Could You Live in Your Vehicle?

In December of last year my daughter bought a Dodge Grand Caravan with the intent to live in it. She stripped it down on the inside and added insulation and a layer of wood to keep her warm on those cold Boulder, Colorado nights. At the time she had little to no experience with power tools, or woodworking equipment and she wasn’t really sure how she was going to make it all happen. As she started talking about her new adventure, people started offering to help her in many different ways.

A little help from her friends

She received an offer of help from a couple that had previously converted a vehicle for traveling, and had all the tools she would need. She is a teacher at a private school and they offered to let her use the school's parking lot to work on the van during the weekends. And of course she watched a ton of YouTube videos to learn what to do and more importantly what not to do.

She now has the van winter ready and continues to evaluate what she will need to add to her van in the coming months to make van life doable. Yes, she has somewhere to sleep when the temps drop into the single digits. I am thankful for the friends who choose to support her for the unique and brave woman that she is and the life she chooses to live. Good friends are priceless!

A brave young woman

It’s been fun to watch her and listen to her stories and adventures in what she calls her traveling bedroom. And if I’m being honest, I’m a bit envious of her 27, soon to be 28, year old nomadic lifestyle. I’m not sure I would’ve been brave enough, at age 28, to live the life she is living. Who am I kidding, I was in no way even close to having even a tiny amount of bravery she has. Makes me very proud to know that she is and will continue to live a life that makes her happy!

Could you live in a van?

I, of course, began watching Van Life videos on youtube and it looks like it would be so much fun. Think of all the parks one could visit and all the hiking one could do!! I am now obsessed with learning more about van life for retirement living. And it turns out, there is a fairly large community of van lifers that come into Arizona for the Winter and then disperse and go their separate ways for the Spring and Summer months. 

I think I might have my retirement plan all figured out… just gotta go find me a van!

In case I have now peaked your interest in Nomadic Van Life, I thought I would share a few of my favorite van dwellers on YouTube.

Here’s a link to one of my favorite senior van lifers “Minivan Lee” YouTube channel.

And here’s one young woman  living in her prius with her dog - Nikki Delventhal.