BY Pete & Tay, Always the Road.
Life has its ups and downs. Duh. But when it comes to vanlife, your highest highs and your lowest lows have the ability to be intensified due to your living situation. Throughout our 6+ months of living in Sonder, our trusty Dodge Sprinter, we’ve compiled a laundry list of incredibly fun, blissful moments, and an equally long list of disastrous moments too. As we reminisce on our time on the road thus far, there are a couple days that distinguish themselves from the rest.
Our Best Day of Vanlife
This summer we were invited to be in the Vanlife Village of a 3-day outdoor innovator festival called Outfound Series in Hood River, OR.
We knew we would be there along side a few other well-known vanlifers like Corey and Emily of Where’s My Office Now?, Kathleen of Tiny House Tiny Footprint, Brittany and Drew of Mr. And Mrs. Adventure, and Jace, Giddi, and baby Juniper of Our Home on Wheels.
We were so stoked to meet these interesting people we had only seen in pictures and talked to via the internet, but what we didn’t know was that there would be another 20+ vanlifers we had never met that would also be at the event as well (that was a game changer).
The first night, we all convened at the festival campground, arranging our vans in a massive circle complete with two fire pits and a slack line at the center.
While the entire weekend was one of the most profound highlights of our travels so far, the last night at the campground was one that we’ll never forget.
As the caravan of mobile homes rolled back onto the flattened grass we all called our home-base for the weekend, we recreated the epic van circle for one final night.
The fires were lit and beers were cracked, knowing it was time to have some fun before we all went our own ways. We broke out the guitars and that’s when the real party started.
Myra and Gabe of the band Stereo RV, who performed at the festival, even joined us at camp, busting out fun mashups and covers that everyone sang along to. A few favorites were Ignition by R. Kelly and Pony by Ginuwine. They also played their original song “Human” for us (which you need to listen to because its amazing, so click here to listen).
Along with basically every cover that we know, Pete and I also played three songs from our acoustic album that we had released just a few days prior. We were nervous as hell. We had never played our original songs for anyone besides our friends and family; we were anxious to see how people responded.
But our nerves were misplaced, because the amount of excitement and love we received from the beautiful people sitting around that campfire was indescribable. We’re so grateful that they were the first to hear our originals live. (If you want to hear them too, click here)
**In this photo**
@wheresmyofficenow @naturetold @van.there @ourhomeonwheels @freshoffthegrid @tinyhousetinyfootprint @alwaystheroad @adventure_wagon @explorelements @sigmundthevanagon @this.wild.dream @ronvanlife @mrandmrsadventure
The music continued early into the morning. Josh Monthei of @ditchtheplans even rapped every word of “Colt 45.” It was pretty epic and Josh is a legend.
That weekend, especially that one night, was a beautiful reminder of why we chose to live this lifestyle: the talented, fun, inspiring people we meet and form real friendships with and the once-in-a-lifetime memories we get to make.
**In this photo**
@alwaystheroad @tinyhousetinyfootprint @this.wild.dream @explorelements @ditchtheplans @ronvanlife @wheresmyofficenow @van.there @mrandmrsadventure
Also, we didn’t part ways until a few days later. Most of us caravan-ed together the next two days because we didn’t want to split up just yet.
**In this photo**
@wheresmyofficenow @ourhomeonwheels @tinyhousetinyfootprint @alwaystheroad @ditchtheplanss
Our Worst Day of Vanlife
We’ll try to keep this story brief, because we all know that the good times always outweigh the bad. Right?
It was Valentine’s Day and as for us humans, our day was pretty ordinary. We worked, Pete surfed, Tay went for a run, then we made a nice dinner. We spend almost every second together and appreciate each other every single day.
Valentine’s Day is nice, but we like to use this day to pamper Snoop instead of ourselves, because February 14th also happens to be his birthday.
So the night winds down and we were super stoked to go to bed early. We set up the bed, put on our jammies, and Pete brought Snoop outside to go potty one last time before bed. . .when disaster struck.
You see, Snoop finds it necessary to only poop in bushes. And in the bush he chose for his final poop of the day, he found a skunk. A real smelly, birthday-ruining bastard.
He was sprayed twice and couldn’t open his eyes because the natural tear gas stung so badly. His mouth was foaming and he just stood there shaking.
We didn’t have a hose, we didn’t have the supplies to make an odor neutralizing soap, and we didn’t have the gate code to re-enter the campsite after hours. All we could do was bathe him in the camp showers with dog shampoo and dish soap.
This did virtually nothing for the smell, but we were out of options. We couldn’t keep him outside, so we had to let him sleep with us as usual.
So he slept at our feet, creating the most rancid Dutch oven of skunk stink throughout the night.
The next morning, everything was saturated with the smell of skunk. We made two trips into town that day: one to buy ingredients for a deodorizing elixir, and one to the laundromat to wash every fabric possible in the van.
The real hero of this story is Snoop though. This giant animal was so patient when being manhandled and manipulated into weird positions as we did our best to wash him in a stand-up shower, and he never fussed, struggled, or tried to run away. We’ve said it a million times before, and we’ll said it a million times more: we have the greatest dog in the world.
The great thing about these two stories is that in the end, we love them both. Our best day of vanlife led us to close friendships, new opportunities, and five days of unadulterated fun. The second is just another hilarious memory that we can look back at and laugh about now.
They were the best of times, they were the worst of times, and they are a both rooted in vanlife.
-Pete & Tay, Always the Road.
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+Hi There!
My name is Alan—founder at Dream Big Live Tiny Co! A few years ago, I quit my consulting job to pursue a life full of adventure. After traveling around the world for a year, I sold most of my stuff and moved into an 160-sqft tiny house. Now I spend most of my time showcasing incredible people living with less in pursuit of more freedom, as well as incredible tiny houses around the world!