Downshifting from Van Life
I’ve aimed to write this post for over eight months. (All photos in this post are from that time frame too!) It’s for anyone dreaming of traveling long-term, and also for those living that dream wondering, “Will we do this forever?”
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As long-time readers know, Chelsea and I launched our van trip in fall 2013 for a four-month jaunt down the coast of California. “FOUR MONTHS IS SO LONG!” our friends opined. “Don’t forget Oliver,” said Chelsea’s parents as we dropped our fuzzy companion off for cat-sitting.
Little did we (and my unsuspecting in-laws) know we’d live the van life for three years, not four months.
Backpacking with Chelsea’s parents in the Jefferson Wilderness last July.
The Magic of Full-Time Travel
The excitement of travel pulled like a large planet’s gravity. We easily fell into an orbit that took us to 18 countries by van, bike, and plane. I freed up time and mental space by hiring more people for my business, extracting myself from day-to-day client work. It was a scary leap with a real chance of disintegrating into a broken heap. (At least we had the van!) Things worked out.Patrick rappelling off a route at Smith Rock.
I met Rich and Esther at a trailhead in 2016. “Hey, I know your van!” Here’s Rich a year later zipping down Xanadu, a sweeeet trail with sweeter views near Leavenworth, WA.
Making a snowman with my nephew, Sam. He then crushed me at a snowball fight.
On the Road…Forever?
At one point, Chelsea asked me, “I wonder if we’ll always be nomads?” At the time, the answer felt like a resounding yes. And yet, like any frequent activity, the shiny luster faded from full-time travel. What started as a sort of sabbatical turned into a repetitive daily orbit of logistics. Traveling went from stimulating immersion in new places to shallow dips into too many places, voyeurism without involvement. Even a few multi-week stays and volunteering felt too short.
Paul dives into Waldo Lake on a chilly October day. Yes, that water is as cold as it looks.
Enjoying the views off NW chair with my buddy Robert on Mt. Bachelor. That’s Sparks Lake and South Sister in the distance.
The Travel Pull
When I questioned why I wanted to keep traveling, I unearthed four primary reasons: 1) Daily access to the outdoors 2) Momentum (we’re moving and therefore must keep moving) 3) Positive reinforcement feeding my ego (people saying “wow, I’ve always wanted to do that!” or “you’re living the dream!”) 4) That we COULD travel full-time, so we should (right?). Not if it no longer fed what we sought to do or how we wanted to grow. Of those four aspects, only daily outdoor access made sense anymore. Chelsea felt this earlier than I did and was ready to land in one place.
There’s a metaphor here about hanging onto something…
A magic, strenuous day on Angel’s Staircase in the N. Cascades.
Sunset at Old Mill on the Deschutes River in Bend.
How It Feels to Be In One Place
Over a year later, our new homebase is Bend! We sold our Portland home and bought a house in Bend in a quirky, connected neighborhood. People don’t randomly wind up in Bend. Most work hard and create the opportunity to live here. We’ve discovered new friends are available and prioritize investing in friendship and family, time outside, health, travel and giving back to the community. We’re loving the strong community of active, positive, engaged friends and the easily accessible outdoor magic.
Cookbook club! Get a bunch of friends together and cook amazing food from one vegan cookbook per month. It’s that easy!
Plant-Powered Runners! This crew is awesome.
Rallying friends at our house for the Jan 2018 Women’s March in Bend.
How can you not get outside with this 30 minutes away?
So What’s the Plan, Yo?
This city is a stellar fit for us and we’ve decided Bend is our home for the foreseeable future. We’re rooting, but we will still step off into sweet adventures. “Are you selling the van!?” people have asked. No. Freaking. Way. Too many climbing areas the van needs to visit! I also need it to scope out the trails around Crested Butte, c’mon! A trip to Wyoming and Idaho is already slated for May.
My shredder friend Jeremy launching off Trail #3 at Cline Butte with the Cascades in the background.
A snowy Crater Lake during a week-long mountain biking van trip to Southern Oregon.
Van Life as a Mindset
The social media tag #vanlife represents freedom from a staid, boring existence. There’s a reason Millennials are flocking to it. We’re repeating the paths of anti-establishment parents back in the 1960s. This time around, though, people can work remotely, freelancing from Yosemite, writing software code from Moab, or editing science papers in a ski resort parking lot. Even if Chelsea and I aren’t traveling in a van full-time, #vanlife carries into the way we live. For me, it’s a mentality as much as a way of life, encompassing adventure, minimalism, and an open-minded, flexible approach to travel. It’s an examined, intentional approach.
