The Romantic Life: What You Expect, And What You Don’t.

I am fully aware that the life we lead is a romantic one. It is partially intentional and partially necessity and happenstance. We love raw experience, we love adventure, but also in order to achieve our dreams we have had to make choices that have pushed our lives even further in the direction of the surreal.

For example, the decision to live two consecutive summers in a van was largely of necessity if we wanted to pursue our goals for the those time periods. Many would have found another way around it, but to us it seemed like the best way to fully accomplish our dreams in spite of our monetary restrictions.

This romantic life has taken us across the vast mid-west, to the mountains of Colorado, to the warm beaches of the Outer Banks, to Central America, up and down the East Coast, and currently landed us in Germany.

These past few years have been filled with once-in-a-lifetime moments. I’ve summited mountains, slept under the stars with waves crashing beneath me, climbed a volcano, drank tea on a roof-top in Nicaragua, run on an abandoned beach alongside a pod of dolphins, walked through courtyards and castles. And I could go on and on. Sometimes I look at my own life and can’t believe it is real.

People always talk about how hard it is to capture these moments–the vibrant sunsets, the towering mountain. But what I find hardest to convey is the other side of this life–what makes it truly romantic and what makes it so different from ordinary life. What makes a moment truly romantic is what sets it apart from the ordinary, from the mundane. It is being alone in the wilderness, walking along a precipice, lost in the vast ocean. It is seclusion, emptiness, fear, suspense, uncertainty, pain, irony–all mixed together with unthinkable beauty.

But as an observer we tend to see all of those as simply a backdrop for the beauty. When you live this life, the backdrop is every bit as real as the foreground.

I was particularly hit by this experience a few months after our move to Germany. Many of our plans had fallen apart since our arrival. Our living expenses were more than we had anticipated, the process of becoming legalized for short-term residency was dragging on, and my job prospects had fallen through. We had an endearing little loft apartment in the city (which we could not afford to heat), but our savings were being rapidly depleted and everything in the future was utterly uncertain.

One night, shortly before Christmas, we found ourselves sitting on some stone stairs beneath the Kaiserberg (the city castle), looking down upon the brightly lit, medieval streets of Nurnberg. It was bitterly cold, but we sat here for hours while Tyler played Christmas carols on his melodica (a small, mouth-blown, keyboard instrument) for spare change. This was our only way of earning money since neither of us could legally work.

Sitting there with Christmas shoppers bustling past, the castle towers glowing overhead, and the music drifting out over the city–as Tyler literally played to earn our Christmas dinner–I knew this was truly one of the most romantic moments of my life. And one of the hardest.

The beauty of it all was overwhelming, and it stood out all the more vividly against our cold, hunger, fears, and uncertainties. I felt like we were living a chapter out of a novel.

This type of experience can’t be recreated.

You can’t recreate desperation.

Experiences like this feel surreal and unattainable for a reason–for most people they are. Most people aren’t really willing to pay this type of price for these kinds of raw, harsh, breath-taking experiences.

It is raw because it is hurts.

And it is beautiful because it is difficult.

Those who choose to live the romantic life know that for every beautiful sunset there is a storm as well–and you are going to find yourself out in the storm with only the memory of the sunset to keep you warm.

And we wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

 

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This post inspired by a post on Outside about the reality of the #VanLife.

 

 

 

Setting Up Our Van Camp In the Rockies

After our long journey from Philadelphia, PA, to Chicago, IL, to Estes Park, Colorado we finally pulled our van home into our RV slot on government housing property in Rocky Mountain National Park. Our new home is just a ten min bike ride past gorgeous snow capped mountains into the quaint little town of Estes Park.

Although Tyler wanted to immediately begin climbing every mountain peak in sight I insisted that we take a day or two to settle in and set up our new home. Our original setup of the Vamp had been a bit hurried and things had gotten a bit jostled during the trip, so I wanted to get things properly settled into their appropriate places.

