So a year ago today we said goodbye to our townhouse of 10 years. It’s the only house that Teren has ever known. We all “grew” up there. That night we moved into our small RV/big van, Vanessa Hudgens. I remember we didn’t even have running water yet because we did not know how to dewinterize her. We stayed our first couple of nights at an RV park. It was all so new.

After our little stint at the RV park we proceeded to driveway surf at our friend’s/family’s driveways/streets…Angulo’s, Cari’s, DeCastro’s, Jolly’s, Rigel’s, Rimando’s, Pajimula’s, Shelton’s, Sy’s, Wojick’s. So thankful for y’all for allowing us to invade your spaces. We had 3 awesome house sitting opportunities at Jolly’s, Kogan’s/Chan’s and Pan’s. A road trip to San Francisco with the Vanessa. Almies triathalon in Canada, we should of brought the van! Summer soccer vacation in Hawaii. Road trip in our little red van, visited San Diego and Salavation mountain. Thanksgiving for me in Philippines. Our recent trip to pick up our new van and then our family vacation (minus vans) in San Francisco. Safe to say it has been a constant state of change and movement. Some call it adventure. To me this is what I call life.

Update on the van. So we have been at Wu-Sy house for the past 8 days. I picked up the van the other day from Bremerton and drove it to Portland to have some van guys look at the leak. They resealed it. We tested it the day after, still leaking. Safe to say it’s been a horrible start with the new van. But like all things, they got a silver lining. We got to stay at my folk’s house for longer than planned. We got to stay with Wu-Sy and it has been great.

“Isn’t it ironic…don’t you think…it’s like rain on your wedding day.” I’m giving my vannivery story and I ain’t livin’ in a van. Top that off a few hours ago we decided to stay at a buddies basement apartment for the next 5 months. Why 5? Cause it’s less than six. Some 7 minute abs shit right there. Nah really, I do not know when the leak will be resolved. Honestly my heart hurts a bit cause I know my home is right outside and I can’t live in it. Really living a mobile lifestyle allows me to do ALL of this. We chose this life. So as of today we chose something else because we are fluid like a water leak. Hahaha

Some random pics for the year.

I think these were the last pics taken at the townhouse

Angulo taking pics of Vanessa outside while walking his dog

Fresh clip, looking hot in the van

That one time I got gout while in the van

Road tripping back to SEA from SF

Teren got really sick so we decided to live the suite life

That one time Almie tattooed the side of the van

Vanlife is bananas

That one time I locked the keys in the van

Lake house but we slept in the van. Good times

Tri packing

HI

Lakake falls

We bout that night market

I almost sold this bike, but’s it’s too good plus it matches the van

Parked at my parents while we out vacation

Sinner

That one time we lost a window

That one time we almost bought a vandoit

That one time we bought a van-craft

Descend on bend, next time I would like to go with my own van

Beauty that is PHI

New van interiors

Last pic of Vanessa. The night I left her to be sold

Road trip home stopped by and saw these big guys/gals

Kids visiting the townhouse and the tree we planted a bit 4 years ago

Where is the leak?????

Drying out

God brothers and sister. Taken today a few hours after committing to a basement apartment. What’s in store for the us and the van life. Who knows. Like sand thru an hourglass these are the days of lives

First of all happy new year!!! Today is Saturday 1/5/2019.

So we got the new van home (my parents house) on December 23. We spent most of the 24th loading it up. Christmas day the 4 of us hopped on a plane to San Francisco. We spent an awesome 10 days there. Being tourists, eating too good, walking, ice skating, hanging with the Mahoney’s and generally having a good time! Had some good weather had some cold weather.

We got home Thursday, back to my parents house. Look inside the van and Almie notices the sheets are wet. We have a leak! We spend most of the day getting everything out we loaded in. Drying out the clothes and sheets. We tarped the van. Fretting the whole time. Since the kids have school Monday we decided to park the van. We can’t get a professional to reseal the areas where the leak is probably coming from for another 2 weeks. It seems that all RV owners are servicing them during winter when they are mostly not being used. So ships are busy.

