www.atravelpath.com

 

00:00 Introduction

04:37 What were the biggest challenges in getting started traveling?

06:58 What YouTube channels or books influenced you to travel?

09:10 How much should someone prepare before starting van life full time?

11:55 What have you learned you can’t live without in your van, and what have you learned that you don’t need?

13:20 What tools do you bring with you?

14:20 What are some of the biggest frustrations you face during van life?

15:16 How do you find places to sleep?

18:35 What does your van life budget look like?

21:00 Any money saving tips?

22:30 How are you getting internet?

24:30 How do you travel with Akela?

30:03 What would you say to someone who has concerns about being a solo female traveler?

32:37 What has been your coolest experience while traveling?

36:20 Is van life sustainable?

 

Linnea and Akela:

Linnea & Akela (linneaslife.com)

Linnea & Akela - YouTube

Linnea & Akela 🏔 (@linnea.and.akela) • Instagram photos and videos

Facebook

 

Linnea has always had a craving for the outdoors, and one day she decided to give up her “normal” life and trade it in for a home on wheels with her dog, Akela. In today’s show she discusses:

 

🔨The essential tools for van life, including impact drill with bits, electrical fuses, wire strippers, and an air compressor

🐶How she is able to make her lifestyle work around Akela

🚺The precautions she takes being a female solo traveler

 

And More!

 

Music:

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/abbynoise/rocky-mountains

 

Videos Referenced from Linnea’s Channel:

Van Build BASICS as a SOLO FEMALE (youtube.com)

VanLife EXPENSES | How much does it REALLY cost? (youtube.com)

 

Episode 3 of “The Travel Path Podcast” with Bronderlust:

https://sites.libsyn.com/491798/3-bronderlust

Garrett & Staci | Vanlife•Adventure•Lifestyle (@bronderlust) • Instagram photos and videos

 

🔗Links

 

⚡Power

Blue Eti power source

 

📶

Starlink

 

🏕️Camping

iOverlander | Find your next destination

The Dyrt | Camping near me: Tent, RV sites, Glamping & Cabins

Free Camping Near You | Go Camping for Free! (freecampsites.net)

onX Maps: GPS Map App for Hunting, Hiking & Off-Roading

 

🚫Sedona Camping Ordinance:

Ch. 9.10 Offenses Against Public Peace | Sedona City Code (municipal.codes)

 

📺Channels

Brianna Madia (@briannamadia) • Instagram photos and videos

Van Kookz - YouTube

 

📖Book

Normal to Nomad Book — Normal to Nomad (normal2nomad.com)

 

#podcast #travel #linneaandakela #vanlife

 

*All content from atravelpath.com, including but not limited to The Travel Path Podcast and social media platforms, is designed to share general information. We are not experts and the information is not designed to serve as legal, financial, or tax advice. Always do your own research and due diligence before making a decision.

 

