Ok, THAT was too close for comfort

Took the van out today, headed for the mechanic shop just outside of the city.  Started up on the 3rd try and probably would have started on the first try if i did something different. A new-to-me vehicle can take a little getting used to, particularly one with a standard transmission. I got stuck on a hill at the lights next door to my old apartment. I kept rolling back quite far, and finally got up it in second gear. It's tricky enough in a car, let alone a big van camper that's 25 years old and unfamiliar to me. I'm sure I'll get the knack soon enough, but it was worrisome for a few minutes. The asshole behind me kept inching closer, until I had no room to roll with my start.


It's pissing rain out, and a friggin gale of wind as well, blowing me around.  So I gave up and came home, and rescheduled the appt for Monday. I have work to do (job) so will just take it with me and work on it while waiting for the van to be ready. I'm hoping it doesn't need any work, just the new inspection (for transfer of ownership - stupid new NS rules).


I'm heading out soon to pick up some items to finish off the curtains for the van. Can't wait to get them in there later today and start moving in. I didn't want to put anything in there until the curtains were all back up. There won't be much of any value in there anyhow, just bedding and dishes, camping gear, etc. I want to pick up some dowels to block the windows from being forced open too.  There are locks but it won't hurt to have something extra.  After all, I am traveling alone for a fair piece of it (and Stormy, but he is a pussycat).


It's all coming together, and I am starting to get rather excited. It sure has been a great distraction from thinking about the unpleasant moments of the past year, like my father dying and my apartment building burning down on New Year's Eve.  I'm moving on, literally.

And then I bought it.

So the biggest hurdle has been completed. I bought a 1985 Volkswagon Vanagon. I am finally housed for the journey that lies ahead of Stormy and I. I will pick it up tomorrow as I have to fetch me some insurance and transfer the registration. Wow. For the first time in my life I have owned two vehicles at the same time. Of course, I'll be selling the car, post haste, but for now, I am a two-car owner.


I'm going to pick it up tomorrow at some point, and then I have a lot of work to do, so I hope we get some nice warm weather soon! March is just around the corner and sunny warm March days can be awesome to be out working on a vehicle. I am not referring to anything mechanical.  I may know the names of things and have a general idea of how things work, but I'll be letting a real mechanic under the hood.  My work will be in scouring that thing clean so we can start in a fresh pad; moving our stuff in, and of course, my favorite part - pimping the ride. I am going to try and not go overboard as I have to remember I might be looking at this stuff for a whole year in a confined space. Having said that, it will definitely be more than it appears now - white outside, and beige with brown trim inside.  Yawwwwnnn....


So I have some groovy fabric I picked up at Wal-Mart in Sydney a few weeks ago.  I'll be making new curtains for the bus, all around. I may have some left for other things like a pillow or seat cushion.  I'm taking down the rods and putting up velcro instead. I know I'm clumsy and would find a way to gash my head open on the rods as I moved about the bus. And with velcro, I can take them off altogether to let the air flow through as needed.


I have pretty near everything I need for my traveling kitchen. I also have all the bedding, pillows, foamie, towels, etc. I also have all my gadgets, notebooks, writing stuff.  I still need some outdoor gear, like a new kayak paddle, life jacket, and camp chairs. I lost all of those in the fire.  I had JUST taken them out a week or two prior to the fire.


It will be interesting to see just how much I can fit into the bus without it exploding out of the cupboards. I don't want crammed, I want efficiently packed. There is a difference. 


So much to do, so little time, but ready to GO.

Van update

So the orange westy was a bust - too much repairwork needed with the engine. Not a good way to start out on a yearlong journey. This is the one I'm considering now. Certainly less character than an old bus, but more reliable is the hope.  Tomorrow is the test drive and Monday it's off to the mechanic for a good checkover.

