My Unfiltered Take On Van Life

Hey guys, this is a Tuesdays post. It’s the kind of post where you don’t really get anything useful out of it: no advice, no information, just entertainment:) at least that’s the hope. Anyways, I’ve been living in a van for a week now, so clearly I’m qualified to talk about it. Here’s my take on van life:

It’s not cute.

I don’t know why I expected it to be. I mean I didn’t really but I kind of did if you know what I mean? But I can’t complain because I rented the cheapest van I could possibly find which means it’s covered in rust, needs a paint job in the interior, and may or may not have a cockroach problem. And It leaks when it rains. It rains a lot in Hawaii. And, it has no bathroom. Yeah, I know. Currently, home is where the public restroom is. This means BYU-Hawaii campus, the shopping plaza, or occasionally the McDonalds parking lot.

So anyways, it’s not cute. But guys, you should see the smiles. Life is one big adventure right now. I think that not only has this van reminded me to be grateful for the little things, but it’s also allowed me to experience things I never would have before.

Let me share a real time example. I’m sitting in a building on BYU-Hawaii campus right now writing this post and THE cutest little Polynesian toddler just came up to me and started playing with my notebook. We became fast friends, let me tell you. She even left some scribbles on the page for me:))

As another example, the other day I had an experience that made me appreciate pancakes like I never have before. Be prepared for a complete rollercoaster of emotions as I tell this story okay?

Hawaii is expensive.

That’s a well known fact, and I can’t complain because it’s travelers like me that make it that way. My friend and I anticipated this, and so we flew to Hawaii with granola bars, protein bars, cashews, etc. All the classic camping snacks. But it turns out, you can only eat classic camping snacks for about a week before the thought of one more protein bar is completely revolting.

I had brought pancake mix knowing that there was a small burner in the van. The problem was, when we arrived it didn’t work. Two days ago we made it our mission to fix it, because come hell or high water we were going to eat our pancakes.

We found out that the small propane tank that fueled the burner was completely empty. That meant a trip to the local Foodland where we bought a new one for a cool 20$. We also bought maple syrup. (Manifest success amiright).

Back in the van we discovered that we could not for the LIFE of us unscrew the old propane tank. We tried everything in the book. I swear, If someone passed a rusty white van in the Foodland parking lot around 4:30 on May 10th they probably heard something like: “Lefty loosie, righty tighty…IT’S NOT WORKING.”

We were running out of ideas until we realized we were next to ACE hardware. Plan A was to flirt with an employee and get them to come out to unscrew the tank for us. Plan B was to bite the bullet and spend another 20$ on a wrench.

To make a long story short-ish since it’s already been long, Plan A worked because my friend is a cutie patootie. Our good friend Spencer from Washington came out and unscrewed the old tank way too easily. It didn’t help my pride, but at that point pancakes were my sole focus and I really didn’t care. Thank you Spencer, you are a hero.

If you want to know what true happiness feels like, forget your dreams about the sports car or the white picket fence. Here’s the real recipe: Go camping with some cockroaches, live like a boy scout on protein bars and cashews for a week, then make yourself a krusteaz pancake. You’ll want it to be about an inch thick and covered in butter. That’s living right there.

We’ve seen some crazy beautiful places. This van, with all it’s imperfections, has allowed us to explore Oahu in such a unique way and wow, I couldn’t be more grateful.

So there it is, my take on van life summed up in a few stories. It’s inconvenient, not the most comfortable all of the time, but 100% worth the memories—the big ones and the small ones. I 10/10 recommend:)

Thanks for reading!

I’m glad you’re here:)

-El