Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
Van Life: Dreaming of Sleekness
For some reason, I’ve been getting a lot of Facebook reels of people living in their Honda or their panel truck or some other kind of vehicle not intended to be housing. In the reels, folks always look super cozy. They’re sipping hot chocolate (or maybe something stronger) and they’re snuggled under a plush, puffy comforter.
So, I think – I could do that. I could enter a world of complete and total minimalism. Own just a single cup, one plate, and a frying pan. I could shower in state parks or, as my son who works at Planet Fitness suggests, buy a membership for $10 a month and shower there. I could watch movies on my phone and wear a headlamp to maneuver around the van or outside in the forest which is, why I don’t know, where I envision myself being parked.
I actually have a headlamp.
The politically aware and socially conscious part of me abhors the notion that people would ever live in their vehicles. But I’m not so sure that people living in their vehicles always feel that way. Maybe.
There is that notion of radical shedding. The bliss of cutting off your long bothersome hair and walking out of the salon clean like a Marine. Running your hands over your scalp and feeling liberated from the tedium of tending to hair. The lightness of carrying only a backpack on to the airplane, knowing that everything is in the backpack. You have no checked bags. You have underwear and a toothbrush, and matches should you need to smoke or start a fire. Sleek. That’s the feeling. Sleek.
We own a van so this whole discussion isn’t as farfetched as one might think. It’s bigger than a Honda, for sure, but has just a one burner stove and a doll-size refrigerator. No bathroom. No couch or flat screen TV. It is essentially a hard-sided tent. We drove by acres of vans and cars and RVs parked (boondocked) in the Arizona dessert and I thought, could we do that? Could we live with water in a rinsed-out gallon milk jug? Fry up dinner in an 8-inch frying pan? Wander around in the dark with just our headlamps and the stars to guide us? Do people love this? Do the folks living in those dessert encampments feel liberated or worn down by their necessary minimalism?
I don’t know. I never assume that people are happy or unhappy. Feeling liberated or oppressed by their circumstances. It’s not for me to judge although it’s fair game to conjecture, romanticize, yearn for the shorn scalp, think of oneself as a spare and unadorned traveler. Dream of sleekness.
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Listen to Jan read her essay “Billy” presented on WUWM’s Lake Effect
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“Fury Cannot Touch Me,” Modern Love, NYT, 9/29/11
One of those things that sounds good in theory but isn’t that easy or comfortable to pull off:)
You’re so right. Easy to romanticize.
You know it.
I love how you write; expressing yourself perfectly. I am one of those you speak of; I leave the comforts of my 11×40 home 4 months each year. I travel vicariously throughout the U.S. towing my 5×8 “home away from home.”. I am almost 70, a female, and travel alone. I leave behind my 2 sons, 6 grandchildren, and one great granddaughter. They miss me yet support my desire to live outside of the box in my final chapter of life. I find so much peace in my travels, simple, yet complete. Thank you for your stories!
Hi Mikki – thanks for sharing your story. I’m really curious to hear more. Are you a blogger? Do you write about your travels?
No i’m not a blogger; truthfully don’t really know what that would entail. I keep a journal of all my travels for my family to one day have. I am preparing for my 5th trip; to hopefully begin April 13th this year. The only place I post my travels is on my Facebook page. I rarely use Facebook, only when I travel. Many friends have asked me to share through that medium so that they can “travel vicariously with me.”. I really haven’t been interested in taking up a lot of time to start YouTube or “blog?”. Thanks for your interest; you can check out my past and upcoming trips on my facebook page!
Thank you! I will look for you.
That kind of minimalism never appealed to me. I am not getting old; I AM old. These achy old bones need a soft bed. Nip coming to tuck, I could make do in a tepee. Even my little one was remarkably comfortable. The problem is the lack of electricity and running water. A small generator maybe? And a nearby stream?
And a society which will let you be there.
I like flushable toilets. My dreams of minimalism always include hot showers.
I’m with you. I’m pretty good roughing it for about a week and then it goes south for me.
That’s right ~ makes a big difference whether there’s a home to come back to in between or this is 24/7 forever.
Exactly.
When people quibble about this imperfection or that one in my appearance when compared with the sterile standard of the housed entitled, I feel like asking them how their own vehicle and person looked upon arriving home from their last three day road trip ~ and they were probably able to take advantage of running water somewhere along the way (I can only bathe when I will be indoors quietly for the following several hours).
For me it’s been three years, and I’d like to see any one of them keep a constantly vandalized minivan residence looking like an art car every time they drive it out. A little reasonability and understanding seems in order, right?
It takes tremendous skill, stamina, and ingenuity to do what you are doing.
There’s minimalism, which I embrace, and then there is temporary deeper minimalism, which I could embrace for a time. I cannot however pee in the forest, or desert or really anywhere that is not a toilet without peeing all over my shoes or pants or whatever. I was a Girl Scout. I would not have ever achieved the badge for Outdoor Peeing without Incident.
Which reminds…they now have those devices for females to aid in peeing standing up which actually might allow longer than temporary minimalism in that regard. Seriously though, I think my pioneer lifestyle would run out at about 3 days.
Yes – there’s actually a male and female version. Lots of accommodation if you don’t mind a little splashing. LOL
whatever makes people happy is fine by me. probably a lot of freedom in that choice. have you seen ‘nomadland’ with Frances mcdormand? excellent movie
Yes! Great movie and she was amazing. The book, Nomadland, is actually sitting on my desk as we speak. Fascinating.
I’ll have to read the book –