Vanlife Debunked

When we started this trip we had an idea of what it was going to be like. As much as we tried to do this without expectation and without any planning, nature set in and we couldn’t help but dream about our freedom. But, as always, reality is different. When we started this life, we were much like children at recess, running in circles basking in our new found freedom. We are now more like children after school – still running around hyped on sugar, but we know we have a little more time than the 15 minutes now.

In two months we have only paid to sleep once (I am writing this from an air-conditioned room in Saint Catharines, Ontario). We have slept everywhere from the mountains
outside Lillooet to a department store’s parking lot in Wisconsin.

Slow moving vehicle

So, it may have taken us a month and a half but we finally left British Columbia. I’ve always heard people say that we are living in the most beautiful place in the world but having travelled very little of British Columbia, let alone Canada I never quite realized how amazing it truly is. It’s sad really, I realized that I have travelled other countries and know them even more intimately than I know my own. For those who haven’t been to British Columbia – go! For those who live there, go outside and explore your backyard. It really is incredible, my highlights were the Kootenays specifically from Midway to Nelson and Vancouver island, specifically the beautiful drive from Nanaimo to Tofino.

Driving towards the Rockies my excitement only magnified. The beautiful waterfalls and all the tall mountains to explore – for an adventure lover, it’s paradise! For a van, it’s not!

Luckily Gurt held up strong, only started throwing a bit of a tantrum waiting for all the traffic in lake Louise (stop and go traffic for 3 km up a mountain). Lake Louise, in my very introverted opinion, is a gorgeously blue lake surrounded by beautiful scenery but not worthy of the hour and a half wait to park your car and the hundreds of other tourists who were there and cramming to take their selfies. In my opinion, the Rockies offer so much more absolutely breathtaking places than just this one sought after spot.

Our descent from the Rockies quickly brought us to Calgary, a place we quickly drove through but Myles and I tend to shy away from big cities so without much of a detour we continued to the badlands. Leaving Calgary, instantly all the lush green forests and tall mountains were a faded memory as we without warning were into the farmlands. Not the 10 acre farms I’m used to on the west coast, I’m talking 300 acres of wheat.

Myles, with his attention span, got bored in about 5 seconds flat. Me on the other hand, I felt like I could fly. How beautiful, all the slight rolling hills and the beautiful different shades of green. Yes, you feel like you are barely moving when you’re actually near flooring your vehicle (we even hit speeds of 100km/hr, a record for our girl!). Any feelings of claustrophobia I’ve ever had were gone! All I could think of was taking my shoes off and running through the fields! All of a sudden, I could see nothing, the sky continued but it literally looked like the end of the world, with no more land in site. As you approach you see this sunken city, we have hit drumheller.

This absolutely gorgeous prehistoric town build into the most beautiful layered rock is sure to bring the child out in you. We b-lined it straight to the Royal Tyrell Museum to let our nerd side shine as we read all about these ancient creatures. I expected drumheller to look like a Dino town with big plastic “life sized” Dino figurines and only really went because Myles was excited. But again Myles was right, the whole town exceeded my expectations. I found myself running up the sides of mountains (more like hills) looking at the different layers. The hoodoos were absolutely amazing for what they are, these natural little wonders made from the sand and rock.

The formations were gorgeous but the sight was very touristy with metal staircases everywhere and hundreds of tourists everywhere. While it may not be so photogenic, as it is almost impossible to not get people in your photo, it’s a beautiful sight when you look past all the modern touristy details. 

As we do every morning, we woke up the next day, made our coffee and unfolded our map. We both decided that we had an urge to drive east. So, we folded our map, filled up our gas and hit the road, let’s see where this takes us…

Vanlife: Take two

To our friends and family and all our readers we greatly apologize for the lack of communication from us since our departure. This trip has been a roller coaster. Incredible highs met with unexpected lows. Vanlife, for us, was a way to disconnect; to completely unplug from our everyday lives and focus on our priorities, our little family.

When leaving we had a naïve excitement for what’s to come. A blissful work free, stress free easy lifestyle. We knew there was going to be an adjustment period but we thought mostly of the bright early wake ups and tripping over each other with the lack of space. What we actually found was something greatly unexpected and something that I believe we had to learn along the way.

For us, we began our trip northbound up the coast of British Colombia where we visited all the major tourist attractions in Squamish, Whistler, and Lillooet (if you haven’t already done so, add the drive from Pemberton to Lillooet to your bucket list – a steep climb up a mountain rewards you with unbelievable views and many places to stop and relax) in an effort to get to our main destination: Kamloops. I wanted to visit some amazing friends of mine to say goodbye before departing into the great unknown. Only what we didn’t realize at the time was that we were already on our trip. Always living for the future is a hard concept to shake. Always having a destination was something drilled into us, it was unexpected and even while on our trip we didn’t realize we were still living by.

