January 2022

Freelancing and Reading on the Road

Leave a Comment / All, Travel /
My impromptu standing desk costs a fraction of those expensive fancy things, and takes up hardly any space. Folding table: $40. Folding sitting table: $30? Briefcase: Free.

As Turtle (my van) and I bumble south from Colorado to New Mexico, and west from New Mexico into Arizona, I find my brain getting bored with not working. I’m so obsessed with maps, and poring over brochures and cactus guides, and finding a place to sleep at night, and filling water tanks, and emptying dirty water and toilets, that I haven’t spent enough time on my business, which I really want to work on.

White Sands National Park, New Mexico. This is where I started listening to Deliberate Freelancer's episode about ADHD.

What got me back into the zone? The Deliberate Freelancer podcast. Melanie of MelEdits is a brilliant podcaster, and she interviews equally brilliant freelancers. While walking through White Sands National Park, (just south of the missile range in New Mexico), I became transfixed on the ADHD episode where she interviews a woman who was diagnosed with ADHD and how she made it work for her business. I was stunned as the interviewee listed every single habit I’ve ever had and wondered about. I don’t think I need a real diagnosis, but just knowing that it’s likely I have the same issue makes me feel a little better.  I dove into other episodes too, like how to say no to business we don’t really want, and choosing one’s clients.

My van at the visitor's center of Three Rivers Petroglyph site in New Mexico. The land of little rain.

All along my adventure I’ve been reading Carl Hiassan’s Basket Case (which I really should have saved for Florida, since that’s where all his stories are based), and Edward Abbey’s The Journey Home, and on audio I’m listening to Mary Austin’s, The Land of Little Rain, which was published sometime in the 1920s. I’m glad my mom encouraged me to subscribe and keep subscribing to Scribd, because I’ve listened to many, many excellent audiobooks this way. 

Follow my van life adventures here in the “travel” section of my blog, or on Instagram @artemissavory. 

Freelancing and Reading on the Road Read More »

Van Life: Affordable Rent and Amazing Places Worth Visiting

1 Comment / All, Travel /
My van at the very beginning: March, 2021. I had help getting my van for a good deal. I also had lots of help with getting her road- and life-ready.

I started living van life for a number of reasons, of which saving money is near the top. When I was renting rooms in my twenties, I started out paying around $5,000/year plus utilities, which rounded out to roughly $6,000 a year. I got good at finding individual owners to rent from so I could continue on this track for awhile. I found places equally cheap in western Massachusetts, then in Colorado.  In my late twenties I moved back to Massachusetts and I found “cheap” apartments at $900/month. That meant I was spending $10,800 a year—or roughly $13,000 a year, including utilities—just on living in a place. That didn’t include car expenses, gas for the car, food, groceries, or anything else.

My dad let me stay in his empty apartment for a few months, while I readied my van. This place was a cute studio apartment where the damn kitchen pipes got clogged, but everything else worked well.

I got a lot of help on the road to van life. My dad is a used car dealer and was able to get me a low-cost van at auction available to dealers only. He let me stay in a couple of apartments that were empty at the time. I slept on my air mattress for a few days, until my sister gave me her old foam mattress and bed frame. I cooked and ate food with a fry pan, a pot, two plates and two bowls, and one set of silverware.

Van life is a hugely different experience than apartment living. I will say that ever since setting off, I’ve relied a lot on friends: I stayed in friends’ driveways in my home state of Massachusetts, as well as in northern Ohio and Colorado. I cheated and stayed in a friend’s guest room for a few days in western Ohio. For this reason, I haven’t had to pay for many campgrounds, showers, or laundry. I’ve spent very few nights nervous that the cops will knock on my window at 6 a.m. and tell me to move along.

Saving money is a good reason to van life. Another is to see beautiful places all around the country. This picture is of the Bridge of Flowers, taken in Shelburne Falls, Ma.

Follow my van life adventures here in the “travel” section of my blog, or on Instagram @artemissavory. 

Van Life: Affordable Rent and Amazing Places Worth Visiting Read More »