I'm Turning into a Hippy.

I’m going to live in a van down by the river. My mother would be so proud (not). She's actually kind of concerned and offered to buy me a $500 space toilet (I'm a little concerned about that part of living in a van too).

It all started one cold winter day in Salt Lake City.  I was headed to go meet up with some friends at the hot springs when I hopped off the freeway to grab some food. While I was stopped at the light, I heard a crash and looked up in my rear view mirror to see the front of a Tahoe doing a wheelie into the back of my precious Hyundai Elantra. The SUP fins I kept on the dash of my car flew to the back of the car and my head slammed into the head rest. I had just been rear-ended.

I pulled my car forward and got out to see that the accident was much bigger than I originally thought. It was a four car pile up and the car in the back of the line was in terrible shape and the driver was locked inside, unconscious.

I’m glad that I was able to use my Wilderness First Responder training to help assess the scene and help everyone at the scene of the  accident keep from freaking out. The driver of the Tahoe was also a nurse, and she helped as well.

Long story short, everyone was okay. But the real nightmare happened afterwards. I left for my 20-day Chile trip two days after the accident. I was very stressed out the entire trip, especially since I didn’t know anything about the driver’s car insurance policy at the time.

It turned out that the accident exceeded her coverage, and three months after the accident, the verdict is looking like I'll come out with a handful of cash and a totaled car (why pursue a lawsuit when I didn’t go to the doctor, couldn’t go to the doctor because I was paddleboarding whitewater in Chile, and my car wasn’t worth enough to justify it anyway?).

So I figured now is the time to buy a van and live in it. It’s scary and unknown, but all I know is that I don’t have much money left and I’m moving to Colorado  in a few weeks and will be paddleboarding every day anyway.

Why pay $800+ dollars for rent each month for a place that I’ll only spend 4 nights a week in anyway?

Also, I haven’t lived in the same place for more than five months for the past four years now, and I’m getting really sick of dealing with Craigslist Creepers trying to get me to live with them.

And lastly, I want to buy my own horse soon. How in the world am I going to have my own horse-baby if I’m giving my hard earned cash to a landlord every month? Must make sacrifices for future horse-baby.

It’s not going to be glamorous or Pinterest-worthy... and I’m about to get extremely familiar with YouTube building tutorials, but it’ll be an adventure. That part’s for sure! :D