If you’ve been following me since the begining of this blog, you will remember how it began, but for the rest – it was October 24, 2013. I was traveling at 496 mph some 3,407 feet in the air. Here is the very first post: I bought a Bus Over the next couple of years Lexie and I explored the country in that bus, then I sold it when Lexie got cancer. Then I lost Lexie, lost my way and lost my happiness.
It was July 2016, 7 months after losing Lexie, when I set out in a kayak from Canada bound for Key West. Many of you followed along during that trip – Canada to Key West. The purpose of that trip was not to reach Key West, but to reach within and find out who I was – without Lexie.
I reached Key West, but not in the kayak (spoiler alert – sorry), and it was there that I truly discovered what it was I wanted most of all. I wanted to be able to smile, be happy and enjoy life again. I wasn’t interested in a career or a job. I didn’t care about success or failure for that matter. Money became pointless to me as did any desire to amass financial wealth. I closed out 2016 in Key West at one of the best New Years Eve celebrations I have ever experienced – and I’ve been to Times Square on New Years. 2017
It was by chance that happiness arrived through the opportunity to sit for the neighbors dogs in the house I was staying at on Long Key. From that moment on, I began to seek out Pet Sitting jobs across the country. These jobs took me to new places. I got to meet new people and discover new things. I had found my happy place again. Unfortunately, my writing wained during this time too, but that was because I was simply discovering so much around me and I was/am living in the moment.
2017 was a whirlwind of travel. From the Florida Keys, I headed up to Gloucester, MA then out to San Francisco, down to Phoenix, Tucson, Bisbee, AZ before driving back east to NY and then Gloucester again – where this time I competed in Blackbeard’s Challenge and kayaked around Cape Ann. Soon I was headed to New Smyrna Beach, FL before jumping aboard a sailboat that I helped crew north from Georgia to Virginia. Then I was back to Pet Sitting throughout New York. From Chappaqua to Pleasantville, Lagrangeville, Cornwall on the Hudson. All the while, I was also overseeing a construction project in Putnam Valley, NY.
The construction project grew from a simple roof job and oil tank removal to a total Log Home Restoration. It was during this time I got the bug again or I should say bugs. I wanted to be back in that VW Bus traveling the country pet sitting with my mountain bike and kayak in tow, but I also wanted to get back into construction or rather handyman work as I was enjoying that again too. Then out of the blue, a Facebook friend, someone I met through the Facebook kayak group – Church of the Double Bladed Paddlers, made a comment on my Log Home work. She simply stated, she wished I would go there and help her out – there being Kentucky. I replied that I would and just like that simple dog sitting gig turned into an opportunity to travel the country for a year, her comment and subsequent conversation, turned into a new opportunity. I could cary my tools in a bus, bike and kayak on the bus and travel around the country performing Pet Sitting and Handyman Work at will.
As I began researching this, I found that the VW Bus, even the Syncro I coveted, would not be able to carry my tools I needed. I started looking at other vehicles. First the Honda Element, then SUV’s, Pick Up trucks, Mini Vans. I began reacquiring tools too as I took on more and more work on the Log Home Restoration – all of which I had sold just a few years earlier before leaving Vermont in the kayak. The vehicles I looked at had to get bigger and bigger as I acquired more and more tools. I considered a trailer like I use to have, then a truck and even a 28′ Toy Hauler RV. I considered every conceivable option and each one would get ruled out for one reason or another. The Bus didn’t have room for the tools, but had everything else I needed. The SUV’s and Cars were just too small to cary everything and live out of between gigs. The Toy Hauler was a great option. I could use the back garage area as a shop, but then I thought about having to use it to pick up material, travel in cities like San Francisco and getting out into the wilderness. It was simply too big, but one kept coming up as a possibility. A Class B RV, but the problem with the Class B’s were 1) the cost. I could never afford what they were selling for and 2) as configured from the RV Manufactures, they would not fit my tools, though seemed to have the ability to.
I left New York the end of January after working on the Excavator for weeks in the middle of winter installing an underground propane tank, excavating for a sidewalk and doing other various outdoor projects. I was San Francisco bound for a month long vacation before returning to work in March and missing the harsh NY February Winter. It was in San Francisco where I acquired my Mountain Bike (yes, there are actually a lot of mountain bike trails in San Francisco) and then one day while I was shopping for accessories for it I stumbled across something interesting. In front of REI, there was a white Sprinter type of Van with an advertisement on it for custom builds. I happened to run into the owner on my way in as he was coming out and he showed me what he did to the inside. While I found it to be quite basic, the concept was perfect. There was a ton of storage under the bed for tools, a kitchen and a porta-potty. I knew for sure what I wanted.
It wasn’t even a week later when I took a Mercedes Sprinter 4×4 out for a test drive in San Francisco. It was well out of my price range, but I loved it and figured I could find a used one. Little did I know that this would be impossible. From there forward, I was focused on the Mercedes Sprinter and Ford Transit vans. I ruled out the Ram because I didn’t like the driver compartment. Upon returning to New York, I found myself neck deep in a major restoration project on the Log Home in the middle of winter. Yeah, February turned out to be warm and sunny in New York, but March came in like a Lion. Blizzards and Big Snow Storms, knocking out power for days and making roads impassable. Managing these storms along with a growing list of work to do on the home, finding a van and trying to get it all done before I had to leave for Florida in May – my next house sitting gig, was getting challenging. I was working 7 days a week and often 10-12 hours a day. I’d come home at night, exhausted and get online to research van conversions and try to find a used van. I joined a forum for the Ford Transits and another for the Mercedes Sprinter. In the Ford Transit forum, I met a gentlemen named Ed Bower, a salesman for Matt Ford. In just a few days, Ed was able to find me 6 vehicles that could easily be converted into an RV. One in particular, I really became interested in. It was only 5 hours away from me in PA. With a simple email to Matt, the GM at Murray Motors in Lock Haven, PA and a quick reply from him – on a Sunday no less, followed by a phone call on Monday from his salesman Mike Packer, I had found the vehicle I was going to purchase and negotiated a price. Here it is, a 2018 Ford Transit 250
This past Wednesday morning my friend Arlene drove me five hours to Lock Haven, PA pick it up and we turned around and drove another 5 hours back to NY. 12 hours total time on the road, which included us both driving straight into a severe storm that struck Wilkes-Barre, PA with blinding rain and hail. We lost all visibility and immediately pulled off the road. I was able to get under an overpass to hide out until it passed over. By 10pm that night, my future was sitting in the park lot out in front of her apartment.
This blog began in 2013, on my way to pick up a bus and travel the country in it and now here I am again, ready to hit the road in a similar vehicle. Though this all just began, I’m already booked right through the end of October with Handyman Work and Pet Sitting gigs. In between these, I will be converting this T-250 into a full Class B RV. Be sure to follow along as I perform the conversion little by little.
If you need any Pet Sitting, House Sitting or Handyman work; shoot me an email or contact me on Facebook or comment below. I’m so excited for this new chapter and excited to continue traveling the country in my new home.
