About this time last year my husband, Tim, came up with an idea and pitched it to me with the caveat that if he was completely off his rocker I should just say NO. His idea was that we should consider selling our house, purchasing and building out a van and travelling full time. Not only did I NOT say no, I said “Hallelujah!”
Prior to this Tim had always said he wanted to stay in our home when we retired. We love where we live – it’s close to everything, has great transportation options and most everything we need is in walking distance, which is great as we get older. That said, the bedrooms and main bathroom in the house are upstairs, which are not desirable as one ages, and could eventually become an issue. Â
Needless to say, we have had many conversations about how this will work, and how much time we need to build out the van and sell off everything in the house. And then there’s the kitties…how will they feel about living in such a small space? They do love chasing up and downstairs after each other and all the windows they can watch kitty TV through. Tim say’s they’ll be fine….time will tell on that one. Munchkin is not so keen on going in the car. Magnus, on the other hand, will go along with anything. I started harness training them and we bought them a catio so they could get used to being outside. More to come on that in a future post…
We decided we should try out a van for a week or so to see if we can tolerate being together in such close quarters. We figure we won’t have many problems because we enjoy the outdoors so much, but I do have a large personal space bubble and I might not like being so cramped on a full time basis. Â
The perfect opportunity to try out a van came when we were headed to Wanderfest Music Festival in Oregon in June. We researched several RV and van rental options and settled on Outdoorsy because of the features they offer to renters (and owners) and because we found a van that was pretty close to what we envisioned ours would be like. Outdoorsy is an RV rental business much like Home Away VRBO or Airbnb, but for RVs instead of homes. Â
We knew we wanted our van to have a kitchen and bathroom, and Dean’s van, The Doozey, had these features and more. So, we arranged to rent The Doozey for 5 nights for our Portland adventure. Â
Communication with the owners pre-adventure is handled directly through the Outdoorsy App. Dean was super responsive and answered all our questions promptly. Once we arrived, Dean was very helpful in explaining how everything worked, and showed us where all the mechanical and plumbing features are located on the van. He also was very flexible in our arrival and departure times to accommodate our flight schedules, which was much appreciated. Â
As you can see from the photo above, the van just fit in a regular parking space so it was pretty easy to get adjusted to driving. You sit up really high in the van, which is great for seeing everything as you travel down the road on your adventure. The Doozey also had surprisingly good pick up on the highway. We did not have far to go to reach the festival at Dundee Lodge in Gaston, OR and soon we were parked and experiencing van life for the week. The lodge is situated in the pines and has beautiful views and is a great setting for an intimate music festival, wedding, or other gathering. The lodge has a few rooms, and there are campsites on the property, as well as a large area available for tent camping just below the outdoor stage. Â
After the festival we drove The Doozey up to Skyline Tavern in Portland and spent two nights there, enjoying the beautiful skyline and great company of friends and family. Skyline is a comfortable tavern with great food, drinks, live music and an outdoor patio. What more does one need?!!
We did not run out of water and did not need to empty the storage tanks at all during the week, so we learned we are pretty conservative when it comes to water and sewer needs in van life. The Doozey has no solar power, and there is a generator and propane tank on board to run various equipment (refrigerator, cooktop, microwave). We did need to run the generator a couple of times, as we had no access to shore power, and that confirmed our belief that we do not want a generator on our rig. They are noisy and smelly, and generally intrusive to the outdoors experience. We also do not want propane or other combustible gas to power equipment in our home on wheels, but it was a great experience to validate our preferences, and everything was in good working order.
The one thing that was annoying for us was the way the overhead compartments and air conditioning were placed, as every time Tim bent down to get something, when he stood back up he smacked his head on a cabinet or the air conditioning unit. He had a doozey of a headache (pun intended) by the end of the trip, but it was a good lesson in placement of mechanicals and storage for our own van. When it came time to leave, we were sad to say goodbye, but so glad we had the opportunity to try out van life before making a final decision about our future. The rate for The Doozey is reasonable compared to similar options, and having a bathroom and kitchen on board is sweet! It’s a great alternative to staying in hotels and eating out all the time while travelling. I can see us driving down the road, finding a spectacular spot and settling in for a few days, living off grid, enjoying nature and relaxing in our retirement in the future.