The first thing to be done was to pull out our little collapsible camping table (see above picture) that my mom had picked up from a garage sale. I have never seen one like it before, but it is awesome. Just like the folding camping chairs the base is made of collapsible/folding poles. The table top is composed of a bunch of slats of wood, all hinge connected so as to be able to be rolled up and placed in a bag along with the base. Very space efficient, but also sturdy!

Next came the pole tent. In the picture it is set up on all five poles, but because it gets pretty windy here we ended up instead tying two corners directly to the van to make it more sturdy. The tent makes a huge difference in the “homeyness” of our living situation. It expands our living space and provides shade when it is sunny and protection from the rain when it storms. This is particularly nice since we generally always cook outside on our little two burner propane stove. It also allows the step of the two side doors to function as a kind of “stoop” See picture below 🙂

One of our next top priorities was the hammock!

We brought this hammock back from our recent trip to Nicaragua this past March. Having an outdoor lounging area just a few feet from the van is wonderful. We also strung up a clothesline from the tree to the side mirror of the van. We are quite fortunate that the campsite provides a laundry room, bathroom (with shower!) as well as water and electricity right on site. But the clothesline saves us a few bucks a month and saves a bit of energy for the environment.

We aren’t very fancy with our electricity, as you can see. We simply run an extension cord from the outdoor outlet, in through the window, and down to our electrical strip under the bed. (The underside of the van also provides some storage space to get our shoes out of the way!) We don’t use a whole lot of electricity, (we kept things simple because we were originally planning on buying a solar panel, and hopefully will in the future) just one light (a desk lamp that clamps onto the headboard of the bed) a small fan (also a clamp on), laptops and phone chargers. A few battery powered camping lanterns scattered around outside provide us with outdoor lighting after dark. Or a campfire, campfire light is always the best.

Our only refrigeration is this this small cooler (see below); only $15 at Walmart. It is supposed to keep stuff cold for about 3 days. We bought a bunch of blue ice packs and Tyler brings some of them to work each day and puts them in the break room freezer at his work. Then he brings them home and exchanges more the next day. This way we don’t have to deal with the melty mess of ice or the expense. We do have to keep our fresh food limited though, and we try not to have more perishable kinds of foods in there for more than a day or two. The majority of our food is either canned or dried. We eat lots of rice, beans, and potatoes. Cheap, filling, and long lasting!

I had meant to get this done before we left, but things were crazier than I expected and it just didn’t get done, but I finally got around to making curtains the other day. And the results made a bigger difference than I expected! The van feels so much cozier now and the curtains help block the sun during the day to keep it a bit cooler.

Another major factor in reducing the internal temperature of the van was covering the windshield and front side windows with reflective material.

I bought two of those reflective windshield sunblockers. I bought the cheapest ones I could find, about $3.50 apiece. Most cost closer to $10.00. These were indeed much flimsier than the more expensive ones, but advertised the same amount of sun blockage as the more expensive ones; and I had plans for improving these cheap ones. I purchased some sticky-backed velcro ($2.67) and then cut pieces of this and applied it to the inside of the windshield and the reflective side of the sun blocker. This allows me to attach it directly and securely to the windshield. I took the second one that I had bought and cut it in half and then held one half up to one of the side windows and trimmed it down to size. I then applied the velcro to the edge of the door and the shiny side of the material and voila! Sun blockers for the side doors, too!

One last improvement we made was to mount Tyler’s highly prized fishing pole along the ceiling, saving on valuable space. We bought plastic hooks with adhesive on the back and applied the adhesive side to the wood strip along the ceiling of the van. Three of these now hold the fishing pole up and out of the way. And it looks nice, too.

Well, once I was satisfied with these initial improvements to our Vamp (more will come, trust me), Tyler finally got his wish to climb something. And check out the view from the “hill” (Eagle’s Peak) in our back yard!

How it All Began: Our Life In a Van

The “Vamp”
From left, Addison, Tyler, and myself, Martha.

