What the hell happened? We were hoping to be in Mexico by June but now it’s October and we are just starting to head south to cross the border.
Let me tell you — the journey from June to now hasn’t been pleasant but…it’s had its moments.
I’ll back up a bit though - we didn’t have a camper van, plain and simple, by May, so we pivoted. We got an empty cargo van whose mechanics were sound, and slowly but very eagerly (and painfully) we started converting it into our home. I (optimistically, hopelessly) thought it was going take us a month, maybe two to do the main conversion, but no. Oh boy, no. It took us 4 whole darn months to get it (mostly) done with many, many obstacles.
First, the car was curved so that was a built-in difficulty that precluded us from going the easy way out and putting in thrifted (read square) cabinets. Curves do not go well for a first-time DIY project. We had to reiterate and reinforce and rebuild structures throughout the entire process. Next, was me. Me and my ideas and my perception of how long a step or a piece would take. I had so many ideas on how we could build this out and make it dual-purposed and maximize space and comfort. Poor Clark. He tried his best and - if the idea was solid, succeeded - in implementing and working with my multitude of variations on variations for any one piece. My brain just went too fast for both this project and him. Those were the main challenges. The rest was just exhaustion, being displaced even though we were with our families, and eagerness to be on the road already.
Despite all of this, this summer has had one huge benefit. The time I got to spend with my family. It has been about 10 years since I have gotten to spend more than a couple of weeks at home. 4 months was challenging, but it was full of growth, re-getting to know each other as the adults we now all have become - siblings and parents both - and Ba’s masala chai every morning.
The path here was rough, but full of love. And the looming adventure is totally worth it.
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