Loads of people have expressed jealousy over the idea of us living in a van. It's almost humorous to think living in a vehicle-- something some would consider homelessness-- is a dream come true for many people.
Part of me thinks it's a representation of how burnt out most Americans are these days. How stiffled they feel.
But there's also an element of social media glamorizing the lifestyle. Everything appears prettier on Instagram than it does in reality-- #vanlife is certainly no exception.
The idea of travelling full time sounds incredible to most people… in theory. The fantastical part is waking up to that mountain view or stepping out of your house right onto a beach--without paying top dollar for a beach house we all know we'll never afford.
And while I'm sure everyone knows that’s not all there is to van life, it's still easy to conveniently forget that you have to give up all of your personal space to share it with your loved ones. It's easy to be so blinded by the beauty we see on Instagram and Pinterest that we forget to prepare for the… less glamorous parts of this lifestyle.
There are a lot.
Van life isn't like you see on social media. Or more specifically, van life isn't *only* like you see on social media. Those beautiful views are only a small portion of the experience, and it takes some serious sacrifice just to get to that point.
Making the shift from regular adult life to van life takes a lot of preparing, mentally most of all. Some people are not quite ready for the reality they’ll face once they actually hit the road.
Some parts of van life, though, can never be prepared for. It’s wing-it situation.
You cannot fully prepare for what it will be like to live in such tiny quarters.
We KNOW it's only 80-square feet. We know exactly what furniture and hang out space we'll have. We even know how many inches wide our walkway will be.
But that doesn't mean we know what it will be like to actually maneuver inside this space ALL THE TIME with three people. While someone is cooking. While trying to use the bathroom. While trying to get work done. It's gonna be... interesting.
We cannot accurately predict how little we'll be able to fit in our storage spaces.
This one is even harder to comprehend for me. We have this big "garage" under the bed where most of our bigger items will go. How quickly will that fill? Probably a lot faster than we expect but honestly, we won't really know until we're shoving everything we think we "need" into it.
We need food storage. Pots. A kettle, microwave, air fryer, coffee machine (maybe). And many, many little convenience items we probably won't even think of until we need them. Will we have space for all of it? NO IDEA.
Will we figure it out? WE SURE HOPE SO.
We cannot fully prepare for the bathroom situation, though we'll try. We will have limited water, and a toilet in a tiny cupboard that we'll have to empty out ourselves. It's gonna be awkward at times. It's gonna be gross at times. Will this be the reason we hate van life? Maybe.
Driving regularly can be exhausting. I've always enjoyed road trips, but I also know how drained I always feel after a 6-hour drive. We'll be doing that... a lot. Now, we have decided to keep our trips to a max of 4 hours at a time (99% of the time) and we want to have the chance to stay for several days to relax at campsites (some of the time) but even so-- it's a lot of moving. As we're planning the trip our eyes are probably a lot bigger than our stomach (THERE ARE SO MANY AMAZING NATIONAL PARKS and a lot of them will be close to our route so... why not one more?)
Sean and I have been known to over commit to fun things-- "the adventure is worth the discomfort!" But we're getting a bit older and... I like my sleep, okay? Honestly, you could watch our entire 10-year anniversary travel vlog in Europe to see how we never seem to remember that sleep is... kinda important. My favorite is doing a bar hop until 4 am in Italy... then waking at 8 am for a winary tour. Yep. We didn't see the issue with it until that morning. Watch our hungover winery tour here for a good laugh!
Not knowing where you're going to park to sleep that night can be anxiety inducing. Honestly, this is the part I'm most concerned about (yes, even more than the bathroom). Driving a lot can be physically draining. Having to plan, Every. Single. Night. for a year, dealing with uncertainty and the possibility of getting lost or something going wrong-- that's mentally draining. We're still a couple months from actually setting out on our advanture but I'm obsessively doing ALL THE RESEARCH and will have most of our nights planned out in advance. Between National Parks, Thousand Trails campgrounds and Harvest Host I'm pretty confident we'll be able to avoid truck stops and Walmart parking lot nights, but even being unsure how to get into the campsite or losing service on our gps... thats the definition of anxiety to me.
Will we make friends? Or be lonely out on the road?
Most people seem to assume that van life is very isolating and that can be true. When you're hopping around different places, you're very unlikely to see the same people more than once. So even if you make friends, you'll never see them again. But the truth is, the nomad community is actually real and very alive. There are nomad families. Nomad singles. Nomad couples. The U.S. is huge, so you are unlikely to stumble upon the same people more than once without active effort but there are enough people living in their travelling homes, that if you meet friends, you could definitely find them again later! This will be made easier with research, and with active effort. This is something we intend to prioritize and see how easily we can subvert this expectation. I wanna make friends with all the crazy travelers, that's for sure!
Only time will tell if these things get to us or if the sacrifices will be worth the rewards of being able to travel and spending increased amounts of time together.
Not everyone would be okay with that sacrifice, and that’s okay. We’ve decided that we are.
At the end of the day, we are prepared for the fact that we might hate doing this.
We could assume we’ll be miserable — or we could think positively and accept the discomfort as part of the sacrifice. How many clothes can we actually bring? How often will we bump into things in our tiny walkway? Will I want to throttle my husband after a month with no break? Probably, but we have learned to accept that 😉, just kidding!
Even with all the negatives, we might still love it.
Because what I'm hoping for isn't a perfect experience. I'm hoping the good outweighs the bad. And if I'm wrong, at least I can't wonder "what if". At least I can say I tried.
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