Wilderness Wandering

I am honestly loving van life!! ❤️

A few people have asked for more detail about van life, so here you are.

The van:

Our Ram Promaster is just the right size for us. It fits in a standard parking space in town or in a campsite. 

We kept things really simple with little technology. We don’t have running water or a bathroom. 

We don’t have a generator. We decided to power things with a  2000 watt rechargeable Jackery battery. We definitely had a learning curve on how to maximize battery life, but now we can pretty easily last 3-4 days without charging. 

Organization is KEY! Everything needs a place and it’s critical that we put it back when we are done. 

Food and water:

I’m paranoid about mice getting in through holes in the van. So, I have the food in plastic bins with locking lids. It is a bit of a pain, but for now, that is what we are doing. 

For breakfast, we have granola, overnight oats, muffins, or scrambled eggs. 

For lunch, usually a sandwich, wrap or salad. 

For dinner, stir fried veggies over rice, soup, air fried baked potatoes, or something simple. 

We are eating out very little!

Appliances for preparing food:

We have a small low wattage air fryer, and an induction burner. The induction burner works really well. 

We also have an immersion heater that we can use to heat water or milk for hot chocolate, etc. 

We have 2 five gallon water containers we carry with us and we have several hydro flasks that we fill at every rest stop. So far, we have not run low on water. 

Neither of us drinks coffee, so we don’t have to worry about how to make that each day. 

We went with a Dometic refrigerator. It looks like a cooler, but runs on electricity from either the Jackery battery or the DC outlet. 

Clothing:

Packing cubes are fantastic. We keep what we need for a few days in our bins over our bed so we don’t have to go into our large storage bins daily. Merino wool clothing is the way to go! It is pricey, but it is light weight and breathable but also warm at the same time. So it’s great for every day.  It doesn’t hold smells. 😃

We have not had to use a laundromat yet, but we will when we need to. 

Dealing with temperature changes:

We have 2 fans built into the van. One is set to suck out hot air. The other blows cool air in. We don’t have air conditioning. We also have 2 rechargeable fans on timers.

For cold nights, we have an electric blanket. It’s a power hog, so we set the timer for an hour when we go to bed. We also have a propane heater, but that has not been working so far. 

Our phone call to the manufacturer revealed that it didn’t work at over 7000 feet elevation! 

What do you do if you don’t have a bathroom?

I’ve been very surprised at how nice many of the bathrooms have been at the campgrounds we have stayed at! Several have been extremely clean, and had flush toilets. None have had hot water. Only one has had showers. So, some days we make due with what we call a basin bath. We use an immersion heater and we heat 1/2 a bucket of water and wash up with that. It only takes about 5 minutes to get warm enough.  When we are boondocking and there are no restroom facilities, we have a foldable toilet we use. It’s not the greatest, but it works. It folds up pretty compactly, which is important. 

The campsite:

We invested in very nice foldable chairs with high backs and attached folding tables. When we boondock, there usually is no picnic table, so it is handy to have the side table. 

We have a foldable awning we put up if we need shade. 

Boondocking:

I think we still have a lot to learn on this topic. But so far, we haven’t had anyone knock on our door in the middle of the night telling us that we have to move. 

I look on apps like I-overlander and Campendium. We make sure that it isn’t posted that you can’t sleep there over night. 

It looks like we will have to boondock quite a bit while we are in Utah.  I had so much trouble getting reservations and wondered why. Then I learned that there is a solar eclipse in mid-October and Utah is in the path of totality. So there are a lot of people out there for that event. But, we will be lucky to be able to see it. 

We learn something new almost every day. 

On our first trial run, we were camping near a gentleman who had the same type of van we did. Being excited to finally have our van, we went over to talk to him. He had a small tent sitting on his picnic table. We asked him why he had a tent as well as the van. He explained that the sites we both were in were tent campsites. My understanding is the main difference between “tent” sites and “RV” sites are that tent sites don’t have electricity or water hook ups and they are supposed to be quiet because tents don’t have generators. Well…our van is so simple that we don’t have any of that. We run everything off a rechargeable battery, and it is easier to get tent sites, so I generally do that. It’s cheaper too.   The guy said that he sometimes used to get hassled about not having a tent. So now, he brings a like pup tent and sets it out and nobody bothers him. LOL!

The next week we went to St. Vincent DePaul Thrift Store and found a $9.99 tent! On our trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, a friend of Tim’s joined us and he used the tent! 😃

Is van life all sunshine and roses?

No. 

It isn’t easy leaving the van in the middle of the night for bathroom breaks. But, it can make for some stellar (see what I did there?) star gazing!

We miss having ice for our Old Fashioneds. But I found some whisky stones that we keep in the refrigerator and it gets drinks a little cold. 

We take so many conveniences for granted. But, we are getting good at using what we have and making it work. 

I adore the night skies, and catching sunrise and sunset as often as possible. 

I love falling asleep to the sound of elk bugling, or a river babbling. 

I love the convenience of being able to make a meal anytime, anywhere. 

I remember from camping as a kid, that food always tastes better outdoors. 

I hope you found this interesting!

Take care!

If you have any specific questions, please ask!