Month 1 of Living Like a Nomad: August 2026

I took the leap. I made the plunge. I jumped off the cliff.

Well, maybe not that last one. But theoretically, I’m *living* in the van. Anna is still in the rental we’ve had for almost 4 years, but the idea is that we let it go and move on to whatever is next. For me, it is to live in the van full time.

To get things started, I drove across the country at a crazy pace to be in New England by mid-August. The best laid plans got totally fucked up, and I drove 6+ hours per day for the first 5 days (occasional breaks made for even longer days). It was absolute torture. My body rebelled against the white-knuckle drive on I-80 with every size and shape of semi-truck, RV, and IDIOT on the road. I slowed down to 2-5 hours per day for the last few, but I still made it to Vermont for a girls’ week(end) and then onward to Maine and Acadia National Park.

I then became totally overwhelmed by the planning (and that’s saying a lot, because usually I love planning a trip as much as going on it), and someone said, “Let AI do it.” That literally had never occurred to me. I thought I wasn’t supposed to let AI take over my life. And this is letting AI tell me where to be, what to do, and when to do it. But it is amazing! Like, holy shit. Mind blown.

And with that, I have been led to New Brunswick, Canada, to an amazing campground, with FREE national park admission (meanwhile, the US is charging “non-residents” about 2-3 times more than “residents” to get into our national parks).

I fear I will sound whiny and self-indulgent if I share “the truth about VanLife” (the title of many a YouTube video). It is not easy. I am developing coping mechanisms for keeping the multiple van worries in my head simultaneously (fresh water, gray water, other … water, power, backup power, sun, shade, heat, air conditioning, gas, internet). One epic fail so far, which I believe stems from the stresses of VanLife and not from being old and forgetful, is leaving my credit card at the self-checkout in Walmart. Miraculously, I realized it was missing within 20 minutes and a Walmart employee gave it to a manager who put it in a safe. Many Walmart employees were informed that they had saved my life.

But if the goal is to collect experiences (which it is), then I’ve already won. I’ll share a little here, mostly photos (click to enlarge):