So...It's been a minute since I wrote anything on here. Almost a year and a half to be exact. It's not that I haven't been writing (albeit, I haven't been writing enough), it's that I A. have been frustrated with different elements of the world around me and haven't had the heart to deal with anything non-fiction and B. I've been busy! My life has been a whirlwind of action this last year and a half. I've been beaten around by change and self-discovery: basically, I came to terms with myself that I wasn't living the life I wanted to live. I'd bought a house in a city I swore I'd leave a soon as I graduated college. I was working over time hours at a job that had nothing to do with my degrees, for a boss who made an ever growing pit of dread in my stomach. I loved the people I'd surrounded myself with, but I was living a life that was passively accumulated rather than the life I wanted to create for myself.

I wanted to live in a van and travel and volunteer and give Yadi the adventure life we both deserve. I also knew there was no way I could do it because of my limited knowledge of vehicles and limited building skills. I gave up on that idea and set sights on another dream I've had my whole life: living abroad. I sold my house and everything I couldn't fit in my Jeep.

Then I met Jared late in 2017. He started coming to my classes at Pinnacle when I was in my ultimate hole of fed-up-ness. I wasn't looking to meet someone, but rarely say no to a running buddy, and on our first run I told him I wanted to live in a van. He took off with the idea.

"I know how we can do The Van Thing," he said to me.

I was pissed. Who was this "we" he was talking about?

"You need me," he said. "You can't do it without me--you'll see." Jared's mom and step dad own a remodeling company. He had access to their tools and more importantly to their knowledge.

In the beginning of February 2018 my friend Aaron and I went on a trip to Costa Rica to volunteer at an animal rescue center. We met so many incredible people from all over the world. They were all young and traveling as much as they could. We both had a little come to Jesus moment with ourselves out there. Aaron worked his butt off building habitats for animals and realized he wants to work more with his hands and get out of the city. When we got home to Omaha, he started looking for Nebraska acreages where he can build a home. I told all of our new friends how I wanted to live in a van. And, rather than look at me like I was crazy, they were all pumped for me. I was surrounded by people who understood my need to roam. They also helped me realize I had someone else at home who got it too.


Jared and I bought our van on April 27th, 2018 after only 6 months of knowing each other. We were then broke so we couldn't start any projects until the end of May, but we did decide that if we were going to live in a 70 square foot van together, we should probably make sure we could live in an 800 square foot apartment together first. So, we sold everything Jared owned, too. We named the van Dracula (because Dracula the Vamper in which we go Vamping).


We lost track of how many hours we spent on the van this summer. I know it was over 50 on insulation alone. Those first 50 hours were awful, for me. I look back on the journal one of my clients encouraged me to write as we started The Van Thing, and even though I was working on my dream, I hated it. There are some very annoyed and dark thoughts in there. Mostly I didn't feel like Jared and I were in it together. He loved working on the van. He found it therapeutic. I am not a stranger to hard work and getting dirty, but I broke drill bits and felt dumb all of the time. Jared's stepdad would tell me to do a project one way, then 30 minutes later Jared would check in on me and offer "a better way" to do what I was doing. Then an hour later his mom would offer "the right way" to do it. No one was wrong. They were all trying to help, and they're all far superior in their knowledge of these kinds of things than me.

Jared's biggest fear was that we'd get the walls up and be done with the van and driving down the road and insulation would start squeaking inside the walls. My biggest fear was that one of us would annoy the other to the point of driving us all off a cliff. "I have Yadi to live for," I told him. "I guess it'll be you."

Once the insulation, vent fan, and subfloor were done, things went crazy fast, because we could actually see progress. Jared got the walls up in a weekend, and I could seal them with no guidance. The mailman gave us a stove and Jared and Gary (Jared's stepdad) custom built all of our cabinets. I enjoyed painting, and it was something I could do in the parking lot of our apartment so I wasn't dependent on others' time.

We took our tester trip at the end of August 2018. We went to Steamboat Springs, CO to run a 50k for my birthday, then to Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park. We had most things done--everything we could afford to do at this point. Missing were a toilet, cubby holes for our clothes and the slide out for our "garage."

Our bed sits 40 inches high. Underneath is the "garage" where we store our bikes, tools, outdoor kitchen and grill, dog food, yoga mats, backpacks, Camelbaks, extra water, and other "nonessential" things. Currently, our next project is to build a slide out tray that all of that stuff sits on so that we don't have to crawl around in there to access these things. We'll just be able to slide out the tray and grab what we need.

We have a full sized bed, extra long as Jared is 6' 3". Next to the bed is a wall of cubby holes for our clothes, then also an area for dirty clothes and one for towels. We have a sink for doing dishes. A gas stove and oven. We have lights and power strips hooked up to a charging system that connects to the solar panels we install on the roof. We use a Yeti cooler rather than a fridge for power purposes and because fridges are temperamental about sitting even. We have cabinets for food that doesn't need to be cool. We have a bench that sits behind the driver seat that now houses the toilet and all of our cleaning supplies. The toilet has been an incredible addition. We had no idea what we were missing that first trip. Our first trip we roughed it. It felt more like true camping: poop in a hole and bury it. Now we feel like we're truly cruising in our home.

So, we had the van! We spent our whole summer--the best time of year--sweaty and dirty working on the van. We spent all of our money on the van. We put in our notice to leave our apartment. My dreams were coming true!

Then my aunt and uncle in Steamboat told us how short the mountain was on staff for this year. It had always been Jared's dream to work on a ski mountain. Steamboat is the number 3 ski mountain in the USA. It's an awesome town. The best place in the world...in the summer. I don't enjoy skiing. I don't really care if I ever see another snowy winter. But my aunt and uncle also needed help in their business. And it was Jared's dream, so we said what the heck, we're leaving our jobs anyway, why not  go to Steamboat before we van it. So here we are :)

If you want to check out Jared's thoughts on things, here is an article he wrote about #vanlife for Omaha Magazine.