The Westy Update

So I went to see a 1972 Westfalia camper van. It was the same one I saw last summer on a road near my parent's apartment.  I had wanted to take a look then but I knew I wouldn't have the funds for several months, so just took photos and wrote the info down. It disappeared a few weeks later, only to reappear again for a few more weeks.  Then it was gone, until now. I found it earlier this week on kijiji and it is for sale. The gal who is selling it bought it in anticipation of a trip similar to mine, but her group has grown to 5 people, so they need something bigger.  She has others interested in the van, so I sure hope my $$$ comes in this week, before she sells it to someone else.


The van is a little different than I was expecting, but not a real big issue actually. The previous owner did the restoration, and while it isn't a terrible job, it wasn't a perfect job. He ripped out the cabinet with the sink, and the stationary seat behind the driver. In it's place he installed a bar fridge, one of the larger ones, about 3 feet tall, and brand new.  This will make food storage a whole lot better and less likelihood that I will get food poisoning. The old style fridges are not that efficient. Now the van has bigger space to move about as well, except now no one can sit on the other side of the table. But that's okay. I am going to get a storage cube for another seat that can pull up on the end of the table, or anywhere. 

The camper top is new, as is the canvas tent, which is great, as I intend to have it up most of the time, when I'm parked. The seats are in okay condition, and I was planning to buy seatcovers anyway.  The slatted windows all work and the screens are just fine, which is GREAT. I didn't try the roll down ones as the van was covered in ice and snow.  The cushion fabric is a little dirty,  but I'm not sure that I'll bother to get new covers as I intend to just throw a blanket over the seat anyway, as I can wash the blanket easily.  The curtains are a bit gawdy and poorly made so I'll be making new ones. Currently they are on little aluminum rails that are sharp and bent a bit, but I think I'll just stick some velcro on the van and velcro the curtains up. That way I can easily take them down when I want, and they'll go up just as easily.  I can take off just some of the curtain or all of it. And I just know I would slam my head into one of the rods if I leave them there. 


The gal who is selling the van gave me the name of the mechanic who has been doing the restoration, so I will call him to verify some things and an estimate for the remaining work to be done.  It is minimal if what the gal disclosed is all I need to put it on the road. 


There is no radio in it, just a gaping hole, but that suits me just fine. The van already  the speakers wired in and I'm guessing the former owner took the radio out to use elsewhere.  I was planning on getting a stereo put in if there wasn't one. I couldn't live without music. I'll take my sirius from car.

The Sunrise Tour, explained

As I have been preparing for this trip, I've been talking about it more. I haven't been real vocal about my plans until they started to look like they could all happen.  People have had a lot of questions about my trip, which I enjoy answering, so thought I would post a few of them here.


Q. Why are you choosing to travel now? 
A. I had been planning a major travel year aka gap year for many years, since I took my very first backpacking trip (Ireland and England).  It hasn't always been this version, but for the past 4 years, it's been pretty close. 


Q. Are you going alone?
A. Originally I had hoped to travel with my friend S., and our plan was to buy a camper and travel through Mexico, Central America, and South America for a year or more, and then head to Europe to work for a few years - she was thinking about Saudi Arabia and I was (and still am) considering the UK, Northern Ireland if possible.  My plan is still moving forward as my funds are being gathered as expected.  She was relying on playing the stock market, and had been doing pretty well for a few years, spent hours a day researching and talking about the market with other investors.  But this past year or more, the market took some heavy losses, so while she didn't lose her shirt, she lost her gains that she had hoped to use to travel with.  So I am striking out alone. However, having said that, I do expect to be traveling with other travelers at times, and have friends/relatives that are hoping to join me for a portion of the trip, depending on where they are and where they want to join me.


Q. Why do you need a Gap year? 
A. Well, I have been busy my whole life, fulfilling the needs of others, as well as my own, and have been a slave to my education - first the years of university and then the years of paying off massive student loans.  I need a break, time to breathe.  I've gone from adolescent student to adolescent bride and mother to single parent university student to single parent university graduate with huge student loans to pay.  The marriage has been over more than a decade, the child has grown up into a lovely young woman (23), and my student loans are going to be paid off this spring.  Now it is time for ME.  I need to find out who I am, what I want to do with my life now, with no deadlines or debts.


