The Van Blog: Living Out Of A Van

It’s been a just over a month now since we have been traveling. We left Salinas, California on April 29^th. We haven’t been camping the whole time: we “couch surfed” down California, slept in a guest room in Denver, stayed at a few hotels and crashed at Grandma’s in Missouri for 5 days. But we have been living out of the van for that long… and everyone wants to know: how’s it going??? I would be asking the same question! And the honest answer is, it’s better each day. We’ve got a system down that just gets more and more refined. Here’s a break down of what we do when we get to camp….

First we pick out a camp site This takes usually 30-40 minutes – it’s the most crucial part because it determines: who, if anyone, we’ll be camping next to, topography, sun exposure & surface area of the campsite, dryness (we’ve seen some extremely muddy campsites), and distance to the bathrooms (you want to be close, but not too close). Then we position the van on the campsite & level it (with the help of our iphone “handy level” ap). Next is turning on the tunes. While Kyle is plugging the van into the campsite electricity & switching the fridge from battery to electric, I am turning the passenger chair around. Then Kyle puts the awning out and I move a few items in bags from the back to the front area in front of the driver and passenger seats. The camera goes up front and the laptop bag gets put on the driver’s chair. While Kyle pops the top up, I put the front shade on and I fold up the table that goes between the two front seats. Then he gets out the ladder and gets the tent & fan out of the top storage box.We both put the tent up and then we do what I call the “fire drill”, which is I get in the van and pull out items from the back and he takes them and arranges them in the tent (when we pack up, he is in the van and I bring him the items from the tent and he packs the back of the van). Once the back is unpacked minus our sleeping bags that are left laid out, we fold the sleeping bags back to the back part of the bed and fold the bench seat up. Kyle puts out the rug that goes right out of the sliding door and puts the lantern together and hangs it on the end of the awning (ready to go for night fall) and I put the sink area together which means moving the window basket items over, opening the top, hanging the towels, fan & cleaner. Kyle takes the bikes off the bike rack & hangs a trash bag. Lastly Kyle opens the water valve, so our sink will drain & we move the campsite table centered under the lantern. This process (minus picking out the site) takes us less than 30 minutes.