Last week, we headed South in our newly finished campervan conversion. It was a bit of a grueling journey because the first leg of our trip was going to California to help our youngest move. In one week, we’ve slept in almost every possible way you can. We camped by the ocean, official campground, stealth camped on a residential street, and even did a night in the hotel (after driving 1000 miles in three days in the heat). Living in the van has brought a bunch of new experiences and a lot of things to work out. We’ve changed plans multiple times and stayed in places we hadn’t planned on. We also are slightly over budget. Hopefully, we can reign it in. But after a week, Will and I sat down to discuss our first impressions over tea.
Vanlife Q & A
Lisa: What has been the hardest part of vanlife so far?
Will: The Driving….seriously the first few days we spent a lot of time driving. For those who don’t already know, I get antsy after a few hours of driving, long road trips are not my favorite (I know, ironic considering we are planning on spending the next few months on the road). I guess having everything we could need with us makes it more tolerable, food, fridge, bed, etc. What about you, what has been the hardest part of this last week for you?
Lisa: I think the driving was hard, but since I wasn’t actually doing the driving, it wasn’t as hard for me as it was for you. I think the biggest challenge for me was having a system of keeping everything organized and clean, but also trying not to let keeping things organized and clean ruin my good time. I am not the cleanest person you have ever met, but 62 sq ft is not a lot of space and gets messy really fast. The for is so small, but what little of it there is seems to get dirty so easily! Have you noticed how much more work everything is in the van?
Will: For sure. Because everything takes a bit more work I think it has forced me to be more intentional with my time., I think that can be a good thing, no more just vegging out in front of the TV and putting things off until later.
Enough with what’s hard, What’s been a positive about the last week?
Lisa: I think that’s it. There is so much to do in the moment. Which I think is a positive too. I have spent a lot of my days planning and thinking about what’s next. And a lot of days thinking about the past. But being present is one of those things that can be much harder to do. That’s why people learn meditation etc. And in a way, so much of vanlife is about right now. Like we don’t know where we are going to sleep in 3 days. But everything we do next right now, we are thinking about right now. Like going to bed is this whole intentional process because we have to think about making the benches into a bed. You don’t just hop into bed. And that’s why it’s also more work. Does that make sense?
Will: I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Lisa: What’s been positive for you?
Will: I’m pretty stoked at what we’ve been able to accomplish. Not only with the Campervan build project but also just taking a chance and stepping out of our comfort zone to have a new experience. Honestly, I owe that to you, I wouldn’t have even thought of such an ambitious plan but now I’m excited to be here for the adventure.
Also, can I just say how comfortable it is to sleep here? I have slept great everynight. Credit to Nika who made our costume cushions and whoever designed and built this bed, Genious!
Lisa: The bed is very comfortable. What was the best location we slept so far?
Will: I don’t think we have had a bad experience yet so they have all been good although the night on the beach in NorCal with the sounds of the waves was and waking up to the coastal fog was pretty Nice!
Lisa: No bad experiences? Not me waking you up at 1 am in the hotel to make you check that no one broke into the van while we slept? And this was after I made sure we had a room that faced our parking spot so we could look in on it.
Will: Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Ha Ha. But really it wasn’t that bad cuz it was just a dream….so that’s good! Tt could always be worse, right?
Thank you for all your hard work and making this adventure happen. You’re the best!
Thanks for reading so far! Next week we’d love to answer your questions about life on the road. Some that we’ve gotten so far include, what are we doing for work and what do we use for WiFi? Leave your questions for us in the coments.