Wednesday, April 30, 2014

The 2-year itch?

Fellow van dwellers and I were talking yesterday about this nomadic life we live. The prevailing opinion is that most of us spend the first year or so on the road traveling all over, seeing what there is to see, learning which places we like. 

Then we're likely to establish a circuit of favorite places, with less travel and longer stays in one spot. "I could see spending November and December in Yuma and then January through March at Slab City."

However, after a couple of years on the road, some van dwellers start yearning for a place to settle. Sometimes they just want a small patch where they can live in the van but grow some vegetables, have an outhouse, a shower, a more functional kitchen... sort of the simplified, eco-friendly, Walden-esque homesteading life. Some, though, are ready to ditch the van and build a cabin.

I've been at this for only eight months. When I committed to living in a van, I knew there was always a possibility that I might find someplace I'd really love to make home. But I don't see it happening yet. In a couple of years? I don't know. I've done the living-in-one-spot thing. I've done the homeowner thing. It's not a Holy Grail for me. Being an introvert, I tend to live inside my head. That's the place I really need to settle.

4 comments:

  1. I've been living in my van for almost a year. It'll be a year mid-May. I sometimes dream of buying a really cheap piece of land and doing exactly what you mentioned and without zoning crap laws. I see that in a few years, but, I'm thrilled with living in the van for now. Your blogs are fun to read.

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  2. I want to settle down every time I put my feet in the sand at the beach. Of course, settling down in any place in the US that has that is way out of my financial means but other countries begin to look better all the time. Who knows?

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  3. Yes; settling in your own head is he first step....

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