Welcome to my blog!

Welcome to my blog!

Hey fellow Steemit users, and welcome to my blog! I'm excited to start sharing my adventures with you here on this platform. Prepare yourself for writings and photos on my minimalist voluntaryist nomadic lifestyle, travels near and far, pursuits in health and wellness, explorations in philosophy, cooking and recipes, relationships and more!

I grew up in a small rural town in Illinois and resided in the Midwest US for most of my life. Four years ago, I hopped on a train with a couple of bags and started life anew working as a farmhand on a homestead in rural northern New Mexico. I grew fruits, vegetables, and relationships with people and critters there and with that beautiful place. Nearly two years passed before I loaded up a pick-up truck and drove north to Boulder, Colorado to try my hand at working a nine to five job at a gym to rent a place and to study to become a personal trainer. A winter passed, and I quickly learned that I wasn't cut out for it. I met someone who inspired me to reconnect with my own roots in my love for nature and adventure. I dropped everything and used the little savings I had left to buy a van. It was the start of spring, and in two days, I had found it, purchased it, moved in, got rid of the rest of my belongings, and drove away from my costly and increasingly unhappy domestic life in Boulder. I traveled back to some of the places that I love in northern New Mexico, adjusting to #vanlife, feeling like an outlaw, overcome with a renewed sense of adventure, while also deeply enjoying and finding solace in the nature that I was constantly immersing myself in.

I eventually made my way westward to what ended up my landing spot for the summer: Flagstaff, Arizona. After much hiking and feral relaxation in free campsites outside of town and then doing my first major repair on the van, realized my urgent need to earn some more money. I acquired another nine to five job at a local juicery, developed new relationships, and settled into a new groove, living out of the van full time inside the limits of that city, stealth parking every night and working nearly every day. Again, a season passed, turning from summer to fall, and I felt the need to leave it all behind again. A frightening run in with and warning from the cops sealed my decision to get out of town. I traveled southward with another nomadic and free roaming spirit I had met in Flagstaff that summer. We caravan-ed in perfect rhythm with the warm weather, making our way from Flagstaff to Sedona to Phoenix to Cottonwood to Quartzsite, Slab City, and then all the way back up north.

I now find myself camping in Sedona, Arizona, plotting my upcoming summer in Flagstaff. I've seen beautiful places, hiked through them, did good albeit very hard work to earn a little money that seemed to then slip through my fingers. I have since started my own small business and have learned and continue to learn big lessons on how to save money all while not sacrificing my pursuits in freedom, travel, health and wellness, and a deep love for preparing and eating real good food. Withdrawing from society enough to slow down and sort of see it from the outside has enabled me to see it and myself in light of it with new eyes. Being in an intimate relationship with a fellow traveler that feels like the first of its kind in my life has also presented equal amounts of new opportunity and challenge. I've got goals to meet, challenges to surmount, ideas to share, issues to solve, and freedom and fun to be had. I'd like to share it with you!

Upcoming posts will include the sharing of my favorite travels thus far; tips on living out of a van and living as simply and saving as much money as possible; good eats; cheap and easy vegan, pescatarian, and auto-immune recipes; experimentation in fermentation on the road; and newest insights into intimate relationships on the road.

I hope you'll stick along for the ride!

Lauren