As many of you know, Mr. MMM and I tried our hand at part-time van life not too long ago. After falling in love with the tiny house movement and discovering this whole new alternative lifestyle of people living in RVs and vans, we were completely taken with the idea of an adventure-filled, nomadic lifestyle on the road…on the weekends, anyway. So, we bought a van, we tried it (barely), and we failed. Big Time. This is our story.
When we found van life we were all about giving it a go on the weekends even with our little Mini Monster. Until we did. Unfortunately, for our little family, van life turned out to be a better idea than it was a reality.
After several attempts to plan a big cross-country trek to the Grand Canyon failed last year, we started to rethink our whole part-time van life adventure. Everything from the sweltering heat to breaking down to our general safety started to become real concerns. Concerns that we simply didn’t want to deal with for what was supposed to just be fun. Couple those concerns with the lack of comfort and the expense of paying for campgrounds and it just didn’t add up.
Thus, we ended our short attempt at an adventurous van life. So, despite buying a cool van, decking it out with a platform bed, a luxurious camping toilet (I’m actually serious on this one), and being members of several van life FB groups, we just couldn’t seem to get it right or enjoy it like our blogging friends Steve and Courtney over at Think Save Retire or Claudia and Garrett at Two Cup House.
In the end, we pulled the plug and sold Van Halen. And, although we have fond memories of our short-lived alternative lifestyle, none of us regret letting him go into the sunset with people who were in a better position to embrace the lifestyle.
Show Notes:
Discussed in this episode:
- How we followed a rabbit hole to #VanLife
- Van life with a kid
- Our multiple failed attempts at overnighting it in our van
- The death of our short, adventurous van life
Noteworthy links related to this episode (Our #VanLife Journey):
- We Have A BIG Announcement! Hint: #VanLife
- #VanLife Series: We Bought Us A Van!
- #VanLife Series: Thetford Porta Potti® Curve Review
- #VanLife Series: How We Built A Cheap Van Bed Frame
