Home Sweet-Stinking Home

My plan to hit the open road on the first of April was a good but futile one.  Despite the plethora of road blocks I managed to depart only one week behind schedule.  Not bad.  I must say that it was worth the wait.  I could live in this stinky, rolling house indefinitely and be completely and utterly happy.  It's not just the van that makes my heart scream with delight; it's the lifestyle, the freedom, the uncertainty, the adventure.  I have everything I need and then some.  The first time I experienced life in this 1989 Chevy, complete with a non-working television, a bed, a pantry and a dresser, was the summer of 2004.  I parked this pimped out ride on Ocracoke Island, NC and called it home for six months.  I held three jobs during those months.  By day, I  alternately sold parasail rides at a roadside stand or scanned groceries at the check out of the local Variety Store.  By night, I tended the bright blue, neon fish covered wine bar at Sargasso Deepwater Grill.  At the end of the day I loved riding my bike home to my cozy little house on wheels.  When I am in this van I am truly home.  Living in a van was another big fat check mark on my bucket list as is this current cross country road trip.  Nothing feels better to me than to accomplish one of my personal goals and cross it off of the list.  Everyone should have a bucket list.  It is a constant reminder to do things that make life worth living.  If your life is lacking excitement and inspiration, create them.  Being healthy and capable of completing the items on my bucket list is the thing I am most thankful for in life.  Because I am healthy, I am happy.  Although, a person can have happiness without health it is a gift to have both and it is an even greater gift to realize that and appreciate it.  Like my bucket list I am ever growing and changing.  It's interesting to see the evolution from year to year not just on the list but within myself.  One of the more ancient items on my list was to dye my hair completely pink.  (Lola's hair was red but nevertheless the inspiration behind adding this item to the list.)  I could never find the right time to do it and at thirty-one years of age I struggled with keeping it on the list at all.  I've never removed anything from my list without accomplishing it so I decided that it was now or never.  "Go big or go home".  I'm unaware of the origin of that quote but I find myself nervously reciting it a lot, especially when I'm about to complete something from my bucket list.  Anyway, pink hair, check.  And we're off to see what each new day in this tiny, rolling ark will bring!