I Live (And Work) In A Van Down By The River
By Eric Tyler
Living in a van down by the river has always been a punch line since Chris Farley introduced us to Matt Foley on SNL. That skit launched 27 years ago. It’s now 2020 and I’m living in a van that occasionally is down by the river.
Let me back up a step. My wife and me have always traveled, mostly internationally, hitting over 80 countries each in the process. We don’t have kids, we don’t own a car and we don’t spend crazy money on “stuff” (minus a few expensive bar tabs, but that’s a separate blog). We spent all our extra money on air travel and we worked credit card and hotel points along with airline miles to be able to go really far for really cheap. We strategically crammed in trips around holiday weekends and used every last hour of available vacation time.
Then 2020 happened.
We stepped off a plane from Bogota, Colombia and said to ourselves “it may be a couple months before we can use our passports again because of this corona thing they keep talking about”. That was March 9th. Two days later, flying to Europe became restricted, sports leagues shut down and even Tom Hanks got COVID. It was starting to get real, but this should all be over within a month, right?
March 16th. Bars and restaurants shut down in our home town of Chicago. We entered home lockdown shortly after. Ok, fine. Maybe six weeks then right?
Then I lost my radio job at B96 in Chicago due to COVID and we were locked down for the next two months. We felt fortunate we had our health and (think) we stayed Corona-free while so many others in our neighborhood and around the world didn’t have the same fate.
Things started to look up however. Chicago flattened the curve and I was fortunate enough to start working some projects at Lakeside Entertainment Group (thanks, Dan). My wife, Randi, was working from home and now I’m doing the same for the foreseeable future.
But, what about the travel? International destinations aren’t an option. Domestic locations were slowly coming back to life, but non-essential air travel probably isn’t the smartest thing. So, we decided to do the next best option. We rented a car, packed up our 5 month old puppy and hit the road to go where the people weren’t. For 40 days, we went west then back east. Through Colorado, Utah and California before hitting Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. We hit 12 National Parks and spent time outdoors and away from people. We were able to work from the road while cramming in the sights in the off time. We loved every minute. Only one problem: money.
Remember those hotel points we had? Those were now gone. Gas was cheap(ish), but renting a car wasn’t. We didn’t want the adventure to end, but there had to be a less expensive way. Working out of an office isn’t coming back until next year, so how could we make the best out of what was left of 2020? As we were driving through West Texas with less than a week to go on the trip, Randi blurts out “why don’t we buy a van”? That’s when the idea started.
Things escalated quickly. Long story short, two weeks later we were on our way to Ypsilanti, Michigan to pick up Velma (what we call our 2015 converted Ram Promaster). Shout out Allison and Liz (@safe.and.sonder.vans ) for converting Velma into a home.
We were now going to live and work full time out of a van. We’ve always seen the #vanlife people on Instagram, but never thought we’d be part of that community. But, it’s 2020 and nothing makes any sense.
So, let me answer the big question. You wanted to save money, so you went and dropped money on a van? How TF does that make any sense? For us, it’s the first vehicle we’ve owned in 8 years. We’ve never had that expense like so many others that drive every day. Our annual travel budget switched from planes and hotels to a van and gas. We refinanced our condo which freed up funds to pay for Velma. We checked with our tax guy who informed us that there are solid tax benefits because it’s our “second home”. Plus, since we aren’t living in our condo, all our utilities are a fraction of what they were.
Fine, but how is it cheaper on the road? In the van, home is wherever we park it. Rest areas, Wal-Mart parking lots (it’s not always sexy) and lot of Bureau of Land Management/National Forests are all free to sleep. Most other campsites range from a few bucks and up which is way cheaper than hotels. We NEVER dine out anymore. We NEVER hit the bars like before. We eat, live, work and sleep in Velma. It’s our socially distant home that is currently in Utah. Tomorrow, hopefully Wyoming (more on that later).
Velma has a full size bed, a sink, a refrigerator, a portable shower, a compostable toilet, a work station and plenty of storage. We have a 1000w power supply that we can charge with a standard wall plug, the cigarette lighter or with the two solar panels on the roof. It’s got two fans in the ceiling which keeps the inside cool on 85 degree nights and it’s insulated to keep it warm on 30 degree nights. She also has a network booster which will take one bar of 5g service and turn it into 3 or 4.
We spend most early mornings driving. Then when work starts, the goal is to find a (hopefully, but not always) gorgeous location with network signal to park for the day. Then at night, we find another (hopefully, but not always) location to sleep. Weekends are reserved for going off the grid to more remote locales.
But we still needed a goal. We didn’t want to aimlessly drive around each day with no plan, even though we are mostly aimlessly driving around each day with no plan. One night after a few drinks, we came up with that goal: take a picture with our puppy, Esther The Aussiedoodle, in each of the lower 48 states before she turns one year old in January. She’s currently at 26.
As I write this, it’s the Tuesday after Labor Day. We are at the Hotel Monaco Salt Lake City. Velma is parked downstairs. We’ve noticed that during van life, things don’t always go as planned. We woke up this morning in Arches National Park outside of Moab, Utah. We started driving at 5:30am like we do most days. This past weekend was hot and we mean HOT. Central and southern Utah were pushing 105 degrees all weekend. So, the one thing we DEFINITELY wouldn’t have to worry about today was wind and snow right? Well, it’s 2020 and everything is effed up.
As we drove north, the wind kept picking up. Like a lot. Velma is tall and not exactly aerodynamic, so she’s a wee bit sluggish in the gusts. Today wasn’t exactly normal though. As we got 90 miles from Salt Lake, snow. FREAKING SNOW. IT WAS 100 DEGREES YESTERDAY. LITERALLY.
Fine, lets go as far as we can before work and do our daily routine. That’s when we got the next curve ball. Wind. A lot of it. Signs were saying high profile vehicles weren’t allowed for a 50 mile stretch ahead of us. Semis were being flipped over by 70+ mph winds. We started noticing trees down and stop lights out. No big deal, we can hit Wal-Mart and wait it out. Wrong again. Power out at Wal-Mart, they are closed. Wind warning expires in 24 hours, the highway north to Idaho is shut down because 45 (yes, 45) semis had toppled over. Highway to east is closed because it dumped over a foot of snow. We didn’t want to turn around. We also weren’t excited about waiting out the storm in the van, so it was time to park Velma and fight another day. We scraped together a few last hotel points and here we are.
Unexpected things are common in van life. But, does it beat working from the kitchen table in our own personal Groundhog’s Day? YES. Making work calls among the California Redwoods, sending emails on the beach in Washington State and finishing projects overlooking Utah canyons is way more appealing the staring at our condo wall.
Since we started throwing all of these up on our socials, we got some unexpected press. The Chicago Tribune was doing a story on summer road trips. They saw my feed and reached out. WGN-TV saw that and wanted to do a segment on Velma and van life. We’ve encountered and connected with hundreds of others online that are doing the exact same thing. Apparently, Matt Foley had it right. Living in a van down by the river (or next to a lake, the ocean or a mountain) isn’t bad after all.
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Follow Eric Tyler: @B96Tyler