Transcript from YouTube

lanaa thank you for joining hope and I on the Travel path podcast and happy New Year Happy New Year to you as well yeah so we know you on YouTube as lanaa and Aila you travel in your van fulltime with your dog you cover everything basically from Van life building van lifee in general traveling all over the world you even have a video on making sourdough bread so there's quite a variety of content you have on your website um I do want to give a shout out to BR lust Garrett and Stacy who on episode three had mentioned how they loved your channel when they were starting out and you inspired them to travel not only because you did the whole van build thing and had the highlights of Van life but also was really authentic and you showed the mistakes kind of the downsides and frustrations with Van life in general so why don't we start by having you share a little bit about yourself and then what your current travel lifestyle looks like I started this whole Endeavor much longer than you know a long time ago um which I think is the case for a lot of people they have this idea and then they have to work towards it and go through all this struggle really a big goal of mine was to be able to work remotely as it is for a lot of people and to have the freedom to do the things I love which for me is outdoor things outdoor activities I like to spend a lot of time in the back country and when I had kind of been set on the goal of Van life I was working for a company where I was spending eight days in the back country and then six days in the in the front country in the real world however you want to say it and so that actually set up my current life style a lot so right now I am living in a ram promas it's a 2016 it's the smallest one it's the 136 wheel base I did the build completely by myself because back then I did not have the money to pay anybody in fact I I did have a call with a van Builder and he gave me a quote it was a very gave me a very kind discount and I still couldn't afford it and so I was like screw it I'm doing the whole thing by myself whatever it doesn't have to be great you know I went through the whole process of figuring out how to work remotely that I mean that I could talk about that for three hours but I tried many different things I decided to start my own business which was a huge risk um but I started my own Fitness business that allowed me to get on the road and build my van out I put a lot of it on a credit card a lot of my van build on a credit card the van build it's very simple I have made some changes over the last few years but that allows me right now to be living a life that kind of reflects what I had been living so um I have comforts have heat I have a you know a wood burning stove now I used to have diesel heater um we have a bed which is different than like a uh sleeping bag on the desert ground you know and um place for food and so a lot of my life in the van is spent out on Forest roads in BLM land yeah it's very simple my goal was never to make my van feel like a house because I knew if I wanted to feel like a house I would probably be disappointed so so I wanted to maintain the like campy feel with some luxury or in my eyes some luxury uh but really have it be a vehicle for me to get out into nature so that's kind of how I'm living right now awesome really cool and I can imagine on the prices way back then before the co surge of doing the actual van builds cuz we thought about that briefly and that was after the Ford transits they went up in price too when we were looking around and we ended up not doing a van build cuz we just didn't have enough time and after speaking with so many people on doing a van build it seems like it always takes much longer and much more money whether you're doing it yourself or not oh absolutely oh my gosh when I started I had planned to do well I didn't really plan my build because I didn't know what I was doing but I was like it's going to be so simple very like it'll be just what I need to get by for the next however many years I want to do this and I I thought I was going to finish it in like three to four months and I didn't finish it um until I think eight months later it took literally twice as long I feel so great f for when I was able to purchase my van because I got my van it was at 70,000 miles and I got it for $117,000 which would be absolutely unheard of now so yeah I am really really grateful and though surge of like materials and wood hadn't happened yet M now as far as experience and some of the challenges I watched a video you put out before you started the van build where you literally just called somebody I think it was called van build Basics as a solo female and you literally just called somebody that you knew that you knew knew more than you about electronics and powering your van and just recorded the entire conversation I thought that was brilliant because a you just proved to yourself that all you have to do is call somebody that knows more and can explain to you how to do it but also you're putting this on your channel to educate and help other people so was the biggest challenge the van build itself were there any other emotional Financial challenges to get on the road or was it just a van build oh the financial aspect I think was the biggest hurdle I mean I think that's most people's biggest hurdle is to figure out how they're going to fund a project like that um but once I had some of that figured out and was willing to take the risk and like kind of go in the hole for it I'm going to try my best to explain this but the biggest challenges then when going through the actual like building process was this like cycle of each project where you have this overwhelming Doom of like I have no idea how to do a electrical I can't I I couldn't even explain to somebody how this works how am I supposed to build it and so it's this like overwhelming anxiety of like I don't know if I can do this and then the whole painful process of learning and doubting and not knowing if you're ever going to figure this out if you have to pay like pay somebody to do it for you that's a really hard process to be in but also one that the more you practice the easier it is and the more confidence you build within your own you know that own cycle and then when the first thing clicks even just that first first like oh my gosh I know the difference of AC and DC that's incredible I didn't know that a month ago it's like that confidence starts to build and then you do the project you finish the project and then you move on to the next one and it like starts over and I think for me that cycle was the hardest thing to just like keep chucking and keep learning and and yeah I think that was the hardest plus you had not only were you doing this van build and you were you know you were trying to prove to yourself you could do it but you had your entire audience you went out there put on YouTube that you said you were going to do this you kind of gave yourself no choice but to go out there and do it yeah absolutely but I was able to use the channel because it wasn't big at that time I didn't I didn't know you could make a I didn't know you could make a living off of YouTube I had no clue so I was like okay this will keep me on track I