The almost boat & adventures in homelessness

I’m the homeless blogger. 

I’ve been “on the fringe” for a week now. This is the nickname we have come up with. It’s been a long time since I’ve written on here but I’ve been very busy. It’s amazing how busy being homeless can make you. Ok, so I’m not dragging my belongings around in a plastic bag but every night I call a different hotel home as I watch my travel savings dwindle away.

The credit crunch sucks.

Everyone knows the housing market has been hit hard and San Diego is one of the worst spots. We got booted from our place because our landlords lost their home and had to move back in. The tribe dispersed. Bridgette & Mike moved back to Boston, Randy and I reunited and decided to make a large leap & buy a boat. I was quite happy with this idea and we went to the Marina on a whim and found a boat that we loved. We put an offer in and everything was going swimmingly until last Sunday when we went to officially sign the papers and found that it was crawling in termites. Even though it was fiberglass and the owner was going to have it tented and sprayed, I just couldn’t get over it. The thought of sleeping in a small space w/ termites or toxic chemicals just didn’t sit right with me. I’m just getting over my health issues, I did not under any circumstance want to sleep in a small space sprayed w/ incesticide. I tried to let it go and think that it would be ok but ultimately I couldn’t get over the idea of living with toxicity and we had to walk away from our beautiful boat. What a bummer!

I have to say this move to the boat was really the only thing I had been excited about in a long, long time. I was REALLY psyched. All I could think of was waking up to the sounds of klinking sails and flags blowing in the wind. Dock parties, sea gulls, little fish swimming around -perfect! I was so ready to be a “boat person” and fly my very own pirate flag.

Well with everything falling apart at the last minute with the boat it left us in a bit of a jam. We had nowhere to go. All the “stuff” was packed into a uhaul for a couple days and then into a storage unit this weekend. The rental market is completely flooded right now and it’s crazy trying to find a place. We’ve been looking for days and have put in a couple applications that haven’t work out. There are simply too many people looking for places to rent. It has to be all the other people who have lost their homes. I have never seen anything like this. The rents have gone thru the roof as a result of the credit crunch. Even the ghetto apts are expensive. It’s insane, I can’t believe how the credit issues have already started trickling down.

The good news is I have tried out almost every hotel on Hotel Circle in San Diego. If you’re looking for the best value you probably want to stick w/ the Vagabond Inn. It’s clean, nice, has 2 pools and a little kitchenette. The Travelodge is also really nice and the beds are by far the most comfy. The Super 8 smells – I wouldn’t recommend it. I had to drink a bottle of wine just to get myself thru the night. Ok, not really but it was a good excuse, wasn’t it?

In all actuality I could very easily get used to this life, which is good for the long term travel idea! I really kinda like going to a different place every night. Everything I really need is in my car and easy to get. In a couple months I could empty out that storage unit and say goodbye to at least 80% of the items in there, that’s kind of a nice feeling. You also get to make a mess and never have to clean it up – that is awesome. The downsides are that unlike cheap, hostel travel it’s getting expensive at an average of $70/night, constantly eating out on the cheap is getting old and making me feel dull. Chachy is not really digging the lifestyle of having to be snuck into every hotel in a little bag and spending his days riding around in the car. He really is the best dog ever, now he knows the routine and I just put the bag on the bed and he walks right in and curls up. You can almost hear the sigh of discontent.

Oh poor Mr. Chachy, the life on the road doesn’t agree with him. When we get a new place I’ll have to get him a special little toy for being such a quiet, sneakable little dog.

The upswing? You get to spend a lot more time outdoors. You can’t accidently get sucked into some crappy lifetime movie on Sunday afternoon because instead you’re outside enjoying the day.