What it's REALLY like to go from normal life to #vanlife (including the bad stuff!)

Hey there fellow Steemians! Two months ago (April 2018) my girlfriend and I left our our stable, well-paying, corporate America 9-to-6 jobs. For the rest of 2018, we’re going to live out of our car — sleeping mostly at campsites — and drive more than 25,000 miles through the US, Canada, and Alaska, exploring all along the way.

You've probably heard about #vanlife before. (We're driving a stock Subaru Outback, so ours is more like #wagonlife 🙂) You may have toyed with the idea of actually giving it a go, but maybe you wondered -- is it really what it looks like in the pictures?

What we'd like to share on Steemit is EXACTLY what it's like -- WITHOUT the Instagram filter.

We'd love to share our experiences -- what works, what doesn't, what's good, what's awful -- because we already sold everything we own, except what fit in a 5 by 8 foot space in Chelsea’s parents’ basement, and what we squeezed into our car.

That meant goodbye bed, clothes, furniture, tv, washing machine, cosmetics, bathrooms, shelves, cookware — everything. All that's left are a few bins.

I guess I should back up and say this -- we’re pretty normal people. We lived in Baltimore, Maryland, about an hour north of Washington, DC. We had good jobs. We had nice things. We loved our 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment.

/\ That's me, in front of a picture of me at my job.

But too many of the blogs and Instagram accounts out there, they don’t give any coverage of some of the hardships that go into living nomadically. They seem to put long-term travel like this through a filter that makes it seem like it’s all rainbows and lollipops.

Now I’m definitely not saying what we’re doing is a “hard thing” in the scheme of hard things; we’re incredibly lucky to be able to do this, and we’re super grateful for what we have and what comes next.

But come on. It ain't all beaches and day drinking — and prepping for it wasn’t, either. And what we wanted while we were getting ready to pull the trigger was more bloggers and vloggers that actually covered our questions, our concerns, and our doubts.

So in writing this up, we want to show you more of what it’s REALLY like to prep for and live long-term as nomads. And if we’re being honest, that includes not just the beautiful vistas or the stupid amounts of down time, but also the challenges we face…and how we’d shortcut them next time.

– How do we find places to stay?
– How did we outfit the car?
– How much are we spending each day?
– What about sleeping outside, living your life out of a carry-on bag, and having to sh** in the woods?
– What are we doing wrong and what would we do next time to fix it?
– Do we actually even like this long term travel thing?…

…Or are we just in love with the IDEA of liking it?

When it comes down to it, the big question is this: What’s it like for two very normal people to go from lives of physical things, comfort, and security…to lives of constant change, completely new experiences, and total instability?

And should YOU do it?

We hope you’ll follow along on Steemit as we figure it all out 🙂

Nomadically Yours,
Jason & Chelsea