About to examine the downhill on Fuji Mountain near Waldo Lake!
We’re still having fun!
Dakota! Another interesting, thoughtful post.
My first thought was: I want that van! (Drats, they’re not selling!) I’ve just passed eight years on the road with no home base to go back to, though I have a van in Europe for the summers. When I first hit the road full-time I thought of it as an experiment, and now I think: the experiment continues. There’s definitely a cost that goes along with any choice, along with the benefits. We all need to go where we feel moved to, but it’s helpful, I think, to realize that no combination of travel/non-travel, living here-or-there, this-food/that-food will really lead us to some kind of ultimate happiness, because it’s not found outside ourselves in ever-changing conditions. Be happy, then travel and live and eat as you wish! I enjoy reading about your adventures and your mindful and intentional good works!
Well done, mate, both of you.
Dave Adair recently posted…“The light of eternity” (Four hikes in the Dolomites)
THE VAN IS MINE! Hahaha. I think the life you’re living is awesome. Your point about only finding ultimate happiness inside ourselves rings very true to me. Maybe one of these days we’ll meet in person…we’ll definitely be back in Europe for a bike tour sooner or later. Til then, keep living your dream!
Loving this — nodding my head the entire time. So awesome to see you guys doing so well, I’m inspired to be more intentional about these choices!
Awesome! Thanks Loren. Seems to me that you’re quite intentional about your choices, always pushing and examining what’s next and why. Looking forward to connecting in person somewhere in the world someday sooner than later! Maybe we can go for a run, and this time I’m not going to bike for 3 months beforehand… Cheers!
DOWNSHIFTING FROM VAN LIFE is everything. THANK YOU for writing that. I needed that. We are so similar and it felt necessary and comforting to read what you wrote!!! We have a 6 week trip coming up in April and THAT will be the time for reflection: house vs van or the balance that I’m craving. You’re awesome!
Thanks Pamela! It took forever for me to sort out what the heck I wanted from travel for this next phase, and I think this post sums up my thought process. Glad it helped!
Love, love, love this post! It echos so much about where we’re at with traveling full time as well. And we, too, miss a certainly depth of community involvement. Seems we are just a few years behind you in the trajectory. So happy you love where you’ve landed. Cheers!
It’s funny how social we can be on the road and yet it doesn’t quite fire all the cylinders for some reason. It’s good to swing the pendulum from static to free sometimes just to see what the heck it feels like. You two are doing that well! Here’s to finding that balance, whatever it is, that works great for you. Lots of cool places to land when you’re ready! Howdy to Martin for me.
Sounds like you are officially “Bend Fit”. 😉
Looking forward to meeting you somewhere in this big world in 2019.
BIG hugs to you and Chels. xo
It’s allll relative with the #BendFit levels, but I can hold my own in about 7 sports so I suppose that counts for something? It would be so cool to see y’all overseas in 2019! Big hugs back at you and Don. Good luck with trip planning!
Your article inspired many thoughts, centered for me around the notion of contrast. Laying down roots hits the spot because you’ve been in constant motion. Let’s say you transitioned from stream to tree and I imagine that before your stream phase, you’d been treeing it up. Similarly, warming up by a fire or in a hot tub feels (to me) extraordinary after a day of snowboarding, but undeservedly indulgent if I spent the day inside watching Netflix. Eating tastes best when I’m hungry and sleeping feels great when I’m overtired. Along these lines, the way you concluded the post felt right: You’re not done moving and you’re not done being still. Like seasons, these drives naturally change. The most important lesson I take from this is that we can bounce around without “committing” to one style or another as what we are and what we do. It’s our nature to transition and we should relish switching gears when our guts tell us it’s time.
Great post, my friend! Looking forward to some two-wheeled, two-board, cookbook club, and maybe even some running if I can sort out my hip/IT band. And maybe mix in some simple hanging out… 🙂
Running?! That’s just something we do when the mountain biking trails are muddy or snowed under. Ok, FINE, it’s not that bad. But I still want the bumper sticker that says “0.0: Running Sucks”…even if I did run 10 miles yesterday…
Hey Dakota,
Great read – it really resonated with me. The underlying theme here for me is commitment; to a place, a group of people (community), a partner. Stoked to see how this story writes itself 🙂
Sean
I thought it would! You figured out about 13x faster than most people rocking van life that it isn’t satisfying to roll 300 miles every 1.5 days to a new destination. Smart man.
