Why a Van?
It evolved out of living from a backpack for about 4 months on the Appalachian Trail, back in 2012. After living so minimally, and flourishing in all the ways - emotionally, physically, and spiritually - it was hard to justify ever going back to an apartment, paying bills for a whole bunch of extra stuff that I knew I didn’t need in order to thrive. Trying to adjust to normal life after hiking the AT was miserable. I didn’t want to be surrounded by pavement every time I walked outside, be under a roof surrounded by walls, hear a constant hum from electricity. Missing the sounds of the birds and views of the sky that I had lived and breathed under every single day and night for over 130 days, I felt claustrophobic living indoors, while being weighed down by bills and surrounded by people who were constantly spending money to entertain themselves - I couldn’t keep up and had no motivation to.
So I got out of my lease and took off in my 2 door Honda Accord and enrolled in a Wilderness - EMT course with hopes to pursue some sort of career in the outdoors with like minded people. I did end up getting certified and almost immediately got hired to be a wilderness therapy mentor - but quickly I realized I was working for a program that too closely resembled the unethical troubled youth program that I was sent to as a teen - so I quit.
Between jobs, and between homes, that’s when the idea came to me to live out of an RV of some sort. I wanted something small and simple - not a huge RV, something that could store my backpacking and camping gear and take me from trailhead to trailhead with the occasional stop into town to resupply. I wanted the most minimal amount possible so there was less that could break and go wrong - but enough to sustain a minimalistic life for the long haul. I wanted a life that I didn’t have to worry about money, and I could just be in nature all the time.
It wasn’t so much the idea of living on the road, at that time, as much as it was a solution for not wanting to live in an apartment but also not live out of a backpack and having to rely on hitchhiking to get groceries. I scoured Craigslist and eventually the Gulf Stream Cruiser showed up at a car dealership in Louisiana. Vanlife hadn’t taken off yet, and the price was extremely low compared to the price it could sell for now and compared to what insurance offered me when the tree fell on it and totaled it in 2021. It was more than I needed inside, but it was the perfect size.
Once I got on the road with it, it took me a while to figure out the best places to park and set up camp. I thought I’d be able to park along the Appalachian Trail and spend my days hiking, but overnight parking at the trailheads wasn’t easy to find. I quickly realized it’s a lot easier to just thru-hike it than it is to section hike it while living out of a vehicle. I had to go somewhere else. Most land is private on the east side of the states, so I haven’t been back to that side of the country since my first year of van dwelling. I went west.
West opened up a whole new world of options to explore and live freely. There wasn’t as much information back then about van living as there is now, so I just winged it. I spent a lot of time just trying to figure out how to do life on the road and keep myself from option paralysis or just driving everywhere without knowing how to pace myself. Sometimes I’d be in the forest completely socially isolated for weeks and without cell service going crazy and then sometimes I’d be in town making friends with anyone who sat near me.
It was a lifestyle that I was constantly morphing and trying to figure out what exactly I was doing…but realizing at the same time that that’s what my life was becoming…just this ever changing moldable amoeba that could look one way one day and completely different the next and was impossible to keep from shifting into different shapes. And that was completely okay. It was more than okay. I loved it.
In fact, it is just that concept on its own that might be the biggest takeaway from living out of a van. Being able to roll with the changes - take them in, experience them in their fullness, become them, let them transform me in every unexpected way, then put the key in the ignition and keep on rolling to the next adventure that one could never fully predict, control, prepare, or plan for…keep on rolling through this ever changing life, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes simple, sometimes grand…sometimes needing repairs…sometimes on a roll…sometimes wondering how I ever thought I wanted my life to end. Such is life, just keep going, you’re always one exit away from turning your life in a completely different direction.
Appalachian Trail in 2012. The Appalachian Trail is a walking trail that spans from Georgia to Maine. I started my hike April 25th and got off the trail in September due to plantar fasciitis and a whole bunch of other muscular and bone pain. 
The year 2013, a transition year where I lived between an EMT course in Lander, Wyoming, my brothers house in Los Angeles, the backcountry of Arizona and Utah working for a wilderness therapy company, and then my Honda Accord taking me to various trails and towns out west.
Packing up my first van to take off for the first time in 2014. I had no idea what I was doing or how to pack.
My first van toward the end of our run together. That van was very special, rust and all. 
Present day. Built the new van very similarly to the layout of the first van, but feel like this one better suits my needs. Ironically, even though this one looks cooler on the outside and rougher on the inside, I prefer the inside of this one, and the outside of my old van.