After spending two nights in Kamloops we had our next destination in mind, to go visit Myles grandmother and family in Vernon. Myles passport was lost so we were forced to spend almost a week of our trip in Vernon. Luckily, we met with both of our families to visit vineyards and help us pass the time. While we were oh so impatiently waiting for his passport to arrive we had the time to have one of our infamous worldly discussions where hours pass by unknowingly and we discuss every dream and worry we have.

We realized that silently we were both having the same doubts and concerns about our trip thus far. We were rushing through towns in an effort to find our next destination, we were not set up in the van how we wanted to be (completely over packed) and we didn’t actually believe we were on our trip; This meant we were not doing it how we wanted.

We were surprised however how much space we truly had, not once had we tripped over each other.  In one afternoon we cleaned out our entire van (cutting what we had currently packed by about half). After (finally) getting Myles’ passport, and doing some much needed maintenance on the van (including a fuel pump and fixing our water pump), we were on our way with new eyes and hearts full of hope.

We set sail Southbound to Osoyoos stopping at local fruit stands and always finding time to jump in the unbelievable lakes, even in a storm.  We learned a few things: cleaning was a constant and important task in such small quarters; opening up our blinds helped to make everything feel much bigger and brighter; and most importantly to never forget about the excitement of what we were doing. With having no more places to stop, nowhere to be, we continue with a little experience and a ton of anticipation.

We promise to write more often now that we have our life in order 🙂

-SM

Everything you ever wanted is on the other side of fear

After six long weeks, we finally have her back. Our new soon-to-be home on wheels, back from the repair shop. With only a week left until we leave, we were incredibly eager for her return and our excellent mechanic was just about ready to have two new employees in us. We purchased Gurt for such a great price we decided to put in some extra money to make her as reliable as an 1984 vehicle can be. With a newly rebuilt engine, we are the most excited we’ve been.

Being able to finally start cramming our possessions into every nook and cranny, testing our new solar panel (yeah! we got one, thanks to Samara’s family), this is feeling real.

As you could probably tell we’ve spent the last few weeks taking turns on panicking about this trip. Luckily, we never seemed to panic at the same time and always found the voice of reason. We won’t be able to sell all of our stuff, what if we don’t get our van left, do people really do this, holy crap we just sold all our stuff, holy crap WE are really doing this. In the last few days pieces have been falling into place. Our stuff has been selling, we got our van back, and we have people lined up to show Relish to (our second Westy).

This has been a whirlwind project that is finally coming to fruition. Life was either going to get harder and push us to rethink our plan or reassure us. Thankfully it was the later. Now there’s just small things to do like sell two cars, clean our two bedroom suite, pack our life into our van and start our journey (can you sense the sarcasm).

SM

When seconds feel like hours

Patience is a virtue, one that I unfortunately don’t possess. Only a short twenty seven days until we leave and to say that we are excited would be an understatement. One of the most beautiful things about switching to this lifestyle is the lack of certainty, the profound unknown. The only thing we know, is that we don’t know anything. There is somethings so raw and vulnerable about realizing that your whole world is about to be completely turned around. We would no longer be able to buy in bulk, we would no longer have an oven to use, counter space was going to become virtually inexistent, even showering will become an unplanned but I’m sure very welcomed privilege. We will have to have jerry cans full of gas, and be prepared to eat a lot of no name noodles (yes, even kimchi will become an unaffordable luxury item). We have searched hard on Instagram and Twitter and have seen lots of families take to a simpler van life but we haven’t found anyone who has three furry children along for the ride.

That, for us, is both an incredible excitement while admittedly being an additional obstacle. In an attempt to truly do this 70s inspired lifestyle, we have decided to ditch our Google maps and gps and plan this entire trip as little as possible. With nothing more than the signs on the road, a paper map, and the input from all our amazing friends, like you!

We plan to star the spots on the map that we consider our must sees – and find roads and trails along the way to take us there. We want to see a few cities but stick mostly rural – the more hot springs and hidden beaches, the better! This last week has had many ups and downs that come with completely overhauling your life but we both can’t believe how happy we are that we are actually starting our fairytale life, running away to live in the mountains. Now comes the hard part… The waiting game!!

Are you a fellow #vanlifer or adventurer that knows some great spots in North America? Please comment and let us know some of your must see places and help us build our maps✌️