Vanlife is such a thing. Why isn't there a really good, fun and more importantly upvote stimulating hashtag that encompasses all those other live in vehicles that are creative expressions of people's lives? Maybe there is, and I don't know about it, or maybe everyone's just happy with 'vanlife' and assumes it embraces any home on wheels? I've got a few home on wheels stories to share and I thought Steemians might like them, so here's the first one, involving love at first sight and a gorgeous old lorry that we still miss.
Anyway, many years ago now I was travelling overseas and ended up in Somerset, England, at a mate's sister's house. I'd met them travelling around Australia a long time ago, and had they'd invited me to see Zion Train at Glastonbury Townhall, so I'd trained it down from London and within ten minutes of being there, there Jamie appeared - and my heart goes thump thump. Weirdly think - 'first I'm going to shag him, then I'm going to marry him' - and it's odd because I was NEVER getting married, ever. Odder than that is we DO end up together that night - this is December 21st - and by Jan 3rd we'd decided I'd go home, pack up all my stuff in Australia and come live with him in country England and GET MARRIED, which we did within the year. I can't even remember who said it first, all I remember is that we were in a pub in Surrey by the fire drinking whiskey and the fields were all icey and sparkly with sunlight and I was in love for the first time in my life. The other odd thing is that he'd been parked up in his sister's driveway in this Bedford ex-library lorry and was meant to leave the day before because he'd outstayed his welcome after being there for months (not in a bad way, just time to move on). In attempting to leave, he'd done something he'd never done before - hook up the battery the wrong way around and blew the alternator. It was just a moment of inattention but if he hadn't had done that, he would have gone, and we never would have met.
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So, I did pack up everything and told everyone I was going to England to marry the love of my life, who lived in a truck, and had like 90 quid to his name. I think the only people who saw it as a reasonable thing was my parents, who just wanted me to be with someone I felt passionate about and had seen me through some sorrows and I guess trusted me to do the right thing. We lived in the truck for about a six months, in the forest and in his sister's driveway, and it was pretty lovely.
We ended up selling the truck to move into a house because we knew that living that way was going to be tough on a new relationship, and dammit we wanted it to work. And it did - we had a beautiful few years in Dorset in a beautiful hamlet near a chalk stream and we got married and things were great. But we always dreamt of moving back into a truck. Also, we weren't getting anywhere paying rent and working and we wanted land of our own, and as I'm Australian, moving back to Australia was an option.
So eventually, we walked past a green Bedford TK horse lorry we passed every single day and she was for SALE!!! More of this truck in a new post, if you're interested - I feel like she needs one of her own.
Let's see your lorry!
Cheers... will do... have a bus and a van and army truck to write about too... its a comin!
Cool! I am in process of converting a 1964 Dodge Van into a camping van.
Fabulous!!!! Would love to see progress on that!!!!
That pic was the day I towed it home. I have a few posts about it and other projects on my blog, and more to come. Right now I am fitting a custome Radiator. Next I will post about the complete re-wiring I did.
Fabulous!!! Following!!! We dont have them much here in Australia...
Aye!
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非常好哦，
Thankyou. I had to use google translate, which said this means 'very ay' and that sounds like a good thing, so thanks x
Haha
I wanna hear about the love truck!
I was never gonna get married, and then got married, and then got unmarried, and had a bunch of other relationships, and was grieving the loss of a few at once when I found myself facing down homelessness in Seattle. So when I moved into my van, the entire point was for it to only be reasonable for me myself and I to live in it. :P It's lonely sometimes, but I am best on my own, or if with people, having a lot of personal space.
Personal space is everything. I had best moments of my life living alone in the back of a corolla station wagon travelling round years ago. Just happens that i am pretty happy sharing tiny space with this being, now 💙
Such a nice life story you have! Could be a book or a movie :) curious about the other lorry! Do you have more pictures? I’m curious how the inside looks like 8) Thanks for sharing!
Sadly its from the days we didnt have camera phones or the understanding photos would be important!!!! Theres a few inside photos but i will have to find them. I will post about the other Bedford soon. Xx
Ah too bad :) I know the problem though! A lot of pictures I had are lost due to not archiving and backing up properly. Really regret it. But Im aware of it now and am very cautious with it now :) Looking forward to the other Bedford post!
I totally regret not taming time to get the card out of camera, put on computer and burn to CD instead of constantly making room on SD card for more photos. I have two videos of my son as a kid. It was just different times. Cloud storage is awesome. Yet I also try to school myself in non attachment! Which is very hard!!!!!
For now #vanlife I believe is the only one? I like #dieselnomads but never used it 😁
Great story! I'm very happy to read and see pics of this way of life,more need to see it as an alternative choice and therapy.. Big love guys!
I LOVE dieselnomads! I quite liked rollinghome too... or rollingnomads! I will post more soon. Thanks for your enthusiasm!!! 🤗💙
Fuck,forgot to ask,what's the trucks name or did I miss it?!
We havent ever named our vehicles, bar Buttercup (landrover) and Bertha (the army ACCO) ...
Life van is my next step... your story is very very inspiring, and your love story gives hope...! Can't wait to read more about it! share with us, tell more about... thank you for sharing, is really inspiring.. :D blessings
Hope? Are you looking for it? I had given up and as soon as I did.. bham! Aint that the way it goes!
ohhh really!? perhaps i still believe in fairy tails stories... well inspired me :)
I suggest we all embrace the #nomad tag. It's underused at the moment, but it incorporates all vehicle types. The community is small at the moment, but I believe that is going to change both on Steemit and the world in general.
Good idea. I will use that for sure!! Especially here on steemit!!! Thanks @cahlen 💙
Saved by an alternator! Please post more, I'd love to read about vanlife since I'm planning to build a van/truck/4x4 or a sailboat very soon.
Oooh maybe I will post about our van next amd the green lorry #1 later!!!! So much to write about!!!
Awesome view!!!!! I'll be glad to read and learn from your experiences.
This is on the Great Ocean Road, near me. I can drive half an hour from home and pretend I'm somewhere amazing. Oh hang on, I am!!
Yes please more on the Bedford TK horse lorry.
It's coming, I promise.
Yeah to Truck living, really happy to meet you @riverflows, looking forward to seeing some more about your great life. Welcome to Steemit xx
Naaaaw thanks!!! I was really excited to see you on here... Ive seen you elsewhere on the www so yay! Xxx noice to connect 💙💙💙