VanLife - The Beginning
I left Portland on Tuesday the 18th. Which was only 4 days ago… I feel like I left 2 weeks ago haha. In a good way, but it’s been wild. Tuesday night I stayed with my friend, Cathi in Eugene, OR. Then then Wednesday night in Karla’s driveway near Bend, OR. Then Thursday night I stayed in Paulina area at 6 Mile Sno-Park, which was a large parking lot. Two other vehicles were staying there as well. It was quiet and peaceful. This parking lot is close to where the images below were taken. Then last night in Redding in my friend Deanna’s driveway.
I had no plans of coming into Cali, but large storms stretching from Canada to Mexico made east bound destinations difficult at best, so I shifted my plans. I’m waiting out these storms in sunny Cali for another day as I head to Vegas area and then east. I THINK. We’ll see.
Lessons learned so far.
1. FILL THE DEF TANK at each fill-up. Oops. I forgot about the def and I ended up on the side of I-5 in the grapevine between Medford and Redding. What I learned there is while there is no idiot light or gauge or notification that the def tank is getting low, the van slowly loses some umph over time. After I filled that tank, while semi truck were flying past me 8 feet away, that van barely noticed we were climbing hills. Before I filled it, I felt like I had way too much stuff in the van because she was sluggish and I was a little concerned. Nope, fill that def tank and she flys up mountains like they’re ant hills. It was amazing. When I put diesel in the van. I put def in the van. Period. Even if I’m just topping off the diesel, I top off the def.
2. The van is still a bit of a mess. I’m not done fully moving in. I love it. I absolutely love it. It will be even more wonderful once I declutter and let go of nonsense I don’t need in the van.
3. In 30 degree weather, the van takes MANY hours to become uncomfortably cold. That was a nice thing to learn. I also learned that when it says it’s 50 degrees inside the van I’m beginning to be too cold to comfortably sleep without a hat on. I purposely didn’t turn on the heater so I could learn this. If I planned on sleeping in later than 8am, I would have turned it on as it was a bit too cold. If anything happens to the heater, I’ll be fine, even if it’s below 30, I have enough blankets and cold weather gear to be fine. It also didn’t dip down to 50 till like 7am, so easy peasy. It’s well insulated.
4. I thought full bio-diesel was fine but I learned, after fill-up, that my van isn’t made for full bio. I filled up on a quarter tank and when it got to half I filled with reg diesel so it didn’t run full bio or mostly bio for long, but apparently it could have clogged some stuff. I’m not entirely sure. HOWEVER, full bio doesn’t smell like I’m inhaling toxic fumes and the van feels like it runs smoother, so I need to figure that out for sure.
5. I’m still nervous or even scared about some parts of this, and I’m learning to work through it. Doing things scared is cathartic, but also exhausting. This morning I slept till almost 10am and it was needed. I’m growing and figuring stuff out and learning to trust the process, and all that requires proper rest and nutrition.
6. Don’t be attached to stuff, plans, ideas, anything. Plan as best you can but be willing and able to easily shift plan on the fly in a moment’s notice. Treasures are found in the unplanned and some things are just out of our control. Suffering comes from not being able to flex in the wind. That’s when the wind will just break you.
7. I miss people already. Specially my kids. Ugh.
8. There’s probably more, but this is good for now.
Thursday night’s sunset in Paulina area. These are for sale in print form. Fine art paper that you’ll need to frame. Ready to hang comes in: metal, canvas, or wood. Message me for prices.
