Melting the ice cube
Melting the ice cube
Navigating the messy middle of a big life change
Howdy Traipser! If you’re new around here, I’m Dakota and this is my newsletter about reclaiming creativity and ditching tired personal paradigms…and soon, I’ll add travel reports from #trailerlife.
If this were the Viking Age, I'd don my helmet and load up my longship to deliver this newsletter. Luckily, all I do these days is hit send, no helmet required (usually).
Around here in Central Oregon, it’s full-on fall. We’re skittering around like busy squirrels before winter, laboring on to-dos for the house and Airstream ahead of our upcoming launch date sometime in November.
A good amount of fun happening around the work, including a wonderful trip to the coast with my dad in August, a visit to Crater Lake, and plenty of mountain biking. Ahhh fall.
This week on To-Doing About, Edition #127:
The liminal phase
A test trip in the Airstream
Traipsing Tidbits: a father-son roadtrip, rocking blues, ocean art, and breathwork for stress relief.
The place between here and there
At the end of June, two big things dropped in my court: a travel trailer and shutting down my business of a decade. Since then, the list of things to handle for Project Airstream Liftoff has consumed large chunks of time.
To get enginerdy on you, any phase shift requires additional energy. Well, we’re melting this Life Ice Cube by cranking up the heat so we can flow on outta here in the Airstream!
Ironic how a goal to shift to a more flexible lifestyle and fewer responsibilities triggered so many logistics. Caulk this sink, register this vehicle, install that, upgrade this, sell this, buy that… Our spreadsheet for departure gains to-dos as fast as we can cross them off.
Even with the direction the trip prep provides, lately I’ve had this weird unsettled feeling. Definitely not bored—but a pause, a liminal phase of my life. A strange sense of a life eddy after a decade of my gears being engaged in business and others depending on my decisions.
It’s the loss of the anchoring effect my (former) business and Traipsing About represent for me. Two main strands missing at the center of a spider web of all the things I’m involved in, leaving the web listing to one side. Life feels a bit unsteady, disconnected. Luckily, we’re getting things cornered and I’m feeling more centered lately. I’m rebuilding one strand by typing these words.
My daily practice right now is to stay in this unmoored moment and accept that there’s no way to handle it but pushing through. The obstacle is the way: on the other side of the to-dos lies a new phase of life for me and Chelsea.
We’re hoping it marks a return to more novelty and frequent travel, while maintaining space for music, art and other hobbies we’ve picked up. Time will tell.
A trailer tester trip
Part of this phase shift is making sure everything works on our Airstream prior to departure. Our Sprinter van has fairly complex systems, but with the trailer we’ve added heat pumps, a water heater, a shower, and toilet system.
We tested many things in our driveway, including sleeping in the trailer. However, there’s nothing like rubber hitting the road! Plus I assume my neighbors aren’t keen on me dumping black water tanks (aka “solids” in trailer parlance, eww) in the street.
So we embarked on a tester trip, a whopping 30 miles south to Lapine State Park. Once there, we dialed into the full hookups (water, electric and sewer), everything one needs for a real trailer party!
I won’t bore you with the details except to say a few things:
Our F150 pulled the trailer like a dream, purring along like a rowdy beast. Also, I get solid satisfaction seeing our shiny mobile home in the rearview mirror.
No mishaps occurred during backing up or dealing with all systems on the trailer. Ok, FINE, I took a few times to get the trailer into the camp spot exactly where I wanted it.
Most importantly: the larger space, light and overall comfort in the Airstream felt AWESOME. As one van life friend observed during a tour, “you can walk by someone when they’re at the sink.” Yup! Eating breakfast in the nook in the comfy banquet with the windows framing a view of the forest, setting up my piano for a morning session, and having easy access to the river trail got us both fired up to get on the road.
Oh, and Oliver enjoyed being a fearsome forest cat, stomping around in the woods like the ageless 19 year old feline that he is. He loves the trailer and meows at the door at home demanding trips to visit it. A good sign.
Traipsing About Tidbits
From the Traipsing archives: I loved rereading my essay about the power of a father-son roadtrip.
I can’t get enough of this sweet blues album, Tell Everybody.
Stunning photos of the ocean doing oceany things.
Andrew Huberman’s latest newsletter on breathwork reminded me of the power of “the physiological sigh” to relieve stress. Take 2 consecutive inhales through the nose: one big inhale, followed by another inhale (with no exhale in between!), to maximally inflate your lungs. Then exhale all your air until you are lungs-empty, via your mouth.
You’ve reached the end of Traipsing About newsletter #127.
A parting quote by Meister Eckhart from a perfect card my aunt sent me:
And suddenly you know.
It’s time to start something new
and trust
the magic of beginnings.
Catch you next time!
Dakota
P.S. Ten bucks says it’ll brighten your day to see the top contestants in the children’s mullet championships. Just the names of the mullets are worth it (Thunderdome! Feeding Frenzy!)
Thanks for taking the time to read Traipsing About! I always love to hear from you, so hit reply and send me an email anytime.
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