Dan and I frequently forget our wedding anniversary. 26 wonderful years together will do that to you. But we haven’t yet missed our “Vanniversary”. September 1st, 2022, the day we set off on this crazy brave adventure lives in our hearts.
It was the day we took a huge leap into the unknown. And the day we rewrote the script on what our empty nest would look like: A VAN!
And here we are: Year 3!
Are we ready to throw in the towel? Sick of each other? Sick of our tiny space and constantly changing environment? Not in the least!
From the beginning, we’ve said that we’d van-life it until we didn’t want to anymore. And, against all odds, we still really want to!
In fact, we can’t imagine going back to a sticks and bricks life.
So here’s to trying new things and new places.
Here’s to our beloved van, Stevan, and this no-frills, low budget, loopy journey.
We are planning to keep the celebration going with a few posts sharing our favorite parks and campgrounds. But to start the ball rolling, here are a few stats from our last three years on the road.
Our Van Life by the Numbers
44 US States Visited
We vanned it pretty well everywhere except a few spots on the east coast (and Hawaii).
3 Canadian Provinces Visited
(Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia)
1 Canadian Territory Visited
(Yukon)
76,000 Total Miles Driven
Rough roads, long roads, steep, flat, empty and crowded roads. We’ve seen ’em.
501 Camp Spots
Most of these have been free or cheap spots on public land, a few have been sort of stealthy. And a very few have been private RV parks (We can count those on one hand). We will definitely share more info on our camping in a future post.
27 National Parks Visited (22 US and 5 Canadian)
18 US National Monuments & Historic Parks Visited
100s Goofy Selfies Taken in Beautiful Locales
$2800 Average cost of our van life per month
This includes gas, camping costs, supplies, showers, laundry, food, water, car and gear repairs/replacements, and car insurance. To be forthright: we sometimes run out of paycheck before the end of the pay period. Which means slowing down and eating whatever’s left in the fridge and cupboards.
We could definitely live cheaper. But we don’t need to.
3 Van Repairs
A spark plug that shot through the engine in year one, and an idler pulley arm replacement in year three.
Today, we had to buy a new battery. (Happy Vanniversary to Stevan?)
Annnnd we are expecting another big bill after all these rough Alaskan Roads. So van repair #3 is coming soon)
5 Times we were “snowed in”
In Utah, Colorado,Wyoming and New Mexico
3 Times we were just plain stuck
Mud under spring grass in Kentucky. Deep sand on the Texas coast. And mud (again!) in British Columbia. The bright side? So far, we haven’t been stuck for more than an hour or two.
1 Favorite hat lost (Dan’s cool dragonfly hat)
2 Favorite coffee mugs broken by falling out of a cupboard on rough roads
1 Travel buddy gone but not forgotten
Milo died a little over a year ago, and we miss our happy old goofball every day.
1 Overnight at Walmart
Not our favorite but that was one of the times we got stuck in the snow, so….
0 Times we got “the knock”
So far, no one has woken us up to tell us to scram. We came close in Prince Rupert, BC, where someone told us we couldn’t camp before we’ve even decided to try it.
7 Buckets accidentally left behind
For some reason, we are always leaving our recycling/emergency bathroom bucket behind. Yeah, it’s embarrassing. And yeah, we feel really bad for whoever finds those buckets. (Just recycling in there so far, but still….)
28 YouTube Videos Created
Still in our learning phase on this new endeavor. But it’s been a lot of fun to try to document our travels this way, and to share what we’ve learned. Check our channel out HERE
Another stat: We have 459 followers right now. You could be the 460th!
1034 Instagram Posts
These have developed into full-fledged road diaries. And it has been especially fun to write the last few, complete with goofy titles. I am definitely putting my creativity into unexpected places these days! You can check our instagram out at the bottom of the page. Or HERE
84 Books read on the road (Perri)
I rarely buy my books. No Kindle either. But I’m a big fan of “Little Free Libraries” and Friends of the Library book sales. Makes for some random reading choices. But these are just opportunities to read something out of my usual zone. Here are the last three.
4 Audio Books Listened to on the Road
We only really get into these when we have a lot of ground to cover. But sometimes we’ll sneak in a podcast or audio short story.
33 Spotify Playlists Created on the Road
I make playlists for different “legs” of our journey. And of course we have a Vanniverary playlist. It’s been growing since year one.
