Originally written in September of 2012 on a flight to Alaska for a family reunion
FOR OVER 40 YEARS I called Anchorage, Alaska home. My family moved there in 1961 and I lived there until 2006 when I retired and left. My definition of myself was as an “Alaskan.” So that must be home, right? But I haven’t been back since, and have lived in literally hundreds of places since then. So how can I be going home?
Sometimes you hear vandwellers say, “Home is where the wheels are!” And that seems like a pretty good definition of home. But what if you sleep in a different place every night? If that is true, then I have had as many as 20 homes in a single month when I was traveling extensively. Was each of them my home?
Maybe it depends on how long you live in one place? For example, in the last four summers I worked as a campground host and spent the entire summer in a campground site. So was that my home for five months? On weekends I would drive my truck camper into town and spend the night there, but I don’t think it became my home because when I was done in town I would turn to my dog and say, “Let’s go home.” My weekend camp in town wasn’t home, because it didn’t feel like home. Every week when I got back to my camp ground, there was a deep knowing of it as home.
No, for me, home is not where the wheels are, in fact it isn’t even a place, it’s a feeling. Above everything else it is a connection to a location. I can’t easily define what that connection is; maybe it is a sense of “love” for a place. Or maybe it is simply a familiarity caused by spending so much time there. The best way I can describe it is the old saying “Home is where the heart is.” It is a place you thrive in when you are there, and miss and long to return to when you are not. It is a place you are bonded to.
How many homes can we have? I believe the number is unlimited. I’ve come to feel sorry for people who don’t travel, and only have one home. If home is where the heart is, the more homes you have, the bigger your heart becomes. It expands with each new experience and each new connection. Your heart becomes fuller and richer.
“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” ~ Miriam Beard
Soon I will land in Anchorage and be home to the place I know better and feel more connected to than any other. But in two weeks I will get on another plane and fly back to the Sierra Mountains, which is also my home and the place I have spent the second most time in my life. I am a better, happier person for the effect they each have had on me. I’m already looking forward to all the new homes I will find in the coming years. Maybe one day we will share a new home together.
For me, as a fulltimer (like yourself, albeit in a bigger rig), I consider “home” to be the rig. If I say to the wife “let’s go home”, I am referring to where the rig is parked. We spend considerably less time outside, I would think, that many RV’ers. We still work full(ish) time, and my computer is at my desk in the rig. We update our Google Maps for the “home” label to take us to where we are parked, we update the Alexa device to know our current address so we can ask about weather.
We also tend to stay parked at month at a time.
Still your point isn’t lost on me. We gave up our “house” in Dallas three years ago, and really don’t miss it. We do tend to spend Nov/Dec with my wife’s brother, moochdocking, on the Florida panhandle. That might be the closest to “home” we have. We have my wife’s brother, their mother and their aunt living here, so if you define home by family connections, then this might be it. This year we’ll be staying three months (Oct-Dec), so definitely longer than our usual stay. And I’m relaxed when I’m here, so that might be another factor in favor of home.
I suppose home will always be Minnesota because I’ve spent the most time there. All my relatives are there.
But my Van is also home and I feel most comfortable when I’m living in it. I’ve absolutely bonded with my Sprinter and if you would ask me if that would even be possible I never would have thought so.
I even named him Tony, haha.
Great article. Yes, I think home is where the heart is. I, too have lived many places! You know by
how you feel. Freash, clean, alive, and love it while your there. God Bless You and God Bless
America!!!!
Home is where the heart is. I agree. The next question is how does your heart connect to a place? For me it is interacting in a positive way with people. Van Dwelling gives me the extra time to serve in the way I find most fulfilling.
I was wondering if there are a lot of Canadians living this way but in the States?
A lot of Canadians come south for the winter. The ones in the eastern provinces tend to go to Florida and the Gulf Coast. Ones from the western provinces tend to go to the desert.
Janet asked about RVers loosing acceptance in near future because of the gas they use and that electric cars are becoming more prevalent. Also Europe is already assigning social points based on individual’s consumer profile.
Any thoughts.?
Even with laws banning the sale of new internal combustion vehicles, it’s going to take a long time before EVs are the majority.