have to do a video per project and try to do it every week and so it actually really helped it felt less like pressure and more like I told myself I do this I just have to do it now so that was really helpful actually as far as other influences in your life were there any any other YouTube channels or books that helped you kind of get on that path of living on the road so I would say the first person that I came across that like when I saw it visually I was like oh you can do this was um Brianna Maria media she yeah back then she was living in this big orange van with her dogs and her then husband out in the desert and I had fallen in love with the desert at that point and I'm like man that's cool I want to be camping all the time anyway if I just did it in a van that'd be more comfortable and I could figure out the rest she was the first one that I was like okay that people like I can do this if she can do this I can do this one of the first people that I followed was Travy wild I I didn't follow many like um big like van lifers or anything at that time but I had come across one of Travy Wild's builds and he was the only other person that I saw who didn't have a bright white really clean um like aesthetic and I'm like man I really want to just use a lot of natural wood and a lot of natural colors even if it's dark like I don't care I like that and he did and he had this beautiful bookshelf he is like a beautiful Creator he he builds stuff on the road I have one of his um cutting boards too so yeah he was a lot of inspiration for me of like I can build whatever I want and it's going to be like cozy and comfy because it's going to be for me so I'd say those two were kind of the initial people that I followed and then I really as far as the build goes and I'm doing it myself the van Cooks I don't know if you guys ever came across them but the vancs they just put out really authentic and like easy to learn from videos um like very simple like build step type videos so I enjoyed them too it's great we'll put a link in the description the show notes for all the references we talk about in the show today so it sounds like you clearly did your homework you had your influences that you watch videos you did all your homework when you're building your van and you spent a lot of time in the outdoors before getting into van life and transitioning to that lifestyle have you come across a lot of people who have just recently learned about van lifee and they've done the whole conversion and they've jumped right into it kind of too fast too soon what are your thoughts on how much you should prepare before you get into van life full-time I think that's hard because I had so much experience in the back country so this felt really luxurious to me so yeah I I have seen and I've heard a lot of cases like that I think as far as prep some of the best things that people can do is travel and sleep and live for short periods of time in their current vehicle um I spent a lot of time traveling in my little Camry it was like a little beat up Camry for a while and then I had a um 1994 4Runner that ail and I traveled out west with often and if I hadn't had some of those experiences living you know not out of a backpack but in a vehicle I would have had less of an idea of what I actually needed in the van and so taking what you have and just traveling living out of it and that'll just clear up probably a lot of people's questions of what do I actually want in the van what and it's going to be so different for everybody like the things that I value that I have in my van other people would be like oh heck no I need this thing to be comfortable and to like have that be a sustainable lifestyle so that that's what I would say for prep and also to add to that there are a lot of people that I hear say like invest a lot into your van fi and do everything you can to make it feel like a house and I know I touched on this before but I think also having space when you move into the van to to make changes along the way is also really important because if you can't make changes or if you don't know how to fix things then you're absolutely stuck with what you thought you wanted and I feel really grateful that I had the the flexibility of course I did the build so I knew how things were put together but I'm grateful I had the flexibility to rip out this whole side of my van so I could have a freezer cuz I was like man I want to be able to spend more time out there and not have to go shopping I'll just put in a freezer or the different type of sources of heat you know like all those different things I think it is really important to have space to make changes along the way especially if you're wanting to do it for many years sure you have to have that Vision to plan ahead think ahead I know that the wood stove you put in that was an addition right that wasn't an original modification to the van right correct yeah I had a diesel heater for two years first which was great the diesel heater was great there were things I didn't like about I didn't like the smell and when I like drip Fuel and stuff but um yeah I love my wood stove but other people don't other people don't want to do the work of a wood stove but I love it smells a little better than diesel does yeah makes it nice and cozy too in the winter yeah staying on that topic have there been has there been something in your van that you've learned that you can't live without and then at the same time something that you've learned that you actually don't need that you put in there originally um I for me and this might be a little bit particular to my build but something that I can't live without is my external power source so like my blue etti is what I use and I use it every single day and I charge it every single day and it Powers every electronic I have because I removed my my AC power so for those that don't know the difference like AC is like a plugin that you would use in like your house wall so I removed that actually I remov my inverter and just ended up sticking with my external battery source to charge basically all of my AC appliances and like my phone and things like that floating around the van and I left everything um that is in my van appliances that are wired into my my house all of that runs from the like electrical system that I put in with my batteries and my solar on top of my van and I think that's one thing um that I didn't realize was going to shift so much but I love that um separation now and I love having my external power source it's great now we've talked to a lot of rvers who have campers trailers motor homes and they had mentioned to us how they have all these tools they bring with them and one thing we didn't really consider we brought a few tools with us but in the van it's very limited space what tools do you bring with you on the road so I have actually when I rebuilt half of my kitchen to include my freezer I built a a large like storage space on top of my freezer just for tools um so I have really really basic tools so I keep my drill my impact drill with me at all times and then obviously a huge array of bits and um I I keep a lot of electrical little components with me too so I always have like little fuses and then um wire strippers and anything that I need to