Van Tour of Couple Living in a Minivan in Mexico

This moment right now is your life. So don't put off the thing that you want to do. If traveling, if being a nomad is your dream, don't wait until everything's perfect because it never will be. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Cheap RV Living. My name is Brian Gifford and I'm going to be your host today. In today's video, we're going to continue our Baja series and we're going to get a chance to talk to Brittany and Tom here, and they are going to be telling us all about their nomadic lifestyle and so many more things that they're doing. So guys, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today. Thanks for having us. When did you first get inspired to do some sort of nomadic or alternative living? The idea really sparked around 2015. We were just really bored. We were bored with life. I was working as a manager of a veterinary hospital. Tom had just retired from the fire department. It just felt kind of funny. I was going to work all day. He was trying to find things to do, retired, and it was like, what else could we do? I did the Camino. Oh, yes. And after the Camino, we were already starting to look for the next adventure. Yes. Tom went and walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain and that sparked something for sure. And then when did you have your first nomadic lifestyle after that? So 2016, it was, I want to say September, it was, because it was after burning there. We put everything in storage. We sold most things. We sold a vehicle. We put the few things that we didn't sell into storage, and we took off on bicycles with the intention of bicycling to Mexico for the winter. Oh, nice. From Oregon. From Oregon, yes. From Eugene, Oregon. With a dog. With our 40-pound dog in a specially designed bicycle trailer. That's perfect. I love that visual. Like, oh. It's perfect. It was a visual. Everybody... It was funny. As we biked down the coast, the word was ahead of us. Have you met the people with the dog? It was quite a sight, but it was a very wet year, and it was super uncomfortable because the dog was wet all the time. And when we got to the Bay Area, San Francisco, we were done. We were done bicycling. But we wanted to keep traveling. And so we got online, and we looked up Toyota Dolphins. We'd always wanted... Oh, I love those. Yes. We'd always wanted a Toyota Dolphin. We dreamed about it. And sure enough, that day on Craigslist, someone had just posted an ad for a Toyota Dolphin. We were the first ones to look at it, and we bought it right away. Yeah. It was just amazing. The fun part was moving in from the bicycle. We had our saddlebags and our panniers. Look at all this room. It's a mansion. It was. It was a mansion after the bicycles. We put our bikes on the back, and we just continued to Mexico. Yeah, we just kept going. The dog was much happier. Yeah, well, I'm sure. And so just en route to Mexico, basically, you bought a vehicle and then continued down to Mexico. Yeah, and decided, well, we have this now. I guess we'll live in it. Nice. And so how far down into Mexico did you go? We came to Baja. Cabo. Yeah, we traveled the whole peninsula. We explored. We were here for that whole winter, and so we went back to the States probably in March, and we continued to travel around nomadically in the Pacific Northwest. We stopped for our favorite festivals. We go to the Oregon Country Fair, which is a big hippie fest in Oregon. Nice. And we go to Burning Man every year. Okay. So we did that. And then we traveled after Burning Man. We took the RV north and went all the way across Canada in the RV, and then went down into New England where Tom's family lives. So we kind of did like the whole big North American loop. So we went to New England, and then we made our way back to Baja for that next winter. Now, I can't help but notice that you no longer have a dolphin, so what happened after that? Well, so we spent the second winter in Baja, and at the end of that winter, our dog... So we used to travel with our dog, as you know, on the bicycle. He passed away. He was an older dog, and he actually passed away down here in Mexico. And we realized that now that we didn't have a dog, that we could get on airplanes. True. Very true. And so suddenly it was like, whoa, the world opened up a little bigger, and we started thinking about where we might want to go, and we'd always wanted to go to Southeast Asia. Okay. So we stayed in the dolphin a few more months, and then we actually sold it, because we didn't know where we'd store it for all the time that we were gone. And then we took planes to Southeast Asia, and we spent six months in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Wow. That is amazing. Did you stay, like, travel all around, obviously? Yeah. We just had carry-on bags. Okay. Not just little carry-on backpacks. Yeah. Oh, that's the best way to do it. Yeah. And we had no plan, really. We just kind of followed our instincts and the advice we got from other travelers, which I highly recommend. Always listen to the other travelers. Yes. They've got the best tips. And so then what happened after you got back from Southeast Asia? So after we got back from Southeast Asia, we did what we called our summer of festivals. Okay. So we hopped from festival to festival. Working medical. Yeah, volunteering. Okay. So we do, yeah, we do crisis intervention and medical festivals. So we volunteered at many, many festivals all summer long. Okay. And then we decided that it was time to take a break from traveling. Okay. And we actually rented a house. And interestingly, shortly after we did that, COVID hit. But in the interim, while we rented the house, we did take one month and come to Baja for a month. Okay. Because we couldn't just stay still for a whole year. No. All right. I get it. I can relate to that. It was too much. Yeah. Okay. And so you were in the apartment that you rented for how long? Well, we ended up being in it two years. We took trips in this last year. Like we did another bike tour. We bicycled from the northern border of Oregon all the way down to Mendocino County in California. Okay. So we did a nice long bike tour. How long did it take you? A little over a month. