Stillwater
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2011
- Messages
- 266
- Reaction score
- 0
Well, let's see. 42 years old now, married for 16 years and two kids: a 10 year old precocious daughter and a 7 year old son on the autism spectrum. (Aspergers.) I'm an engineer with some of my work involving tv satellite production in distant cities. My logon is "paddling_man" which has been the same for likely 18 years from the days of Windows 3.1 and the first online services. <div><br></div><div>This logon comes from my longtime hobby that waxes and wanes of kayaking. I've put somewhere in the neighborhood of 6,000 whitewater miles under my butt and another 2,000 flatwater. The bulk of the whitewater took place in the nineties before work brought me from the Appalachian Mountains to the flat Midwest. I've camped all over the hill country of TN, NC, SC, GA, WV & KY in pursuit of a great whitewater run but that's mostly behind me now. I've had the opportunity for drives (work & personal) to take me over all four corners of the continental U.S. with sojourns into Canada and Mexico. My travel has become more limited in the past few years due to work and home but hope for that to turn back around in the next 10 years or so.</div><div><br></div><div>Regarding van-dwelling, I dearly miss my faithful friend, the Previa. </div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div><br></div><div>I was surprised to *not* see a Previa noted anywhere on this forum. She was a 93 that I purchased when she had 45,000 miles on her. She faithfully took me to from the Midwest to Chaco Canyon, Carlsbad, down into TX, all the way up to the Apostle Islands for a week of solo island hopping and countless trips back to the southeast and beyond. With third row seats that either laid flat (which made a nice bed once packed with a thermarest, sleeping bags and a comforter) or split down the middle and became part of each wall, she provided ample sleeping space. I had removed the two middle captains chairs in lieu of storage and side racks. She had blackout windows with black fleece curtains I made for all the glass and a separation from front seats to rear cabin. She had full time AWD and got 18 MPG, city or highway. Reliability? I replaced an oxygen sensor at 135k, an alternator at 100k, and heater fan at 180k and shocks at 210k. Maybe $500 in parts from 45k to 225k when she was impacted?</div><div><br></div><div>Yep, "impacted." A freshman from IU-Bloomington blew thru a traffic light and hit me head on as I was taking a protected (arrow) turn across the road. Who knew that airbags smell like gun powder when they go off?? Well, shockingly no one hurt except her Mom's new SUV and my beloved Previa. </div><div><br></div><div>
</div><div><br></div><div>
</div><div><br></div><div>
</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>I went thru a small sedan, an extended cab full sized truck until I settled on my Subaru Outback Sport. Reading some of your adventures camping a Prius, you've given me inspiration to begin exploring the full length capabilities of my passenger side.</div><div><br></div><div>
</div><div><br></div><div>During my move from St Louis to Indianapolis, I did NOT want to rent an apartment or certainly do two mortgages, so I bought an old 1980 Winnebago Brave to live in solo until my house sold and my family moved out. This move began in April of 2007 and I was thinking my house would be sold before summer. Not so... I lived in the Winnebago for 51 weeks. The size was fine. More than enough for me, really. I learned to keep the intake water liquid during the weeks that the high never went above 10F but the gray/black water... um, not so much. That and I learned that, with the exception of my motorcycle, I never want transport that isn't fuel injected again.</div><div><br></div><div>
</div><div><br></div><div>Speaking of the bike, I can't call it dwelling "in" it but have done some 1,000 mile plus trips living off what I could haul on the back. Not too bad, actually.</div><div><br></div><div>
</div><div><br></div><div>My parents-in-law, he a nuclear engineer, her a stay-at-home, upon retirement sold their beautiful architect-built home on five lake front acres, bought a new Roadtrek and hit the road for the last three years. With us in Indianapolis, their other child in Denver, they've criss-crossed the US a three or four times and made it to Prudhoe Bay at least twice in the summer. I really didn't think they had it in them but they seem to be having a wonderful time and I admire their tenacity and adventure more than they know. </div><div><br></div><div>
</div><div><br></div><div>Me? The tentative plan right now is once the kids are out of high school and on to higher education, I'll be leaving my full-time one-location based job and take an EIC job running a satellite truck across the country. We will downsize the house from the current 3800 sq ft to a manageable 900-1300 sq ft. This will be a homebase for me and my wife. I don't expect her to spend as much time on the road as me, but I would love to maintain 1/3 to 1/4 of the year mobile. Who knows? Maybe she'll change her mind and want to be permanently mobile. If not, no worries. We work well together and can easily find a happy medium.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>
</div><div><br></div>
