What inspired us to move into our van was basically the ultimate freedom of being able
to travel and explore North America while taking the comforts of home with us.
We loved the idea of being able to wake up in new places whenever we wanted.
And also, it was just affordable.
Yeah, it really allowed us to explore the entire country and find a place where we wanted
to kind of settle down and raise a family and it also just allowed us time to make videos,
do our art, and really just change our lifestyle so that we were actually living in the moment.
Our van is a Ford E-350 El Dorado Encore campervan conversion.
And we call it the Wander Wagon.
We love it so much and it has so many things that we were looking for.
It took us a while to find, but it is the perfect van for us.
Our van cost us $3,800 which we thought was a great deal.
It was mechanically sound which is what we were looking for.
And basically it just needed a whole bunch of cosmetic work.
And putting in that cosmetic work was about...several thousand dollars.
The reason why we chose the Wander Wagon:
One was because we were looking for a mechanically sound van that we knew was going to be able
to hopefully take us across the country.
And one that was affordable, which we found.
And then we also just love the unique features of this van.
The skylight windows let in a lot of natural light.
There is a shower and a toilet.
And it also has an oven which is super cool.
We were of course looking for a stove top but an oven was an extra bonus.
Yeah, and me being 6'2", I can almost stand up straight inside the entire van.
Because of the way it's built, it has a raised middle roof.
It was really nice being able to be tall and comfortable in your van.
When we bought the Wander Wagon it was in pretty bad shape.
The inside coach area was disgusting.
There was silicone all over the windows, mould, mildew...it was a mess inside.
It took us about 5 months to officially waterproof everything.
It was a long process of searching for, and fixing, and learning how to fix all the leaks
that we found.
And then after that, we did a really intense month of renovating the inside.
Yeah, so we basically built all the furniture in here, it's all customized.
Our dinette chairs open for storage.
Our bed opens for storage, and slides out to a nearly queen-sized bed.
And it's really everything in here, cosmetically, we did.
The carpeting, the flooring, the ceiling — all redone by us.
With help of course.
Over here is our generator.
This is actually a huge, huge help when our solar panels are just not really putting the
power that we want, and it's not sunny, we can just put on the generator and we'll have
some power.
And then on our back, is actually a really awesome thing that we got for this trip: it's
our scooter!
We love it.
We can take it everywhere, it gets such good gas mileage.
And in case we like, break down it's just a good failsafe.
For times when it's not too hot out outside and Corbin and I have to go somewhere where
Paris can't go, we've created this little area for him where he can stay that's safe
and comfortable for him.
And what we did is we actually just installed this little baby gate.
And it just hooks in on each side, right here, so he has this whole area.
There's nothing he can really get into.
We just put his bed in here, and an ice cold water bottle just to be safe so he has something
to lean up against in case he does get a little hot, and then we keep the vent on.
Our route for this epic adventure started in Boise, Idaho.
We've since then have gone up to Canada, and we're travelling, basically, the border between
Canada and the United States until we get to the East Coast and then circling back around
back to Portland.
It's going to be a total of 13,000 miles.
Looking back at the beginning of this journey, I would never have expected it to be like
this.
There's been ups, there's been downs, but it's been really exciting at the same time.
This has definitely been one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life.
But also, one of my favourite things I've ever done in my life.
I definitely think the journey began when we were searching for a van, and it's only continued
since then.
Definitely lots of ups and downs, like you said, but it's been amazing.