We started this blog in 2018 as a way for our wondering kids to keep track of their wandering parents, to research & contextualize our travels and give us something to do. https://chosenfugue.wordpress.com/2018/08/23/we-left-8-14-2018/
Our “fugue” began under the definition of a fugue as ” dreamlike altered state of consciousness during which a person often wanders away”
Maybe what we were really thinking was the untranslatable French word flaneur (an idle or leisurely stroller) or the verb form flâner, flanuering (?)- a leisurely ramble whose only point is to soak up the beauty in the details we otherwise overlook (pardon our French). We certainly were fortunate to spend the last few years flanuering, with periodic breaks of productivity. The past year and a half has left us with a feeling of Fernweh (German)-being homesick for a place you’ve never been. As of 9/24/2021, 2 pm, we are ready to flañuer.
Our travels across the US during COVID made us aware that in order to responsibly and safely return to wandering, we had to put some safeguards in place https://chosenfugue.wordpress.com/2020/08/07/driving-to-the-end-of-the-rainbow/
First, we vaccinated as soon as possible and have/remain masked everywhere we go, when we go anywhere which remains limited. Second, we needed a place to base ourselves, and as we found (and unfortunately many already know) it is difficult to access health care/banking/voting etc without an address. So with pretty much all of our stuff hibernating in a 12 x 12 space, we have become serial hovelists, no that is not a word, at least not yet.
Our initial San Fernando Valley hovel set a high standard which our subsequent Northeast US hovel did not meet https://chosenfugue.wordpress.com/2020/08/18/our-year-of-living-dangerously-continues/ It was surprisingly difficult finding a studio apartment (again, as unfortunately many already know) that we could just park ourselves in between journeys or if we needed to go to Kaiser. We found a tiny, 350 sq ft apartment in a carriage house, perfect to fit a mattress, a chair and store the last minute what-do-we-do-with-this stuff. It is ours for the next 7 months during which we probably won’t be there much.
Moving northward from Eugene, we made Olympia, Washington our home-base. Why Olympia? Ione, our grand-daughter is heavily into Greek gods so we figured we should live in Olympia. We are Olympians! Considering that we had absolutely NO basis for moving to Eugene, this seemed to be a solid reason. So this completes the stationary hovel trinity.
Will Olympia be a permanent home-base? Who knows. That is the purpose of the current fugue, and the question in the title, maybe by traveling through the US, we can figure out our next semi-permanent home base. ( Semi-permanent? Is that an oxymoron? Does it mainly apply to hair dye?)
But since we are on the move, we needed a mobile hovel, Santiago, our safe + responsible way to travel (instagram- Santiago_Van_Hovel ).
We bought the van on 8/31/21, the house was closing on 9/23, so we needed to convert a van, quickly.
No clue, no tools, no time.
But, with lots of youtube videos, an incredible amount of help (and power tools) from our neighbor Thom (thank you, again) and encouragement from his wife Robbin we made… something. With little time to work/finish we lost a week when we took the van in for a ceiling fan to be installed. The one-day shop job turned into a week-long wait while they installed the fan, and in the process ruined the ceiling we had just installed. This required us to redo the ceiling once Santiago was back in the driveway. Valuable time lost, our 3 week project became 2 to complete and launch. I was concerned that converting the van would destroy Thom’s and my liver, because every time he helped, we had a beer.
Showing other neighbors our finished product, their response was a resounding underwhelmed, but as Bruce Springsteen sings, “you ain’t a beauty, but hey you’re alright, oh, and that’s alright with me”. So, onward Santiago. (instagram- Santiago Van Hovel). We are hoping for a buen camino through the US https://chosenfugue.wordpress.com/2019/06/07/walk-this-way/
Chosen Fugue 
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