Travel + Vagabondness

And it begins . . .

i left the DC area and am on the road now. I’m not somewhere exotic or unique. I’m in Atlanta. My best friend lives here, so I’m bunking with her for a bit.

I got here last Sunday – and even though its been a week, almost everything I have is still in my car.

I have my computer, my bag (what most people call a purse), and a small suitcase. Everything else is still in th Green Beast (what I lovingly call my car).

As a side note – the green beast did an awesome job on the 625 mile journey. She gets a big gold star because she is 15 years old and has over 200,000 miles on her.

This is for a few reasons everything is still in my car:

1 – my big suitcase is about 1 million pounds and I have no desire to bring it up stairs.

2 – the Green Beast started out organized. Now I have no idea what is going on. The back of it looks like a segment from Hoarders: Vehicles.

The Green Beast is the car version of this. Blerg.

I have 34934908 blankets and pillows inside. I’m a bit obsessed with blankets and pillows. They are a jumbled up mess. Underneath the bedding is everything else I own. Apparently it’s not that important – since I haven’t seen any of it for a week and don’t really miss it.

I like this experiment. I’m ok wearing the same thing almost every day. I don’t really need all 34934908 blankets. I’m becoming a minimalist – the Stivers way.

Be social! Share :)

What about important things. . .like mail?

Mail

Say goodbye to extra paper!!!!

I knew there would be some logistical complications when becoming nomadic. Mail wasn’t my biggest concern – I haven’t thought enough of it to forward my mail from the other 349834038 places I have lived. But it was something to consider.

When I was moving out of my apartment, I was stuck between what to do with my mail.

Mail isn’t that important to me. Because of the awesomeness of the interwebs, I don’t get bills in the mail. Everything I receive is personal, packages of things I bought, or the occasional item like debit cards or my driver’s license (after losing it).

I was stuck between forwarding everything to my parents or using a virtual post office, like Virtual Post or Earth Class Mail. I didn’t really consider a P.O box – the post office won’t accept packages from UPS or Fed EX, and I can’t have things like debit cards or passports mailed there.

Technically, my parents are my permanent address, it’s just easier.  Until I recently lost my Arkansas license, and ended up getting a Virginia license, my license featured their address. That is also where my car is registered. My mom ends up doing a lot of things for me like trying to talk the Arkansas DMV into giving her my driver’s license and renewing my car registration. I don’t want her to have to do more. And they live in a town called Weiner. Even Jay Leno has made fun of the name (because of a headline “Flu Shots in Weiner”).

I went with Virtual Post. I can control my ‘real’ mail very similar to email. Score!

I have an address in California. It is very simple to manage. When I get mail, it is scanned in to the Virtual Post system. I get an email announcing “You have 1 new mail in mailbox #5147!”. The email shows a picture of the scanned envelope.

From there I simply log in and decide what I want to do with my mail. I choose between having it stored, opened and scanned, forwarded, recycled, or shredded. Virtual Post will mail, Fedex, or UPS something to me all over the world. It couldn’t be easier.

Friends keep asking if I’m worried about people going through my mail. And I’m not. Again, I don’t get anything that important. Any potential downside is trounced by not having to deal with paper. AND being able to forward all my 49834038 addresses to 1 place. I am so excited about this, I wish I would have done it before I stopped having a real home.

As I get further into living like a vagabond, I know I will come up against other, more complicated logistical issues – what are you interested in hearing about?

In the meantime, if you are interested in learning more about the logistics of nomadic living check out Life Nomadic and The Tiniest Mansion by Tynan. They are both short, simple, and thorough.

Don’t miss anything!
Join Unboxify now!

Be social! Share :)

Kindness of strangers

 Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.

- Blanche DuBois, A Streetcar Named Desire

I play ‘almost running out of gas’ roulette all the time. And I always win. Until today.

It is now:
Me: 10,000
Gas: 1

I needed gas last night. I REALLY needed it today. I was heading to the DMV (this day continued a saga of trying to get a driver’s license in Virginia) left the house to go get gas, but I forgot to put in my contacts.  I was going to the DMV, and was going to get an eye exam, I turned around and got my contacts.

I embarked on my journey again. This time I was behind a woman on a handicapped scooter – I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable, because there wasn’t room to pass and she was on the street, not the sidewalk, so I went a few blocks out of my way.

