The ultra-mega big trip

I  leave in less than a week. Where to you ask? Well, I’ve been in Idaho for a full year and 3 months and a while ago I planned to visit my friends and family in Wisconsin during September of 2016. I do miss them often, so this will be a quite memorable trip and one that may not be made too often in the future. I took 2 weeks off from work but I won’t be spending them all in the land of cheese. The first part of my trip is all the way to New Hampshire.  A friend of mine who was one of the people to adopt Olaf to me, now lives out that way. She kept bugging me that I should come check out that area, and finally I gave in. Im always up for any adventure that includes hiking!!…especially in places I’ve never been before. I also heard we are going kayaking, so i figure I’ll be plenty exhausted at the end of my vacation.

A huge portion of my trip will be consumed by…you guessed it…driving. I’m glad it’s mostly long stretches of flat interstate because I don’t have any time to sightsee. It’ll be 12-15 hour days of driving. I have a feeling I’ll be sick of it before too long, but it’s better than flying. Plus i won’t need to rely on anyone…just me and my van and the road. I’ll be using rest stops to sleep and  music to keep me awake. I don’t have many turns, so getting lost probably isn’t going to happen. Ive had my van inspected and repaired to no end to make sure it’s safe for travel. Thats actually my biggest worry…that it’ll break down…but it should be all set and I can only be prepared for the worst. I have to take what comes my way, which will be lots of bugs, wind, vehicles and highway lines. I can’t wait.

Friday night I take off like a bat out of hell towards Twin Falls, Idaho. I’m not sure if I’m staying near there or trying to make it to Logan, Utah. I might cut it short in Twin Falls so i can see where I’m going the following morning. Since I’ve driven to Twin, as we call it, many mant times, it won’t instill any fear or confusion in me in the dark. My vision has gotten worse in the dark, partially because I need a new prescription and also because I rarely drive or am awake in the dark anymore.

Saturday will be taking me from Utah, through Wyoming on I-80 and into Nebraska. Somewhere there i’ll stop for the night. Sunday i will be heading through Iowa, Illinois and Indiana…then stopping in Ohio hopefully for the night. The farther i get on these two days, the more time i’ll have to unwind on monday night when i arrive in Warner, New Hampshire. For the final leg of the trip, ill hit Pennsylvania and New York. Fortunately, New York will be traveled through in the mid region and not the busy, Metropolitan area. I think i’ll enjoy my time in New Hampshire because it’s not at all crowded like most of the eastern states. And i might even see the Atlantic Ocean again.

Wish me happy trails and safe travels, and I’ll update you when I’ve gone through the gauntlet. Sorry I haven’t posted in a long time.

Olaf…Or: How I Learned That Cats Rule and I’m The Human Slave

I grew up with dogs.  My parents had 40 and then 80 acres of land, so having a dog made sense.  The first one was a golden lab and then a chocolate lab mixed with chesapeake.  Those were two wonderful dogs from what I could remember.  We also had a cat, but it stayed outside and somehow lived a very long life catching mice and what not, since we only gave her water occasionally. It wasn’t until I was older and lived with my friends Corey & Tiff that I realized how much I love cats. Corey was allergic to cats, but luckily Tiff made him live with one when they got Buster.  I moved in with them several years later, but I often got to see Buster and quickly grew to like playing with him and petting him.  Later on, Izzy and Penny would join the clan and I kinda wanted one of my own, but wasn’t sure if I could handle one or not.

Then I started dating a girl named Mandy, who had a fiesty tabby cat called Dylan.  I was told that Dylan hardly liked anyone, but for some reason he liked me. Yeah he was a beast, and would occasionally bite you for no reason (at least no reason you understood), but overall he was pretty cute and loving.  Mandy knew some people who helped rescue cats and before you knew it, we were adopting a very cute and still growing one that I named Ian, after Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull.  Since I didn’t live with Mandy, she was going to take care of him for the time being since I didn’t know if my apartment would allow cats.  I eventually checked and found out they did with a deposit and extra rent (which is typical and kinda lame).  But between this time, Mandy and I broke up and also Ian wasn’t getting along with King Dylan so he was sent back to the animal people. 

