In December 2019, I decided that my household universally loathed. I used to be going to dwell (and sleep) in my compact automobile so I may lastly afford to journey.
I noticed it as an journey. They noticed it as homelessness.
Photograph by John Archer | Property of writer
Lower than three years earlier, I had moved from my dwelling state of Colorado to dwell in Peoria, Illinois, the place my mother and father had grown up and the place a lot of my prolonged household nonetheless lived. Hire costs had risen uncontrolled within the Denver space, and I used to be searching for a decrease price of dwelling whereas I pursued a profession as a full-time freelance author.
Growing stronger relationships with my grandfather and plenty of of my aunts, uncles, and cousins was a pleasant good thing about dwelling in Central Illinois, however one factor I couldn’t have understood till I moved there was that winters there have been a lot worse than winters in Denver, which have been already unhealthy sufficient to set off seasonal melancholy.
By December of 2019, I used to be caught on this in-between world, the place I wasn’t making fairly sufficient cash from writing to pay all my payments, however the canine grooming I had picked up on the aspect additionally wasn’t paying in addition to I had hoped and was protecting me away from discovering extra and higher writing work.
On prime of every part, the continually stone-grey sky and already-frigid temperatures had despatched my thoughts into a really darkish place. “I can’t hold dwelling like this.” It’s not that I used to be suicidal, essentially, however deep in my bones, I understood that I wouldn’t survive one other Illinois winter attempting to stability grooming and writing.
For the earlier 12 months or so, I had been watching movies of a 20-something woman who had been dwelling and sleeping in her compact automobile, and that felt like the proper means for me to cut back my dwelling bills so I may afford to deal with simply my writing whereas additionally permitting me to discover the nation, if not the entire world, a dream I had lengthy held tight to.
Once I made up my thoughts, no one may change it. I completed the busy vacation season at my grooming salon, removed most of my belongings (both promoting them, trashing them, or storing them in an aunt and uncle’s basement), broke my lease, and hit the highway on Sunday, January 5, 2020, after a giant household lunch.
My mother and stepdad dwell in a gated group outdoors the Dallas space, and so they kindly supplied to let me park outdoors of their place for some time as I adjusted to dwelling in my automobile. I finally wished to move additional south, since even Dallas will get fairly chilly within the winter, however I couldn’t deny their logic that it will be safer to work out all of the kinks inside the bounds of their group.
I didn’t need to make the roughly 12-hour drive all in at some point since I didn’t depart Peoria till mid-afternoon, so I acquired an inexpensive motel room in Missouri someplace west of St. Louis. Attempting to sleep on the extra-firm mattress whereas listening to hooligans messing round outdoors drove dwelling the fact that almost all of my essential possessions have been in my automobile and will simply be stolen. “What have I gotten myself into?” I believed.
After many hours of tossing and turning, I checked out of my motel room lengthy earlier than the solar arose and hit the highway. I discovered a truck cease that appeared secure and wound up sleeping in my automobile for a couple of hours earlier than hitting the highway once more.
As soon as I reached my mother and stepdad’s place, I quickly found that sleeping in my automobile wouldn’t be an issue in any respect. Sleeping in my reclined seat gave the impression to be a lot simpler on my again than sleeping on a mattress, and I had sufficient blankets to maintain me lots heat. Sleep, it will prove, wouldn’t be the toughest a part of dwelling in my automobile.
The dawn after the 2nd evening of sleeping in my automobile | Photograph by writer
I spent most of my days working in an area Starbucks or Dairy Queen, and I began venturing out some evenings to attend Meetups within the Dallas space, after which I might discover a seemingly secure place to park and sleep earlier than dashing again to the precise security of my mother and stepdad’s place the following day.
On Wednesday, January 15, I made the drive that may change my life and I headed right down to Galveston to see the seaside. After roughly six hours of driving, I crossed the causeway, and as I did, I felt like I used to be coming dwelling, though it was to a spot I had by no means been earlier than.
The primary photograph I took in Galveston | Photograph by writer
Rising up in Denver, I used to be a mountain woman. Though I didn’t ski or snowboard, I nonetheless cherished “my mountains,” so nothing may have ready me for the peace I discovered on the seaside on a dreary January day. As I drove via the city and walked alongside the seashores, I pictured myself fortunately driving a motorcycle down the Seawall — regardless of not having ridden a motorcycle in at the least ten years.
Galveston had the proper small-town really feel with a lot of the conveniences of a giant metropolis, and something Galveston didn’t have might be present in Houston, about an hour north.
After a few harrowing nights having bother discovering locations to soundly park and sleep, I headed again to my mother and stepdad’s place, however it wouldn’t be lengthy earlier than I discovered myself again in Galveston — this time for good.
I spent the following two weeks utilizing my mother and stepdad’s place as a house base for a number of small adventures, however the toll of looking for secure, authorized locations to park and sleep once I wasn’t there and the price of “shopping for” a desk at a Panera or a Starbucks the place I may spend the day working began so as to add up.
By then, I had picked up some new purchasers and was making good cash (comparatively talking). I made one other journey to Galveston, however this time I booked a motel room for a couple of nights so I might have a spot to work and sleep. As my checkout day arrived, I nonetheless wasn’t prepared to depart, so I discovered an Airbnb for a few week at a 1900 Storm Survivor Victorian home within the East Finish.
On daily basis, I fell extra in love with the town, and earlier than my time within the Victorian home was up, I made a decision to signal a lease for an condominium on the West Finish.
Photograph by writer
On Thursday, February 13, 2020, I moved right into a one-bedroom condominium with solely the belongings I had in my automobile and some low cost sticks of furnishings I picked up at Walmart. Signing a lease is dear, so all I had for furnishings to start out with was an inexpensive desk chair, a TV tray for my laptop computer, a folding camp chair, and an air mattress to sleep on. However I cherished it.
A few month later, the COVID lockdowns hit, as a lot as you might name them that in a state as pink as Texas. I didn’t thoughts in any respect. I had a view of the pool and palm timber from my condominium. The climate was delicate, regardless of it nonetheless technically being winter. And I didn’t have to fret about the place I might go to the lavatory when companies shut their doorways to the general public for a few weeks.
View from my Galveston condominium | Photograph by writer
Galveston felt like dwelling in a means no place ever had earlier than. After a couple of years there, nonetheless, I grew bored with dwelling in a vacationer city and wished simpler entry to medical care and different providers solely obtainable on the mainland. I had given up my automobile in December of 2020, and getting round (and off) the island was harder than I had anticipated.
Just below a 12 months in the past, I discovered a tremendous condominium nearer to Houston, and I find it irresistible right here simply as a lot, if no more so than I adored dwelling in Galveston.
Winter down right here is simply brutally chilly for about one week a 12 months (and that one week occurs at a unique time yearly, which I discover endlessly amusing) and is in any other case delicate sufficient to get by with simply sweatpants and a hoodie. I don’t love the warmth and humidity, however I discover it a lot much less dysregulating than chilly climate, so the recent summers are a suitable tradeoff for the delicate winters. Spring and fall are pleasant right here, and I like strolling round briefly sleeves whereas seeing my family members in Colorado and Illinois on social media exhibiting photos or movies of snow or complaining concerning the chilly.
It turned out that dwelling in my automobile and touring the nation wasn’t the long-term resolution I anticipated, however it introduced me to the place I really really feel at dwelling, and that by no means would have occurred if it wasn’t for my resolution to grow to be “homeless” in December of 2019.
Jennifer Nelson is a author who covers various subjects, together with autism, ADHD, memoir, psychological well being, pets, and extra
This text was initially printed at Medium. Reprinted with permission from the writer.
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