United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry

It may be for a shorter period of time, and I may not have had to move (although it feels like I did), but I'm homeless again.

I'm preparing for a month long road trip with my partner, Jack, where we hope to sleep in the car we're traveling with. That's a whole month of living out of a 50 cubic feet 2013 Hyundai Accent. The plan, which is always tentative, is to go to Detroit, then Chicago from where we will follow route 66 through IL, MO, OK, NM, AZ, and CA. We rented out our apartment for the month, which left me homeless until we leave on September 6th or 7th. That's right, I don't know when we're leaving, that's as much planning as you're going to get!

I spent the last few weeks imagining how I wanted to set up my car, and the weekend attempting to execute. So far, so good, I've got a 3/4 inch plywood plank across the back of the trunk onto the folded seats, and a second piece of plywood in front of it, finishing the base of the bed for the 3.5 inch foam mattress to lay on, but also doubling as a table we can pull out from the side door. The mattress was cut down to size for a snug fit around the wheel covers. I have folding legs for the table to rest on the back of the car. Hopefully my plan will work to keep the BBQ smoke out!

Trying to keep weight at it's bare minimum, I had to be selective on what to bring. Cooler for dry food - I won't be able to keep cold food considering I don't plan on buying ice along the way. The BBQ and whatever goes along with it - which means ridiculous over thinking from me including containers to do dishwashing, and the soap, and the sponge, and the utensils, and the pots, and OMG I can't sleep. I have 2 packing cubes of clothing, a couple sweaters, flip flops and sneakers. That is it, that is all.

This trip will be quite the challenge for me - anxiety is usually at it's peak when I don't know where I'm driving to (or being driven to). My sister likes to bring up when she was driving back in high-school, my friend Candice in the passenger seat, and she drove onto the highway going the wrong direction. I flipped out. Flipped. Yelling for her to turn around. More recently, I was already in the parking lot of the mall I needed to be in, but didn't know where a certain store was inside this mall. I wanted to park closest to that door. I yelled at Jack for not googling fast enough to tell me where this store was because I was at a stop sign and didn't know whether to go left or right. My challenge to myself - keep my cool throughout. Or at least don't yell at Jack. It's ok to get lost. That's what I will keep telling myself. Especially when you live out of your car, you can survive anywhere.

This will be my first road trip! I've over prepared the car, under researched the trip. Thankfully Jack covered the research for us from La Loche, SK. The quirkier the better! Along route 66, I'm excited about the giant astronaut holding a rocket, the bunny farm, the largest rocking chair, the largest fork, everything is so perfect! Once in L.A. we will make our way back via HWY1, up the pacific coast, dropping by Seattle and Portland, then cutting back across to home. Who knows if 1 month is enough to do this all, but doesn't really matter. We'll come back when we have to.

So welcome back all! And welcome to the new readers! Let's start this new journey!En savoir plus