Fiat 500 CC Car Conversion

 

The Fiat didn’t start out with all the bells and whistles on it. I decided to do what I could with what I had. Buying a trailer was not an option as the costs were too high since the pandemic had started letting up the supply and demand for a trailer were too high. RVs were out of the price range and even though I did find a Little Guy Trailer that MAYBE the Fiat could tow, it was so close in tow weight, I didn’t want to take the chance. I looked up on Reddit conversions for camping and found one gal who converted her Fiat but taking out the seats but I didn’t want to do that in case I needed them. 

When I first started out I was heading off to go see my mother who we would be using her RV so I didn’t think too much about needed a bed or having space in the back. I packed the car full of things I was going to be giving my mother like books I had borrowed or clothes I felt I no longer needed or wanted. On the way back home however from the first leg of the trip I realized I couldn’t make it all the way back to Colorado and called a KOA campground and luckily was able to get a cabin. I didn’t have a tent yet or think of those things until this happened. Then when I got in the cabin I realized I had no blankets either so I ended up using every coat and shawl I had to cover up. The dude didn’t mind the cabin and in fact, wanted to explore but he still wasn’t quite leash trained as of yet. He loved the car, but at a KOA there were many dogs and I really didn’t want him to get eaten.

Once I got home for the short week before I left again I realized there were a few things I needed to order from Amazon and I needed to figure something else out for traveling in the next few months.

I maneuvered things here or there and kept manifesting that a small bed would show up. Oddly (not odd if you know me as I am known as a Miracle Manifestor) someone in our apartment was getting rid of a trifold toddler bed. I figured if I cut one section of it off it might fit my Fiat and lo and behold it did.

I had been given a gift to get a rack and cargo hold up top and with the budget I had, I was able to get an awning as well added to the rack so I could fully use it for camping.

I used my Bitrefill to get an REI gift card so I could buy a tent and other small items I would need for camping.

Now I felt ready to go for the next two months, which is how long I planned to be gone on the next section of the trip.

Mister Dude, aka The Dude from The Big Lebowski, often known as the Lebowskitty :)

 

I wasn’t about to go anywhere for a long amount of time without Mister Dude. He loves car rides and has traveled with me before when I used to do contract work between Omaha and Des Moines. I got as many comforts for him as possible and made sure he was safe so I didn’t lose him. I bought him a booster seat, a harness, and a leash and we even did leash training before we left. I had his kitty litter in a pan in the passenger side of the back seat so he could go potty whenever he needed to. I had portable food and water trays for him and of course many treats. In the first part of my trip, I failed to buy a portable kitty litter and a cat tent for when we were outside, so that came later. After dumping nearly half the cat litter in the car is when I realized I needed something I could leave in the car and something I could transport. I don’t think every cat is a great traveler and it takes time. I would never have taken Dude on his trip if I didn’t already know he could handle it or enjoy it. As I said, he had traveled with me before I knew how much he loved riding in the car. The funny thing, is as soon as we hit the road he purred so loud I couldn’t even hear the radio. He was definitely a happy Cat Camper!

I will share more about Mister Dude along the way and all his little antics but I want to share my story for now...

Why The Wanderlust Cancer Journey?

 

Memorial weekend in the year 2021 I made a hard decision os top all my treatments. After having done 26 rounds of chemo total, suffered through nine surgeries since my first cancer in 2016, been in and out of ER more times than I could count for a series of side effects, I just couldn’t do it anymore. I have not given up or changed direction. I have tried the conventional and non-conventional treatments and each time they always are surprised I am still here. People that I know that had lesser cancer stages than me are no longer here in this world because they solely followed the doctor and conventional medicine. I don’t want to be those statistics. I want better for myself, my husband, my children, and my family. I will still be considering alternative treatments and am trying many new things but the biggest thing I wanted to do was travel. I want to live. I want to explore. I want out of the life of always living in a box (my house) driving in a box (my car) or working in a box (jobs in cubicles) and I wanted to live.

The most important thing to me, in the beginning, is living this year and whatever years I have left on my terms. I want to live my best life. I want to see my family and friends and let them know how much they mean to me. Little did I know that I would also be hearing how much I meant to them and how I impacted their life. 

I had originally planned to see my mother in September/October of this year but after making this decision I felt that the very first person one should see after making a choice such as this to stop treatment, was my mother.

I called her up and told her my decision. I told her I wanted to come to see her. We made plans to go to the Faywood Hot Springs that we had talked about for years. This time, we finally were going to do it. Even though I had just seen her in May in Santa Fe, New Mexico, I still felt based on my decision, I needed to spend time with my mother.