Making Friends On the Road

After a couple months of doing my own thing, I was feeling ready to make some other ‘van friends’. Since I was in Moab, there were plenty of vans around. In Moab, the BLM land doesn’t have great cell reception to use my hotspot for work, so I would drive into town each day and work from the park.

One day while I was walking Marv in the park, I saw a girl I recognized from TikTok and her two dogs. I was too nervous to go up to her - especially since Marv is a bit reactive to new people. When I got back to my van, I looked her up on TikTok and then found her on Instagram and DM’d her asking (in the least creepy way) if she was in the park that I was in. She replied and said yes! Then I took my shot and asked if she and her dogs wanted to meet up to go on a hike together. She said yes so we made plans on when and where to meet. 

This was the first time I was meeting up with a stranger on the road and having the activity of the hike to do together was the best thing. Instead of being on the spot with someone at lunch or dinner or over beers you can just walk beside each other and talk. I think hiking leaves more space for quiet in conversation too. We did a short hike and talked about our shared interests and shared work experiences. I casually mentioned that I worked in nonprofit but recently finished my MBA and was looking for move into more of a marketing project management role which was coincidentally her job. 

It was nice to talk to someone about it and hear her experiences working in that space. Then we both showed each other our vans and talked about them a bit before saying “bye”. Overall, it was a great first meet up and we have stayed connected since. As someone who is a solo traveler, it is such a nice feeling to be able to meet up with other people who are also solo.