One Year On

A year ago we were crossing the border today from cold and windy Arizona to cold and windy Sonora. The peaks surrounding the border crossing were dusted with snow. Masks were mandatory.

In a mere three weeks we hope to be back, better equipped with more knowledge and experience and with plans for much more driving. We hope to be in South America by June, an ambitious program, with a return to the US in 2026.  I always knew the idea of living in a 70 square foot van conversion was not for most people though we have thrived on the nomadic life. What has taken me by surprise is how rare we are to find ourselves thriving in full fledged retirement. We do no work, we want no work we seek no relevance. We drive to the edge of human experience and send back reports (Webb Chiles, not my words). 

There was a time when having children was considered a social duty and I have been told even in my lifetime that I was selfish choosing not to have children. People have told me to go ahead and have them, I’d like it if I tried it. To this astonishing suggestion I would reply if I really didn’t like it would they take the child off my hands? From which suggestion my critic would inevitably recoil. Consequently Layne and I are answerable to and responsible for no  one other than ourselves at this stage of our lives. 

It has been my misfortune to find solace in my life doing things that others find odd or reprehensible. Not in criminal ways or fashionably outré lifestyles. I’m not gay or bohemian or any of those cultural catchphrases that set rigid people off. I just like to wander and not put down roots and not feel obliged to accept socially acceptable nonsense. I enjoy my own company and I don’t fear death so I stumble a lot in conversation when I come across people who want to do things but are afraid to do them. These are the people that I fail and who make me feel stupid because I am unable to understand their fears. And to them always I feel I owe a huge apology. But I like living my life like this, on the road, not knowing what next, who next, where next. Most people do not. 

So therefore I have been astonished by the number of people who fear retirement who fear irrelevance and who find my ability to enjoy social irrelevance rather startling. There are a few hardy souls who live like me, Doug in Key West and Webb in South Carolina spring to mind who embrace their own paths with serenity but we are few. I know many people with the money to live away but who take jobs in retirement to find something to do. They are the majority and good for them if that brings joy. But not me. 

I have been fortunate inasmuch as Layne likes van travel. Rusty seems to put up with it well as he ages. In a world that has always been devoted to conformity that seems like a lucky break for me. But I don’t give advice or recommend or encourage others. My advice has always been to make a plan and enjoy the journey. Don’t do as I do but let your plan reflect what you want. There is no dishonor in never retiring;  on the contrary. There is no  reason anyone should leave their home town or own a passport or get vaccinated for yellow fever. Unless they want to.

The worst way to live is I think to yearn but to fear the path to fulfillment. That I would recommend avoiding at all costs. On my off days I fear we may be too old to be ambitious and I wonder if old age or physical failure will prevent us and stop us reaching Patagonia.  Have we left this too late?

We shall see as we go.  But this I will say, even if we time out on the road, I shall know that we did try. To try and not succeed is not as good a feeling as getting it done. However not to try at all is not living. 

We planned our retirement over twenty years. Layne sat me down in 2002 after our travels through Central America and insisted we get jobs with pensions. We paid taxes and social security and I sat still getting progressively more bored earning my union pension at the city. But it has paid off  and it’s thanks to her to have monthly checks and live within our means. 

Thanks to President Johnson we have health care good anywhere in the US with no insurance companies to deny us and minimal copays. Thanks to the Good Sam Club we have modestly priced medical evacuation coverage from anywhere in the world. It’s all just for peace of mind I hope and not to be used!  There are some advantages indeed to traveling when old and I don’t envy youngsters funding their travels by making YouTube diaries. That’s work! I used to save and go and then go home. 

The other half of the old age plan we hatched was what to do with total freedom. To that end we carefully planned GANNET2 as an off grid mobile home to function as simply as possible in less developed countries. We avoided the complexities of modern RVs which try to replicate modern homes with push button technology even as we gave ourselves basic but comfortable living aboard. We have a fridge and air conditioning but no hot water or built-in heat. We use no propane as filling stations in Latin America use different equipment in each country. Our toilet is portable for easy emptying in countries no equipped with RV parks and dump stations. That we never stay in RV parks and that we rarely plug in was all part of the plan. We wanted it this way, the true freedom to park and sleep where we like, not beholden to anyone. 

I hope it is clear one year in we have no regrets. To my astonishment Layne is as keen as ever and that commitment keeps us moving ahead. It is possible disaster lurks but it has been great fun living and moving with our home around us and it is true disaster strikes people who don’t move at all. If we break or GANNET2 breaks we come home if we can. 

Ten days in a house in Ocracoke was an interesting change and it came in very useful during the Great Freeze but driving the mountains of North Carolina is a welcome change, back “on the road again…”

Van life for me is very weather dependent and I don’t like the cold, perhaps even less if that were possible, while living in a well appointed, well insulated tin box. I move to the tune of the seasons, no bad thing. In a van I get to escape the cold if I choose. 

It is traditional to express New Years hopes at this time of the year and you don’t want iconoclastic me telling you time is a human construct and the New Year has no meaning (I told you I don’t accept normal social attitudes which makes me hard to be around) so I wish you all the best in 2023 and trust you will forge ahead with whatever makes you happy and with proper planning. And please don’t let the fearmongers hold you back. Fear breeds cruelty and cruelty is no way to live. 

I look back to Rusty romping on the beach at Puerto Lobos last New Year’s Eve and all the fearmongers who were convinced Mexico would kill him, not liberate him. If it had killed him he’d have died happy.

Happy NewYear Everyone and in the words of Joseph Campbell:

“Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”