As a kid, my dad or mom read us a bedtime story every night. One of my favorite ones was “The boy who cried wolf.” My dad told us this one from memory, and on nights when we were very sleepy, the story would be shorter; other nights he embellished more. The basic lesson (all our bedtime stories had a moral or lesson my parents wanted us to learn) was “If you continue to tell people things that aren’t true, some day the wolf will eat the whole village and it will be all your fault!”
Lately I’m feeling like the boy who cried wolf. I’ve been plotting, planning, scheming and working on my departure from my current life and my entry into my new “van life” for over 2 years now. I report progress, and tease you all that “I’m almost on my way, ” only to have to report later that it was a false alarm. Often, it seems like I take one step forward and two steps back. I know that’s not really true, because I’ve bought my van and have been living in it (albeit, in my back parking lot) since September. I’ve installed new kitchen cabinets, solar power and a solar generator. I bought a camp oven so I can bake on my propane stove and a “campfire toaster” so I can toast bagels in the morning over my propane burner without exhausting my electrical supply for the day. I’ve got everything moved in and I’m pretty much road ready. But I am waiting for settlement on my building. There was a glitch with the property survey and so settlement (which was supposed to happen 3 weeks ago) got postponed until I can get a fence up, and well, living in slower, lower, DE, the fencing company is taking it’s good ol’ time.
The major lesson I’ve learned in my two years of planning and waiting, thinking I’m leaving and having a setback, is that each time I’ve been delayed, things have worked out better than the original plan. Each time I’ve hit a snag, I found something better than what I had originally planned. So I’m believing that this setback is giving me extra time to reorganize my van, fine tune some systems (I’m adding an extra battery to my solar banks), and taking a few short trips to “practice” being on the road with a dog and living off-grid.
People constantly ask “When are you leaving?” or “Where are you going first?” The real answer is “I don’t know yet.” But I AM going and while I’m waiting I’m continuing to learn things about my van and its contents, and spending time with friends who live here in DE, knowing I may not see them in person again for some time. I’m getting some long-delayed dental work done, and doing physical therapy for a hip replacement I had years ago which has acted up over the winter. Most of all, I am trying to be mindful that I am not being delayed from “living the van life,” but rather learning to be aware that this IS the van life. I LIVE HERE, whether here is the Mojave Desert, Yellowstone Park, or my own humble parking lot.
I won’t cry wolf again. (I would hate to be responsible for the whole village being eaten up.) I’ll just keep plugging away and will keep you updated of my adventures, not just the major one I’m anticipating, but the small trips I take as I wait for the fence to go up and my property to sell.
In the meantime, you can always follow along on my YouTube Channel at http://shorturl.at/pDEF3
You’ve got the perfect outlook on the delay. You are getting the time to make the van tweaks that be hard to do once your on the road. You’ll get there.
Charlie