Linfielder John Ekemo reflects on:
-- 2019 van trip during which he traveled through 48 U.S. states, eight Canadian provinces and Mexico.
--van life off the grid on the Olympia Peninsula in western Washington state
John Ekemo (Linfield College Class of 1969) traveled alone in his camper van for 177 days in 2019 through 48 U.S. states (except Alaska and Hawaii), eight Canadian provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick, Nova Scotia) and Mexico.
Now, in 2021, John reflects on life:
WILDCATVILLE -- When we last talked in September 2019, you had just completed your trip to all 48 states and parts of Canada and Mexico. What has life been like for you after that and what are your memories from the trip?
JOHN EKEMO -- First I needed a place to park the van for the winter as the plan was to go back out on the road in the spring of 2020. A friend of mine has five acres on the Olympic Peninsula outside of Quilcene (pronounced “kwil-seen”), Washington, on Dabob Bay, overlooking Broad Spit.(*See footnote.) This site has a sewer, water and electricity on it. My friend kept his trailer RV there. Because my friend had a break-in, he was kinda looking for a property caretaker. Sounded good to me. I said “yes, I’ll stay there.” Little did I know what I was getting into.
WILDCATVILLE -- What did you find when you got to the property?
JOHN EKEMO -- It is 5.5 miles from Quilcene, population about 700 people. The roads from there went from paved, to gravel to an overgrown dirt “wagon trail” one-half mile to the site. The nearest neighbor is more than a mile away. The site itself was mostly cleared by also overgrown with bushes, weeds and trees. The sewer, water and electricity worked, but there was neither cellphone service nor internet to the property. I spent the first two months getting basic cell service and internet. I was about as far off the grid as you could get. Eventually I got cell service that allowed me to receive and send text messages, but I could not make nor receive a voice call. There was basic internet with a dish but no TV, which was by choice. I called it living in the “abyss.”
WILDCATVILLE -- John, what is daily life like for you living there?
JOHN EKEMO -- I was overwhelmed at the situation at first. There was so much to do. The road was so overgrown and covered with leaves -- it was fall by then -- that I couldn’t tell where the road bed was located. Clearing it became an ongoing project which I am still working on today. The site was in the same condition. There was a view of Dabob Bay, but the bushes and trees were blocking it. That became another ongoing project, clearing the site to open up the view.
WILDATVILLE -- What else?
JOHN EKEMO -- Living in the van had presented its own set of issues. It took trips to three different garages before I found one that could fix a water leakage in the van problem. Then it was the hot water heater, then the refrigerator. It seemed that there was always something that needed repaired. I was living in the van 24/7 and putting a lot of strain on the appliances.
My van is a limited living area, everything has to have a place according to how much it's used. Dishes have to washed and put away immediately. The bed has to be made back into the couch. For a sloth and procrastinator like me, these were obstacles I overcame on a daily basis.
WILDCATVILLE -- What do you do to pass the time when you are in your van outside of Quilcene?
JOHN EKEMO -- On my U.S.-Canada-Mexico trip I got used to not watching TV, so my time in Quilcene without a TV was and is “not a problem.” I read a lot of books, mostly suspense and mysteries, but a little of everything. I also browse news online. The Microsoft Game Store has a variety of card and other games which I play. Also I work computer jigsaw puzzles, no lost pieces
I read paper book, most of which I get from Goodwill Stores. However, my sister in Cordova, Alaska, loves to read and she sends me books when she's done with them. A friend in Port Orchard, is helping a 96-year-old lady clean out her stuff and has given me shopping bags full of her books.
WILDCATVILLE -- John, what have you learned from this experience?
JOHN EKEMO -- First, it's not for everyone, especially if you’re getting older like me. There is more work involved than I was expecting. There’s emptying the holding tanks of sewage and keeping the water tank and propane tanks filled. All of these require time and effort. If I don't do it correctly, it could result in a big mess, Think sewerage on the ground.
WILDCATVILLE -- What were the things you hadn’t counted on that influenced living there?
