So I've been at work almost a month now, and living in the truck for just as long. I've definitely established a comfortable routine, and I'm a lean, mean, code-producing machine on my team, so everything is going good. This means I can focus my non-work hours to the real goal: the big trip.

The Trip

When I interned in Silicon Valley last summer, I realized a few very important and related things:

1. I'm horrifically uncultured/culturally-unaware.
2. I'd like to change that.
3. The world is full of beautiful and amazing places.
4. Of all these beautiful and amazing places, I've only ever seen a small handful of them.
5. I'd like to change that too.

I've mentioned this here and there, but as a reminder, the end-goal of this whole situation, the culminating experience of 4+ years of van-life, is a world-encompassing expedition. Realizing how little I've done, seen, and know helps me put into perspective just how important this goal is for me. I want to experience as much of the world as possible, and over the course of the next few years, as I save money and my stocks vest and my investments grow, I'm going to plot out the journey in excruciating detail, making sure that I don't miss anything. I'm only going to be young and able for so long, now is the time to do this.

Plotting the Course

Right now, I have a very broad idea of what I want to do, and a very limited idea of what is actually out there in the world for me to experience. I know I want to spend at least six months traveling. I know I want to visit all the (inhabited) continents. I know I want to learn the basics of a few languages. But beyond these few basic desires, I don't have much concrete knowledge as to what I should even be looking for. Luckily, I'm not the only human being on the planet, and I can draw on the near infinite wisdom of the rest of the world's past and present human beings through the endlessly useful invention of The Book^TM. To get warmed up, I've purchased two whole books.

Book #1: How to Drop Everything And Travel Around The World

A vaguely gimmicky title yes, and not a super thick book, but it has exactly what I need: firsthand travel experience from someone way more knowledgeable about the topic than me. The text certainly isn't exhaustive, but at the very least, it'll point me in the right direction regarding things like: learning languages, adapting to new cultures, understanding the philosophy of travel, and tons of other useful skills. It's basically a Sparknotes-edition of what I want my life to look like a few years down the road.

Book #2: 1,000 Places to See Before You Die

This book is some serious business. In it's physical form, it's 1200 pages of tiny text, a nearly comprehensive guide of places to travel to, and what to do when you get to them. And while it's naive of me to make any estimates without having read any actual content yet, I'd like to reach at least 250 of them in this trip. That may be a feasible goal, it may not be, I have absolutely no idea at this point. But reading this book, in it's entirety, will help me understand more about the cultures of the world and how to adequately approach them, as well as less abstract, more practical things like where to stay, what events to go to, and what to eat.

Like I said, this is just the start, and I'm sure I'll have a better idea of what to read/do/learn next once I start reading these books. I have years to go, and all the time I need. The sky is the limit and the world is my oyster: you bet I plan on being the most high-flying fisherman I can be.

I'm a very judgmental person, I have been for as long as I can remember. It's certainly not a trait that I'm proud of, it's just always been easier for me to dismiss people based on superficial observations than to actually try to understand anything about them. If neither software engineering nor driving buses work out for me, I can readily imagine myself becoming a dunk tank clown, because I'm quick to recognize "flaws" with a cursory glance.* I'm sure a proper psychiatric evaluation would conclude that it stems from some deep-seated insecurity that I've yet to acknowledge, but that's entirely beside the point.

So anyway, a couple weeks ago, I'm sitting in my favorite cafe, as I often do, and I see an older gentleman playing some Anime-styled video game. My first few thoughts upon seeing this went something like, What a weirdo. Jesus buddy, get a room. Seriously, does he even realize how ridiculous he looks right now?, and so on and so forth. And normally at this point, I'd gently scold myself and make no actual effort to reform this nasty, completely unconstructive habit of mine. But on this day, I happened to be feeling a little more self-aware, and as a result, had a much more constructive response to myself, which went something like the following:

Brandon, you are straight up homeless. On a daily basis, you climb into and out of the back of a large, decrepit moving truck. You have met human beings that know this about you, and are still willing to associate with you. If everyone was as dismissive and judgmental as you are being right now, the world would be a cold, sad, awful place. Don't be such a douchebag, your insolence is toxic and is a great way to alienate yourself from all of the really interesting people in the world. More often than not, people have valid and compelling reasons for doing the things they do, and there could be an innate beauty in their hobbies and habits that you simply can't see from your admittedly limited perspective. Don't shut people out and dismiss them so blithely, at the very least, their presence will show you new ways of seeing the world.