When my husband, Tyler, got a 4.5 month position working at Rocky Mountain National Park as a field scientist right after graduating from Eastern University this May, we made the only rational decision there was to make: buy a van and convert it for living in and drive on out to Colorado!

Why was this a rational decision for us? Good question, to many it might seem like pure lunacy. We were already quite short on funds from working on paying of my many thousands of dollars of school loans, paying Tyler’s college bills, and the pricey cost of an apartment in the suburbs outside of Philly (where Eastern University is located). This made the prospect of making the move, finding a new (pricey apartment) in a tourist town, moving or buying furniture to furnish the new apartment, and at the same time looking at taking on Tyler’s monthly loan payments as well, all quite appear quite daunting if not impossible. And so, we started looking at alternate housing options….

The converted van/camper (we affectionately refer to it as the “Vamp”) seemed to be the only feasible option with our very limited resources. And so the search began. Tyler insisted that one of our top priorities had to be that the van have a “hi-top” so that we would be able to walk around more or less upright inside the van. I thought this was unnecessary (and raised the price range we had to look in) but I have since recanted and admit that being able to stand up makes a huge difference in comfort and was quite worth the extra expenditure.

We needed something as cheap as possible (we were/are broke, remember) so an older van was what we would be looking at. But at the same time it needed to be reliable enough to make it halfway across the country (a solid 1,800 miles), and preferably still have a bit of life left in it upon our arrival. We set our budget at a max of $3,000. After much searching on Craigslist we finally found our dream van! A dark green, 1996 Chevy hi-top van, with 138,000 miles on it for $2,400. When we purchased the van we only had about a month to get it inspected, make any repairs, and have it fitted-out for our adventures, before our departure date, May 16th.

After a few hiccups and a few hundred dollars in repairs we got our Vamp back…one week before departure. And then the fun began! Tyler’s awesome brother-in-law, Richie, who works for a mattress making company, made the generous offer to make us a custom made, memory foam mattress as Tyler’s graduation present. Talk about luxury. It is fortunate that Tyler and I are both relatively small individuals. Tyler is just about 5’9″ and that is right about the width of the van, so we made the mattress a little wider than a twin (42″) and a good bit shorter, 61″ to be exact. As luck would have it, we also have a master carpenter in the family who was willing and able to build us a bed frame to hold our awesome mattress. First step in our project was to rip out all except the two front seats; leaving a generous empty space for us to work with. Next, our master carpenter, David, went to work. He built a platform at the widest part of the back of the van with a portion extending into the more narrow space at the back doors (this functions as a shelf while the wider part supports the mattress). 

(This is a view from the side doors)  The space underneath will provide valuable room for storage. We measured the height of the frame to just allow large rubbermaid tubs to fit underneath)
This was all finished just the night before we left. We had to move quickly to clean up the mess and move everything we would need for the next 4 months in! Annnnnddddd, here is the finished product!
The “head board” at the back is actually just a removable piece of wood that can be stored under the mattress so as not to block the rearview when driving. It serves the dual purpose of giving us something to lean against if sitting on the bed as a couch and it separates the bed from the “shelf” portion of the platform which we see in the next picture.
This area in back serves as our kitchen (as I’m sure you can see). The plastic tub inset in the shelf/counter has a hole cut in the bottom which allows it to drain into the white bucket below. The red laundry detergent container is upcycled to function as a water dispenser for the “sink.” Food stuffs and other necessities are stored below. 

Check out all that storage space! And yes, those two tubs hold all of our clothing. I hope to create a better system eventually, but like I said, time and resources were limited. 

We picked this dresser up for free from the side of the road. It holds more food goods and dishes. Again, I would like to install a better, more permanent storage facility, but that will come with time. To the right you can see our little kennel for our tiny travel companion, Julie. 

Our faithful companion 🙂 That’s all for now, folks! More updates and pictures to come soon!