Every day is like Sunday here in the Backwards Van. We wake up whenever we want, usually brought back down to earth by some loud unfamiliar noise like the slamming of a car door inexplicably close by our sleeping heads or the sudden scratch and scrabble of some birds sharp talons scribbling on the steel… Continue reading Cheating at the Fishing Competition (& Other Outrageous Accusations)
Bed. It must be your favourite place in the world or else we think you've got your priorities all wrong. It definitely is ours and just because we choose to sleep in a van doesn't mean we can't have the same level of comfort we would enjoy from any other bed, with a little planning… Continue reading Sweet Dreams Are Made Of Steel
Back in November, we bought a house. Nothing big or fancy (or mortgage worthy, thankfully) but a cute and warm and quiet spot to use as our base and to rest Dixies weary wheels between travels. The house is basically a manufactured mobile home encased in rendered concrete block, complete with a tow bar, and… Continue reading Neither Here Nor There (Galway in the Mist)
We bid a sad, sudden and sentimental farewell to our fulltime vanlives in mid November after 15 amazing months on the road, recounting the best days and the worst days and the most memorable ones as we drove and laughing and laughing until tears flowed down our faces. Crossing the Musical Bridge at Bellacorick late… Continue reading All Roads Lead to Home
Like most Irish love stories, ours began in a pub. Striking up a conversation about a brand new tattoo still raw on my forearm, it was the usual case of guy meets girl, guy winces at the blood and buys girl a drink regardless. Except it wasn't a creamy, stereotypical pint of Guinness (I'm a… Continue reading Going Home, Going Dry and The Backwards Law
Wow. In July The Backwards Van.com turned a year old and in late August we celebrated our vanniversary- a whole year of living in Dixie the 1997 Ducato. To mark the occasions we entered our page into the 2018 Irish Blog Awards. We are proud to announce we made it through three rounds of judging… Continue reading The Backwards Van- 2018 Blog Awards Ireland Finalists!
As our first full year of vanlife drew to an end, we celebrated the waning summer with family in Dublin, dawdling on the driveway until the time came for Dixie to make the many airport runs required to dispatch my family for the usual winter diaspora. When the opportunity arose to escape the city (for… Continue reading Louth: A Week in the Wee County (and Where We’ve Been Since)
One of my most memorable vanlife moments occurred in late September 2017, about a month after we had moved into Dixie the Backwards Van. We had just dropped my only daughter off at university, understandably an extremely happy/sad moment for any parent. We had spent two nights very nearby 'just in case' (actually, we slept… Continue reading Dixie Says Relax! (How we found the Horse on the Hill)
With recent temperatures hitting 28° daily (and much higher we're sure, inside this insulated tin can) we're spending more and more time outdoors here in Yorkshire and I have not been writing much as a result, the long warm evenings are designed for strolling, by tree lined canals and in dark forests, creating our own… Continue reading Houseless is not Homeless (or, Why We Won’t Work for Google)
Nine months on the road is a long time. As I often say, if I was cooking up a baby it would be ready by now. But thankfully I'm not, I'm much closer to wanting a little puppy to live with us than another baby (my baby is almost 19 now), and we're not done… Continue reading The Worst Place We’ve Ever Been (or, Can We Get A Dog?)
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