How To: Van Life (My Experiences Shared)

So both of my Vans came across my lap in interesting ways. You can see that they’re both similar no, luckily I do have images of both of them. After losing computers you’re never quite sure what images you have left.

My first man was a 1988 Dodge xplorer. if I remember correctly, it only had about 68,000 miles. I mean this is a classic vehicle I did really well on this one.

I just sold my off-grid project, divorced my wife, and lost hard on another real estate deal. I had my two dogs and I was ready to leave Northern California. I was wiped out, exhausted from all of the hard hits to my life and all I’d built – I just wanted to be GONE!

I searched the country using Searchtempest.com for Craigslist. And to be honest with you I’m not even sure what terms I was using see, I don’t even believe I had heard of this vehicle before finding it. it was sitting with a nice family in Wisconsin and somehow I was able to talk them into selling it to me I knocked about $1,000 off the price and got it for 5 grand I didn’t arrange for shipping give me in Dunsmuir, California.

This is not an easy venture. I was buying the vehicle completely sight unseen and running on faith.

It arrived completely unscathed but was dirty as hell. when it showed up on the back of that flatbed my jaw dropped it was absolutely filthy. but once I got it unloaded and gave it a bath I was really happy with what I was looking at everything worked great.

Now I’m going to jump the gun here a little bit because I want you to you do you understand, dear reader what is possible here. after living 6 months end traveling almost 8,000 miles on the vehicle I was ready to sell her in Austin Texas. Within a week I found a buyer and she was picked up for exactly what I paid for  her.

This is a point you need to understand. the chances are unlikely that if I did the same staying with a motorhome, and though this is a Class B, it would be hard to get that fence order return.

So I lived in it for 6 months drove it over 8000 Miles all of the country and sold her for exactly what I paid for her. there is no extra major work done there is nothing wrong with the engine or the brakes or the drivetrain or transmission nothing. Everything worked perfectly.

In fact, on our ridiculous Lee hot day south of Las Vegas when other cars were overheating on the side of the side of the freeway this Explorer gig grey and, I was towing a trailer filled with all of my stuff from California to Texas. You paragraph you paragraph

I just kept eyes on the temperature page and was very light on my brakes coming off that Hill from Las Vegas and as soon as we got to the first Motel 6 we stopped and that’s where this picture is taken care of his pictures taken of. 

So if you’re patient and you’re open to the possibilities you can find deals like these. I don’t necessarily recommend you buying a $5,000 vehicle sight unseen and having it shipped across the country and betting your whole life if it’s that this will work no, but for me it did. I was taking a huge risk my whole life is wrapped up in the fact that this vehicle had to work and not only work, but get me across the country and settled in to Austin Texas.

When you don’t have any family, and you don’t have anyone you can depend on, it’s situations like these that really test your faith and bring you into a alignment maybe even an understanding of the beauty. Operates the universe.

My First Van: Grace – named after my grandmother. In her, I started a now defunct podcast called ‘The States of Grace’ Catchy huh? 🙂

My Second Van: Grace the Second

Now Grace the second was also an interesting deal. I was in Austin Texas oh, and things weren’t going well for me. I was living in a really nasty house. I mean bad.

I was captaining boat out on Lake Travis oh, and that was fun, but obviously the work was seasonal. and of course I’d much rather do something, some sort of work, using my brain.

So I moved out of 1 really bad living situation and into an overpriced apartment and was going through quick. this is where I will ship is fully admit that I was trying to get multi-level marketing off of the ground. I didn’t want to quit, I felt like if I quit I’d be giving up.

My recommendation for anybody struggling with any sort of business is to fail fast. it took me three years to finally give up multi-level marketing I never made a single Cent.

All that time I could have been writing, I could have been blogging, I could have been working as SEO oh, there’s so many other things that I could have been doing. But no, I was stuck in multi-level marketing. Talk about bullheaded and stubborn. Please, learn from my mistakes

Do for some reason oh, and I’m not even sure why I looked on Craigslist one morning, I believe it was a Sunday morning, and found his van. is it a 1987 Chevy short body..

Show the girl that was selling it had it listed just for parts. because she couldn’t start it. But in the photos she was standing on the roof. so it got me thinking oh, they’re not there might not be a lot wrong with his vehicle. I should take a look…

See I set things up with her and I just don’t believe that she knew what she had. I got over there with my friend Christian and we jump the jumping an urgent we inspect the vehicle we looked all over the place yeah it wasn’t in great shape and there was some problems with it has been sitting there for a long long time On a side road in downtown Austin, but it was workable.

So then you’re never going to believe how this went down, I traded a green leather loveseat, you thinking I didn’t want oh, and some books for this van. I’m not kidding.