Finally, I’m making a u-turn into the gas station – on a pretty highly trafficked road in Alexandria, VA (Hwy 1 or Jefferson Davis Hwy for anyone that knows the area). Then my truck (it’s really an old Ford Explorer, nicknamed by one of my friends ‘the green beast’, but I like to use ‘truck’) quits – right as I am blocking 2 lanes of oncoming traffic. Awesome.

I throw it in neutral, and jump out to push. Pushing your car while steering – not easy. I was running back and forth from the back bumper to the steering wheel (oddly it did not occur to me to push FROM the driving side door). As I’m pushing people are staring at me from their cars. They aren’t yelling or laughing – but they also aren’t making a move to help me. I wasn’t upset about pushing my truck myself – but I am logical enough to realize that when pushing a vehicle – 2 is always better than one.

I got it turned around rest of the way – pointing in the right direction before a guy came to help me and told me to steer. Unfortunately, I was doing better pushing that he was (I played offensive line in the women’s version of the NFL – more on that later – point being we move large things). Pretty quickly another man came to help.

We push my truck  up to the pump – they run back to their cars as I chase after them trying to say thank you.

Next debacle: the explorer was on the wrong side of the pump, AND I was at a diesel pump. I didn’t really want anyone else to have to help me push, nor did I want to maneuver it around a gas station with all the pumps and cars pushing by myself. That seemed like it would become a  Frogger nightmare – I could already see me slamming into someone’s car.

It was a teeny tiny gas station that didn’t have a gas can, so I walked across the street to Target and got one. I got back to the gas station and was trying to assemble it as a woman came up and asked if I could move my car because she needed to get to the diesel pump. I laughed told her that I would LOVE to move my car, but it was a bit stuck. I continued to say I be more than happy to push my car back, but it would be really helpful if she would steer. So she helped me push it back and ended up helping me get my truck to a pump I could use.

As she was helping me, 2 other men ran up to help. I filled up my car and was on my way.

This got me thinking about the kindness of strangers. I experienced this a lot when I was hiking the AT this year (more on that later too). There are trail angels, amazing people who provide trail magic, or random acts of kindness for hikers. In each town that the trail goes through, residents give hikers rides, meals, and showers. Some are hikers themselves, some are just amazing people looking for an outlet to help others.

Today, I am very thankful for the kindness of strangers and am looking forward to paying it forward. It’s easy to forget how great people are. It would have been easy to get frustrated about this – and let it ruin my day. I did not make it to the DMV that day. The experience was pretty positive. And I’m pretty lucky to not have run out of gas before.

I would love to hear about the last time you helped someone who you didn’t know or the last time someone helped you.

Don’t miss anything! Join Unboxify now!

Be social! Share :)

Anti-plannation

Here is a secret about me – I hate to plan. I also like to make up words (plannation, for example).

Planning freaks me out. Planning meals for a week makes my head spin. It’s a bit shameful for a former accountant to admit.  I don’t even want to think about trying to get the most out of a round the world ticket. I can plan professional things – product launches, audits in my former life. But when it comes to my personal life, I like to see what happens.

Last week I got to meet one of my heroes. I learned she existed about 3 weeks ago – and immediately fell in love with her life.

I was at Barnes and Noble writing – well, that was the plan, but instead I was browsing through travel memoirs.  I found Tales of a Female Nomad, and flipped through it. Even the introduction fascinated me - in 1986 at the age of 48, Rita Golden Gelman took off traveling and hasn’t had a permanent address since. I went to her website and saw she was in Annapolis until the end of January. WINNING!

I emailed her immediately and said I would love to meet her. She emailed me back within a few hours – resulting in me meeting her for lunch with her and 2 other women that were meeting her for the first time.

It was the kind of lunch where you want to remember everything that happened, everything that was said. I don’t. It was 4 hours.  I enjoyed all of Rita’s stories, and loved hearing about the other 2 women. Staci and Lesley are both travelers – Lesley is becoming a nomad herself VERY SHORTLY. Kindred spirits.

 

Rita & I

Rita, me, and my crazy, frizzified hair in Annapolis.

Things I love about Rita . . .

 

Her travel + connecting philosophy

She travels to connect with other people and become a part of their communities and cultures. She bonds over their food, their cultural activities, their lives. She doesn’t take pictures unless the natives also have cameras. She does nothing to elevate herself above who she is connecting with (such as giving American gifts). It is the ultimate in getting rid of the ‘us vs them’ mentality and melding with another culture.

She was scared too

What touched me the most about her books was how scared she was when she started this journey – she stretched herself in every way imaginable. At the beginning, she was 48 and had never eaten at a restaurant by herself. That is something I love to do.

