Van Life

So 6 weeks in I thought I'd write a post about how it's been going from living in a house to an extreme tiny house (i.e Elvis) - which is smaller than our ensuite bathroom. Well after we'd good willed lots of extraneous stuff, which meant every time we stopped we didn't have to shuttle a lot of crap from one place to another, the space really isn't an issue as we have the great outdoors which in the US is huge. We still could get rid of a bit more stuff but that will happen over time (and in case there's any confusion Phil has more clothes & shoe space than me - he says that's cause he's bigger...)

The van itself is amazing. We leave the king size bed made up and the memory foam topper is a bit of luxury (our perspective of luxury has changed remarkably fast). Both front seats swivel and we have a 3rd seat that all go around a small table at the front, but we have only used that for a few quick lunches as there are always picnic tables at the camp sites. We have a truckers TV with built in DVD player for the movie nights in (actually normally Game of Thrones) and a computer for Netflix action. We rarely use the loo, but it's a godsend when you need to, and never used the indoor shower but the outdoor one has saved us a few smelly nights. Now we've been in it for a while there are hooks, hangs and attachments everywhere for all the stuff that never quite gets packed away. Phil loves the rear view camera and all the other gadgetry and wires he has hooked up!

Driving is pretty easy (mainly as Phil is doing almost all of it- but I figure he owes me seeing as I've driven about 60000 miles to & from work over the last 3 and a half years! ) and the van is doing good on 'gas' mileage despite the 5.2l engine. Petrol is just over a quid for a GALLON, but still we have burnt through a bit in the 5,000 miles we have already done. We're keeping an expenditure and living pretty frugally whilst still enjoying ourselves and doing everything there is to do locally.

The harder issue is staying in touch with friends, family & what is going on in the world - even writing that seems a bit ridiculous as looking back on my travels the first time (many, many moons ago) I didn't even have an email address & my parents were only allowed to worry if they hadn't heard from me for over 3 weeks. When Phil & I went travelling in 2004/2005 we only had a phone which could call & text so Internet cafes were a treat for emailing in aircon for half an hour. Now we get frustrated if we don't have a connection to search for the closest bbq/grocery/campsite/etc (in fact we've already changed mobile providers so we get better coverage....) Anyway we love being able to email, text (WhatsApp) & video chat to people which is what we can do when we have signal, but you really miss it when you don't have it.

Another thing we've learnt is to always have a (cold) shower when you can. Although the heat we've experienced in the south means as soon as you dry yourself & try to put on suncream you start sweating again. Aircon in the van which we thought we wouldn't use is actually essential most nights - the few nights we've had to boondock (i.e no electricity) in the south have been v sweaty & a bit miserable....

All in all no regrets so far - it's A LOT better than working! :)Read more