My relationship with Pam & Suzie (the animal people) was brief but good and they were more than willing to set me up with a rescued cat named Olaf.  They found him frozen to the ground and the tops of his ears became frostbitten and the skin fell off.  He was mostly white like a snowman, hence the reference to the movie Frozen.  They convinced me that he’d be an awesome cat, and now that I could get one in my apartment and was ready for one…he was forced up on me!  Just kidding hehe.  Since I had no desire to see the movie Frozen, I tried to think of a good name for him. Alas, I determined that Olaf would still be fitting.  He looks like a mini-polar bear and Olaf is a Scandanavian name.  There’s polar bears up north, and scandanavians up north…so therefore his name would stay.  I know, great logic.

I loved my furry white Olaf.  I hated the white hair all over my clothes, but I dealt with it.  He also had a thick whine to his meows, that was cute sometimes, but annoying when he was relentless at wanting something.  I soon found out the things he loved: the nip banana, the lazer pointer, food, sleep, licking water from the bathtub, laying on me and licking his paws like he was on a mission. Most of all he liked to rub his head against mine. It was super cute.

He never got sick. He never ate my plants or chewed on cords.  He never scratched or bit (besides some playful nibbling).  He was a great cat!  When I moved to Boise, I had to have him stay with Pam & Suzie until I could find a place that allowed cats.  Luckily it was only for 2 months, and I sure missed him.  He sure missed me too because in their house he wasn’t the only cat.  They had lots of cats running around and he wasn’t able to be King Olaf all the time.  Poor baby, right? 

So in August 2015 he flew through the skies and landed here with that constant whine all the way home.  This new place was bigger than my studio apartment, and I think he enjoyed the extra space.  He did meow a lot and even paw at my roommates’ door when he closed it.  Extra annoying for me and him, and sometimes Olaf was put in his food and litter room.

Later than year I decided I wanted to live in a van. For a while, I thought I could get something that could accomodate him in.  I thought that if I insulated it enough, he could be shielded from the elements.  Unfortunately the 100 degree summer days wouldn’t be very fair to him while I was working.  It might be a different story if I wasn’t working, and just traveling because then I could put the air on for him or open the doors.  I’m sure he wouldnt mind laying all over everything too, hehe.  But the smell from his litter box would drive me nuts.  I found out he urinated mewon my guitar bag, keyboard bag and another little bag…all black…when I moved.  I currently have my guitar in my van, so I still get a whiff of the cat piss soaked into the bag and I want to throw it away.  I think I will get a new guitar bag anyways.

So yeah, considering the circumstances of weather, space and having to work days of sometimes 12 hours or more, I figured it wouldn’t be fair for him to stay with me.  I made arrangements to send him back to Suzie (Pam has up and moved to New Hampshire) so she could find him a new home.  He will be a loving and welcomed addition into any home, especially one without a cat already.  He likes being king, and isn’t actually to demanding.  I mean he sleeps a lot.  But beware, whenever you look at him, he notices and wants your attention. 

I will miss him a lot and I can’t help thinking I abandoned him in some way.  The poor guy almost froze to death and is so sweet, it’s ridiculous.  He probably thinks nobody loves him now, but if somehow we can communicate to cats, I’m telling him that I do love him and will always think of him as my buddy.  This will forever be my cellphone lock-screen background:

The First Week

Move Out

Wednesday, March 30th…my checkout day. This is it; no more taking a comfy shower. No more plopping my butt on the computer for hours. And no more being lazy.

I had been sleeping in my van for a few days before this as I gradually got everything moved out. The sleeping portion is actually super comfy. I have a self-inflating air mattress that is lightweight and supportive. Its natural state is filled with air, and since I don’t roll it up, there’s less stress created on it. I have a good sleeping bag and a memory foam pillow, so it literally feels like I’m in a cocoon. I’m basically  backpacking without having to setup a tent and more shielded from the elements. Yay!