What a great update! It sounds like you guys found a great balance in this new lifestyle. A sense of community is what makes any place a home. I’ve also been more motivated to participate in local marches and other progressive events and I’ve made so many new and fun friends. It’s a good reminder to me that making friends as an adult and maintaining personal relationships is a very intentional act. Be well!
Well said! Making friends after we’re out of school/our 20s has to be intentional because we all don’t have as much open space in our schedules. Since we do have the time, we love hosting gatherings and bringing people together for various events. Feels like a worthwhile way to spend some time and energy. Hope life is great for you and your family out east!
Thank you for the interesting reflections Dakota! I just got my first van yesterday and completed the first step in making two years of dreaming into a reality. I was particularly interested in your sharing because I envision my ‘van life’ to be a balanced lifestyle of travel, play work and longer periods spent within communities that could possibly become the seeds of a new long term home one day. I’m beginning my journey without a home base, so we’ll see how it all unfolds 🙂
Welcome to van life! Way to make it happen. I think you’re kicking things off with the right mindset! Take it slow and don’t get caught up in go go go and maximizing the number of destinations. Cheers!
Dakota great post which resonated strongly with me. My fiance and I live in Park City, Ut and after 5 years of selling real estate and her doing nursing we hit the road in our Sprinter back in 2015. Traveled the U.S., Canada, and Mexico then headed over to New Zealand and bought another van over there. We rented our house and left on our adventure! Your post hit it on the head! We are back in Park City now asking ourselves the same question, “Where do we want to put down some new roots?” After working on life tasks we are hitting the road in search for a new home base with Bozeman, Durango, Crested Butte, Bend, Driggs, etc on the list. Life is all about balance and even if you are doing amazing things on a daily basis, the deeper, long lived connections are vital to our species.
Thanks for sharing.
Hey Jeremy! Sounds like you two had a great adventure that will continue. Watch out for the Bend vortex is my only advice…it can be hard to extricate yourself from this place. Or any of those towns on your list, for that matter. Good luck with your search and drop a line when you’re in Bend if you want to catch a ride!
I accidentally moved to Bend in 1978. It was so very different back then.
I lived there for 32 years and couldn’t wait to leave. I now live in Sunny Santa Barbara and LOVE the outdoor life here. The winters in Bend changed over the years to become a hassle and hazard. I still follow the Bulletin online and every single winter it’s filled with auto accidents.
I raised my two sons in Bend and it’s a great place for families.
Enjoy!
Thanks for stopping by, Loretta. Glad you’re digging SB. I went to school in SLO, just north of you. Gotta love the Central Coast!
We frequently hear that Bend has changed dramatically! I guess it’s all perspective. Growing up in a small town, then living in Portland, this feels like a perfect middle ground for what we are seeking. The access to nature and awesome people here greatly outweighs the other potential headaches for us, at least for now! Cheers.
Excellent write up on how you feel. As I approach the world of medicare [omgosh, how COULD I be that old already???], I am thinking of getting a van. Researching everything. Which is how I came to your blog. Yeah, that’s the wisdom of older folks there, Dakota. You got it baby. Figuring out what makes the world right side up to each of us. Community is important to many, not so much to others who have had it up to their eyeballs. My plan is to travel during the nice weather months, and hibernate into the community in the winter. Figuring out which van to get is the biggest obstacle, then how to DIY on the build out. Very good article. I look forward to reading the rest.
Very interesting post Dakota! Sounds like we have got much in common! We hit the road next week to volounteer 2 weeks at Burning Man, then ridding the OTT and finally heading to Descent on Bend before going back to Quebec! It would be nice to meet you and Chelsea around Bend, or around Quebec City if you plan on driving up here one day.
Sounds like an excellent adventure! Drop me an email when you’re heading to Bend and we can get out for a ride (or not, ha) or at least some food. I may be traveling then, but if it works out, great. Best of luck on the OTT!
Dakota,
Long time listener, first time caller. I love your blog and it is definitely an inspiration for myself and my small family. I don’t know if it has ever been on your radar (at least I know it was never on mine until recently) but adventuring in Japan is pretty awesome. I just moved here a few months ago, and my wife (a former Portlander) said it is like Portland, but better. There are a lot of trails, waterfalls, and pure untouched nature where we live (Island of Kyushu).
Thanks for dialing the hot line, Pat! Appreciate the nice comment. Sounds like you all are choosing a fine adventure in Japan! I’m hoping to bike tour through Japan, S. Korea and/or Taiwan sometime in the future and your description of Japan makes me want to make it happen sooner than later. Thanks!