Our buddies Sy-Wu fam are putting us up in their basement for a few weeks. For this we are grateful.

Once the van is professionally fixed we will be back in. I could do it myself but would rather have it done right and I also don’t have a covered space. So we are down for a like a 6 count but will get up and aren’t out of the fight. Hahaha

Tara said one day she would like to live in her own van. I said be ready for any and everything. On that note here some SF pics and sad van pics.

#tarplife

Bremerton to Seattle with pretty much just the necessary

Assist by homie Niall

San Fran Chinatown, outdoor drying

Morning run with an angel

Dual citizenship achieved

Elks Club with cousin Camille

Elks club swimming

Tree at Union Square

Alcatraz

Chinatown is cool and has lots of art

I miss riding bikes

Mahoney’s and Shelton’s

So we bought our 1st van (Vanessa Hudgens) December 18th 2017. Drove that baby home from Missouri. On January 13th 2018 we proceeded to live in it full time. Well than van is now for sale at a dealership and we just picked up our new van (name TBD). I’m going to miss Vanessa. I run a Argo Riolink for a sense of security. It has captured some of daily life adventures. Overall theme here is dishes. Lots of dirty dishes. Living in a small space you sacrifice your automated dishwasher. Also pictured is us wearing jackets as most of the pictures are from Pacific NW in the winter/spring time. Some of the pics you can see where we have parked, I cherish those locations too.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. May 2019 bring you joy and happiness but above all this I wish you love and I will always love you. Haha.

I had every intention to update each day but obviously that didn’t happen. It was a good drive overall.

Highlights:

Highway 1 is super amazing. Ocean views and the ocean air, can’t beat that.

UCSB is the place to be; when you live in a van. The coastal access parking made for a very inexpensive stay with the perk of waking up with this view:

Family! Got to spend quality time with the Borromeo side. We will eventually make our way back to SoCal.

Pismo Beach State Park and Campgrounds had some pretty nice showers. Hot showers, enough said!

The new van drives way more like a car compared to our big van. I like it. Driving and parking it is super easy. We did have a slight oopsie when the check engine light came on! Googled the closest auto store and bought a code reader…it was the glow plugs which apparently is a common thing that comes up. And the guys at Vancraft gave the okay to continue driving.

Spent our last night on the road here:

It was good to have a place to charge our battery pack and of course a hot shower 🚿

We’re almost to our final stop…Bremerton and the kids! Glad we will be together for Xmas eve. Even more glad he survived 5 days on the road with me.

Well, there you have it folks. We picked up our new rig thanks to the guys at VanCraft, LLC. It’s far from luxurious compared to our last van but I love it. Actually, love it more that VANessa. Why? Because there less moving pieces, no tanks to dump, and just a much smaller space.

We arrived SD Thursday night and spent the weekend with my family. In between fam time, we spent a lot of time in Oceanside getting a few things check out for “To be named van.” Minor issues that were quickly fixed, again, I can’t say enough good things about VanCraft!

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday – all we did was eat and drink but managed to get one okay run in, it’s better than nothing right? We got everything packed in Tuesday morning and headed out mid-morning to get past SD and LA traffic. Decided to head up highway 1. Super beautiful drive making mental notes of the different places we could potentially move to.

We spent about 7 hours driving only making our way up to Santa Barbara. We found a place to call home for the night which was at the UCSB! They have overnight coastal access parking and it only cost us $4!

So far, day 1 was easy. Slept good. Cracked the vent to have the sound of the shores come through. Woke up to the sunrise. And now working until the next stop.

Here she is! Name TBD!

Christmas Decorations!

Our first set of passengers!

My dad is better than yours! He built us a box for our toilet.

Family pictures!

This morning’s sunrise. LOVE.

Hooks for jackets? Nope, it’s for our Christmas stockings.