Week 26: Reflecting on six months of full time travel.

Deep thoughts in the desert.

Hey, hi, hello! It’s hard to believe, but it’s been a little over 6 months since we sold our house in Austin, Texas to travel full time in our converted Ford camper van (named Walter)!

An amazing Arizona sunset from where we’re camping.

How is that even possible? And how is it December already?!

Our camp spot in Ironwood Forest! The hood is up to discourage pack rats from building nests in the engine bay, window coverings are up to keep the van cooler inside, and the portable solar panels are out to help recharge the cabin batteries in the low winter sun.

My view as I type!

As I sit in the shade of a saguaro in our camp in Ironwood Forest National Monument near Tucson, Arizona, I thought I’d take a moment to reflect on this new life of ours:

Another amazing Arizona from camp!

The Highlights

• The biggest highlight has been the freedom to roam. It’s taken a bit of a mindset shift since it’s kind of like we’re on a permanent backpacking trip — but the van carries everything for us! It’s been so great having our bed, a bathroom, our fridge/freezer and being able to cook and not worry about the weather. We were tent campers for over 20 years before this and I still can’t get over the fact that where can camp in parking lots if we need to — and cook in the pouring rain! And not have to make a long cold trek to the bathroom at night.

• Going off-grid for 2 weeks at a time. When we designed the van we had a goal of going to remote places and being totally self-sufficient for 2 weeks. We’ve got to stay in some really amazing places! Sometimes when we get to a remote location after being through a city my ears ring from the silence. It’s an incredible feeling being able to do this — one I don’t take for granted.

• Seeing the sunrise, sunset and the stars. I feel so much more grounded and connected to nature. And my sleep has really improved.

• My artist residencies at Valles Caldera National Preserve and Capulin Volcano National Monument. I’m still on a high after being selected and getting to stay in these special places, host public outreach programs — and make art!

Some of our saguaro friends!

The Challenges

What have been our biggest challenges so far? Here you go — sharing this with the hope that it helps someone out there who’s thinking of traveling full time:

• Deciding where to go next. We have so many places on our list — Jason has a map where he keeps track of everything and it’s going to take us years to get them all off our list! We’ve been deciding where to go based on the weather — so far we’ve been pretty lucky but we know that won’t last, ha! Sometimes we go back and forth for days before we can decide where to go.

• Getting mail is harder than I thought it would be. We use a mail service for full time travelers and they hold our mail for us and then forward it when we request it. So far we’ve only been able to get our mail twice during my residencies. We haven’t tried getting mail via general delivery at a post office, but at some point we’ll have no choice. We sure don’t miss the junk mail! But we do miss being able to order something online and have it delivered to our door.

• Voting! Texas is one of the most restrictive states, and they make it really hard for people under 65 to vote by mail. It took two tries to get a mail-in ballot, but we were finally able to cast our votes.

• Finding certain food items/produce. Jason and I are both vegan and try to eat whole foods/plant based. The hardest things to find so far have peanut butter without added oil or salt and reduced sodium soy sauce. And good salsa! When we’re shopping in small towns it’s also been a challenge to find fresh fruit and vegetables. It makes me realize how I took fresh produce for granted in Austin. When we go through a city with a Trader Joe’s I get super excited and stock up, ha!

• Healthcare. The US healthcare system is difficult to navigate for everyone, but especially challenging for travelers. All the plans we can find are regional/only usable in a small area.

All in all though, the pros outweigh the challenges by far!

I hope we get to do this as long as possible.

Giving Thanks

This was our first Thanksgiving in the van and I really wanted to make it special. So I made little place cards with the collab set that I did with Letter Sparrow (it’s sold out now, but you can still check out the colors!) and fixed a big dinner!

Here’s what was on the menu:

• Celebration Roast with mushroom gravy (from Field Roast)

• Sweet potatoes

• Harvest grain blend from Trader Joe’s

• Spinach and kale salad with beets and heirloom tomatoes

• Orange cranberry relish (also from TJ’s)

• Corn

YUM!

I missed making cornbread since we don’t have an oven in the van, but I found a recipe for making some in the Instant Pot and can’t wait to try it.

Snowmen in the Desert

I’ve been working on my Christmas cards and I’m slowly but surely getting them done. Saturday I painted some snowmen — in the desert!

I shared one with my Dad — this is what he said lol!

You can check out a quick lil tutorial video here on Instagram if you’d like to see how I made them — they’re SNOW much fun!

Desert Triad

I’m getting ready to do some paintings here at camp, but first I wanted to explore the colors I might use by trying them with the Triad Template that I did with Art Toolkit. Here’s a video sharing how to use the template on a Trail Tile — btw, the triad template fits perfectly in the metal box that the Trail Tiles come in!

The colors are:

• Holbein yellow ochre (PY42) — the most opaque yellow ochre I’ve ever tried!

• Winsor & Newton quinacridone magenta (PR122) (you could use Daniel Smith’s quinacridone lilac (PR122) or quinacridone rose (PV19)

• Holbein peacock — a combination of phthalo blue (PB15) and phthalo green (PG7)

What do you think, did I capture the colors?

As many of you know, I’m proud to be an ambassador for Art Toolkit and they’ve given me a code to share with you: Use code LISAFAN10 for 10% off your purchase of an ArtToolkit, palette, or mixing pans — they make great gifts!

When you make a purchase using the code I’ll receive a small commission at no charge to you. I truly appreciate your support!

That’s it for this week! We’ll be staying here at Ironwood Forest National Monument for one more week, and then we’re heading back to Tucson to resupply — and hopefully pick up my new glasses that I ordered.

As always, drop us a comment if you have any questions — we love hearing from you, and hope these photos bring you joy! — Lisa & Jason