Living On the Road Begins with Sacrifice

Today marked a major change in my plans over the last two years. I’m glad for it in a way. I’m not happy to report what has been going on but sometimes life throws a curve ball at you, and if you take that ball in the teeth, you get a walk. In June 2020, my folks got served court papers from my dad’s sisters, suing him for the house where I have been living and making improvements. The last two years have been dirty, and expensive. Unnecessary. The case is reaching a settlement finally, but I’ll be finding myself living out of doors soon. Living on the road my friend, was gonna keep you free and clean. Now you wear your skin like iron and your breath’s as hard as kerosine. I can tell you this much: living on the road begins with sacrifice.

Sell Off All of Your Stuff

Today I had a yard sale, liquidating as much as I possibly can to start my life over. Again. The timeline for my plan to live on the road and write full time just got bumped up a couple years. If my divorce taught me anything, it has been just how much I am willing to let go to find peace in my life. During the last nine years, I have watched everything I owned disappear a couple times.

It was like losing everything you’ve collected in a house fire. Gone forever. I started over. Came back stronger. I became less concerned with things we, as consumers, are taught to value. I’ve got a few items I don’t want to part with, which can stay in storage until a later chapter in my life begins and I’m ready to put down roots someplace else, or maybe I’ll decide by then to just let those things go too. I don’t know. But you have to start someplace.

What Happens Next?

If this latest agreement goes through, I’ll have 30 days to leave. My plan is to get a conversion van soon and start traveling and writing. Renting a place will be cost prohibitive. Rent in the area has jumped up to $1800-2400 per month. Buying a house is ridiculously expensive, and not ideal. I don’t want to be chained to some piss-smelling studio apartment for double what a mortgage was five years ago. I want more out of life. And why the hell not? The last twenty years has not been all that great. I kept waiting for my life to begin, and I had to fight hard for what I have now. What I had.

As I stood out under the hot mountain sun today, selling off my stuff, I got to see a lot of it go to good people who will take care of it and give it all love. I met all sorts of interesting people today and talked with some of them about my plans. Their eyes lit up the same way mine do whenever I thought of doing this. When I had friends who considered it and I told them to go for it, because I wanted to live vicariously through their adventures, because I was stuck right where I was. I’m not stuck. I’m where I need to be to take the leap. This is an opportunity.

I actually talked to a couple people today who were living on the road today. They stopped by my yard sale and they overheard me talking to others about it. They had the same concerns that I’ve been reading about and watching videos about. There are a lot of people in my situation, forced to live a nomadic lifestyle because of bullshit rents and exploitative housing costs. They just didn’t have their aunts force them out to the street. When I say the fighting was dirty, I mean dirty.

Some of the cool people I talked to today was a man who was traveling with his wife and their beagles. We got to talking about photography and writing. He was a photography teacher and had a Pentax camera. I showed him my great-grandma’s West German made Graflex 35mm and we talked about photography and life on the road. They had been on an extended road trip up from Texas. He also made me realize I need to have business cards made, because it’s easier to hand someone a business card than it is to get them to remember “Sixty Miles from Anywhere dot com.” So, business cards. Check.

As I was selling stuff, a woman and her daughter came by, looking at hand tools, roller skates, books, and other things I was selling. They were talking with some other people there until the woman said, indicating me, “We were in the same class together in school.” I honestly had no idea. I haven’t talked to most of my former classmates since we graduated, but when she smiled, it all came into focus. Dimples. Holy crap. Five minutes into a conversation and I realized exactly who it was and I felt like a schmuck for not seeing it sooner.

We chatted and visited and caught up. She seemed to think living on the road was an excellent idea too. Damn it was good to see her and hear that we shared some of the same concerns about these years we are going through in life. Where did all those years go? How weird is the life we are experiencing right now?

