Today marks 1,000 days since my first official day living on the road full-time. The apartment fire was March 24, 2021. Exactly one month later, on April 24, I spent my first night in the van at a Cracker Barrel in Erie, Pennsylvania after finishing the build at a friend’s place in Indiana. It’s been 1,000 days since then.
Just a bit has changed since then. I’m traveling solo, not as a couple. I’d never intended to live full-time on the road alone, but here I am, not just surviving, but thriving. People I meet now have a hard time imagining that I haven’t been alone since the beginning. I’m spending most of my time out west, not in the east, because I like it better out here. I got a trailer, a nicer motorcycle, and a nicer van, replacing the entire setup since starting this journey. Rather than working a full-time job, I’ve gone freelance, working when and how much I want to, and with multiple small income streams instead of one big one that, historically, lays me off every couple of years. Overall, I’m a rather different person now than I was then. They say travel broadens the mind, and I can confirm that’s true. I’ve changed a lot, mostly in good ways, I think.
I’m not sure what the point of this post is, other than to commemorate that I’ve hit this milestone. It’s pretty wild to think about. So much has happened, and so much has changed. Yet in other ways, it doesn’t feel like that much time has passed at all. Time flies when you’re having fun.
Smokey Da Van 