all at once. It’s a very satisfying feeling to get rid of something you haven’t used in a year (or years), and know that you will never have to think about it again. It feels like crossing things off a to-do list.

This pruning/compacting process is yet another reason I’m glad I moved out of my apartment 4 months before leaving town, (the $917 a month in rent being the big reason I’m glad). It’s forced me to start the process much earlier. Still, there’s at least a closet full of stuff down at my parents that I’ll continue to do what I can to get rid of.

Next time I’m visiting I may tackle the crafting supplies. Anyone want some yarn? I am tempted to use the desire to free up the space as an excuse to crochet some blankets, but the amount time to make the blankets vs. the amount of space this would free up is absurd. (Plus then I’d need to figure out what to do with the blankets.)

I may stick with tatting for a while. Thread is so much more compact. About half of mine is sitting easily under the passenger seat, ready to go with me anywhere I choose to.

Now if only I can get the rest of my life to fit into the van as neatly as the tread. Just seven more weeks to pare it all down.

I thought I could get around it by splitting my landmark among a bunch of maps by geography, but you can’t point someone to more than one map at a time.

SO,
Anyone have suggestions for other mapping programs where I can list all my landmarks on one map?

Cause I’m definitely not interested in cutting down how many places I have marked.

I came down on Monday for jury duty, (which I suspect I got out of because I expressed my belief in the importance of probable cause for the police to do a search of a stopped vehicle), but stayed till today to take advantage of the air conditioner, a kitchen, (made a chocolate souffle), and of course my parents company. :)

While down here I sorted through the boxes that sit in the spare bedroom and managed to empty seven of them. I quite pleased with this progress though only about a third of these things are leaving the house for good. Another third was redistributed throughout the house to be used (and hopefully used up) and rest is a success story of creative repacking and remains in the bedroom, but much more compact.

I did not even begin to deal with the boxes of yarn and crafting supplies which was my original goal. I had to go through the rest to even get to them. So they will remain for the next trip down to San Diego.

While at it I did a great deal of organizing what’s left managing to sort of separate the rest into what I will take with me when I leave southern CA at the end of October and what will stay. I gathered books during the two years I volunteered/worked at NPR and had access to their shelves and shelves of free books (sent by publishers for review) and put many aside for my trip. Some history books, some of regional interest. Anything that had a geographical tie-in to some place I might visit on my trip got put aside and now as I look at the boxes of books and have a fair idea of the size of the van I’m slightly concerned. But I’m going to continue to ignore it now and will only worry about it when I am getting ready to leave southern CA.

It’s been interesting while living in the van to see how few things I use on a daily basis. I’m sure I’ll be writing more on this later, but I have always enjoyed getting rid of things. There’s a joy in saying to yourself, “There. This is now gone and I never have to think about it again.” This is at odds with the fact that I’m still a bit of a packrat. But I think the packrat-i-ness comes from not wanting to throw things away. I want to get rid of them, but I want to know they’re being put to some use. Or at least that they’re sitting in the back of somebody else’s closet rather than in a dump.