We live in a society built on fear. To live unconventionally in that world is to pile fear on fear. The big “what if…” comes into view. And death is always the feared outcome. If you go to Mexico you will be violently assaulted, your dog will starve and your van will break. And then when none of that happens the prophets of doom turn away, shrug their shoulders and mutter that he was “lucky.” To be an outlier is not how you prove fear-filled theories wrong. It’s how you prove them to be true. A world of information turned upside down, where you reinforce your fears by ignoring any countervailing information.
I was happy, almost as happy as Rusty, in Maine, land of rocks and water and miraculous momentary sunshine and flat waters. Layne was not; the nickel sized hole in her leg wasn’t healing and it hurt. In Tucson she had a cancer cell removed months ago just before we started our circumnavigation of the country. By the time we reached Maine it still hadn’t healed and passing doctors did no more than hand out antibiotics and look glum. Laynes sister said she knew a doctor capable of running tests and doing a sensible diagnosis. In two and a half days we rolled down the interstates from Bangor Maine to Durham North Carolina, stopping at rest areas to sleep with barely a walk for Rusty. Were we living in a proper house we’d have had a whole system of medical care already known to us and right there! Silly van lifers…
The last half day’s drive took us through the Appalachians, wet and cold but with no signs of Tropical Storm Ian. That monster left just a few trees down around here, already cleared away as if it had never been. Southwest Florida knows different. The doctor, a family friend of Layne’s sister, herself a doctor, did the tests and lab work at the hospital and all is well. The wound is healing slowly and painfully and that is all.
Spruce Pine on a fifty degree afternoon under heavy clouds full of freezing drizzle was not my ideal spot to walk Rusty but he takes everything in stride. And that I guess has been a lesson to learn. We enjoyed ourselves, more and more as the cheerful texts from Layne inside the hospital reported one negative test after another. Medicare paid for everything, no insurance companies were involved authorizing treatment or as usual denying services. I get Medicare November 1st and I can’t wait. Single payer at long last.
An oil change for GANNET2 and a squirt with the grease gun on my new heavy duty u-joints which hold the front wheels on, installed by Kip at Promasters Only in Ohio, and we we were done. On the road and babbling cheerfully like fools who dodged a bullet.
I have never been interested in teaching others or encouraging others to do what I do. People used to ask me for recommendations for places to eat in Key West. In my linear world that question begs a biography from you: do you like shellfish? Steak? Vegetarian? Are you patient? Do you want stand up food? Take out? How clean do the bathrooms have to be? I have come to understand the question is just a way of conversing and most people don’t really want information. I am terrible at small talk and I know it so I retreat from social situations. If cornered I can hold my own but it exhausts me. I tend to retreat into my shell.
So I can safely say to those that have read this page for a while, a fact that astonishes me, you know my driving around in a van is strictly for me. I would not recommend shitting in a bucket, sleeping in parking lots, and not knowing what the day will bring to anyone. I absolutely love it. This is the life I dreamed of every day and night I sat at the police station and answered 911. I thought we would go back to sailing but van life is way better. People who know me say they see the difference…naturally I have no idea what to reply to such compliments. I am shy.
I hope it is clear by now that things go wrong everywhere. Living in a van is no different and when you have a problem you fix it. Had the cancer returned we’d have dealt with it. There is no denying I had a lot on my mind, Layne’s health, the possibility of no travel for a while etc…But as we gear up to leave in two months to start the real journey, the multi year trip to the tip of South America, to anyone who asks I say we will travel until we break or GANNET2 breaks. We have prepared, we have tested our gear and we know we are on the down hill slope to infirmity and death. But this is what those Social Media Memes you pass around about “living life to the fullest every day”actually look like when you step outside the bounds of convention. There are thousands of old timers and youngsters like us driving, riding, walking, sailing all over the place. They have problems; they fix them. We shall introduce you to them. They like this life as we do and among the travelers I feel at home among my people.
Meanwhile we will repack GANNET2, do some moochdocking in the mountains and prepare for the last leg of our drive to Key West. Friends to see on the way and say goodbyes, familiar roads, vacation haunts and then the final drive West back to Naco, Arizona/Sonora and the long drive south. Until we break.
I cannot wait to get back and deal with the fears and challenges and emotional purity of life on the road in parts unknown.