fix or shift any of my electrical and that's pretty much it it's just like drill and then electrical I also should be um traveling with a air compressor too that's one thing that I need and I would have mentioned if I did travel with it but I don't so kind of fast forwarding after the van build having been on the road for three years now what are some of the biggest frustrations that you face dishes it's really just dishes man I hate doing dishes and I really didn't do dishes before I met Chris because I would just like wipe out my stuff and and go on my way but now that you know I have a partner it's important but he does the dishes now but other than that like that is really my only gripe of having I don't really have running water and I have a really small sink um I think the only other thing that I would say is traveling anywhere east of the Mississippi that's really hard because of lack of public land I wish that I could answer this and like really give you some big struggles or some big gripes that I have with living on the road but as long as I'm out west and have access to public land in towns every once in a while it's really smooth going once you kind of get the flow of everything so you don't have too many issues in terms of like finding places to sleep for the night no that's interesting that's that's like one of the big that was probably our biggest frustration during our road trip was it seemed like we were talking to people who had done road trips like 20 years ago and when they got tired they slept they pulled over they woke up they just kept going and it seemed like for us for some reason we just saw signs everywhere where it said you like no overnight parking even like some of the Walmarts there were security you know cars going around if they didn't own the actual parking lot uh maybe that's cuz we were closer to like national parks and destinations so are you traveling kind of more remote than that yeah I typically do because of Aila so she there dogs really aren't allowed in National Parks I mean enough for you to really see the park so we stay away from Big destinations like that not to say that they're not worth going to because they are like national parks are national parks for a reason they're beautiful and very cool my whole goal was to be away from a lot of people uh so that's kind of why I mentioned you know out east is very different than out west so out west there's just enormous amounts of public land if you know how to how to search and and that's kind of something that you get into the flow of too or that I found that I was able to get into the flow of and you kind of have a sequence of what you do first so for me I do like apps like I Overlander or the dirt or free campsites done you know those those classic ones but then I'll look at that area and then I move on to onx so I I use onx for a lot because it's so easy to see if there's public land versus private land it's very very clearly marked and it's it has a lot of really great roads that are marked so typically I'll be like okay cool I know this area people can stay I'm G to move to anx and then I look and see what the what what kind of borders that property or that public land what roads go through that and I'll kind of make my own route through there CU I remember we we were in like Sedona Arizona and it took us like 3 hours to find a place to sleep we're tired it's dark out and we didn't realize that Sedona there was an ordinance where you can't sleep in a car anywhere in that town it wasn't like every night it was probably like I don't know 10 nights for o over the span of our two month trip but it was enough to we're we're like yeah that was definitely one of the top frustrations traveling was just trying to find a place to sleep we figured you know in a class B in it's it's not a camper you don't look like you're camping out or you can easily kind of conceal yourself but yeah that's um that's good advice thank you for sharing that yeah of course and it can certainly be frustrating in those larger cities I go to Salt Lake often because I have a few good friends there and it's even rough there knowing people and just staying on the road even and you know it's not illegal there but people don't like it so there there are a lot of things that you've run into in those larger cities but yeah going a little bit more remote it gives you the chance to see a lot of hidden gems as well and rather than national parks especially if you have a dog focusing on national monuments or national forests like there's beautiful national forests and national monuments all around that you know are usually really dog friendly so we'll switch gears a little bit to some of the financials and budgeting when you're on the road um you've been on the road three years now if you were to break down kind of a monthly budget what would that look like so I truthfully it changes so much throughout the year um these last for example these last few months we've been staying in the same spot for a while and that has saved an incredible amount of money because of gas prices so my budget shifts with well a where I want to go B the seasons and then where like prices are at with everything if gas prices are skyrocketing I chill in one state for a few months because I don't want to pay thousands of dollars in gas you know in gas bills or whatever so um I would say my highest expense is food um right now so my van payment is less than $300 a month because my van was so cheap and so that is like a very minimal payment for me my food food I care a lot about food I love food I love cooking and buying good ingredients our dogs eat fresh food too so um several hundred dollars a month go to food and then I would say right after that is gas because really if you live in a van you can't escape the fact that you're going to be paying a lot for gas and that will fluctuate from anything you know I mean this month I might have spent $50 on gas and but some months it's a few hundred when I have to go back home to Wisconsin to visit family or if I go down to the keys to visit my brother that's a lot of gas money but after that expense I sit in that place for a while to kind of recoup a little bit that's true you can kind of make up ground right so if you're spending more to get the place then just stay situated for there for a little while and then you're you know you get some of that money back it's a good tip absolutely and even like this might be minimal but with my freezer and now because I can store a lot of food so I have a a 50 L fridge with like a tiny little freezer on top and then I have a 60 L freezer that's I have a bigger freezer than I do fridge so that really cuts down the amount of times that I even have to leave my like BLM or Forest Service land spot and go into town that saves a lot of trips to town and that also saves money it's like an upfront cost but it it saves money in time sure that's a good point have it been any moneysaving travel hacks you've discovered over the past three years no I wish I could but no honestly there haven't been the only thing that I could say when I first started out because I was really behind financially I ate very simple Foods um and then I never paid for showers and that saved a lot of money so I only showered just