Cheers, everybody! It's our VANniversary!
We just completed our first month on the road and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to spill all the details of our first few weeks.
I want to share our first impressions, things we struggled with, what’s been helpful to us, and what we’ve learned so far.
Let’s jump in!
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Vanlife has been a dream of ours for a long time so having it come to fruition is amazing. It almost doesn’t feel real sometimes. It’s incredibly freeing and feels almost too good to be true in a way.
We are so used to a “go, go, go” mentality here in the States. This kind of conditioning is hard for our brains to let go of, so it feels a little odd to be living without the soul-sucking stress of a traditional 9-to-5 job and restricted amounts of time off.
That being said, we are happy to force our brains in a new direction. We worked hard to get here and are enjoying every moment of reconnecting with our souls.
A new chapter has opened and is full of opportunity! We’ve set our life on a whole new trajectory and don’t know the future.
We’re very excited to share all the amazing (and not always amazing) moments with you guys, as well!
WHAT WE STRUGGLED WITH
The first week in the van already proved things were going to be VERY different than what we were used to from living in an actual house.
WATER
Our van has a medium-sized 28-gallon water tank that’s used for cooking, washing dishes, showering, etc. but we struggled majorly to actually find a place to fill it up.
We use the iOverlander app to locate all sorts of things while we’re on the road but in this case, not much help was available in the area we were in. We didn’t anticipate this being a big deal from the research we had done.
We followed all the leads that said to go here, then there, then over there and none of them ended up being accurate – very frustrating!
Finally though, we did find water at a Camping World after about four days on the road without it. I started to get a little cranky during those days because we have this whole new van build with all the hookups and we couldn’t even use them yet!
So as you can imagine, Jonlee was having a rough few days as well…
WATER HEATER
Once the water situation got sorted out, we discovered that the water heater we have is completely useless. Yay!
We purchased a ventless and tankless propane water heater thinking it would be super nice and helpful and it turns out it takes so much water to actually get the water hot that it’s not even worth having.
We only have about 28 gallons of water to work with and it lasts us about 4 to 5 days but when we tried using the water heater, it literally used half the water for a single shower. No thank you.
That’s too wasteful for this lifestyle to be practical so that’s how we ended up getting a Planet Fitness membership…
More on that later.
CLUTTER
Another thing that’s been a struggle is that we live in a very tiny space now which means that anything we use or take out of somewhere has to be put away immediately where it belongs otherwise it causes a ridiculous amount of clutter.
That doesn’t sound that hard, though, right?
Well, for Jonlee, it’s very hard!
He struggles with the idea of having to actually put things away where they belong each night or morning because at home, we could just leave stuff out for a bit and it was no big deal.
I don’t blame him for wanting things handy and nearby but let’s be serious here – everything is handy and nearby! We literally live within 10 feet of space!
But I’m guilty, too.
I started the van journey with a couple of live plants and lots of books but that, too, has proved to be too much. They just ended up being in the way and we constantly have to move them.
I did make a cute little nook for most of the books, though, but the plants have to go, unfortunately.
We will be stopping home briefly for a family event in the spring and will drop off all our unnecessary items that ended up not working in our small space.
This lifestyle demands necessities only and it’s really teaching us what we can and can’t live without.
It feels kind of good to get rid of stuff though, ya know?
ROUTINE
Lastly, we have struggled a little bit with finding a good rhythm to our days.
Or as some would say – “a routine”.
Yuck.
I hate that word, but it is true – we need some sort of order to our lives to be able to get things done.
Earlier I mentioned that we signed up for a Planet Fitness membership and that’s helped to get us back into our gym routine each morning, in addition to solving the shower problem.
The workout gets us motivated for the day and then we work on our respective projects until about 1 or 2pm so we can still enjoy our surroundings and go sightsee and explore with the rest of the daylight.
Of course, if there’s something that’s best enjoyed in the morning, like a sunrise hike, then we’ll rearrange to accommodate for the specific adventure!
However, the work part of this equation hasn’t often happened this way.
A big part of the issue is that we just started using Starlink and during the first month we had the smaller, cheaper plan of $50 per month for 50GB of data.
Ultimately, we were driving out of our way to get free internet from fast food restaurants and cafés in order to not go too far over our limit with Starlink (it’s $1 per GB after the initial 50GB).
We quickly learned that the smaller plan is not enough for everything we need it for – downloading, uploading, and editing YouTube videos; working on the website; streaming shows and movies, etc.
What I’m saying is, get the unlimited plan when working and traveling full-time on the road with Starlink. It will save you LOTS of hassle!