Moving this go-around, and believe me I’ve moved a multitude of times, was the easiest ever. Stuff either went in the trash, in my van or in my storage unit. A few things got donated and a few more will be. But considering I had to downsize to move to Idaho, this downsize was easy. The checkout with my landlord was smooth and I was officially “homeless”.

Since the weather is beautiful here, I got out and took a walk in one of the many parks in town. It felt great to look at nature and have a newfound energy. Soon it was dark and I found a quiet street to park on and sleep for the night. Piece of cake.

Day 2

I soon would realize the challenges upon me.  The biggest one is cramped space when you need to get something out of a container or out of the van.  I’ve knealt, reached and knicked myself so many times already that if I keep this up without any grace or precision, I’ll be a crippled, beat-down man by the time I’m 50. 

Taking a shower requires putting both my soap/shampoo and clothes in a bag and going to the gym.  I was able to shower the previous day, so in getting to work, I would bypass this necessity.  Thursday was a long 12 plus hour shift and by the time I got back to my van, all I wanted to do was sleep.  I fiddled around my van setup and checked the internet on my phone before passing out on a street near my job.

I think work days like this one will definitely help in keeping things simple, as I won’t have to think about what I’m gonna do for several hours.

Day 3

And here it comes…
My first big problem: the van is not-starting. Luckily I was up early enough to try my backup battery, but the same issue occured.  Oddly my lights were on but nothing but a click when trying to get my engine going.  I’m thinking “great, this is gonna cost me a bunch to get towed and get fixed.  Who knows what’s wrong with this 27 year old van”.  I mean, I’m not that much older than it. 

Without any luck, I packed up my necessities and rode my bike into work.  One thing you realize real quickly is that you need to use the bathroom soon after waking.  Your body will let you know, believe me!  Because of that I raced to the nearby gas station before actually making it to work before my supervisor did. 

I’m glad it was Friday because all I could think about is the reasons why my van won’t start.  Worst case scenario: I could have it towed and fixed on Saturday.  Best case scenario: the battery wasn’t charged enough to start it.  Since my backup battery was recently declared “bad” at the AutoZone where I got it charged, I figured a better backup was in order.  So I had my friend Brian give me a ride to AutoZone to buy a new battery.  Work was normal, so I got done at a decent enough time for this to happen. 

We circled around to the street that I had left my van and went down it finding no sign of it!  Panic hit me and so did frustration.  I figured it was towed.  “But why?”  I asked myself.  This was beginning to be a quite horrible start to my van-dwelling days.  After telling Brian I’d need to call the cops and figure out where my van was taken, we decided to go back down the street to make sure.  And lone behold, my van was farther back on the street.  Turns out I had Brian turn on a cross-street that I thought was a different one.  Wow, what a scare!  Now back to the battery.

I carefully removed the heavy box and replaced it with the new one, which was definitely wider.  Not sure about how that all happened, but it didn’t matter because the van still would not start. I tried again and Brian noticed a small thing of smoke after a spark.  Not knowing why, I consulted the internet on my phone.  It looked to be either a loose terminal, corroded terminals or bad wiring.  The terminals were definitely loose, which should’ve been a dead giveaway for me, but my car knowledge is anything but saavy.  It took a while, but I got them terminals tight as a snare and tried again.  FINALLY!!  It worked!  All that, and it was just because the terminals weren’t tight. 

And once again I felt like I was king of my world.  I went to the gym, actually worked out a little and showered.  Then I took a drive down a road I’ve never traveled and slowly made my way back to an area to park. A rollercoaster of highs and lows, this day was definitelly a learning one.

The Weekend

Even though the weekend felt wide open, there were definitely some things to take care of.  First off, I had an appointment to replace my back brakes, which were getting thin.  Four hours or so later, I would return to the repair shop after a cool morning of riding my bike through a few parks.  It was nice to get out and do that, but felt a lot better to have my van back. 