So I moved out of that apartment and back into that horrible living situation and East Austin that I’ve been in. but I was thankful for it has the band sat out in front of the house.

 slowly I would work on it and as I had the money clean it up, put some flooring in it, built a platform for a mattress, got and just generally got things together.

Now it’s both of these hands I have situations with the registration that also wasn’t handled in the best of manners I floated both of these. meaning that I drove these vehicles without having them registered in my name. And when I was ready to tell him I just floated the papers on over from the previous owner. With the second van it wasn’t even sure who actually owned it. So I just had them insured and didn’t worry about it and it worked out fine. this also is not something that I can recommend.

So I finally started freelance writing which is what I should have been doing the whole time. and I was able to move out of that hell-hole of a house but I was living in this van with just one dog. The other one had died it was a rough time in my life no doubt about it.

I spent a while in San Antonio, with my about an hour and a half at a time in a library coming out to make sure that my girl dog was okay it was really tough. Sometimes she could work with me on the seats outside of the library and we’re together all the time sleeping in a parking lot behind us Circle K. This I also don’t recommend. but if you need two bees are some of the things that you can do with a van oh, and I think that that’s the most important Point here.

You need shelter. Consider Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.  

Just thinking about it now ellipses what a strange time in my life. But I made it I survived and now I’m telling you about it

So then I was living with my friend Christian and we’re working on a web projects when covid hit. I thought of the idea of dropshipping 800 Mouse from China oh, and it worked.

The Box arrived from China and all of our mouths were there with Filter inserts all wrapped in plastic. We immediately took my van out into the streets and parking lots and sold all of the 800 Mass. I’m not going to tell you about how profitable that little project was. At the same time I was working in an auto shop during inspections for the state. This gave me access to tools and advice on how to best take care of the van and what was going on with her. Everything was fine.

So with all that was going on with covid in Austin I decided it was time for me to head to rural Colorado. It was just an idea oh, but I started to look for seasonal work and I found a position helping to develop a glampground. Yes glam camping. I was hired drove 1000 miles out there to Colorado and basically had a great summer. we were well out of the reach of any covid restrictions end my plan worked perfectly. 

You paragraph then there was some problems. I wasn’t sure what was going on and none of the guys that I was working with had a clear idea either. The ban also was in between carburetion and fuel injection with the system that’s known as a throttle body stop. This was only in Chevy vans for something like two years.

Anyway, once 2 Season close with construction at the campground I had to make the Thousand Miles back to Austin, or San Antonio. this is where I want to make one thing clear oh, that was a complete hell ride.

The van would not keep power if I stopped to get gas it would die I had no insurance, we’re in the middle of covid restrictions, I’m withOut-of-state tags and I have no money for any sort of repair or towing or anything of that nature. I was stressed and terrified just trying to keep the van moving.

Eventually I got her to San Antonio, to an Airbnb with two Berry nights lesbians from Puerto Rico. they had a big parking lot at their apartment complex and I was walking distance to anything that I would need oh, so that was okay. I went about getting a kit to rebuild a throttle body thinking about was the problem and I did a good job of that but it wasn’t the problem.

I had a mechanic come out and help me he couldn’t find anything wrong with it and so when I got an offer to stay with my friend back in Austin on Lake Travis I took the opportunity at the same time I also had a job interview with very nice position so I had to get to Austin I left at like 4 in the morning it’s only an hour and a half drive but I wanted to be out of out of any sort of traffic if and when the van died.

That morning she did great got me all the way to where I was going to park for the interview that morning in Austin. see paragraph see paragraph then she died.

I was able to get her into a parking lot and she would never start again.

I spent two days in that parking lot, and went through two interviews with the company and was offered the position. but I still had a job to take care of, no way to reliably get to work, no place to live, it all just seem like a huge joke. I really bad one at that.

On top of that my former employee employer had shorted my final check by $500. So I’m sitting in this very nice neighborhood in a parking lot stuck with no options.

I’m starting to panic. end my friend offers me to come out and stay awhile at his place on Lake Travis. I was blown away oh, I would never have expected that. At least I had someplace to go. And right after that phone call I got a call from my former employer Who is ready to send me the money the $500 I needed that night.

The next day I had a tow truck take me and my dog and my van Grace the second Aptoide Travis. I think it was about $200 of my 500 oh, but my friend had a truck for me to use and I immediately started finding work.

I lived in the van on his property for about a month and he’s very well-to-do, Beau is not bothered by me at all. to this day I cannot express my thanks and gratitude for him saving my butt.

I then put Grace’s second for sale up on Craigslist and she was gone almost immediately. I had to give my dog away of 13 years so wonderful family and of course that broke my heart.

But now I was ready to fly to Puerto Rico oh, and unbeknownst to me often to South America…