Q. So what will you be doing for a whole year?
A. Well, a great deal of the time I will be driving, as I'm planning a road trip.  I also plan to stop in and visit with friends and family along the way.  A good bit of time will be spent exploring either on foot, car, or water. I'm taking my kayak. I also expect to read a great deal, one of my very favorite things to do when I have the time to get into a good book. My main focus for the entire trip however, will be to increase my writing time. I've been writing for most of my life, but never an actual book.  I've had a smattering of newspaper articles published, a commentary for CBC, some info for a Lonely Planet guidebook, tons of newsletters/newspapers here and there, other bits and pieces, all of my university writing, and of course, my many blogs.  I feel like I have a lot inside to write, but need to get away from debts and deadlines to get it all down without feeling rushed. 


Q. How can you afford to go?
A. Well, it's plain and simple. I am paying off my student loans this year with money I am getting for my house in Newfoundland. My other debts are very minimal, and will also be paid off, leaving me debt-free. That doesn't happen often.  I'll get a good tax refund, as I have some good deductions. I'm selling my car, that will give me some more.  And then my apartment burned down on New Year's Eve, leaving me with nothing to pack, and a sizable insurance check.  If things get tight, I'll either head north or get a job. I have my education, and as my wise father said to me many times, your education is never too heavy to carry around, so get it when you can.  And if I really want to dream, I may get paid for something that I write on this trip.


Q. What will it cost to travel for that long? 
A. Well, having the VW camper is key to the budget. I can sleep in the camper anytime I want, almost anywhere I want. So costs related to that would simply be the purchase price, the insurance, gas and occasional repairs.  Much less than renting an apartment for $1000/month($12, 000 a year!!!) and I can cook in it. I have camping gear, propane stove, and there is a small fridge in the camper. So with cooking for myself, and accommodation out of the equation, my living costs are pretty low compared to other trips I've taken where I had to pay for hotel/hostel, restaurants, and bus/train fares from town to town. I'll be keeping detailed notes and books regarding the costs, so will know what the trip costs me in the end.



Q. Where are you going?
A. Well, from Nova Scotia I'm  heading to New Brunswick for a few days, then through Quebec to the old city, then down into southwestern Ontario for a few weeks to visit friends and family. Heading west from there, stopping in Winnipeg and Calgary before heading north to visit my girl in the Yukon (my daughter) for a week or more. From there, back to BC to visit my sister, then into the lower mainland for some visiting before heading to Victoria for several weeks. I'll be exploring the islands of BC during that time, and checking out the job market just in case.  From there, heading to San Francisco for the rest of the summer, then down into Mexico for the winter before heading north again up the eastern seaboard. Nothing is written in stone, at all. Anything can change and influence the journey's direction.


Q. Aren't you afraid to travel alone? 
A. Well, in Canada and the US, not so much. I've traveled quite a bit in my life alone, and in the career that I've had as a social worker, I've encountered a good smattering of some of the weirdness out there. I don't expect to be by myself all of the time, and I intend to spend several weeks in the some places. I am not planning to hang around the bar at night in Mexico.  I'm planning to keep to the smaller villages, away from the tourist traps and rich Americans they are looking to rob.  Anything could happen. I'll just have to take it one day at a time and not be stupid about safety.


Q. What if something happens to the bus? 
A. I'll cross that bridge if/when I come to it, however I reckon I will simply continue on foot or get another vehicle.  I make no promises on this journey, I just want to experience life, and what happens, happens.  I've learned to be very adaptable over the years. The camper will be my 34th home in 43 years.  I can handle it.  Hmmm, interestingly enough, those last two numbers are the exact birth years for my parents. Dad was born in 1934 and mom in 1943.  Interesting.