Van Life
Today is the third anniversary of us living full time in the van. We left Arizona in this fancy machine on September 9, 2021 and headed straight to California. We had no important destination or timeline, and no idea how the RV part of our van worked. We left for the Santa Barbara area because we knew and loved it, and because we knew the weather would be great. We had just moved all of our belongings into two storage units and left at 9:30 at night (after this horrendously difficult task), driving through the night in 100 degree temps until we hit the beach at six am and pulled over to sleep.
We left after the worst of Covid. Our lease was up and we knew we wanted to move, just not where. My husband hated Arizona and wanted some greenery, and I had nothing holding me to Arizona any longer, after both of my parents had passed away from old age.
Honestly, we are still unsure where we want to relocate. There are many factors which affect this decision other than just living in a nice location - things such as house prices, taxes, quality of medical care, natural beauty, and level of sophistication; ie restaurants and shopping. My husband could live in the forest, but I am from NYC and simply cannot.
While it is certainly nice to see the Country in a traveling hotel room, and I would never sell this van, van life does have its limits. I can’t work out the way I would like to, doing yoga and jumping on my mini trampoline. Skincare and mani / pedis have gone the way of the Dodo. As a previous fashionista who majored in Clothing and Textiles (in addition to Studio Art), I have been somehow relegated to wearing leggings, T shirts and tank tops because the laundromat would ruin most else. And, last but not least, I cannot use art supplies in the van. I am used to painting with paints, hand-dyeing clothing, and just making 3D things in general, and I can do none of these things in the van. So, I bought an iPad and taught myself Procreate in order to create art, and set myself to improving my illustration abilities as I was previously mostly an abstract artist.
On the bright side, however, are the absolutely stunning and far-reaching places we have been able to visit, as well as having our travels further an extremely thorough vetting of locations where we may wish to settle. I have also been able to visit places I had lived when younger, nearly all on the east coast.
Our first stay, though, was literally on the Apple campus in Sunnyvale, CA. We stayed for three months in this location while everyone was working from home. It was quiet and simply beautiful.
We visited my old house in Monte Sereno, and the elementary school I went to for two years. Then we ventured east and visited Boston, where I lived for five years in my early 20s. My husband loves Boston because it is the American city most reminding him of Europe.
We also visited Cape Cod and hung out in Provincetown where I had gone on a bike trip when I was 15. Finally, we travelled through beautiful Florida, where I also used to live.
My most favorite, though, was Manhattan, where I am from. It is from there that I moved to Arizona over 30 years ago.
We parked the van near Jersey City, hopped the train into lower Manhattan, and got off at the WTC stop. In 1994, I had dragged my husband to the top of the Twin Towers, and now we were visiting the two Memorials in the ground.
At the Oculus (I may or may not have worn a wife beater into the heart of Manhattan 😳)
We also stopped at Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village, where I used to hang out with my friends in high school, and at my old apartment on Spring Street.
We stood on line for an hour to get into a wonderful (and free!) exhibit called Bloomtanica! We walked the West Village and into the Meatpacking District where I used to party in my early 20s at a club called Area.
All in all, what really shocked me about visiting Manhattan was how quiet, peaceful and beautiful it was. There were little gardens everywhere, butterflies, gorgeous cobblestone streets, ivy growing on stone buildings, no traffic, and friendly, regular people walking leisurely around. Frankly, it was NOT how I remembered it. I remember it being crazy hectic with loud noises, trucks barreling down tiny streets, and garbage and dust flying everywhere. But it was all so bucolic in a kind of citified way. I’m not sure if it was because we were in the west village, or whether it is an after-effect of the pandemic. There was none of the sturm and drang that I remember. Conversely, I also noticed a lack of great restaurants and very few independent boutiques like there used to be, so maybe it actually IS because of Covid. Next time, we will visit uptown and see if it, too, has changed.
So, yes, I will never sell this van because of all of the wonderful places I can visit - not only by the beaches and lakes and in the woods, but to the expensive and fun cities that would cost just so much more and entail that much more drama than just rolling up to in our van. Yet, I still cannot wait to settle somewhere and just get busy creating.
There are many things I want to add to The Colormobile - my illustration portfolio, a line of totes using licensed artwork, rugs, original paintings, and handmade clothing and jewelry. At some point, I may also have to rebrand The Colormobile. A recent poll of my friends revealed that they all love my name and logo (as do I), but we’re all a bunch of colorful hippies anyway. One of my friends, who started out as a customer, however, thought rebranding just using my name and a more professional logo (not a VW Bus) would lend more gravitas to my brand. My husband thinks this would be best, too. Perhaps as time goes by it will become more clear. I’d love to hear what you think!
Until then, happy (and colorful!) trails…