I spent the better part of this evening researching how to prevent an outdoor hose from freezing in extreme conditions with the intention of making it safely through my first winter as a full-time Airstreamer. This topic was quickly followed up by the Google searches “what is the best space heater for a travel trailer” and “how to skirt my Airstream.” Three hours into the interwebs and $427 later, I have gained an inkling of confidence that I might be able to make it out alive. Hear me when I say that “might” is the key word in that sentence. Dramatic? Maybe. But, with each place I... Read More

Let’s talk about boundaries. I have spent the last month in a state of increased awareness about my absolutely terrible ability to set boundaries. Or, maybe the problem is that I’m really good at setting them, or knowing what they should be if I were to set them, and I have an absolutely terrible time of following through with them. Whichever the case, I am currently hypersensitive to the fact that boundaries are a necessary part of respecting my self-worth, and on a traditional grading scale, I’d over-generously give myself a D+ in this category. Before I expand on this reflection, I feel... Read More

I summited Half Dome last week. And, while I want to sit here and boast about my pride in reflection of that accomplishment, the truth is that it’s been bittersweet. Yosemite National Park had been the number one spot on my bucket list since I started climbing just over a year ago. Unfortunately, traveling solo leaves this rock climber without a perma-belayer, so I chose to enter the daily lottery for the Half Dome hike, a rather stringent process that allows only a select few applicants access to the summit by way of cables. And, well, I won. Stoke was too high. Really, I was itching to get... Read More

One minute you’re riding a motorized bike along the Newport Pier. The sun is kissing your skin and the wind is whipping past your smiling face. The salty air is filling your nostrils and you can feel your entire body let out a sigh of pure unencumbered bliss. The next minute you’re sitting in an autobody shop listening to a mechanic tell you that you’re going to need a new car engine. Your palms get sweaty, and your eyelids flutter subconsciously. A wave of nausea passes over you as you enter into that slightly out-of-body state of being. Okay, this is not a normal day by anyone’s standards.... Read More

In part one of this post, which you can read here, I addressed why I lived a very regimented life for nearly two decades (and, yes, I’m not so naïve to think that I don’t still possess this quality – I simply know that I now manifest it in a way that feels healthy to who I am as a person). The second part of this post, which you are obviously reading at this very moment, addresses more specifically HOW I got here. To buy an Airstream and commit to a full-time nomadic lifestyle, more or less, was not an overnight decision. In fact, I started looking at them a year before actually biting the... Read More