Welcome To Our Crazy/Brave Adventure!
We are Perri and Dan, and we have given up our house and 24 years’ worth of stuff to live in our simple self-built camper van. We’re working from the road, and exploring wild places and towns along the way.
A Simple Plan
We decided on a low budget, simple build— no graywater tank, toilet or shower. And, no, we can’t stand up in the van, but the plan is to be outside as much as possible anyway.
Empty Nesting
“Van life” is a new adventure, but we’ve explored in other ways. We lived a rural “farm life” in Western Massachusetts for ten years. We experienced “tent life” and “teardrop life” too, having spent many summers road-tripping across the US and Canada with our three children.
Our kids are grown now, and we are reclaiming an old dream: to live and work on the road, exploring remote trails and campsites, testing our mettle on rugged backcountry roads, and– most of all– making the most of our “now”.
We are not planners or organizers. We tend to jump in with both feet… then figure out how to swim. We’ll be posting our adventures– and misadventures.
This Blog is our journal and our signpost. Here, we document our journey, missteps and all. We also share what we’ve learned, including van build do’s and don’ts, off-grid camping tips and spots, van life budgeting, ideas for working on the road, and general hacks for happy wandering.
An Adventure Dog?
Accompanying us is Milo, our reluctant adventure dog. He is an older guy (13 and a half now!) He’s climbed many a mountain and romped along many beaches and rivers in the last year. His legs get a little wobbly now, and a miles of hiking wears him out, but he’s a happy old dog and still up for adventure.
Why Crazy/Brave?
When we started floating the idea of full time van travel, our friends and acquaintances had pretty well two responses: “That’s crazy…” or “That’s really brave”.
We suspect they meant the same thing: “What the heck are you thinking?!”
We know we are a little crazy to leave our comfy, settled lives to embark on this adventure… and maybe we are a little brave. But waiting until we were older and financially “set” seemed more frightening to us.
So, ready or not, here we go!