I Lived and Traveled in a Van With My Mom For Weeks, and It Was Both Awesome and Terrible

We visited so many places across the US and Canada, from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland to Niagara Falls to New York City to Las Vegas. As long as we had the gas to get to where we wanted to go, nothing could actually stop us, and it was so freeing to just get in the car and drive purely because we wanted to explore some place new. I honestly saw more in those few weeks than I have in years, and I never realized how much of the country I was missing out on until I spent so long traveling through it in a van.

Obviously when living in a van, you have to find a place to park when you need to rest or you’re planning on staying somewhere for a stretch of time. I never anticipated this to be an issue, but there are so many things that can go wrong. Particularly, I found that even if you’re in a public place that’s well-lit and safe, people get uneasy about a van never moving. We even had the police called on us once just to check what we were doing. And while I totally understand this, it was still an annoying struggle.

While I did have my phone with me while traveling, I didn’t have my laptop, constant access to the internet, or the ability to watch whatever I wanted on TV whenever I wanted. To a certain extent, I was no longer surrounded by technology 24/7, and while there were some stretches where this was absolute torture, it also really helped me get back in touch with the little things and embrace a much calmer way of life. Pulling away from social media and all of the devices we constantly use was really amazing.

Honestly, need I say more? There’s nothing worse than waking up in the middle of the night because you desperately need to rush to the bathroom and then you realize that you are . . . in a van, with no plumbing or private bathroom. We had to get pretty creative if we couldn’t just get out of the car and rush into the nearest place. Also, the lack of a proper shower was really awful. I rarely felt clean.

When you live and travel in a van, people tend to get curious about you and the lifestyle you’ve chosen. I was shocked and amazed by how many people would approach me just to ask questions, and most of the time, they were always very nice and interested. I met quite a few kindhearted and quirky people during my travels, some of whom I’ve still kept in contact with today!

Whether you’re traveling alone or traveling with a companion in your van, privacy just doesn’t exist. Someone is inevitably always outside of your van making noise or trying to look inside to see what’s going on when you climb out. Even covering the windows does little to actually make you feel like you’re secluded and alone in the safety of your own “home.”

After about a month of traveling, I grew pretty homesick. I missed my cats, my friends, and my bedroom, and I found it difficult to enjoy the things my mother and I were doing because I just wanted to go home. When you’re living in a van, you can do and see so much, but to a certain extent, you can cut yourself off from a lot, too. Finding a balance was difficult, and that’s likely what eventually made me give up the van life.