Thank you, Cheryl

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Today is Friday, July twenty-first. Sophie and I are sitting in the Green Olive Cafe. It's my first day of the weekend, and I just had a wonderful croissant and cappucino. The good coffee seems to have finally improved our respective moods after a dusty, hot, and rather unpleasant night on the Mamquam logging road.

One might inquire: Why were you camping in Squamish? I thought you guys rented a room for the summer?

Well, we had rented a room for the Summer, but due to a very difficult landlady situation we found ourselves packing our bags almost two months earlier than we anticipated. Living in a van is manageable, however the crux of the situation was that we had both packed under the pretense that we would have a little bit more square footage to work with then what was available. 

The First Test: We have all this stuff.

Luckily the wonderful Hawk, owner of spokehaven cycles allowed us to store a couple bikes at the back of his shop in return for the occasional delivery of Colt 45's. "A cheap beer that gets the job done" he says with a smirk. Last weekend, I took a trip to Victoria to visit some friends, and through Poparide, skytrain, bus and ferry I lugged a few bags of gear back to the island, and out of the van. And just a few days ago, Sophie, diligently browsing facebook marketplace as always, finds a Thule box for a whopping $260. Boom. Storage issues solved.

The Second Test: Logistics.

Unfortunately, our work schedules are hardly compatible. I work from 7-4 Monday to Thursday, and Sophie works from 10-6, with Tuesdays and Wednesday off. We manage this by constantly navigating a balance of who has the van and where are they? How does each of us get food for lunch? How far am I willing to skateboard to make this all work? Where do we want to cook dinner tonight? Are we allowed to cook there? Will we have time to go to the sac (squamish athletic club) to train and to shower? I think I'll stop the questions there before they pour out of me like an unstopable waterfall of unknowns that are always on my mind. 

But we deal with it! We are creative, and flexible. What we know for sure is that we love living, and it's absolutely worth it.

Thank you, Cheryl.



That's my minivan. Good thing we have it, and shoutout to Ben Godwin for hooking me up with this beauty with a built in bed ready to go. Cheryl has really been the reason this is possible. 

Living in the van has been a good reminder that despite something seeming illogical or logistically impossible, when you're thrust into a situation, you just gotta figure it out. And you will! There is always a way.

I'll post on here again soon to talk about various climbing excursions, but I'll leave it at this for now.

Thanks for reading and here's to Cheryl the minivan.




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