Let's Go, Jane!

The van project is officially underway. Last Sunday I stopped by my parents’ house for one last visit before heading south, then spent one night at my sister’s house in Connecticut where I went through all of my belongings in her basement and reclaimed about half of them. The remaining pile is down to just nine boxes and a blanket chest. I swung by Carey’s house to pick him up, and we started our drive to Florida. 

Between packing up my stuff and adding Carey’s stuff and making a few local stops along the way, it was after 4 pm by the time we got going, which of course meant that we hit rush hour traffic in New York. We made it as far as Washington, D.C. before stopping for the night. With no real time pressure to arrive by a certain day, this was fine. As it turned out, our slow start ended up making something possible that I didn’t think was going to be an option.

Have you heard about the Walk for Peace? Nineteen Buddhist monks are currently making their way on foot from Texas to Washington, D.C. Their 2,300 mile journey, about 20 miles per day, is meant to raise “awareness of peace, loving kindness, and compassion across America and the world.” The day we arrived in D.C., the monks had reached Richmond, Virginia after 100 days of walking. They were greeted by an estimated 10,000 people who lined the streets and gathered to hear their message of peace.

I had been following the Walk for Peace for a few weeks, with no expectation of seeing them myself. And yet, here we were driving south along the same path that they were walking north. I scoured the route map and daily itinerary posted on their Facebook page, and chose a location along Route 1—a restaurant that didn’t open until evening, so I figured that the parking lot would be available during the day. 

We parked, facing the road, and I noticed that some of the other cars had drivers in them. It wasn’t until the young men selling Walk for Peace t-shirts came through that I was sure that the other cars were there for the same reason. The monks were not expected to arrive for at least another hour, but people began gathering along the side of the road. By the time they walked past, there were crowds lining both sides of the road as far as I could see in both directions.

It was a long pit stop on a long drive from Boston to Orlando, but it was well worth it. I got back behind the wheel and drove until about 10 pm when I needed to take a break. Carey, who had gotten some sleep during the day, decided to continue driving rather than stopping for the night. The closer we got to our destination, the more determined he was to make it all the way. While I dozed he drove straight through, arriving at his house just before 8 am.

Somewhere between that roadside pause and pulling into his driveway, the trip quietly turned into a beginning. I woke up yesterday morning with a clear schedule and a long list of tasks. It’s a strange feeling when weeks of planning meets that moment of action, when “hurry up and wait” suddenly becomes “it’s go time!” While I have a number of smaller projects that would be quick and satisfying, like installing exterior door locks and a passenger seat swivel, my priorities are the floor and the roof fan. On my first full day of the van build, I cleaned the metal floor, sanded it, and painted any bare metal with Rustoleum. Then I applied strips of Kilmat sound deadening material to the floor and wheel wells.

Today, I will purchase rigid insulation and birch plywood and install my subfloor. I haven’t decided yet if I want to finish the floor with luxury vinyl plank now, or wait until later in the build. The other priority project for this week is installing a roof fan so I have adequate ventilation. This project is a bit more intimidating, as I will be cutting a hole in the roof. Imagine buying a vehicle and then climbing onto the roof with a jigsaw fitted with a metal blade and cutting into it. Terrifying. Once the floor and fan are in, I can install a bed and start sleeping in the van.

I’m really grateful to Carey for making this February build possible. Without his driveway, and a place to sleep until the van is habitable, I would still be chilling in Boston, watching YouTube videos and biding my time until spring. Instead, I’m finally doing the thing—learning as I go, and turning an idea I’ve carried for a year into something solid enough to stand on.