When we returned home from our travels we went to visit the Mercedes dealer near us in Madison to learn more about purchasing a cargo van to build out. We had already decided on the Sprinter after researching the various options. Tim is tall and wants one that he can stand upright in without having to add a topper to the vehicle. We also want a 4×4 so that we don’t need to worry about getting stuck somewhere, and the Sprinter fits these specifications. Unfortunately we found out that you can’t just go buy one off the lot. In fact, most of the cargo vans go to commercial businesses and there are no 4×4 options just sitting around waiting for buyers. So in September we made a down payment on one of the vans allocated to the local dealership. The allocated vans will be built this month and we expect to take delivery in February or March. Then we begin the build out. Tim has been working on the drawings and researching how much solar it will take to keep us going with our preferred conveniences such as refrigeration, induction cooktop, and other electronics. Â
Although we had already put money down on the van, we wanted to try out a Sprinter to be sure that was the right decision for us, so at the end of September we took a trip out to Las Vegas and rented another van through Outdoorsy from Sprinter Van Rentals. We traveled to Arizona and stayed in the desert between Laughlin and Kingman for four nights. We were completely off grid, and this vehicle has solar in addition to many other features. We had another great Outdoorsy experience, starting with great communication from the owners in advance of and during our trip. The pickup location was about 10 miles from the Las Vegas strip, and easily accessible by taxi, Uber or Lyft. The owners were very accommodating with our pick-up and drop off times and very thorough in explaining the features of the vehicle. This time I video recorded the walk through so I would be able to go back and replay the instructions given to us on how everything works. Â
On the first day of our Sprinter adventure we enjoyed the great outdoors until dusk and then decided to prepare dinner in the van. We could not get the gas cook top to light or the microwave to run…and it was getting dark and we were not inclined to read the manuals at this point in order to make dinner. Just then the power to everything suddenly shut down. Pitch black…even the screens for the monitors were out. That’s why they call it an adventure! Tim used his flashlight on his phone to check the electrical panel and look for blown fuses, but could not find anything. After about 20 minutes we decided to text the owner, as he had said to feel free to contact him at any time with questions. It turned out there was a switch behind the rear passenger seat that we had accidentally hit when moving things around to prepare dinner, and that was the master power switch for the entire van. The owner explained that this was a great example of why doing your own build out is better than getting a commercial build out…they don’t always think about practicality when they locate things within the van.  Once we got the power back up and running we were good to go for the evening, but exhausted from our day so we ended up eating sandwiches and chips and kicking back before going to sleep for the night. Â
The bed in both vans we rented were virtually the same…a rear seat that folds down electronically and has extra cushions to fill in to make a queen size bed. It works fine as a temporary bed, but I certainly don’t want to sleep that way every day in van life. I don’t want to have cracks between the cushions, and don’t want to struggle to make the bed with sheets and blankets every night, although that would make a pretty funny video. We plan to have a regular fixed queen sized bed on a platform allowing for storage beneath. And we have decided we need to sleep vertically in the van (head and toes facing front and rear, rather than side to side) so neither of us has to crawl over the other to get up in the middle of the night to use the toilet….old people issues, but well worth considering at our age. It will be bad enough crawling out from under cats in the bed…
Day 2: What adventures in van life will we have today? The sunrise in the desert was amazing, watching the light come across the desert and light up the mountain range as the birds, rabbits, ground squirrels and other critters wake for the day. And no city noise to disturb it all…peaceful, quiet and somewhat majestic. It does not take long for the heat to start beating down and the automatic awning comes in handy during the afternoon hours. It’s amazing what a little shade will do for you in the heat of the desert. The rental Sprinter is equipped with an automatic awning that senses when it gets too windy and winds itself back in. Cool!Â
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With the sun rising it was time to figure out how to run the cook top to make some coffee. Turns out we must have just been too tired last night…I wasn’t holding in the control knob while trying to light the burner…With the cook top lit and water boiling for coffee, next was to solve the issue with the microwave…Ah Ha! You have to turn on the generator to get the microwave to run. Two minutes later we had caramel made for our coffee, (I know, spoiled right?!) and breakfast of coffee and granola bars to start the day. Now to turn on the water heater for a shower. Â
Oh no! Toilet’s plugged! Hello, van life. After waiting an hour, still no hot water and toilet still plugged. Tim took a cold shower while I researched information about the hot water heater in the on board manual for a solution to why we had no hot water. I could go through the video I had recorded but did not want to watch the entire video to try and find the section about the water heater, so it turns out maybe the video wasn’t so helpful after all. I remembered the owner saying if you have the heater running at night it heats up the hot water as well, but we had not used the heater so that wouldn’t help us this time. They had suggested turning the water heater to Eco rather than full heat as the water gets extremely hot on full, but cold is not my idea of Eco. It’s a learning curve like everything else that’s new.
We had some campfire hot dog skewers along so I sacrificed one of them, using the rounded end to try to unplug the toilet…ewww…no luck. We then called the owner and he said toilet paper could be hung up on the sensor so it’s not flushing. He suggested filling the toilet half full with water so there would be more pressure, and if that does not work, try a stick. He also said maybe try turning the water heater up to full heat before showering, so we will do that the next time. There were lots of sticks around, so I tried that and wasted a whole bunch of water, but the toilet cleared! On with our day.
In addition to knowing we do not want any propane or other combustible fuel in our van (other than the diesel which drives us down the road), we also know we do not want one of the marine flush toilets used in most RVs, and this little adventure solidified our decision. We plan to have a composting toilet so we won’t need to worry about the toilet not flushing. I’m sure there will be other adventures surrounding the composting version, however.
We enjoyed our time in the desert and the comforts of the Sprinter rental van, other than the toilet which kept backing up daily and we ended up having to go to empty the holding tanks and refill water as a result. That was another adventure we will be happy not to have to repeat. Of course we will need to get fresh water in our van, but we will have no black water holding tank and our gray water will be able to be dumped on the road, as it will only have biodegradable soap in it. Tim’s face while emptying the tanks…priceless!
 
All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed both of our Outdoorsy Van Adventures, and we look forward to building our van to our personal specs and travelling around North America in it with our two adventure cats, Munchkin and Magnus. We plan to vlog the build out and will keep you posted on our adventures from the road as well. If you would like to try an Outdoorsy RV adventure of your own, use my code for a discount! #findwhatmovesyouÂ
Many thanks to our Outdoorsy hosts for being so friendly, gracious and communicative, and for sharing their knowledge and love of RV live with us!