Maiden Voyage

....traveling into a new chapter

I am glad to share that I have safely landed at my Michigan destination! I took it slow on the long drive up from southern Florida, after the whirlwind of selling my house there, and completing my move-out and hand-over of the keys to happy new owners. I am thankful that they are excited to nurture all the fruit trees I planted there. My belongings (what is not in the van with my dog Sadie and me), are on their way by U-Haul truck, and will land in a warehouse in Michigan next week.

I enjoy the simplicity of the van-life, and so far I have not missed my other possessions! Though my eventual goal is to find a Michigan property with a house on it, so I suppose I will want those possessions then ;).

Our maiden voyage in the van was full of learning curves. There are quite a few things to remember to do each time we land for the night, and then pack up to get on the road again in the mornings. Because my Eco-Flow power bank for the home-space in the van quit a few days before our trip, I have extra electrical work-arounds to remember each time I switch from engine power to shore power, to keep my little fridge powered up. I look forward to getting the power bank replaced soon, which will allow me to keep most things powered for a few days even when I am somewhere with no outside electrical power to plug into (and longer if I get the solar panels out). For this trip, I made sure to land in places where I could plug-in. And then there is keeping up with dumping the gray-water tank and refilling the fresh-water tank. Closing up fans and windows, and securing anything that could get tossed about when the van is on the road.

I am so very grateful for electrical hookup right now, because it is unseasonably cold in Michigan (a huge adjustment for me!), and I am needing to run a space heater to keep things tolerable. Today as I write this, I am sitting at my tiny desk, on my folding stool, next to my little ceramic heater, my cheerful salt-lamp, and a cup of herbal tea, looking out the back windows at the beautiful country view on my son’s just-purchased 10-acre property. He and my pregnant daughter-in-law will not move here until their kitchen renovation is finished, so I have the place to myself most of the time. Very peaceful and quiet!

Back to the voyage that got us here…my 60-pound, 12-year-old dog Sadie had a rough start. She can’t get into the van by herself, and she struggled to maneuver around the small space once I hoisted her up and in. At first she would slink away and avoid the van, but now after just one week she seems to consider it her safe-spot, having nowhere else to call home anymore. She has claimed a nest in the passenger seat, and a den under my platform bed, and she has learned how to maneuver her body through the tight spaces. This morning from our stationary spot she enjoyed her place in the passenger seat, with the rays from the sunrise streaming through the windshield. She is skittish about all the wild animal scents on this large property that has been mostly uninhabited by people for a long time, and she wants to stay close to the van still. I will encourage another adventure this afternoon. Little by little we adjust, and adjust, and adjust yet again. Now that we have a longer-term home-base, I think she will begin to relax and unwind.

A special kind of resilience develops from living like this, for those with the fortitude to navigate the extra stressors and inconveniences. I know Sadie is counting on me to be her grounding rod in this process, and I wish she could tell me exactly what she needs. She has only eaten a few meals the entire week, so I know she is nervous still. She reminds me to pay close attention to what I need on this journey, too. This weekend, I need extra rest and quiet, after all the rush of highway traffic the past 6 days. We also had some bad weather to dodge, including driving rain and high winds a couple of days. We stayed an extra night outside my cousin’s home in Knoxville, Tennessee, on account of particularly nasty weather north of us on our route. I was glad to have safe haven in her home when the local tornado warnings came at 11pm. And I was also glad to snuggle back into my personalized van-home later in the night, once the storms had passed.

Most of the trek north passed by in a sort of relaxed survival-mode, if that makes any sense to anyone else?! My mind wasn’t ready to process any profound thoughts or insights, as there was constantly something new to navigate with full attention. In a strange way I find this mentally relaxing, in the sense that it is clear exactly what needs attention in any given moment, and you just simply show up for it, alert and present. I suppose I could have been really anxious about all the new things, but instead I was feeling released from the endless responsibilities, and pressurized to-do list of the previous couple of months spent readying everything for the handing over of the Florida property, and for the launch-day for my next chapter.

I am definitely tired from the sustained epic efforts of the past couple of months. I bit off a lot at once, to get the van-home comfortably functional (starting from scratch with an empty cargo van), while simultaneously preparing to sell my FL home and move cross-country again. Thankfully, I had tons of help with the van-build from a dear friend, but there were still countless details for me to help with. My brain and body just want to rest for a bit. Slowly, it will fully register that I have returned to my Michigan homeland to put down new roots, this time as a grandmother ready to be an integral part of my grandkids’ lives, and to share closely in the many joys of this chapter with my grown children who are all here now.

I will remember my strategies for meeting the colder climate as gracefully and creatively as I can, and I will have my bug-out van for migrating south when I need some Florida warmth, and reconnection with my Florida community. I am looking forward to a wonderful Michigan summertime, and to kicking it off in style with a camping trip with my kids on beautiful Lake Michigan next weekend. I really hope it warms up in time!

Left to right: 1. Sadie ready to roll! 2. Sadie catching the morning rays from base-camp. 3. Just landed at our sweet nature-camp in Michigan. 4. The deer are curious about the van. 5 & 6. Glimpses of the van interior, version 1.0 — insulated, covered walls and ceilings are the next big project, when I can get to it!