I also needed to deposit my security deposit in the bank, get some mail from the post office and switch storage units.  The first two went smooth.  The storage unit went well except I’d have to take everything from the bigger one to the smaller one.  And guess what: they weren’t next to eachother.  So this process included loading and unloading my van about 8 times before all I had left were the seats originally found in my van. I got this all done in less than 2 hours, which is much faster than I originally had planned. I then rushed to Jalopy Jungle (a junkyard basically), and gave away the two rows of seats before they closed. 

I still had a good chunk of the day to go, so I rode my bike on the Greenbelt path during mid-70’s degree weather.  It was beautiful and perfect.  There were many people walking, biking and fishing.  I even saw a domestic cat on the path.  It made me miss my cat, which I’ll cover in a later blog.  Then I ate, worked-out, took a shower and headed back to a parking area.

Now it’s Sunday and after a long sleep, I’m trying to make the most of the day.  I’m currently typing this under a pavillion in a park.  Stay tuned for more of my journeys including: The Van Living-Area Assembly, The Letting Go of My Awesome Pet, and How to Efficiently Live In a Van.

The Nomad has been awakened

There are many moments in a person’s life where they choose to pursue a vision or cling to the convenience of continuance. Then there’s the moments where you are forced to decide upon a journey.  The road crumbles behind you and the road ahead fades off into a gradual decline.

My life has recently experienced the first moment as a result of the culmination of latter moments. I did the good grades thing.  School wasn’t necessarily exciting, but it wasn’t too hard either.  I usually payed attention and tried my best because I didn’t want to deal with the uncertainty that came with not getting adequate grades. Then came college.  I chose to enter the field of Computer Science because I wanted to make computer games.  Seemed logical, right?  Plus I delved into programming (QBasic mostly) while in high school and became well-rounded in math, logic and computer skills. Then college hit me.  For the first time, I was away from my family and friends.  The classes were easy at the start, but as my second year was starting, I could see that there would be much more new material and I would actually have to hunker down to get passing grades.  I couldn’t just slide by like my first year.  I had to make a choice: try harder and hopefully become a programmer or quit and try to find a new avenue.  My interests were quickly fading from computers to music and philosophy.  I figured I would just go work a normal job and try to do something with music/writing/film; something that I could be creative with.  I realized that I wasn’t meant to be a programming drone.  I wanted to come up with concepts for games, but not have to do the actual coding, and I soon learned that gigs like that must be earned and all I could do to get into that arena was to continue my education.  That would include trudging through long hours of intense logic and tests, and I was in no way ready for that kind of dedication.

So out I went, and with my parachute I descended upon a wasteland of direction.  The next few years were heaping struggles in finding a purpose to my life.  I was literally stuck.  My early 20’s were a forging of self, re-defining what I hated and what I loved.  But all I could see was hate because I couldn’t figure out how to find the love. Luckily I did not make any rash decisions, and eventually some people came into my life that helped to improve my confidence and values. I finally started to understand stuff like finances and politics, although the financial lessons had to be done via trial and error.  Even this period of my life was a whirlwind of emotions and uncertainty, but at least I had a few things figured out.  I was gaining momentum and I decided to move out west to Colorado and make some money in the oil fields.  My Dad knew a guy my age who was out there doing that kind of work and I ended up joining him and another guy from Wisconsin.  I only lasted 3 months before moving back home, but I made some good money and got a first-hand realization that I loved nature.  The mountains and open land were a pleasant sight.  You literally can forget about all the crap you’re dealing with as you’re staring off the edge of a mountain-side; seeing wildlife, forests and skies that go forever.  It’s quite a lesson in perspective.  The human being is a tiny, tiny thing compared to the rest of things on Earth.

