Category: Van Living

I wrote a silly song about being broken down: Chorus: I’m broke down in Glennallen Holiday weekend and the shop is closed Twenty below and I’m getting real cold Oh, I’m broke down in Glennallen Got this pretty gold card so I called triple A my van won’t start could ya get me outta here… Continue reading Broke Down In Glennallen

From there it was all coasting uphill. It warmed up to a balmy thirty degrees for the rest of the weekend, I discovered a grocery store a couple miles away and got a rotisserie chicken. I left Bro tied outside a store for the very first time ever (normally I’m too paranoid for that, even… Continue reading Breaking Through

I wake up super early for me, at ten. The sign says twenty two below, but the gas station is warm and I get an orange juice so I have an excuse to hang out inside and warm up before tackling the van. The Haynes manual is extremely hazy about the details of getting the… Continue reading Broke and Down

Bro and I keep walking up the road. There is a town here somewhere, even if it’s just another gas station, I know it. Then there is a twinkle of light. A gas station! I knew it! It’s big, and there are trucks parked for the night. This is where I should be broken down,… Continue reading Broke Down

I’m broke down in this creepy little town that sounds like a bad country song. It started with a hill, with the realization that, although the gas petal was touching the floor, the van was slowing down. The engine was neither racing nor stalling, just idling. I lifted my foot from the petal and listened… Continue reading Breaking Down

I’ve overnighted my parking ticket money to PA, waited two days, tracked it, argued with them about whether or not they got it, and finally they say that the warrant has been removed, although they won’t fax me proof of this. I gave my laptop to my mom and Gateway’s mailing her another box, because… Continue reading For real this time

Bro stirs in the front seat, and I roll over under the thick down. My hair has become a cage of frost and it catches my hand as I reach out into cold air. I pull the hand back in quickly and shove it between my legs to warm up as I scrunch further down in… Continue reading Signs of life?

Okay, maybe not exactly double. But almost. Previously I had very little empty space for chilling out in the van. The bed takes up half of it, lengthwise, and then in the other half there’s a bookshelf (two crates deep), a box I sit on, and about two feet of floor space before you ran… Continue reading Attention Van Dwellers: Double Your Space!