You know that awkward feeling when you just don’t know what to do with your hands? Well week one pretty much felt like that – but with everything. Where do I put this? How do I get to this? Where should we go? What should we do today? Why doesn’t the water work? Why doesn’t the internet work? Crap, is there an engine problem? Has Miles eaten/peed/pooped? Damn, I hit my head again!
As one would expect, we’ve had some kinks to work out. I’m happy to report that we’ve mostly gotten the what/where/when in the bus figured out at this time and I get attacked by the fridge when we turn left less and less every day. Nick seems optimistic that the new pump we have coming tomorrow will fix our water problem, and with my lack of plumbing knowledge, I have no reason not to believe him. We have settled in at an auto shop that is going to do some things I don’t understand and make it so the bus purrs like a kitten for hopefully the rest of our journey.
The biggest thing is figuring out what to do everyday. It is weird to have no real responsibilities or somewhere you need to be at a certain time or a certain date and it’s taking a bit of adjustment. In my mind, I see us living this perfect balance of vacation and real life, of planned out routes and spontaneous side trips, and of really figuring out what freedom means.
Nick appears to be adjusting to nomad life faster than me – maybe because he’s lived in a van before, or maybe it’s that working from home has taught him how to structure his day on his own better. I have no idea what I want to do all day and that is both amazing and a struggle.
Leading up to this trip, I had been working a lot and really pushed my body to do more than it wanted to do. I was seeing a lot of patients and was passed the point of burn out. So part of me wants to do nothing and just take a break. Then another part of me has serious FOMO and wants to make sure we see and do everything and don’t miss a thing.
I have confidence that we will strike the perfect balance and with time the awkward feeling of what to do with my hands will go away and for now I’ll keep enjoying the adventures like this:
And this:
And this:
We hope you enjoyed reading this post and now feel more like you too know what it’s like to live in a bus. If you would like to keep feeling this way, subscribe to our email updates and we will let you know when we make new posts for your vicarious pleasures. Just full out the form below and click subscribe!