New Directions

The afternoon burned on. I watched my stuff slowly disappear, but I didn’t feel too much pain. Except when a kid rode off on a bicycle I was selling and I had memories of another kid riding that bike. I felt that memory, sharp, and just under my heart like a cold knife. I had to tell myself it was okay to take the next breath. Those regrets have taken about two years to finally let go too.

I thought about what I want to do. The conversations I had at a yard sale might seem like they aren’t all that much, but they represent much more. Yesterday, when I was running some errands with my mom, we got to talking. Because of some recent work demanding my attention, and the stress of this house situation which has been up and down and back up again–sometimes several times in one day–I’ve been in fight or flight mode. My podcast has been on hold. My blog hasn’t been getting attention it has needed either. We talked about the nomad life and the conversations I’ve had with people in my travels. How those would be good podcast episodes.

I used to love listening to All Things Considered and how someone would talk about a place or interview someone and you would hear the background of street noise of these places in their discussions. Everyone has an interesting story to tell. Tracy, the nice lady I chatted with at Yeat’s grave in Ireland, the busker in Park City, UT. So many others. Wouldn’t that be something to hear these stories and share them? Before they are all gone? Our country is changing. Writers are being replaced by robots and stories are being fucked over by “Content creation.”

I’ve been playing the game to drive readers to my blog. Writing within the rules of Google to get hits. Honestly, it hasn’t been all that great. I don’t want to write for a goddamn robot! I want to write for people who want stories. People who don’t lose interest ten seconds in or need to heed the urge of clicking on a link because they need to buy something. Who is buying anything anyway?! We are living in a shitshow right now. I think people honestly, truly want hope. Connection.

They Could Have Had Him Any Day…

I walked down to the Family Dollar (the only grocery store in city limits, believe it or not) to buy a half gallon of cran-apple and a candy bar. I was dehydrated. I needed vitamin C, and chocolate. You know how you just crave it sometimes?

My aunt was sitting outside in a patch of grass outside the half of the house where she lives. When I walked past, she looked at me with complete contempt. Even though she had “won” she sat there with her arms folded in front of her. Scowling. I thought of a few other people I’ve known in life who get their way and they are still miserable. I just shook my head and said, “Sad choices.” Sometimes that’s all you can do. Sometimes the only thing worse than not getting what you want…is getting it.

My heart is light. The things I sold today will bring someone else joy. Even this house…as much as I tried to bring love into it, and tend to its wounds and years of neglect, I felt a severance a few weeks ago. As though the place had let out a last breath, the way my grandmother did the day she died. She just exhaled and she was gone. I think this place told me that it’s time I went on to doing something else. Maybe living on the road isn’t the answer, but maybe it will take me in new directions where I can learn to ask the right questions.

To find out more about how things are going check out my update for four months later.

Other Resources for Digital Nomads

If you’re working remotely or just enjoyed what you have been reading, please like, comment, and subscribe. My site is supported by affiliate links. Clicking on many of the links in the blog will take you to another site which has products that I either use, endorse, or can’t live without. Your purchases on those sites gives me a small commission at no extra cost to you. See, cookies are actually good for something!

Check out the link for Origin, which made a damn fine pair of boots for my travels and living on the road. Use the code HARRIS10 for 10% off your total purchase. I’ve been wearing mine for nearly 4 years and they are still taking me where I need to go. Fight some burnout by taking a hike, or walking through a new city you want to explore. In the nomad lifestyle, your boots can make all the difference in how far you can go.

Want to have an adventure all your own? It all starts with Booking.com. Book flights, trips, and lodging accommodations with this link to Booking.com. Living on the road requires a lot of self-care, and sometimes it’s nice to check into a hotel for the night instead of living in your bus. Get your life balance back!

For my van life adventures, you’ll want to check out my storefront on Wayward. From cookstoves to solar systems, these are items you won’t want to tackle living on the road without them. Another way you can Support the show is to BuyMeACoffee. Donations are a great way to show your appreciation for the site. Though I’m sure instead of a coffee it will probably get me a gallon of gas.