outside with my little like MSR Dromedary drip thing and never PA for showers that Sav that that was great take you there was no water heater in that right oh no I still don't yeah I my water on myself oh man so it sounds like and we can't really put a button on it but if your biggest expense groceries is 3 400 bucks a month would you say somebody could live a lifestyle similar to yours for around 2,000 a month is that reasonable 100% when I started out I was I I was spending less than that yeah my budget was super tight when I first started and I was spending much less than 2,000 and that's all of my bills and I did a video on that at one point and it was I think I was on the road for maybe a year at that point so I was making a little bit more money but when I first started it was under two grand and that was cell phone that was um food gas Aila it was everything everything so absolutely if if people are willing to do it it is absolutely doable another expense we I know your face with being an influencer on YouTube is internet so how are you getting internet when you're on the road now it's starlink so starlink has opened up so much but I only have starlink now because Chris and I are together prior to that I didn't want to pay for any internet actually I had a little Verizon hotspot for a while I would basically plan out my videos so that I would go into town for upload day so I would go out the you know back country or down wherever out in the middle of nowhere and I would work on my videos and filming for that week and just stay really disconnected just stay really offline and then when my video is ready because you don't need internet for what I do I'll drive into town go to a coffee shop complete my entire upload and all of that back up do my chores go back out so I just planned very strategically for the first you know two two and a half years on the road when I needed internet I would use up my phone hot but that means I wasn't watching movies I wasn't watching shows I wasn't you doing what you can do with internet but I loved that like when Chris got starlink I was like dang I I don't know this now we're gonna be connected all the time we need to have like three days a week where we can't use of course that doesn't happen yeah but it is really nice I think starlink is great good that's good to know too that you can actually on our limited experience going to coffee shops sometimes doesn't have like the best Wi-Fi it seemed like we didn't actually do that but it seemed like if we were to upload videos to YouTube it wouldn't have been the strongest signal or we would have been there for like hours but it is possible you can go into town find places with the right Wi-Fi strong enough Wi-Fi and you can just basically post up all day and just upload you know tons and tons of videos yeah absolutely and it's not glamorous and it's not fun and you have to pay you know every two hours to get another coffee drink just to feel like you're not mooching but it's doable I had a lot of coffee during the day huh yeah well it wouldn't be a podcast with lanaa without talking about Aila a little bit so question we ask on the show is what would you say to somebody who says they cannot travel fulltime because they have a dog I also want to add to that after we touch on that what would you say to someone who doesn't want to travel fulltime because they're a female Solo Traveler guess we'll start with Aila yeah um I would say first of all concerns are valid um for example my brother my brother Noah loves Aila he is so good with animals he loves animals but he will not have an animal because he likes to travel so I see really both of those now saying that you cannot do it with a dog that is um not true obviously as we both know I would would say that you have to want to to to do it and to do it well and to enjoy your time I think that if people go into this being like Oh but I want to be able to go to a Climbing Gym four days a week where dogs are not allowed then yeah probably best for you really not to have a dog if you're traveling full-time or living in a vehicle but if it's something like with Aila really my life revolves around her and that's the way I want it though and that's the way I like it and I love bringing her joy and having her see all the cool things and be really active but that's because that's like a really big need and want in my life that I have so yes like concerns are valid and really think about what you're willing to give up and also it is very easy to adjust travel plans for your dog um you know we touched on a little bit national parks aren't super friendly but go to the ones that are Great Sand news national park that is a beautiful National Park and dogs can just be with you everywhere basically in that Park and oftentimes around those national parks are all these Little Gems that are just is beautiful and less people go to them and they're dog friendly and so it's just about learning how your life has to adjust on the road absolutely do doable and it is absolutely wonderful I think it depends on also how your dog um does in a vehicle like one of my good friends she built out a van and she got a beautiful amazing dog and he hated being in the car he would get really anxious and long on long long trips you know and she was like I just can't do this because of him and that's like a real that's a real thing like they have their preferences and some dogs like to travel some dogs need to be in one spot because that's where they're comfortable but I will add to that oh I have something to add um I built my van too with Aila in mind of course and so I added extra ventilation for her and I also built her a kennel because I knew that she loved her cozy dark space and she was in the van a lot during the build and in the kennel a lot after I built it for her she would just hang out in there so she was a huge like driver behind my decisions of the build so that she could be as comfortable in here as possible now it sounds like most the time when you're traveling with her you're when you leave your van you're probably taking her with her CU you're going in back country is there any times that you're leaving her in the van for extended periods and how do you manage that climate control for her there are times where I've left her in the van for a few hours and she's great because she loves her space um as far as climate control if I have any worries I don't risk it so even if I'm I don't know if I'm up in Idaho and it's a really muggy season I'm not going to go with my friends on a e like on an evening hike because I I would be worried all the time of her overheating I just don't take the risk um something that is just so fantastic is the extra airf flow so my extra vent makes the space very cool also it's really well insulated and this is something that a lot of people don't understand if they don't have a rig you know like how cool a space can be it's like sitting under a a shaded tree vers out in the open sun with ventilation and it with it being insulated we can be in pretty warm climates and it is very cool In Here Also I have um pretty high r value uh window covers so that you know it's blocking any radiant heat and yeah so I do everything that I can to make it comfortable and then if I'm worried