#Vanlife more like #Vanlifer

“Gosh darnnit!” I soft-curse in my head, and resort to making a tall, sugary, festive hot chocolate. Maybe that will make me feel the Christmas feels. Maybe it will calm my nerves. Maybe it will chase my apprehensions and worries away. Maybe it will just taste good.

We’ve done the van-life thing before. We lived in a 1989 fully camperized Westfalia van. We stealth camped in parks and (possibly) in a neighbourhood near you. We cramped our lives in a van, minimizing our possessions, and cut out luxuries such as bathrooms, ovens and privacy. We peed in a bucket during the night, or walked to our nearest 24/7 store if it was the more urgent kind of bodily excretion. We parked our van on the beach, and crawled to her warmth when the surf swell became unbearably cold. We saved money on rent, and we expanded our backyard with more adventure and play. We did that. We loved that. We hated that. But we did that.

Emphasis on DID. Past tense. Over and done. Onto a new chapter.

Yet things haven’t exactly gone “according to plan” since we completed our Great Divide Trail thru-hike this fall. Obviously it takes time to find jobs, and it’s hard to settle in any particular town if you aren’t sure if you’ll find a career there. Dan’s a Biologist, and we are hell-bent on him working as a Biologist darnnit! So we continue to apply places, keeping our minds and hearts open to the possibilities, and never getting too attached to any particular place. These are exciting times; uncertain times, full of potential.

We got a temporary rental unit in Victoria while Dan worked at U-Vic for another month. Then, we drove out to Golden BC and got another airbnb rental while we looked for jobs in the area. No luck. So we headed back to Victoria where we house-sat for some friends over the holidays. Everything is fine. This is working. But it’s not sustainable. We love adventure, yet we crave some stability.

Enter new van. Well, more like vintage 1978 van, but new for us. Recently, we decided that we should “consider” van-life again – just give it some thought. Two days later, we have another van, complete with enough headroom to stand, a propane heater for the mountain winter, and a rusty charming exterior. Just like that, we are back to the mobile life, calling the Sea-to-Sky corridor home, with endless possibilities and adventures to partake in.

Ok, so I’m actually kind of a tiny wee bit entirely hopelessly excited about this. I’m proud of Dan and I for having the decency to live THIS simply when the money just isn’t flowing in heaps at the moment. We’re fine. We have money. We save a lot. But as the income continues in a slow trickle, we make sure our lives stay “within our means.” And why the heck not!

#Vanlife we meet again.

Vinny Van-Go…let’s play!