way OT: Living in a van

[hurricane hugo]

[font:Verdana]Ever think about it?

 

winter time:

 

shower time:

 

team dog:

 

down by the river:

 

three's company:

 

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[desertbluesman]

I didn't watch the videos above but I did live in my converted van for many years, I had screened in windows that opened up, a vent on top that opened and closed, and a bed platform with under bed storage, a dresser, and a cooler. And of course my acoustic guitar, mechanics tools, and my bricklaying/masonry tools hidden out under the bed except when in use.

 

Traveling the USA I have been to every state in my van, except Alaska and Hawaii, I did fly to Hawaii 2x so I have been in every state except Alaska. I spent most of my time in the van in several places. Mainly in my home town, on my home Island in NJ, long winter trips to San Diego County California, and in Florida for some winters. I actually enjoyed it a bunch except when I could not get a RV site or a site in a county or state park. Then it was a pain getting bathroom and showers. Fortunately in the California state parks, you can walk in and put a token in the showers, and get a shower if no sites were available.

 

I enjoyed the lifestyle immensely when I was younger. The van was freedom for me after my divorce from my first wife. I sold my house and I took my kids, whom I raised, all over the USA on surf trips. It was fun times.

 

I also lived in several vans after I hooked up with my present wife. We had several vans which we converted to the style mentioned above. Then we bought our first travel trailer, and that ended the van only lifestyle. We moved around the country in those travel trailers (3 of them at different times) for about 6 years or so until we bought an RV site in an upscale RV/Mobile Home park. After a year of living in our last travel trailer we bought a little mobile home for our deeded lot. Now we are dead in the water unless we get lucky with the lotto.

[KuruPrionz]

Long ago and far away I spent almost 2 years living in a teepee in the Mendocino county foothills northwest of Clear Lake.

I ate sticks and dirt and wiped with moss.

 

I had my Martin D-35 and a cat named Pearl who I got after mice ate a really nice sweater I had. Pearl eradicated the local mouse population without mercy or remorse.

Back then $40 a month in food stamps went a long way.

 

I'm glad I did it and I am glad I don't have to do it now!!!!

[desertbluesman]

Long ago and far away I spent almost 2 years living in a teepee in the Mendocino county foothills northwest of Clear Lake.

I ate sticks and dirt and wiped with moss.

 

I had my Martin D-35 and a cat named Pearl who I got after mice ate a really nice sweater I had. Pearl eradicated the local mouse population without mercy or remorse.

Back then $40 a month in food stamps went a long way.

 

I'm glad I did it and I am glad I don't have to do it now!!!!

 

We go to the Clear Lake area visiting family. We stay on the south west side of the lake, inland a few miles near Cobb area. I also spent a lot of time up further north in the Weaverville area and lived there (in the van, and at friends houses) for several seasons. I also hit the State of California for food stamps during my Weaverville/Lewiston stays up there. A bunch of my old hippy friends went back to the land escaping the Height Ashbury scene for the open country joy of Trinity County. We came from out east to visit them, and stayed a few years on and off. It was a real change for us east coast folks, and that opened my, eyes to the beauty of the western side of the USA.

[KuruPrionz]

Long ago and far away I spent almost 2 years living in a teepee in the Mendocino county foothills northwest of Clear Lake.

I ate sticks and dirt and wiped with moss.

 

I had my Martin D-35 and a cat named Pearl who I got after mice ate a really nice sweater I had. Pearl eradicated the local mouse population without mercy or remorse.

Back then $40 a month in food stamps went a long way.

 

I'm glad I did it and I am glad I don't have to do it now!!!!

 

We go to the Clear Lake area visiting family. We stay on the south west side of the lake, inland a few miles near Cobb area. I also spent a lot of time up further north in the Weaverville area and lived there (in the van, and at friends houses) for several seasons. I also hit the State of California for food stamps during my Weaverville/Lewiston stays up there. A bunch of my old hippy friends went back to the land escaping the Height Ashbury scene for the open country joy of Trinity County. We came from out east to visit them, and stayed a few years on and off. It was a real change for us east coast folks, and that opened my, eyes to the beauty of the western side of the USA.

 

 

Nice. Yes, it is a wonderful place and I am grateful to have had that experience.

[surfergirl]

This is what we want to do when it is safe to travel and we can afford it. We would go to Santa Cruz and Lake Tahoe. There is a place Southern California that rents VW champers, but you're limited to San Diego and Santa Barbara and you have to be 25.

 

https://www.escapecampervans.com/campervans/santa-cruz/

[KuruPrionz]

This is what we want to do when it is safe to travel and we can afford it. We would go to Santa Cruz and Lake Tahoe. There is a place Southern California that rents VW champers, but you're limited to San Diego and Santa Barbara and you have to be 25.

 

https://www.escapecampervans.com/campervans/santa-cruz/

 

Those are great places but there is so much more on the West Coast. The drive up highway 1 through the Avenue of the Redwoods is stunning and there are good campgrounds along the way.

Ashland Oregon - the Shakespeare Festival is highly regarded internationally and worth a visit.

 

Newport OR and other small coastal cities are gorgeous. The Olympic Rain Forest is amazing, there are all sorts of beautiful spots up here in Whatcom County.

If the border opens, the drive south from Whistler BC to Washington during the fall months is jaw dropping, orange and red maples, the islands in the water with the mist. Hard to stay on the road, you just want to look at the scenery.

