Philip W Holland

I am approaching readiness for departure.

Last week I was ready to bust out of this dumb town (Plano, a fine town, for the record) but fortunately my check engine light was on, forcing me to step back and prepare. The recent loss of two lifetime best friends (rip nik n jeff), multiple housing displacements, and a few years of estrangement from my near adult son have left me with a unique opportunity: nothing holding me back from getting the hell outta dodge.

My relentless polymathery and “just in case” survival cosplay has left me with what seems to be more tools and skills than needed to go away and disappear into America and its forests for a while.

Anyway, no need to crack open the cars engine again. Just needed a new timing chain tensioner, plus swapped in the backup camshaft position sensor. My “restoration” (rescue?) crv is loaded up with plenty of spare parts, newly fabricated roof anchors, and full arsenal of tools, art supplies, camping and fishing stuff.

Mileage per gallon will suffer but I plan to be prepared for any reasonable eventuality. That’s about the extent of the plan, aside from camping, heading loosely towards Philadelphia, and letting all these list makers sweat because I have no plan. Heavy, bulky, or otherwise unwanted things can be gifted, sold, or donated along the way in case I need to drop weight to ford a river.

I have the advantage here of having taken my car apart and put it back together several times, gaining full awareness of what’s going on in there and what is likely to go wrong. Insert metaphor here.

In light of various losses and setbacks, the endeavor of potentially driving this horse to its death through the desert is refreshingly consensual. Just another long foreseen yet unpreventable death in my arms, least I can do is clean up the mess and tuck in the crv like the good friend it is, despite its many problems.

Show it a good time, let it see the world, roll free on the interstate like Eisenhower intended.

If I woulda burnt through a few stop n go tanks of gas in town anyway, surely a couple thousand highway miles will be no problem.

As I prepare to embark on this rockin n rollin journey in honor of nik’s wheelin n dealing and jeff’s destination hopping van life, I leave you with this video, filmed on the Flint back patio.

Final preparations are underway. Donations of gas and food money will be welcome to my cashapp at $philipwholland. I will probably mention that in every post because why not.

You can rest easy that it will go to its intended use, as I no longer drink. Too many dead friends. Don’t be the next!

live carelessly pwh 05-22-25

RIP nicolas jeffery claudia dad joel rick and on and on ad inf