Kicking off a year on the road

After nearly two months of frantic preparations, I left Seattle on September 11th to begin my one year camper van adventure. I can’t say that I thought through each detail of what my journey required before departure, but I found out! I hadn’t thought through the demands that moving out of my condo would shower upon me! I hadn’t perfectly timed out the move of almost all of my stuff (except what I put in the van) to storage so it could be marketed to renters, and I also hadn’t thought about the juggling act selling my car would require. Couldn’t do it too soon, but wait too long and be stuck with a mess if I didn’t sell it before I left. Then there was the last minute realization that I needed a new contact lens prescription and that my driver’s license would expire three weeks after departure…and I wasn’t allowed to renew it online again. Did you know that the DMV has adopted an appointment system, the first ones available being well after I planned to leave town? Never fear…apparently, people cancel on the regular and after numerous days of checking for cancellations within a reasonable distance (I was actually looking as far away as Bellingham!), my anti-Murphy’s law experience showed up again and again…a slot opened up in Shoreline at 4:30 the day I was looking. I nabbed it quick! It’s true that my actual license didn’t show up by the time I left, but once my sister has it in her hot little hands we’ll figure out where she can mail it so I can drive legit.

My other anti-Murphy’s law experiences included: Kaiser ordered my contacts on the 3rd and gave me an appointment on the 10th in the lucky event the contacts showed up by then. They did, that very morning. I listed my car for sale on the 3rd. I sold it on the 5th. My condo went on the market on the 6th…I was informed that a one year lease was signed on the 11th.

Anti-Murphy’s law is alive and well and I departed able to fully focus on driving my van and getting to my first campsite. A slight wrinkle occurred as a flash flood warning came out in the John Day Fossil Beds area, my first stop; I quickly decided to go to Bend first for mountain biking and then head to the Ochoco National Forest near Mitchell, Oregon and the Painted Hills Unit of the J.D. Fossil Beds.

My year in the gap adventure didn’t happen through my efforts alone. I want to express my enormous gratitude to my kids, Alex and Andrew, and my sister, Linda. All three of them helped with my bon voyage party (thanks to all of you who joined me to celebrate). Without Alex’s can-do attitude and excellent painting skills, Andrew’s carpentry, technology and practical knowledge (like how to get the propane system set up safely and efficiently) in remodeling the van, and Linda’s “get it done” approach to helping me move out and clean up on the last two days (she’s really good at throwing stuff away when that’s the only option, whereas I would have had a really hard time throwing out a partial jar of chili crisp!) and letting me live with her for the eleven days before I hit the road, I wouldn’t have been ready to go. Instead I would have been a puddle of jello, unable to think straight and completely overwhelmed with the many tasks at hand.

Thanks for reading my first post. I’ve finished my dinner in Dayville on the last night of my Oregon visit and it’s time to wash dishes, prep for my departure tomorrow to Lassen Volcanic Nat’l Park, and charge up my computer. I’ll write a post soon on what I’ve been up to these last six days.