Sunday, May 10, 2020

#VanLife



I think that I have made a life-altering decision.  If you live in Nashville or a similar city, you know how outrageous the housing market has become.  Aside from winning the lottery, I don't know if I would ever be able to buy a house.  Rental prices aren't any better.  If you would have told me ten years ago that I would be paying this much for rent, I would have laughed in your face.  And now that we are facing an environment so foreign to us, many of us are out of work with no start-back within sight.  The future is completely unknown at this time.  It is a frightening time.  And no one knows when or if it will end.  No one knows if there will be a sense of security or normalcy any time soon.  

I think that right now, most of us are extremely stressed especially about money.  With this uncertain climate, I have to say that I teeter from calm to panic throughout the day...every day.  But this chaos has definitely gotten me thinking about my present and my future.  Certain jobs are deemed "essential", and they rightly are.  I do not have such a job.  My job is an excess or a luxury to offer people.  Since tourism has completely stopped in a town that relies heavily on tourists and travelers, a large chunk of this city is facing a screeching halt in their income.  My job is not a necessary need at this time.  Talk about feeling worthless!  Anxiety and depression are through the roof.

As of now, my apartment complex is allowing us payment plans for paying rent and not evicting us.  While that is a modest comfort for now, how long will they be able to offer this if this pandemic continues for months even years longer?  

I'm not sure if a video popped up on Facebook or Youtube, but I began seeing videos on Van Life.  I'll have to say that my first thoughts of van life forged images of "dirty hippies" driving around going to Phish concerts.  But the more videos that I watched, the more varied that I found the people who considered themselves van-dwellers.  They had a plethora of reasons for turning to this lifestyle.  Some wanted the freedom of not being tied down to one particular place or to things.  Others were drawn to the reduction of things by embracing minimalism.  While still others used van life as a way to eliminate their monthly bills and to spend less money.  All of these options appealed to me.  I could relate to all of it!

If this pandemic were to continue for a long period of time, how long will landlords be patient and forgiving?  What options does the ordinary person have?  It reminds me of a movie from the 70s starring John Ritter who played the President of the United States.  I don't remember much about the movie, but the scene in the opening credits was burned into my memory.  It began as a man was getting ready for work, brushing his teeth, and obviously living in his car.  As he gets out of the car, you notice that there is a white picket fence around his car as if it were his home and lawn.  As the shot pulls out, we see the man riding his bicycle to work.  You see other cars similarly decorated with makeshift lawns and picket fences.  At this point in American, people living in their stationary cars was the norm.  This movie was called "Americathon".  



Now, if you watch many of these van life videos, you may become discouraged.  Many of them appear to be young people in their twenties with an unending bank account that affords them top of the line Sprinter vans and thousands of dollars to spend on their van builds.  Many of them are traveling and spending a lot of time participating in activities like skiing, surfing, rock climbing, hiking, snorkeling, and mountain biking.  I don't know if I'm active enough to be a van lifer?!   

Conversely, there are others who seem to caravan around the country.  Their vans may just be SUVs with an air mattress or cot inside them for a bed.  Some are very basic and makeshift with battery operated lights unlike the former with complicated yet impressive electrical solar systems in their vans.  All this to say, there seems to be no right or wrong way to van life.  

With the fear that the Coronavirus has created and the uncertainty of the future, the van life seems more and more intriguing to me.  This is something that I wouldn't have really given much thought to a year ago.  But what would I do with my stuff?  Our "stuff" has become something that owns us versus us owning it.  George Carlin had a wonderful piece about "stuff".  When I look around my apartment, I have so much stuff!  I'm a hair away from being an episode of "Hoarders".  But how much of this stuff do I really need?  I felt I needed it when I bought it.  I feel I need it as it sits in my house collecting dust.  But do I use it?  I have a closet full of clothes that I never wear.  Never!  If I really took inventory, I am sure that I would find things that I didn't even really know that I owned.  I think most of us can say that, too.  So I've begun really evaluating what I have, what I use, and what I can live without.  

There have been a couple of times in my life where I have lost nearly everything that I owned.  While devastating at first, it was actually very freeing.  I realized that I didn't need "stuff".  "Stuff" can become a burden.  You have to pay for a place to keep your stuff.  It's exhausting.  

Last year, I finally cut the cord and got rid of my cable TV.  I am a child of the 70s and 80s, so television was a big part of my life and upbringing.  I did not know how I would survive, but oddly enough, it hasn't been an issue...at least once I realized how much stuff Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Roku, in general, has available.  Why did I spend/waste so much money on cable for so many years?!  

Can I live a van life?  What about a bathroom?  That is most people's first question.  I have a friend who bought a van to do weekend camping trips, and that was one of my first questions to him.  But the more that I think about it, the little it seems to be an issue.  I grew up in a house that did not have a bathroom or running water.  I had to tote water from a well.  We had an outhouse.  And while I was embarrassed by this life as a child because it was so alien from my peers, I survived.  Do I like running water and an indoor toilet?  Hell, yes!  Can I live without it?  I did for the first twenty years of my life.  I didn't have air conditioning in the home until I was in fifth grade, and we only turned it on at night for a few minutes before we went to bed.  And I survived.  So it's doable.

Some people worry about this type of lifestyle being lonely.  I don't think it would be.  I am much a homebody now even before the self-quarantine.  I like my own company.  The general public gets on my nerves so being isolated sounds wonderful.  And as for having company, I would have my two dogs and cat with me.  Now that I have been home for two months now, I realize that my dogs don't really utilize much of the apartment except for the couch, their dog beds, and the bed when we go to sleep.  Other than our daily walks, they are pretty immobile throughout the day.  The cat is invisible throughout most of the day as well.  

What would I do with all of this free time?  I would continue to make Youtube videos.  I could pursue an online business.  I could put more time and effort into my writing.  In my comfortable apartment, I am constantly distracted by whatever is on television.  I am greatly impressed by people like Stephen King who commits each and every day to writing.  When he was younger, he wrote 2,000 words every day (today, he makes a goal of writing at least 1,000).  I would be able to focus more time on writing.  I would also be able to be emersed in nature.  I believe that most of us do not get our necessary amount of outdoors which is crucial for our mental and physical health.  I could practice photography because I would have more natural subjects other than just in my neighborhood.  Photography is something that I enjoyed when I was young and wish that I would have pursued more.  Basically, I believe that van life would give me the opportunity to be much more creative in many areas of interest.  That is the most appealing aspect of all.  

My thoughts are that when it gets too hot here, I could travel to Oregon, Washington, or even Canada to leave the heat.  In the winter, I could head to Southern California or Florida for some beach time.  Ideally, I would like to obtain some land on which to have my van parked while here in Tennessee.  I think there would be a sense of accomplishment in pride in owning my own piece of land.  

I could possibly find a used, low mileage, good condition van for about $20,000 ($10,000 or less if it has higher mileage).  I estimate that it may take $6-7,000 to build it the way that I would like it.  As for land, that price would vary depending on acres, area, flat or hilly, but I estimate that I could possibly find some land for $30,000.  So for approximately less than $60,000, I could be a home-owner AND land-owner!  That thought makes me want to cry.  I am so excited about the prospect.  Will it be difficult?  Of course, it will.  Be after watching countless videos and looked at tons of diagrams and lists, I think that I can do this, at least most of it, by myself.  The feeling of accomplishment is exciting.  

If some of the people in these videos can do, I think I can.  Some of them are great, but some seem dumb as a box of rocks, but they did it.  Mine may not look like Courtney's or Bryson's as they show tons of pictures of their high-tech, super expensive Sprinter on Instagram, but it will be mine...poop in a bucket and all.    





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