But most importantly. . .not having a plan is ok

The biggest thing I learned from Rita is that its ok to not have a plan. She has been traveling for 26 years and doesn’t plan that far in advance most of the time. She moves on when she feels it is time to move on. After meeting her, I accepted that. Since then I have had peace about it.  All I need to know is the next step. . . everything else happens after that.

Don’t miss anything! Join Unboxify now!

Be social! Share :)

To be or not to be . . . a hobo

Hobo

The road less travelled. . .

I have been floundering a bit. Anytime you are living in between two choices it can get a bit uncomfortable.

I started a business and then it just floundered – I developed serious upper limit issue. But it was more than that – I didn’t want to do what I had started doing. I fell apart. In a million little pieces. Without a goal – I become a tad self-destructive.

Anyway, after my meltdown, I thought maybe I needed some sort of structure – in other words – time for a regular job!!! I took about a month to work on my résumé. And started applying around Christmas. Great time to try to get a job huh?

After a lot of thought – I know that is not what I want. For one, ick. No offense to 9 − 5’ers, but I got out of that world for a reason (though my regular job was a bit more of the 80 hour-a-week variety). Sometimes I miss that life – but missing work provided happy hours is not a reason to go back to a regular job. My life is a happy hour.

I returned to bouncing from idea to idea – dream to dream. In fact, one of my friends called me the girl who cried wolf the other night. Because I go from wanting to be a flight attendant to going back to accounting. I’m still a 7-year-old who changes what they want to do every day – it stems a bit from wanting to do everything and a bit from ADD. More than a bit from the reality that my life can be whatever I want it to be –  I want it to be everything.

I have never meant to be misleading or flaky about my life. But at times I am. Though I prefer the phrase ‘free spirit’ instead of ‘flaky’. I don’t like planning. I have an aversion to signing leases. The idea of buying a home gives me the emotional equivalent of heart palpitations. I have belongings in Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas.

Really, I’m already a hobo or nomad – I’m just not very efficient at it. I’m the most inefficient nomad ever. Most of this year I had 2 apartments – one in Austin, TX and one in Arlington, VA.

I hung out with one of my friends the week after Christmas who was going to spend the New Year in Havana, and then do all these other amazing things in South America. I remembered how I used to do things – concerts, trips, sporting events, new experiences. This year the biggest things I accomplished were

• 3 weeks on the Appalachian Trail
• I made some people a lot of money
• Played football

  • That isn’t a shabby list – but I want to do more. See more.

I made a decision – I’m not going to have a permanent home. I’m selling most of my stuff, in all locations. I will keep some furniture and artwork at my parents because its sentimental. Maybe a box or two of books that I don’t want to let go of yet (books are my thing).

That was my decision. To just go – not have a permanent home. I was only on the Appalachian Trail for 3 weeks, but I loved being in a different place almost every night and carrying everything on my back. At first I was excited. Then I became terrified. Then very, very sad. But the reason I am sad is not because it’s the wrong decision. It’s because I have always been terrified of doing this by myself.

I made the decision. I started a bucket list that already has about 400 things on it.

But I won’t be by myself. I know I won’t ever be homeless. I can always come back here or go somewhere else. Tonight I put my tv on Craigslist. That was a defining moment. It might sound silly – but I loved my tv.

I know that I might not leave Virginia immediately. Because I don’t want a plan. I want to be ok in the in-between. I will make money doing business coaching/consulting –  most places I go I will need internet access.

The “sort of plan” is to be in Virginia until the end of January, then go to Atlanta for about a month. Then see my family, make a stop in Dallas, go to Austin and then fly to India for a month or so.  After that – I have no idea. I might travel more internationally, or I might come back to the US and buy an airstream trailer (the only home I’m comfortable buying).

I keep thinking I should ask someone’s permission to do this. I don’t have to ask anyone’s permission. This is my life. I am the captain of my ship. I don’t have to ask for permission, I’m 31 years old.

I’m scared I will miss something here. But I’m more scared I will be here in a year, wishing again that I had done more.

Putting this out there is scary, because I do change my mind a lot. I want to do this. I am not saying how long I will be without a permanent home. It might be 2 months or 20 years.

The purpose of the blog is for me to talk about stepping out of the box and have new experiences. What better way?

Until I leave, I’m going to write about getting ready to leave. Maybe other things that happen – I do still want new experiences.

As I finish writing this, I realize I’m very excited about letting go of things!!!

Be social! Share :)
 Scroll to top