Thursday, December 11, 2014

Stay put

I made a trip to Blythe today. The excuse was that I needed some supplies and wanted to check out the new Smart & Final Extra. Really, though, I just got antsy.

The key to economical van dwelling is to not drive much. I didn’t do a very good job of that my first year on the road. I logged over 40,000 miles zigging and zagging all over the West. Even when I stayed in Slab City a month and Truckee three weeks, I would make unnecessary runs to town.

The actual traveling part of this traveling life satisfies something in me that staying in one place doesn’t. As they say, it’s about the journey—or the journeying. It’s not simply a need to see what’s around the next bend, and then the next one. Even making yet another run to Blythe or Yuma or wherever starts the natural happiness chemicals flowing. It’s like my molecules don’t care where they’re going as long as they’re being transported across the planet.

A friend commented the other day that I’m always taking off for somewhere. “I need to make up for decades of staying put,” I quipped. There’s probably a good chunk of truth in that.

I gotta go.

2 comments:

  1. Hey when you get the wanderlust in your blood, you have to keep moving right?

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  2. I'm with you, Al. I hate staying in one place. In fact, my criteria for how long I stay some place is once I can get to where I'm going without using Google maps, I've been there too long. But finances have required me to stay put longer so I make tons of trips into town and that's why I like Pilot Knob. Close to Yuma, close to date farms, close to lakes, dunes, shopping, movies, whatever works to keep me from feeling like I'm grounded again. Rock on!

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