It’s a bit pricey at $165 per month but it will be worth it for not having to constantly worry about going over your usage limit and driving out of your way for wifi.
WHAT HELPED US
I could list a million things here but I’ll just highlight the big ones.
PLANET FITNESS
Having the Planet Fitness membership became extremely helpful! I never thought I’d be one of those people because I always thought it was so cliché and overrated but then after my first freezing cold van shower, I decided it wasn’t so bad after all!
We got the more expensive plan for $25 per month. This gets you a guest pass for use at any time, access to massages and tanning, and of course, showers and bathrooms whenever you need them. We only pay for one membership and one of us is the guest each time.
This is great for us because our previous gym membership back home required that we each have our own separate pass and it totaled triple what we pay now monthly.
And another bonus is that when the Planet Fitness is open for 24 hours, you can park overnight in their parking lot to sleep! So that makes finding a place for the night a little easier.
iOVERLANDER APP
The iOverlander app is a must-download app for anyone traveling for long periods of time. It has gotten us every single sleeping spot we’ve had so far on the trip.
The app is super helpful with all things travel, not just sleeping. It can help locate water, rest areas, visitor centers, where to park for free, dump stations, wifi – the list goes on. It’s been a great resource for us and has helped A TON.
And the best part – it’s completely free! There is a premium version but the free version has everything you need.
CAMPING WORLD
If you sign up for the Good Sam membership through Camping World, it grants you access to a whole bunch of perks.
The membership costs about $40 for the year and gives you discounts on everything in the store plus discounts on fuel and propane, service needs, free water hookup, and even roadside assistance.
We’ve purchased a bunch of items here for our van build and the discounts are definitely worth it.
Being able to get potable water from them is also a huge plus. It’s most convenient when we’re in a city/more urban area because the parks and recreational areas with water become harder to find.
WHAT WE LEARNED...
...ABOUT DISHES
I feel like I literally do dishes CONSTANTLY. And really, I do. We have to do them basically after every meal because we’re going to need the same dishes for the next meal!
It’s really not that bad, though, as we only use a couple of dishes at a time.
...ABOUT SHOPPING
Again, literally feels like all the time!
In reality, we have to grocery shop about one to two times per week since our fridge space is small and can’t hold much at one time.
I’m a big health nut, so to always have fresh produce we have to shop every couple of days so I can cook those healthy meals that Jonlee loves so much.
...ABOUT OUR ELECTRIC/PROPANE
We have been pleasantly surprised to learn that our power supply and propane consumption have been very sustainable.
We have 400 amp hours of battery storage, a solar panel, and the batteries charge when we drive. There’s an app that accompanies all the electrical gear which allows us to check our status at any time.
Thankfully, it has been working out wonderfully and we haven’t had to worry at all about running out of electric. We have ample amounts!
…See what I did there?
Amp…ample…
Anyway.
As far as the propane goes, we are even more impressed because we started with a tank that was almost full and we’ve been using it a lot and it’s still full!
We use it every single day, most days multiple times a day, and we still have a mostly full tank after one month.
THE SMALL THINGS ARE THE BIG THINGS
We’ve all heard the saying about how it’s the small things that count and this couldn’t be more true when it comes to living on the road.
I’ve especially come to realize this after not having water for four days.
The small, mundane tasks become significantly harder when you don’t have running water or electric or gas to cook with.
I am very grateful for our beautiful van build and that we were able to put all the nice things in it and make it fully functioning because without that it just wouldn’t be as enjoyable for the length of time we plan on being out here.
Having a full water tank, a full tank of gas, food in the fridge, and a campsite with a fire pit is truly Heaven.
It’s funny how quickly our priorities changed for this tiny living lifestyle but the simplicity of it is very humbling and I will never take these seemingly small things for granted again!
MAKE A CHECKLIST
When we first started this journey, we needed some driving time under our belt to understand what the van would “do” in terms of what would move, what would need to be better secured, etc.
So once we got going for a few days, we came up with a checklist to make sure everything was secure and in a good spot before driving.
This is essential, as it provides peace of mind that nothing will get destroyed or broken while we’re in motion.
And yes, we learned this the hard way –
One time we accidentally left Starlink up on the roof as we were pulling out of a rough gravel parking spot. We only realized when we heard it crack off the road behind us…
So yeah – we made ourselves a checklist!
That about covers it for this first month! Thank you so much for catching up with us.
Want more? WATCH what we’ve been up to in our first month on YouTube! Linked below.
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, as well, for uploads of our current travels.
See you guys in the next one 🙂