I returned to Wisconsin, even though I almost stayed in Colorado or moved farther west to Idaho. Idaho always appealed to me, ever since going there on a summer vacation with my family.  I read about the low crime and quality of life in Boise and after being in Colorado, I knew that someday I had to get back out west.  In the meantime though, I was again at a crossroads of what to do.  I turned to music.  I never thought I could sing or play an instrument well, even though I had tried guitar for a while and I sang all the time in my car.  But after attending a local rock concert, I took a singer’s words to heart and decided that if I love music, why not try to do something with it.  And there started my venture into unleashing my creativity, writing talent and passion. My friend Matt and I began the process of playing music with a variety of members over the next couple years.  We wrote songs, played shows and even recorded an album. I found there isn’t too much better than performing your heart out on a stage. But with music comes struggle and discord. Bands can be volatile or fractured. Your friends that you clung to as an unstoppable force when things were going right, did in fact have other interests or even other ideas that clash with your own. Some have families and other lifestyle limitations;  some aren’t willing to work on their craft to give the best possible outcome.  It’s what happens. Very few bands continue on to have success, especially in Northern Wisconsin.

Our first band transformed a few times and eventually broke up with the drummer and I forming a new project based on punk rock instead of the metal/hard-rock direction. I donned a guitar and suddenly it made a lot more sense after working with Matt so much in the first band. Granted, I was only playing a punk rock style, but regardless it was coming out how I wanted.  It also gave me a ton of freedom to use my lyrics better and really create without waiting for others.  Tim and I eventually found other members to complete the band and we set out making raw hardcore punk.  During this time I had also joined a thrash metal band as a vocalist and these dudes had their stuff together.  We played a bunch of shows and wrote some material, and it was a total blast.  It was a lot less pressure than playing guitar and singing at the same time, even though I was kinda nervous about working with really talented and experienced musicians.

Eventually the fun ran out with the punk band.  Tim wasn’t able to commit to it anymore and it basically fell into my hands alone with Tim helping with whatever he could.  So I just kept on writing and recording material, even learning how to program drums.  The thrash band was still there but we weren’t writing anything new and were basically at a standstill.  Most of those guys had families and to them it was a serious hobby band.  I started to look at my options and dreams once again.  I always thought that someday I’d be able to make enough money and go move out west, but then I thought “What is keeping me here?”  The answer was pretty much one thing: music.  With the thrash band not really going anywhere, even though we could have and the punk band becoming a solo project that I could take with, I started to make plans to move to Boise, Idaho.  I made the commitment and told the band.  They started to look for a replacement vocalist and as time went on, they just decided to play a couple final shows and call it quits.  Time was flying by and soon enough I was saying goodbye to my friends and hauling all I owned in my Dad’s truck and my car.

That brings us to Boise.  It was great being here, being able to see mountains every day, enjoying a lot more sunshine than  I’m used to and most importantly doing things on my own with a lot more confidence and knowledge than when I went to college or Colorado.  I quickly set myself up with an apartment and some jobs.  Before I started working, I got to go hiking, biking and exploring.  It was everything I hoped it’d be.  This area is wonderful. Then I started working two jobs and found not much time to do exciting things.  And considering I wasn’t getting paid much, I started to feel like I was treading water or just surviving.  That’s when I started thinking about living in an RV.  My research led me to a much better option for my limited income: a van!  I toyed with the idea for about a month and then I decided it was very do-able.  It would allow me to cut out the biggest cost: Rent. It would force me to enjoy the outdoors and make the most of my time because I wouldn’t have easy access to electricity.  Every thing I needed or really wanted, I could still be able to do in this situation.  And most importantly, It would allow me to save up enough money to do some traveling in my future.

So there’s my journey to this point.  I’ve bought my van.  I’ve insulated and got it ready for living.  I’ve sold my car.  I’ve set up arrangements to sadly send my awesome cat, Olaf, back to Wisconsin.  I’ve started organizing and down-sizing my belongings even more.  I’m almost ready to begin. That moment where you choose to chase a vision;  that moment was staring me in the eyes and I chose to to tackle it.  I still feel a little down out here, with not many friends or assurances, but most of the time I feel great and ready to do anything.  It’s amazing what a change of scenery and doing what you really want in life can do for your emotional health.  Stay tuned for all the insane details!