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We could have gone faster, but... Yeah. And then we just moved out of everything again. Okay. So just about a month ago, a little over a month ago, we put everything back in storage, sold more stuff. Uh-huh. And we are here in Baja. And then at the end of this winter, we're flying to Europe to walk the Camino de Santiago together. Because I haven't done it. Okay. Excellent. Yeah. And so you're in a tent here. Yep. And how long will you be down here this winter? We'll be here until March. We've been here a few weeks. So it'll be about four and a half, five months when it's all set in. Four and a half months. Okay. Gotcha. Yep. Well, yeah. Why don't we take a few minutes and we're going to... Do you mind showing me your setup and how your tent system works? Because everybody has their own system for this. Oh, yeah. And so I'd love to hear about that. So can we take a quick tour? Yeah. Let's do it. For sure. Go ahead. All right. So let's show you our refrigeration setup first. All right. Perfect. So if you come in here... So these are called palapas. And if you happen to be in Mexico, you can snag a spot that has one of these little shade huts built. Okay. It's very helpful if you can do it, especially if you're in a tent. Yeah, for sure. And we store a few things in here like snorkels, shower bags. But the first thing I want to show you is how we deal with our cooler, because you really don't want to have to be going and buying ice all the time when you're down here. It's a long drive. It's a pain. So we use a good cooler. It's a Yeti knockoff. It's Cascade Mountain Tech brand, which is a really good brand if you're getting a knockoff. And then what I do to add to the cooling power, I actually have this up on four rocks. So it's not in direct contact with the ground. If you can get it even a half inch off the ground, it's a big difference. And then this is insulated. It's basically reflective bubble insulation that you can get at any hardware store. And then we have, so we do have shower bags also. And what these are is you fill it with water and you lay it in the sun and the sun heats the water. Probably a lot of people are familiar with that. And then what you can do is hang that from somewhere and take a shower. So let's go over here and I'll show you the tent in the shade. Okay, perfect. So shade is really important, I mean, most places you go, but especially if you're in any kind of desert climate. And what we do here, so we have a Kodiak canvas tent, which I highly recommend. The reason canvas is so great is because it's breathable, still completely waterproof, but breathable. So it stays cooler in the heat and it stays warm at night versus a nylon tent. Exactly. The nylon tent heats right up. And also this is UV resistant in a way nylon isn't. So it lasts longer. This is called shade cloth. It's 90% UV resistance. And what this does is twofold. It keeps the tent cooler and it also protects the roof of the tent from the UV. Again, we're trying to keep this tent in good shape. And what happens with this, because it's actually netted material that's breathable, so the wind goes through it. So it works well in windy weather and it also allows air to go through. So the tent stays cool. And then what we do here, these are our paddle boards, so these are inflatable. So they pack down really nicely. They pack down into suitcases that roll, highly recommend it. And then what we keep them inflated, but you have to make sure they don't over inflate. So that's why we have this just laid over them in the sun. But this is something we do every day. We take these out. Yeah. And this is definitely some of our big fun down here. Yeah. So then we've got our solar setup. Oh, I didn't even notice that. So this is, this is great. It's Jackery brand, really highly reviewed. We've met many people that have used these that love them. And so this is the panel. It's very lightweight, easy to carry. It's 100 watts. And what this does is it goes into a little generator unit. It's not, it's not a generator. It's just what they call it, but it goes into a little unit that has both USB plugins and regular wall outlet. And so you can run, Tom uses a CPAP machine at night and he can easily run his CPAP machine all night. And we still have 80% of the battery left. So we charge our phones, our computers, this runs lights in the tent, everything we need. And that's also the battery bank is also a Jackery? Yep. It's all one system. They go together. I have heard of the Jackery, so that makes sense. What are you guys sleeping on in here? Do you have like an air mattress? No, you know what we have? You wouldn't really be able to see it, but I'll describe it. It's a tri-fold memory foam mattress that's full size. And you can just, you can get them online, but they, it's a tri-fold guest mattress is