Van Life Meets Pandemic Life

This life is about freedom, exploring, community and nature. Much about van life though is naturally self isolating, or at least involves very reduced social contact within small groups. Yes, we stopped game nights and yarn-spinning around the campfire, even though no one in our camp had been sick.  We stay a few feet apart and no longer hug in greeting or departure. 

But those of us in smaller rigs still must go into town and stores regularly to resupply. When we travel, we have to stop for gas. We have to pick up mail and packages. Each time out is a potential exposure.  Lately we’ve been going in pairs so that if we have to completely separate from camp due to illness, at least we’re not totally alone. We joke about who will throw food to whom and who will prepare the coffee, my life blood 😊. We’ve even talked about how we’ll attempt to deal with hospital treatment by parking our rig in a hospital parking lot for treatment so we don’t have to take up a bed, should it come to that.

I’m not a very fearful person on the whole, so this isn’t making me panicky. Watching the numbers, the percentage of recoveries is reassuring. I’m not in any high risk groups per se, other than I’m over fifty five.  I do have friends and family in many of the high risk groups, some laboring under multiple sets of risk factors. It is them I worry about, not really myself. I wash my hands, I practice staying six feet away in stores and lines, and I take additional supplements to boost general health and immunity. I also try to faithfully ingest a little alcohol every day for it’s virus killing properties, hah! And I keep hydrated, have hot drinks regularly, and refrain from touching my face.  Thankfully my work is remote and has been for years, so I don’t have an office to enter. Our company has been 100% remote now for about two weeks. It’s one of the benefits of being in IT currently.

The heat had been rearing it’s head and encouraging the scorpions and rattlers to come out and bask, so it was time to move north. But this is proving to be more difficult than thought. Cities and parks, BLM lands and national parks, closing in dribs and drabs, making the original objective unreachable for now.

But really, who can complain about this view?!?

We’ve run into friends, but because of supply runs, gas ups, and other social exposure, it simply wasn’t the same – no hugs, no sit downs for a long chat.  A week from now I’ll feel safer hugging and talking closely in groups when we know where everyone has been and that there are no signs of illness in anyone.

I found this quote online, and love the sentiment. We should appreciate these things always. We should be the best we can at all times. But I’ll take any positive from this exercise!

Be well. Love strongly. Reach out virtually. And remember, we got this!

~SE landed, on the road