Goodbye house, yard, friends, local bike rides, and bathtub! Hello Vanda, coziness, adventure, campgrounds, forests, lakes, and rivers. What a good life it is!
We’ve been home for a LONG time — 8 weeks and a few days. Time at home has been glorious and unhurried, allowing for numerous dinners with friends, lots and lots of spring yard work while watching the yard awaken from winter, much time for writing and sitting quietly in practice, engaging in some volunteer activities, going to the movie theater once (I really wanted to see Send Help, and now, I do not recommend that you see this movie…), being present for numerous house repairs (ouch), watching the final episode of Shrinking (I highly recommend this show!), and simply enjoying routines in an everyday life.
I did fly to visit my mom in Florida for a long weekend in early April, which was a lovely time. As well, later in April John and I flew to New York to visit our youngest son Kyle who lives in Brooklyn, then took the Amtrak to Boston to visit our other two kids-Erin and Thomas who live in North Andover and Gloucester respectively, before flying home. [it was my first time traveling by train which was SO much fun!]
Being home between van adventures always includes a deep clean of Vanda–a task that is all mine to enjoy! All of our stuff gets taken out and stacked in the house garage so I can clean the nooks and crannies inside the van before the wiping down and reassembling of all of that stuff can occur so I can put it all back. During our time at home we had a new mattress and a bench pillow made, took Vanda in for another 5,000+ mile check, I risked life and limb as I hand-washed her exterior using a tall ladder and a cloth-wrapped-around-a-pole to reach the roof, then waited patiently until it was time to begin packing up our food and clothes. We are driving away in two hours, for a 3-week trip — a short trip by some standards — and just long enough to remind us of how much we cherish our time immersed in the vanlife. I am so excited to get going!
Goodbye Home! Hello Adventure!