what they're described as online. And basically it folds, it folds, you know, reasonably small, so it's easy for travel, but it's so much nicer than an air mattress because you don't have to keep filling it. It feels like a real bed. Okay. Oh, that's great. Yeah. It's awesome. So this right here, I should just actually talk about this. This is a clam brand shade pop-up. This pops up in about 30 seconds. Okay. You do have to stake it down well, but it's extremely wind resistant, so it's awesome for beach camping or desert camping. So then in here, this is our kitchen area and we also hang out in here too. Yeah. It's actually much cooler in here. Yeah. It really helps. So we have just a typical camping stove, two burner and we hook it up to a big can of propane because those little one pounders are very hard to find here and this can be refilled. We just use a little bucket for our trash can because we use that to ship things in. We put steaks and stuff in it as we drive, which is a nice way to protect heavy duty steaks while you're driving. Okay. Water. I'm sorry, I touched my food steaks. I was like, what? Oh no, sorry. Iron steaks you pound into the ground. Okay. I got it. So that they don't get, yeah, bang into things. And then this is, we have a water container here for purified water. So this is for drinking water. The ubiquitous blue cooler that, or blue water tug. And we have another one under here. We always keep two just to have plenty of water. And you guys get those filled with the agua? Agua purificada. Yep. Gotcha. And every town has one. Yep. And it's cheap. It's like a buck. Oh yeah. It's so cheap. It's very cheap. Very cheap. I just spilled mine. Yeah. And then, yeah, the stove. And then what we do in here that I think is nice is we use carabiners to hang things. And it makes them so much easier to get at than having to go through bins to find all our stuff. Yeah, absolutely. So we hang the pots and pans. We hang this to put all our silverware in. Okay. And it just keeps everything easy and accessible. What vehicle are you guys driving in? We'll show you. So we have a little Nissan Frontier. It's a very light truck. It's a 98. Okay. And these are just super reliable little trucks. And it's just with a canopy on the back. And then we do have that roof rack. So... But this entire setup fits into the back of this truck. Oh, that's perfect. With... Yeah. And what kind of gas mileage do you get with a... Oh, on this car, probably 22, 23. Oh, that's great. At least. Yeah. Highway, maybe a little more. Okay. Yeah, it's good. So guys, thank you for the tour. Let's go ahead and sit back down and we'll finish the interview. Guys, thank you so much for that tour. That's a really cool setup. I like that. So tell me a little bit, how do you afford to do this? So you're retired, but do you guys make money on the road somehow or what do you do? Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, Tom is retired and I write a travel blog. Oh, awesome. Yep. So my blog basically covers how to do all of the different kinds of travel that we've done. So it's a lot of, if anybody wants tips, advice on how to do all of this, my blog is the place to go. Cool. And what's the name of the blog? The blog is called TheRollingPack. Okay. Just TheRollingPack.com and it's spelled just as you would imagine. We used to be a pack because we had a dog and we're still a pack, but we're minus the dog now. I look forward to looking up the blog and checking out because, yeah, I'd love to see some of your advice and so forth and some of your travels. I think that'd be amazing. What's next on the horizon for you guys? Well, all we know so far is that we're going to walk the Camino de Santiago and spend three months in Europe after we're here in Baja. We have some ideas. We would love to tour Central America with backpacks. We'd love to go back to Vietnam and really tour that country specifically. But which thing we'll do after Europe, I'm not sure. Any other advice to people out there listening in and watching that you would have for them about traveling and just going for it? Yeah. I mean, my biggest piece of advice always is this moment right now is your life. Don't put off the thing that you want to do. If traveling, if being a nomad is your dream, don't wait until everything's perfect because it never will be. So go ahead and get a little safety net together, like you said, and then take the leap. It's never going to be perfect and it's never going to feel easy, but it's so worth it. I found that it's easy to overplan and it's okay to plan, but to buy the ticket before you start planning. Oh, okay. Have the thing. If you think you want to go to Spain, buy the ticket and then figure out how it's going to work. Well, Brittany and Tom, thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate just chatting with you and getting to know you. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. And hearing all about your travels and stuff. I look forward to looking at your travel blog and seeing where you go next. And I hopefully will run into you guys again somewhere down the road. I'm sure we will. Yeah. And for all of you guys out there, thank you so much for joining us today. What do you guys think of their lifestyle? Could you be down here living in a tent? Could you just buy a ticket without planning and just go for it? Please let us know in the comments below. But if you like today's video, please go ahead and give us that thumbs up. Subscribe to the channel. 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