That's that. Having a close-minded attitude towards perspectives other than my own doesn't suit me well now, and certainly won't be any more beneficial in my future travels. Applying my own Litmus Test to my actions makes it clear that I'm not doing a service to anyone with my attitude. So that changes now.

_{*I put "flaws" in quotes because of the idea of perfection that I discussed at the end of this post, mainly that to be flawed is to be human and to expect or want anything else is naive.^{in my opinion}}

Tips from the Truck is a new series I'm starting now, where I talk about the various little things you can do to make truck life easier.

I briefly mentioned in this post that eating out all the time can quickly cut into your truck savings. Why would you be eating out all the time, you ask? Because you can never, under any circumstances, keep food in your truck. Even non-perishables, you don't want to keep any vaguely organic, edible substances within like a 100-foot radius of your abode. You might be saying to yourself, "Brandon, doesn't that seem a little excessive? What if I get hungry at night and want a Clif Bar or something?" To which I say, Too Bad^TM.

As I've mentioned before, my place of work extends many benefits to me, one of them being free meals. While certainly helpful, free meals are not a requirement for living in a truck. Aside from the benefits of being physically removed from the possibility of late-night eating, there's a much more practical reason I don't keep food in the truck: lions, tigers, and bears.^{oh my!} Okay, maybe not actually those three animals in particular, but the literal last thing you want to deal with is an infestation/intrusion of any kind. I keep nothing even remotely edible in the truck, aside from maybe a small, tightly-sealed bag of protein powder. The remainder of truck-residing items include a bed and a Velcroed-shut dresser full of clothes and various cleaning products.

And you know what? Despite not having anything for bugs or animals to eat, I still occasionally have to deal with bugs. I reluctantly disposed of two HUGE* spiders yesterday, and became acquainted with more than a few moths while washing my sheets. I'm sure it's mainly due to my door setup, which I'll without a doubt discuss in a future "Home Improvement" post, but basically I keep my door slightly open at night for fresh air and so that nobody can lock me in here and subject me to a pretty embarrassing death. Back on topic, I can only imagine what critters I'd find myself face-to-face with if I actually had something enticing for them. I saw a stray cat walk by a few nights ago, who's to say it wouldn't have decided to move in if I had some sweet treats just laying around? And it's hard enough to clean things in here, with limited access to waste disposal, you want to generate as little trash as possible, the absolute last thing you want is a raccoon rummaging through your things because you threw a candy bar wrapper away three weeks ago. The main, and really only, takeaway from this is that if your setup is even remotely like mine, or you plan on having a setup even remotely like mine, don't bring food in it, the results may take away your appetite.

_{*They weren't actually huge, in fact, they were tiny. But they looked super menacing in the sub-standard truck-lighting.}

Final Note: I added a Question box to the site, so if you have any burning questions, you can anonymously submit them, and I'll do my best to answer them in future posts.

A few days ago, I opened up a question form where people can ask whatever they want about the truck-life. I've gotten a few questions (potentially all from one person), and I'm going to copy them in all of their unedited, verbatim glory here, and answer them to the best of my ability.

Will you be throwing a truck-warming party?

Yes actually! I don't know specifically when it'll be, or where it'll be (besides in the truck, obviously), but plans are in the works. Moving into a new place can be stressful, as I've undoubtedly alluded to in previous posts. House-warming parties help to take the edge off and ease the transition. I think that the truck-warming party is just as important, if not more of a necessity, than a standard house-warming party would be.

Since you have fewer expenses, you should probably just take the extra dolla dolla bills and fill your truck so you can swim in it Scrooge McDuck style.

The main reason behind minimizing my expenses, aside from wanting to live simply, is to save up for my eventual travels. While it would be a total baller move to fill my truck with freshly minted dollar bills and swim around in them, I just don't see it happening. Also, I just did the math, and using stacks of one dollar bills, I'd still need $19.9 million dollars to fill up the entire box. That means filling it halfway would still be nearly $10 million, and even if I crumpled them up (to increase their volume), it'd still be a pretty pricey ordeal. Turns out living in a truck doesn't make you Scrooge McDuck-status wealthy.

I noticed there are no sources for your images. ARE A THIEF? Gosh.

I try to take pictures and use those whenever possible, but I do frequently resort to Google Image Search. And despite the caps lock and sassy attitude, you have a pretty good point, I should give credit where credit is due. I'll add in that feature very soon, and I'll update all of the old images.

How fast can your truck go?

Well, I've never quite taken it drag racing, but I do like to keep up with highway speeds so I don't get run down by a stressed-out techie with road rage. The truck will go about 75 miles an hour if you ask it nicely, though it's definitely much more comfortable not moving at all.