So if you are into lovey, travel-ly songs, check it out HERE.
Wanna see all the playlists? They are HERE.
73 Posts on this website
Wow! I know I’ve been slacking lately, but three years of these add up!
One thing I am wondering about, is the sort of posts people appreciate. Do you want info: the hows and whats of van living? Details of places to travel? Musings on life? Diary-like posts? Um….The current quirky mix of whatever strikes my fancy? Let me know in the comments.
400 Watts of Solar Power added to Our Original Build
We severely underestimated our power needs when we started out with 200 watts of portable panels. Something learned the hard way: affix panels to the roof. A lot of them. We might add even more power the winter!
1 Replacement Camp Stove
Our initial GSR stove broke before the end of our first year. The second one, a Eureka Ignite! 2 burner stove, has been awesome. (Not a paid advertisement)
0 Replacement Fridges
Our Cheapo BougeRV fridge is a champ!
12+ Moochdocking Locales
Moochdocking is staying in the driveway of family and friends, and we do it a lot. We think this is a great way to visit the folks we love. And here’s a secret: If there’s room, we usually, we actually stay inside the house.
20+ Times we got to visit with family
That’s a lot more than we would have if we lived our old stationary life.
We’ve spent months hanging with family where THEY live. And we try to bring our nuclear family together in an awesome place as often as we can.
We miss our family while on the road. This is the biggest downside to nomadic living. And it helps to plan family get-togethers on the road.
1 Van Meetup (so far)
Though we are introverted folks, we had such a great time at Vanfest,Liftoff 2024. And we met so many cool people! We definitely hope to overcome our shy streak and do more of this sort of thing in the future.
0 Times we considered quitting van life
Nope, never crossed our minds. Not yet, anyway. There ARE places we’d like to explore that are hard to reach by van. And places our van might not be able to reach. But we’ll cross those roads when we come to them. For now, this feral van life of ours is the only one we want to live.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
But they don’t tell the whole story either. We love this crazy brave lifestyle because of a gazillion uncountable things.
Van life allows us to live in our moment, rather than count the days until our next vacation. We love forgetting what day it is and being taken by surprise by holiday weekends.
We love stretching our groceries to stay just one more day in a cool spot. And planning on the fly.
Vanlife allows us to witness so much beauty: Sunsets and sunrises, hushed green forests, wide rock-strewn, rivers. It allows us the silence of desert time. And leads us on wild goose chases and rockhounding adventures,down hiking trails, through the doors of local breweries.
Moment upon moment, no numbers attached.
Van life, is our time together. (Really, we are almost ALWAYS together.) Inside jokes, and spontaneous decisions. Savoring our chance to be “old” together.
It’s being dirtbags. And appreciating the unlimited the warm water in a rec center shower. It’s “new pants day” (Yes that’s a thing for us). And venturing down rough roads just to see what’s there.
It is the yodel of coyotes in the distance. Or the peeyu peeyu of nearby target practice. Or the blaaat of airbrakes on the highway.
It’s wildlife checking out our camp. And hummingbirds finding our traveling feeder.
Vanlife is taking in glorious vistas, and afternoons spent wondering where we’ll sleep (sometimes at the same time).
It’s cozy and cramped. Also too cold. …and too hot.
It’s working on the road. A new library every week. And it’s scouting out open sky for the solar panels and satellite and tucking in away from the wind.
It’s (still) always wanting to stop more often than we do. And shopping Walmart more than we ever thought we would.
It’s hiking on trails with no idea where they lead. And sleeping in places we never thought we’d have a chance to go. It’s learning to carry bear spray and deter pack rats.
Van life is not knowing how to answer the question “Where are you folks from?” And not taking it personally when people say “You live in THAT?”
Because, yes, we do. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.
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I’m curious how one deals with receiving mail while on the road. Do you have to have a permanent address somewhere?
Great question. In our first year, we used our old home address and had our mail forwarded to my sister’s house in Michigan. They’d text us pictures of anything that looked important. Over the last few years, we’ve changed our residence to Florida. We “live” with family there and they send us important mail via general delivery at US post offices. We always end up staying with family for a month or two over the holidays, so this makes sense for us.
Many people use a mail forwarding service, though. There are companies in Florida and South Dakota that will provide an address and info about mail for a fee.
Thanks for the answer! I figured there must be some kind of service for this.
I always enjoy reading about your adventures. Happy travels!