Slowly, Waiting, Wishing, Hoping

Morning all.  I woke up about 4.30 am this morning.  I felt pretty alive and kicking but my mouth was so dry!  I think it was probably my thirst that woke me up.  I hadn't had actual water in so long.  The last liquid I had was beer and before that, that terrible juice from the super market.  That was days ago.  And I had had a tremendously dehydrating hike with a 50kg trolly since then.  So I decided to get up and walk into town to try and find some water.  The petrol station opened at 5am so I waited out there for a while and when it opened filled up my big bottle.   I had nothing much to do really.  Today was just waiting around for emails about the van and shipping my stuff home.  I had a few but nothing too exciting.  Still nothing on shipping my stuff home.  I sent a few more about selling the van.  I mentioned doing just a straight swap for a working van.  See how that pans out.  After a while I headed back to the van to sort my stuff out and talk to the owner of Z's about the van.  As I got back and got properly dressed and stated brushing my teeth he walked out.  Bit embarrassing but he was ok with it.  He told me he would put the coffee on and I could pop in when I was ready.  In I went and we started chatting.  I thought it best to telll him and his wife the whole story to keep them in the picture.  He and his wife were just about the loveliest people I had ever met.  They were wonderful.  As far as they were concerned a rusty old van had been dumped in their car park.  But they were wonderful they offered me cake and coffee and were so interested to hear about my journey.  And were so ready to help me out of this pickle I seemed to be in.  He had one of his guys pop out to the van and just confirm that it was "toast!" as the guy said.  And then he said he would help me with getting the best offer for scrapping it and stuff like that.  They were both wonderful!  Then I set off back into town to try and organize this scrapping and what not. 

After a few emails it was clear that swapping vans was not going to be an option at all.  So I was looking at getting as much money together as i possibly could and trying to buy another mode of transportation! 

I spent most of the day emailing and stuff again.  And a nice few Skype calls back home to some important peeps.  I was looking at getting 400 still, best case scenario, so I have started scouring the land for a new auto mobile.    There is not much to be found.  I have a few options.  2 to be exact!  I can't sell the car for scrap until I have another mode of transport or some where to live, other wise that puts me either on the street or rapidly spending my money on motels etc.  So I need to find a new mode of transport before I sell my old one.  Then I can agree the sale, sell my van and buy the new one and transfer all my belongings immediately.  If I do not manage to find a van within my price range then as much as I'm afraid to say its game over for real!  I can't afford to ship my stuff home and I don't want to travel with it all or sell it. Or dump it.  So I am using this final attempt to say make or break!  If I get another mode of transport its on!  And I'm back on the road.  If not at least I  can say I tried but its up sticks and home to a British summer.  Some good festivals, some muchley missed friends and Girlfriend and gearing up for my first winter season working as a snowboard instructor in Austria.  Wish me luck on finding a van!

As I headed back to the van for the night the weather had got bitterly cold and the rain was hammering down.   In the 2 minute walk back to the van I was drenched.  As I sat in the van I couldn't here my laptop over the thundering of the rain on the roof.  It was a depressing reminder of how far north east I was and how temperamental and harsh the weather can be.  Not the kind of weather to be hitching around the freeways and highways sleeping in a tent!

Kilometers Traveled Today:0
Kilometers Traveled Total:17
Funds: $40 U.S
Transport/Home: Dead Doodle Bus