Plan B Lifestyle

Whatever you do, don't lean against the truck.

And don't assume the ski conditions will get much better than this (although they will).

Don't count on long days.

Or bluebird skies.

"You chose the Plan B Lifestyle," Adam said.

It's true.

"You will always sleep in the back of your truck," he said. "It's not something you'll grow out of. If you suddenly earn more money, you won't move into a hotel, you'll just spend more nights in the back of your truck."

The Plan B Lifestyle means I'll always be pulled aside for secondary questioning at the Roosville border post, but that I can walk through some remote border crossing in Southeast Asia with only a backpack and a tattered Lonely Planet and not even earn a raised eyebrow. The Plan B Lifestyle means dinner will be prepped on the truck tailgate, and that I made things like Third World travel a priority over things like career advancement.

Plan B Lifestyle wake-up scene: steps from my bed in the back of the Nissan.

Plan B Exercise Plan: who has money for fancy things like lift tickets?

Or groomed cross-country trails?

Alaska is just two and a half hours away?

When you must buy lift tickets, the Plan B Lifestyle ski area is not Verbier, but Shames.

Plan B road trip: a Wednesday morning in the Canadian Rockies.

And Thursday.

And Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, too. At some point I'll have to turn around and head home.