 

Or, south a bit on the 101 from Santa Cruz - the Central Coast area with Morro Bay (how did that gigantic rock even get there), Pismo Beach and San Luis Obispo are all awesome.

 

I'm sure I am leaving something out. Don't go to Fresno or Bakersfield in the summer unless you want to roast like a chicken!!!!!

[desertbluesman]

The very first time we went west, we drove on Interstate 80 all the way across the country, then past the great lakes we went up to I-90 to Seattle Washington then west to Highway 101 and south all the way down the coast to the Mexican Border with several offshoots to Hy 1 in California which sometimes is closer to the coast than 101. We also went through Big Sur which is an awesome drive. We traveled almost the whole length of the west coast on that first trip.

 

Our house was several hundred feet from the Atlantic ocean on Long Beach Island New Jersey which is as flat a land mass as you can find anywhere in the USA. To see that mountains and the west coast was as stunning a sight as anyone could imagine. We did drop down to Yellowstone on that trip and the Grand Tetons, which was also awesome.

 

Many times we went to northern California and camped in the Redwoods, and camped in many spots along the coast, and in the mountains. But our favorite is still North County San Diego because of the weather which is as steady year round as anywhere on the continent. The wife and I still camp at San Elijo State Beach in Cardiff By The Sea California several times a year in late spring and early fall https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=662 .

[KuruPrionz]

Sounds awesome DBM. You drove the 100 miles of straight 80 on the perfectly flat and white salt flats?

One of my most surreal experiences as a boy, Dad was driving home from a family visit to Minnesota. I liked riding shotgun when everybody else was trying to sleep.

I thought how you could just let go of the steering wheel at 80mph, and as long as you didn't hit one of the power poles alongside the road not much would happen no matter where you went.

 

A beautiful yet dire place.

 

One of my favorite journeys pre-Covid was to take the train from Bellingham to Seattle. Much of the trip is right on the coastline, if you are quick you can get a seat on the ocean side. Incredible scenery down and back!

 

We live in a beautiful world indeed!

[desertbluesman]

Sounds awesome DBM. You drove the 100 miles of straight 80 on the perfectly flat and white salt flats?

 

Yep, I forgot about that part of the trip amigo. I have been through there several times. I would drive that way after the first 2 trips on I-90 out west so after that, I stayed on I-80 through Colorado and Utah because I was always headed towards San Diego County for surfing. And I no longer needed to see the north west after the few times I was through there.

 

But mostly when crossing the country from NJ after 3 or 4 trips west, I usually went the southern route, I drove down I-95 in Jersey to I-66 West of DC, to I-81 through the Virginia Mountains to Knoxville Tenn, and onto I-40 to Little Rock Arkansas, then I-30 to Dallas Ft Worth, to I-20 to I-10 at Van Horn Tx area, then to I-8 near Casa Grand Az to Interstate 5 north to Cardiff By The Sea Ca in 3 days, (Day 1 to west of Memphis, day 2 to Van Horn Tx, Day 3 to Cardiff by the Sea) I was surfing mid afternoon on the third day and comatose from driving 18 hour days for those 2.& 3/4 days. But as soon as I stepped into the Pacific on that third afternoon ,I was pumped if there were waves. But I slept like a baby for that 3rd night. I drove that so many times I no longer needed to look at a map. because once I saw most of the country on my 2 or 3 trips on I-80 & I-90, I was no longer interested in the scenery, I just wanted to get to the Pacific surf. I took my kids surfing out west for about 10 years in the fall winter months.

 

I also hitchhiked the west coast on 101 and Ca Hy 1 just for the jollies, even though I had transportation which I left in southern Ca, that was fun.

[Larryz]

I didn't live in a van, but my buddy and I at the age of 19 back in 1969 took off from San Jose CA, in a 58 Chevy pulling a two man fiberglass sleeping/camping trailer with a contoured boat on top. We were just heading for Vancouver Canada to spend a week maybe two with our guitars and amps. We picked up a couple of hitch hikers from Toronto Canada up at Mount Shasta. They told us of all the places they visited on the road and what a great trip they were having. We took them with us to Vancouver and they told us if we are ever in Toronto they would throw us a party and to drop in. Well, we met a couple of girls on the beach in Vancouver from Montreal Canada and they too invited us to drop by! So low and behold we just took off across Canada vising other relatives on the way and made it to Montreal and Toronto. Then we headed down to New York and Washington DC. Then down the east coast to Florida and out to Key West. Then through the South to New Orleans. Across Texas to Juarez Mexico. Up to Oklahoma back down to Arizona and Old Mexico. Up to the Grand Canyon, back down and over to LA. Up the west coast back to our home in San Jose. We were on the road working for gas money from town to town visiting all our relatives for 4 months! If it hadn't been right around Christmas time, we would have kept going. Then we got drafted and wound up in the Army LOL! :cool:

[KuruPrionz]

Great stories everybody!!!!

 

I hitchhiked from Fresno CA to Boston MA and most of the way back (got to Cheyenne WY and got stuck) when I was 17 years old. Mom sent money to take the bus to Denver and fly home.

I probably should have figured something else out but being a hippie in Cheyenne at that point in time was not such a great idea. I avoided getting my ass kicked, something I have always been very good at!

 

I hitched up and down the West Coast quite a few times, including a very poorly timed trip to Vancouver BC in December. You can ask me what the hell I was thinking but, I wasn't thinking (obviously!). That turned into - get to Vancouver, stay one night in a hotel while it snowed and then hitchhike south before I ran out of money. Kinda cold and wet, that trip. Stupid too.