at all I just don't take the risk I wanted to touch on because we actually rent our van out too when we're not using it and we've gotten questions from people like they'll ask us like oh we're going to be hiking can we leave our dog there are an AC is there a generator and we'll tell them like there is but even though it's a new newer van and everything I mean I cannot guarantee it's going to work properly right um so those are things you have to weigh like yes there are measures in place you can have the cameras you can have the sensors you can have the generator and air conditioner but things they fail it's unlikely they will but it is something worth considering yeah for sure and that's why I don't take the risk and I don't even have AC in here I don't have a sensor or anything it's just that that does scare me because also I want to enjoy my time out there and if I'm thinking like oh no what if the AC kicked off or what if something's going on and then I can't enjoy my time because I'm worried about it and the weather was wrong and now it's getting really hot out yeah right and that's also why I chase the weather I just Chase Seasons wherever it's the best for both of us so what would you say to somebody who just doesn't want to do this whole time because they would be a female Solo Traveler some of the advice that I've given to like individuals have been start really small if you're scared that doesn't mean um like if that means that you want to hop in your van and go sure go and do that but you can start so small just let's say you want to do this in the future go to your state park and lock your doors and sleep in the back of your car and just feel what that's like and if you're really really scared or you know really the what's going to happen is you're going to love it and you're going to wake up in the morning and you're to make your cough and you're going to have this Euphoria because you're out in nature and you're alone you can spend time with yourself and you're going to probably meet some really amazing people and those little like steps of like oh I'm kind of facing these fears bit by bit and I'm having these really wonderful experiences it's going to just slowly add up to this confidence and this knowing that like whatever comes your way you're going to be okay and you're probably going to have more good experiences than you will poor experiences now I would also say be prepared in whatever way you feel best um if that means a gun that means a gun if that means a taser that means a taser like whatever you're comfortable with whatever will make you feel secure as long as you know how to use everything properly do it you know um dogs help absolutely Aila alerts all the time and that makes me feel great she's also big and scary so that's that's nice but I think the other piece is really just perspective um because and this might sound negative but what I think about is anything can happen to me no whether I'm living in a van or an apartment in a big city um whether I feel the security of some like false safety measures or not and so I refuse to let those fears or those like messages that we receive about like what is safe and what's not or what's secure and what's not I'm not going to let those dictate my life so bit by bit and shifting perspective over time I think is kind of the only way to get through that fear sure that's really good advice just yeah bit by bit starting out small and then taking whatever you know safety precautions you feel necessary and then kind of just shifting your mindset and the lifestyle that kind of fit that that's great yes a couple more questions I guess before we start wrapping this thing up what has been the coolest experience you've had while traveling so far that one is so hard because I okay I think that this is the one that stands out oh wait no okay I have two I had a feeling it' be a hard one it's so hard one of my my favorite moments was when the van broke down uh I was in Idaho and the van broke down I think this was like the second time that it broken down I ended up staying in that grocery store parking lot for like four days somebody came by to help me the little uh tiny little mechanic was just maybe 100 yards away but they couldn't get me in so what ended up happening I'm stuck I don't know anybody I started making friends with people I'm like living in this parking lot and all of a sudden this guy comes and he's like hey do you want to go on a boat ride with us tomorrow and I'm like sure why the hell not I don't know let's do it so I lock up the van ail and I go and take this boat ride with these people and they were amazing it was so fun and we went fishing and we went to this like secret part of this big lake out there and we hiked back in there and of course I can only imagine people hearing this cuz when I tell stories like this people are like you are so dumb don't like go into the back country and a boat with some random guys that you meet but I feel like I have a really good sense of people and they're still friends to this day it was so fun and then um the next morning the mechanic was able to get me in and like the whole community of this little tiny town there were probably like I mean not the whole Community but it felt like it these like nine people came by and they pushed My Van Into the mechanic spot and it was just a really beautiful series of events with a lot of spontaneity and new people and it it that was pretty early living in the van and from then on I just had this mindset of like man whatever happens is going to bring really cool things my way even if it's planned or not and just remaining really open to like anything and that is how you get the coolest experiences and then my second one I would say was a solo back country trip so I took the van out into the Big Horn mountains and then I hiked um it was just ail and I we were out there for I think eight days or six days and we did this big out and back track and I woke up what I know I'm talking and I woke up one morning with a bull moose outside of my tent and it was incredible so that was my other one yeah yeah that's pretty cool how far away was it from you 20 yards it was so close and I didn't even see it that was the funny part I I went out of my tent I heard some little feet behind my tent so I got my big lens out and I like peaked where I heard something and there was a beautiful little mu deer a little dough right behind my tent so I was filming her Aila was sleeping she's a late sleeper she like really likes her sleep so she was sleeping and I was filming and then I just remember like I like huffed and I was like oh that was so cool and then I turned around and then right in front of me I see this bull Mose still in velvet and he was just munching away on these little Willows and he looked at me and I was just beside myself with joy I was it was so cool yeah that is crazy I was going to ask if Aila was going crazy but I guess she was she was out didn't even see him yeah she did really really well she saw the moose very briefly and just like stared at it and then I had her I had her kennel so like any little space is her kennel so I just like go kennel and just zipped her up in the tent and then I was able to film and she just went back to sleep that's a big

