Intro To My New World

Being the first post, an overview of who I am and what I'm doing seems appropriate.  

Who am I?

I'm recently retired and have a lot of time on my hands.  Also have a penchant for bicycles and exploring nature.  Consuming all that new-found time with fulfilling activities makes sense.  Simple things seem to draw my attention.  Rather see a sunrise than anything man can create.  Rather hear birds chirping than attend a concert.  Rather see animals in their wild habitat than visit a zoo.  I have some multi-day self-sufficient bike tours under my belt so there's familiarity with a simple existence.  Both bike touring and van living boil life down to simple components.  Where will I sleep tonight?  Is there enough water to last the day?  The weather, the food supply, bathing, and other things taken for granted in a typical home now move to the forefront of my mind.  I like that ... not taking anything for granted.  I'm 61 years old ... if I don't do it now ...

What am I doing?

The plan is to live in my van, visiting rewarding feature-rich places.  Perhaps more accurately, living out of my van.  I don't see the van as a mini-home or poor-man's RV.  Its simply a vehicle doing what it has been designed to do ... haul me and my stuff.  I'll set up a base camp in carefully chosen places and enjoy nature and activities from there, before moving on to the next location.  The goal of being able to live for a week with only the items I bring to camp, drive my list of gear and supplies.  Achievable?  Yet to be seen.  This life is new to me ... a learning experience ... Embrace adjustment.

Which Activities? 

Biking, Mountain biking, hiking, drawing and maintaining this blog will consume most of my free time.  Free time - that's all the time not consumed by maintaining my existence.

Why a Blog?

Future posts will focus on my gear, camp, mindset, diary of days, plans, etc.  As you can tell, I'm not an accomplished writer ... just a guy with a story to tell.  Will tell it here in this blog, with as many pictures and videos as possible.  I chose an old school blog as opposed to YouTube so that I can journal my days for my own use, then share with anyone interested ... without the time consuming filming and editing necessary to create a quality video.  A countless number of people share their van life on YouTube channels, many making their living by doing so.  I'm not doing that.  They must focus on the intrigue of van life itself to keep content interesting enough to attract viewers.  I'm not about van life ... I'm about exploring and living simply ... just happen to live out of van.