In today's video, we'll be talking about some of the van life realities
that aren't really discussed in the #vanlife movement.
What is going on youtube greetings from Henry's Lake in Idaho,
just a little bit outside of West Yellowstone Montana. this is an awesome
campsite it's free it's on blm land it's pretty
amazing and you can just see how awesome van
life can be but there are some van life realities
that i think not enough people talk about so that's
what i'm going to do today going to talk about some van life realities
and hopefully you'll learn something and enjoy this video okay so i'm going to
start off with the kind of gross one the first thing you never hear about van
life is how dirty your feet are going to be
believe it or not these are actually pretty clean
van life feet because i was out there in the lake
taking a dip a little while ago but no matter what you do
no matter what you try your feet are always going to find a way to get dirty
in van life part of it is because we camp at
campgrounds there's mud there's dirt a lot of us wear sandals a
lot so of course your feet get dirtier when you wear sandals
and when you're out camping in the woods in national forest type areas you're
going to track things into your van so when you're walking around your van
with your feet off that stuff's going to get on the bottom of your feet
okay so the next thing you never hear about when people
talk about van life is what are you supposed to do with your trash
i've been camping on blm land for the last
10 to 12 days and so i built up some trash
but in a van you don't have much space like where do you put it
so right now i have it in my bathroom floor i used to keep it back in this
little cubby back here but now i put water in there my water
bag's in there and so i don't have any place to put my trash
until i find somewhere to dump it in a town or something so i
just stack my trash up in my bathroom okay so the next thing
they don't tell you about are all the freaking bugs i mean
look they're not always this bad right now i'm in like a bug tornado
basically
but you're gonna have a lot of bugs you're gonna wake up to big
moths flying around in your van you're gonna wake up to big
creepy crawly things i mean i've got i mean these things are just
attacking me right now they're not biting or anything like that
but this happens a lot in van life especially if it's the summer and you're
anywhere near water you're going to be attacked by
bugs at some point or another all right just
a quick break i'm hiking around henry lake here
it's pretty awesome don't worry mom i've got my bear spray
got my sunscreen on but if you're enjoying this video
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i put out a video every single week and i just have a lot of fun doing this also
if you have something to say say it down in the comments i answer
every single comment if you don't believe me try it so this
is a really great example i have this beautiful campsite with a
lake here behind me it's been great for the last few days
but now there's a huge windstorm it's getting late i'm stuck in it
i'm gonna be in it all night and my van inside my van sounds like somebody is
beating the side of it so that's one of the things that you have to deal with
in van life that nobody tells you about um the different noises
including mother nature type noises okay so the next thing you don't hear a lot
about in the hashtag van life universe is sometimes you're
gonna get the campsites whether it's paid or free campsites on
blm land and national forest land and there's gonna be trash there i think
it's important not only to not trash a campsite yourself but to
clean up the campsite if you get to one that's been trashed by somebody else
these free public land um campsites are great but we're only
going to get to use them as long as we take care of them so
going around and picking up the trash that people left
i think is something we all can do to help preserve these sites okay so the
next van life inconvenience that you don't really hear a lot about
is mail and packages if you live full time
in your van getting mail in packages is not easy
i mean this place is great it's awesome it's gorgeous
but do you see a mailbox or a post office anywhere
you don't so if you're ordering the latest
gadget from amazon you've got to get it delivered somewhere
hopefully you got like friends and family in the area you're at you could
just send it to them but usually you have to try to find
a business that will accept your package and of course they're going to charge
you for that convenience i've seen anywhere from six dollars all
the way up to some really bad price gouging that story chasing
mentioned um at a ups store so um and that's per
package so if you get two amazon packages sent to you
it's six dollars a piece so you'll pay 12 to get those packages
so that's one of those realities of van life that nobody really talks about
but if you're trying to get packages sent to you it's not easy
all right so this is the perfect setting to talk about this last item
which is showers there's this popular glamorized
van life thing where people are taking showers in their van
and while you can take a shower in a van i can take a shower my van
if you're staying on blm land or national forest land
that's not as easy as you think because no matter
how big your van is your water capacity is not gonna be able to keep up with
daily showers or even every other day or every three days so
you gotta find other ways to get yourself clean i'm about to jump
into this lake with some biodegradable soap
and wash off i actually got this idea from chad and paul
they do it all the time they take baths and streams
lakes the ocean i know they didn't invent the idea
but they got they put it in my mind that that's a viable option
and there's water sources everywhere so it actually is a great option some other
options i've used a lot of laundromats in rv centric
towns have showers they're usually coin operated
um you can also go to truck stops they usually have
showers and so there are a bunch of different ways
to get your shower but it's a common misconception that you'll be able to
go out in a van and shower every single day
that's just not gonna happen okay so those were some van life realities that
you don't hear about often in the hashtag van life movement
if you've got any more to add make sure you comment below
but in all seriousness those minor drawbacks
compare nothing to how awesome van life really is i mean look
look at where i'm parked right now look at look at this
it's amazing i'm parked on a lake i can stay here for 14 days for free
like van life is a little bit glamorized but there's a reason why it's glamorized
there's some glamour to it and some and a coolness factor uh that goes along
with it so anyway if you enjoyed this video hit
that like button and if you like this type of content
make sure you hit that subscribe button i put out videos every single week
thanks for watching
so in love now you're the one i'm losing sleep for
and i hope the wrong one slip right through your magic fingers
and hope we find some way to fall in love like we were
yeah you're the only reason i was california dreaming in the first place