In June 2017 our family embarked on a van trip across the United States. We wanted to explore, eat, sing, camp, meet people and make a documentary about some of our very fine friends. (The doco is called The Meaning of Vanlife... you can read more about it here.)
We started on the road… we must continue there. Pens to the road, wheels to the sky, fill the tanks with coffee and let the horizon burn.
Hunter S Thompsvan.
The Players:
Jim Lounsbury aka The Director – filming a documentary entitled “The Meaning of Vanlife” about the vanlife communities across Australia and the US.
Tenzin Lounsbury aka The Baller – finding the YMCA and the bball camp in every city, growing an inch for every mile.
Finnian Lounsbury aka Huckleberry Finn – following every river and rainbow, pulling every thread, wearing every hat.
Me – aka ‘I’m just a teenage Beatnik baby’ – delusional writer and lover of cacti, overalls and the rambling of the road.
The Prequel: Florida to South Carolina
An Ode to the drive from Port Orange to Charleston- aka “Southern Traffik”
“I don’t wish to die,
I'm not ready to die,
please gods,
don’t let me die.”
Day 1: July 6th Charleston, South Carolina, through Georgia to Talladega, Alabama.
Tacos you ring my bell!
We eat and drive and drive and sleep and
Occasionally we sweat iced tea
Our funk is the funk of the forest
Sweet and heavy and smelling of peaches
Day 2: Talladega, Alabama – through Mississippi – Memphis, Tennessee.
We see the rain coming
We hear the insects coming
Both buzzing, fat and warm
More friend than foe.
Day 3: Memphis, Tennesee – Hot Springs, Arkansas.
We have to dig deep to uproot,
blue and salty,
Drinking too much music
and eating too much road.
Day 4: Hot Springs, Arkansas – Tulsa, Oklahoma
We have been boiled, shelled, seasoned and
Made tasty –
Bathed in magma and flicked towards the West.
Day 5: Tulsa and the Russell Westbrook WhyNot Basketball Camp
We are the thunder, the music
And the menial mysteries.
We sport
And we shyly worship our heroes
And we wash our clothes in Bowie.
Day 6: Tulsa, Oklahoma – through Texas – Sante Fe, New Mexico.
Ejected from the court, we bounce
Out of the heat into the night
Red night windmills pushing us towards
Our small victory
Day 7: Sante Fe, New Mexico
Everything beautiful
Everything dry but green
Brown but soft
Strong but round – coloured, shaped and flavoured
To make us feel as though we are
Accidentally home.
Day 8: Sante Fe, New Mexico – Denver, Colorado
These are not people.
These are folk.
These are not vans
These are homes
These are not mountains
But a nest.
Day 9: Vanlife Gathering, Rocky Mountains, Colorado
If 200 people go to the bathroom in the woods
And nobody sees them…
Be careful where you put your feet.
Day 10: Vanlife Gathering and we leave. Denver – San Fran – Sydney.
We are still as Buddha
Fat and fed by the land and the trees and the mountains.
And then our flight is changed and we are
Instantly
Conversely
Upside down, inside out and flying backwards over the Pacific.
HOME: I miss my van… but I love my bath… I miss the trees… but I love plumbing… but the mountains… but my bed… but the vanlife… but shampoo… but the open road…. But……. We are the libertine wanderers.