 

dog yeah all right if you could have listened to this podcast when you were first starting out what is one question I did didn't ask today that you would want to have had asked and how would you answer that now um I would probably want to hear if it's sustainable because it's so easy to look online and see all these beautiful pictures and Beautiful Stories and and how long are actually people doing this and is it sustainable for the long term because that was my goal to do it for the long term I didn't have it wasn't just going to be for a year or whatever um yeah so that's what I would have wanted answered and of course my answer is yes absolutely as long as you really listen to yourself and not what other people are doing or how other people are living or how other people built their Vans but like really figure out what it is you want like the things you want to do with the you know what you want van life to bring you towards and then the actual like lifestyle of like what are your true Comforts what do you actually need and what do you don't like what do you not need and if as long as those to you know balance out you're going to be happy for a really long time and that's kind of the point of this podcast is just talking to people who have found different ways to make it sustainable whether it's a full-time thing whether it's just saving up a lot taking a a longer trip and traveling um there's multiple different ways to do it so I'm glad you asked that question yeah the book normal to Nomad is a really good book for people to start out with um actually my friend Baron wrote that book and he just I wish I could reach it's it's right there I wish I could reach for it and show you guys but it's um a very like logical read it's a very much like how to here are EV here's everything to consider here are like how to learn the basics of living this way and that's a really great book if you just want to sit down and kind of like study and read and see how they did everything uh yeah I think that book is wonderful awesome that's perfect so we haven't heard about that one before so we'll definitely check it out too yeah well audience is checking out that book where can they find out more about you I am lanaa and Aila on all platforms all right everybody go check it out hey lanaa thanks again for coming on the show this was an awesome podcast um you talked about a ton of stuff a ton of content on here it's going to be tough editing it down and trying to get it in the right time frame because there was just a ton of value bombs here so thank you very much for coming on the podcast yeah thank you guys so much for having me it was great to meet you