When you go traveling, are you planning on doing it all in the truck? Or will you (temporarily?) abandon your truck?

I haven't written a post about this yet, but the first part of my trip will be a road trip back to Boston, where I'll hit all the major landmarks and attractions on the way back. I'll drive/live in the truck for this part, and then I'll store it in Boston while I do my traveling. At no point will I actually abandon the truck, just store it away for safe-keeping.

You should probably just get a nestcam and live stream the inside of the box all the time.

So this isn't actually a question, but neither was the Scrooge McDuck one. Anyway, even if I did do this (incredibly creepy) thing, it would be super boring to watch for the following reasons:

1. I'm never there.
2. When I am there, I'm getting ready for bed.
3. If I'm not doing that, I'm cleaning or folding laundry.

I didn't buy a truck to spend all my time in it or host lavish dinner parties, I bought it for almost expressly the purpose of sleeping. I've mentioned it before, but if you're living a large portion of your waking hours inside a small box, you're doing it wrong.

Those were all the generally reasonable/answerable questions/comments I've received so far. As always, I'm more than happy to answer any questions, so the box is on the side if you're feeling particularly curious.

It appears I have a few prolific inquirers, so here goes Q & A round two.

Is what you're doing illegal?

There's two underlying questions here. First, is being homeless illegal, and second, are you homeless if you live in a car. To briefly answer the second one: living in a car is definitely considered being homeless, but I'll address that in one of the later questions. As for the legality of being homeless, I had trouble finding relevant city ordinances for where I frequently park, but nearby cities like Palo Alto and Manteca have cracked down in recent years. Additionally, there's an excellent paper that details all of the laws that California cities have regarding homelessness, in addition to providing a bunch of other useful information. Nearby places like San Francisco, Oakland, Sunnyvale, and San Jose all have anti-homeless laws, but there is no statewide ban on homelessness. I might just be missing the ordinances in my specific city, but from what I've read, it might not actually be illegal. Naturally, these laws only apply to public property. Since I'm in a parking lot owned by my company, it's well within their power to "evict" me, if they so chose.

Can you please figure out a way to lock yourself in at night? This doesn't seem safe.

I've mentioned my door situation before, it's one of the few things I haven't found a good solution for yet. I have some ideas, and they'll get their own posts when I get around to trying them. It's certainly not the safest situation, but it's no less safe than people who leave their front door unlocked at night. Except my door is giant, metal, and super loud, so any attempted intrusions would immediately yank me from my slumber.

You should get a pet!

Absolutely not. Not that I don't love animals, I really do, but I think it's frankly unfair to the animal to be subjected to my lifestyle. I chose to live in a box, an animal would not be doing so of their own volition. Even if I brought them to work every day (which is actually encouraged where I work), there'd undoubtedly be times where they'd have to stay in the car, and I'm not a fan of putting an animal in a dark, confined space. So, for the sake of any hypothetical future pets, I'm definitively not getting an animal while I live in a truck.

Have you made friends?

I have! I lived in the area last year and made some friends then, and they weren't entirely shocked with my housing choices this year. Since I started work, I've also met a bunch of great people who enjoy the novelty of my situation. If whoever asked this question was worried that it's hard to make friends when you're insane and living out of a car: people can be pretty flexible and compassionate. Naturally, not everyone is going to agree with your decisions, but people who can understand someone else's perspectives and choices make infinitely better friends, as a general rule.

Do you consider yourself homeless?

I alluded to this earlier, but there's really two perspectives that you can employ here. In the eyes of the law, I'm definitively homeless. All the cities with anti-homeless laws listed above included a snippet similar to the following:

[They] have daytime laws that criminalize the four basic kinds of activities that can be applied to the homeless: “(1) standing, sitting, and resting in public places; (2) sleeping, camping, and lodging in public places, including in vehicles; (3) begging and panhandling; and (4) food sharing.”

-Fisher, Marina and Miller, Nathaniel and Walter, Lindsay and Selbin, Jeffrey, California's New Vagrancy Laws: The Growing Enactment and Enforcement of Anti-Homeless Laws in the Golden State

Like I said before, it's not quite a "public place", but I am certainly "sleeping, camping, and lodging [...] in vehicles". I guess I'm guilty of "sitting in public places" too though, that's a pretty wide net they're casting with that one. The other perspective, and more to your question, is how I feel about my situation. And I don't feel homeless at all. I have a place I call home, it's distinctly mine, and I feel comfortable being there. Like my tagline says, "Home is where you park it."