Ditching Our Stuff for a Summer of Fun

© Chris Demorro / RumBum.com

Like most Americans, I love stuff. While I wouldn’t say shopping is my favorite hobby, I do get a certain level of excitement over a big purchase. Over my brief, 24 years of existence, I have accumulated a lot of stuff; a flat screen television, lots of video games, a revolving collection of cool and not-so-cool cars. I’ve done pretty well for myself, earning and saving my money through thankless manual labor and a fledgling career as a freelance writer, all the while trying to graduate college (which I eventually did).

Suffice to say, I worked so hard to earn all of this stuff, that I rarely had time to enjoy it. Even during the winter, when all I do is write and shovel snow, I found myself just watching movies and playing video games. I started feeling fatter and lazier and soon I spent most of my hard-earned money just to sit on the couch and stare at a TV screen. Looking back, I realize how much time I’ve wasted accomplishing exactly nothing.

One day, something snapped in me. I was living my life for stuff, and it was consuming me. While I still enjoy my flat screen television, my collection of video games and driving my cool-or-not cars, I decided I had to learn to live without it. But how exactly does one get away from stuff?

Two words: road trip.

In two weeks time, my girlfriend Nicole and I are taking to the road for three months to escape our stuff and see America. We are taking a 1989 Ford Mustang with a four-cylinder engine, a minimalist car with a moderate storage capacity that gets great gas mileage. We leave on June 1st and our goal is to stop in, or at least pass through, the 48 continental United States. I will be writing about the trip from a tiny netbook, while Nicole will handle the photography.

We are leaving behind all the comforts of home like cable television, central air conditioning, and a plush bed. Instead, we will be living in a flimsy tent, living day to day, trying to make to all states in the Lower 48. Neither of us has ever done anything like this before, but we know the road can be a harsh mistress. Seeing as how we are driving a car that is nearly as old as we are – and neither of us are any good with directions – there is plenty that could go wrong.  

But that won’t stop us. We’re going to do this now, simply because we can. We’re unshackling ourselves from our stuff, trying to learn to live with less, while enjoying what life has to offer.

Tune in next week when I will go over the details and planning for setting out on the open road.