I am not a hippy. I’m not a crusty. I’m not a gypsy. I work for a living. I pay my taxes and I am a responsible citizen. I believe in recycling. I do not litter. But I want a simple life and so with my husband I’m moving into a van. Maybe we will hate it. Or maybe this is the beginning of a new life.

In search of another life

"They danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I've been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn..."

Jack Kerouac

Monday 31 May 2010

Should we Downsize our Van?

We are thinking of downsizing. The big problem with the van is parking and as I am unable to drive it, the responsibility is all on Reg’s shoulders. Returning from the festival on bank holiday Monday meant that there was no parking in or around town at all and we had not thought ahead and booked a campsite, which meant that we spent a large part of our bank holiday fretting over where to park. In the end we headed out of Brighton and are now parked in a beautiful, green and thoroughly unsuitable spot until we can get into the campsite tomorrow.

I love the inside of our van and it really feels like home but Reg has not grown to love driving it at all. The steering is super heavy and being such a large vehicle, it tends to offend certain people. And so we shall start the process again. But I don’t know whether it is best to buy a new one first, and risk not being able to sell the first (though living in Brighton we anticipate no problems) or selling this one and risk being homeless for some time or worse still, not finding another one that fits our criteria.

If only we could find somewhere permanent to park we would have no problems. This evening on a whim we followed some vague directions given to us by a friend of a friend who had seen some vans parked alongside the river in Lewes some time ago. It is a beautiful spot but one that is dominated by rich folk living in converted warehouses. Why should it be that only the rich are entitled to live in beautiful areas? I envisaged a small throng of loveable rogues who would welcome us into their community with welcome arms if only we would put up with their slightly peculiar politics but there was no band of merry men to be found. The dilemma continues.

6 comments:

  1. What size van do you have ...

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  2. It is 23 feet long. Amongst people who live in vans there seems to be an eternal debate: bigger or smaller? Bigger obviously gives you more living space while smaller is easier to get around in.

    We have realised that we spend most of our time outdoors anyway, so loosing a few feet should not make much difference.

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  3. Yes losein a few feet now becouse you spend most of you time out size wont matter much,
    but come winter and the colder weather you will be in side most of the time, and i think you will
    soon miss that exter space that you have now.

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  4. Aha! yes, you may be right but we have plans for that. I suppose you could call us part timers. We plan to head to India or somewhere else in October until the spring. Call it cheating if you like...

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  5. Are you taking that van with you ?
    If so i would not call that cheating :)

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  6. Haha! I would love to take the van with us but sadly it would cost a lot of money getting it over borders etc...It is pretty cheap to store a van for 6 months.

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