Vanlife Can Be Cheaper, Weirder, And More Accessible Than Instagram Would Have You Be

[cyndi]

Another #vanlife article

"... [font=ElizabethSerif, Georgia, serif]These are the potential realities of sleeping in a van, particularly when it’s the dead of summer, in one of the hottest parts of the country, your tires resting on a pavement upon which you could credibly cook an egg. Sometimes you wake up alone in a pristine section of a national forest to the sound of birdsong, as we did a couple days later, and sometimes you mildly unsettle a Walmart employee arriving for her morning shift ..."[/font]

https://jalopnik.com/vanlife-can-be...ite&utm_source=jalopnik_copy&utm_campaign=top

 

[Qxxx]

Vectoring off the main link was this article about the explosion of converted Sprinter vans. I do have to say that, in 6 and more months of traveling all over the west during the past year and a half, I have actually seen very few plain white cargo vans like mine, other than around Quartzsite in the winter, but I sure have seen quite a lot of $100,000 Sprinter conversions.

https://www.wweek.com/culture/2018/...once-grungy-counterculture-into-big-business/

 

[MrNoodly]

I posted this story a couple of days ago but a certain reply hijacked the thread into politics. The thread was eventually taken down. Here's hoping that won't happen again.

 

[Elbear1]

Fantastic article. Been sick of the hot, white, hetero couple in either a sprinter or perfectly restored vanagon for a long time. Even here, frankly. Never is it about nearly puking from your shit bucket odors everyday.

90% of Vanlife: taking 3x longer to do basic chores you absolutely must do everyday, being okay with only occasional showers and half-cleaned bucket washed clothes, dealing with a tiny amount of space to store your garbage and poop bags....all while sitting off the side of a horrendously washboarded service road or driving to a new horrendously washboard service road with a stop off in a town to buy food and find water....all in between things breaking down, spotty internet coverage, and over-crowded freecampsites.net spots.

 

[morongobill]

Liked the layout on the gold minivan.

 

[cherterr]

What a great article!! She is a gifted writer, for sure! (We like writing in my family... or is it reading?? lol)

 

[jacqueg]

Great article, thanks for posting it!

I recall a couple summer vacations as a kid that involved traveling Route 66 back when it was how you got anywhere from SoCal. We didn't have air conditioning then, and I have two younger sisters. Best to skip the gory details. I loved those cheesy fake tipis, but alas, we never stayed in one.

What has stayed with me the longest is the scent of the desert, in the relatively cool mornings. It's still one of my favorite things.

 

[Qxxx]

90% of Vanlife: taking 3x longer to do basic chores you absolutely must do everyday, being okay with only occasional showers and half-cleaned bucket washed clothes, dealing with a tiny amount of space to store your garbage and poop bags....all while sitting off the side of a horrendously washboarded service road or driving to a new horrendously washboard service road with a stop off in a town to buy food and find water....all in between things breaking down, spotty internet coverage, and over-crowded freecampsites.net spots.

Very entertaining, vanlife sounds like a throwback to the 1850s.  :huh: 

Suggest to anyone interested: get a newer van, learn to live with less crap, learn how to streamline daily activities, it's not that hard, drive slow on bad roads, turn off the phone and enjoy life outside.

 

[Qxxx]

Liked the layout on the gold minivan.

She did a good job, built the bed so that there is lots of storage underneath. The bed in my regular cargo van is like that, and most of what I take gets stored under there.