JOHN EKEMO -- Weather, mice and mosquitos. Weather, because it dictated whether I could work outside in the yard or on the road. When it was raining or snowing, I was pretty much confined to staying inside the van. The worst weather event was when I was snowbound for 10 days in February 2020. I ran out of coffee and tried to drive out in my Nissan automobile. I got stuck twice, the second time I needed a wrecker to pull me back onto the road.
WILDCATVILLE -- And?
JOHN EKEMO -- Mice became a big problem, one I am still dealing with today. They got inside both my car and the van, nested and reproduced. I have non-lethal traps in both vehicles as I don’t want dead mice in places I cannot get to them. It cost more than $1,200 to repair the damage they did when they nested inside the fan compartment of the Nissan. It’s my private war.
WILDCATVILLE -- What else?
JOHN EKEMO -- Mosquitos are always a nuisance, I have several different repellent devices that I use in and around the van to try and control them.
The flip side to living out here is the solitude. It is beautiful and quite. I face east so I get great sun and moon rises over the bay. Deer routinely wander through the property. It was been a perfect place for me to ride out the Corona virus
WILDCATVILLE -- How has Covid-19 changed things for you?
JOHN EKEMO -- The plan was to get back on the road in the spring of 2020. Obviously that didn’t happen because of the virus. The fact that I was already isolated here in Quilcene became a good thing. I could limit my trips to Sequim (pronounced “skwim”) or Port Hadlock for groceries and errands to once or twice a week. Zoom really became a saving factor for me. Because of Zoom I’m able to stay in contact with my meetings, friends and family.
Knowing that I was going to spend more time here has also allowed me to do some upgrading of the van: new toilet, replacing the carpet with vinyl and new curtains. It has also given me more time to finish the road project and some work on the site.
WILDCATVILLE -- What does “finish the road project” mean?
JOHN EKEMO -- Photos (posted here) show how overgrown sections of the road became. My work/exercise is clearing it back so I can see and use the entire road bed when driving.
WILDCATVILLE -- Do you have plans for more travelling?
JOHN EKEMO -- Yes. I’m still concerned with the new strain of Covid so I’m going to start with a couple trips to Oregon in August and October 2021. There are still places, especially in the West I would to visit that I missed on my trip and some places I would like to go back to visit again.
Eventually I will take the time and organize all the information and photos from the trip into a written narrative. Obviously, things have changed in the country since I took the trip and those changes will be in my recollection of events that I experienced along the way.
WILDCATVILLE -- Finally, John, what have you learned?
JOHN ELEMO -- I break things, not intentionally, but it seems if I use something long enough I can break it. At one time, I had three lawnmowers, two chainsaws and the motorized wheeled trimmer all in the shop getting repaired. I’m on my second coffee makers and it is held together with Gorilla Tape as is my laptop.
I don’t read/follow directions very well. If there are multiple parts to something, obviously they all have a purpose. Leftover parts are not good. Eventually I will figure it out. I’ve gotten better at creating something out of the materials at hand that will work, not pretty but functional.
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Read …
TRAVELIN’ MAN IN HIS VAN: Linfielder John Ekemo visited 48 U.S. states, 8 Canadian Provinces and Mexico during a 177-day tri
… from Wildcatville. Posted Oct. 26, 2019
https://wildcatville.blogspot.com/2019/10/travelin-man-in-his-van-linfielder-john.htm
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Photos provided by John Ekemo:
-- John stands in Arizona in the Four Corners of the southwestern U.S. consisting of the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico
-- Walking out of the corn outfield of the "Field of Dreams" in Dyersville, Iowa, is John.
-- Near Quilcene, Wash., John's camper van next to his automobile and his friend's trailer RV.
-- Part of the road John traverses when traveling to and from where John lives.
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*Footnote: “Perched on the “hood” of crooked Hood Canal, Dabob Bay, overlooking Broad Spit, is part of an unusually pristine, scenic and hard-to-get-to pocket of the Salish Sea. The clear, clean, very deep waters of the Bay have created an unspoiled habitat for salmon, shellfish, seals, porpoises and sea birds.” Source: saveland (dot) org
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