Struggle & Creating Routine | Stuck Cliff Side in the Snowy Mountains

How's it going everybody? I'm Nikki Delventhal and these are my dogs Camper and Rodney Delventhal. For over three years we lived in a Toyota Prius but now we're in a 4x4 Sprinter and we're here to take you along on the wild ride. So fasten up your seat belts and let's have some fun. Don't forget if you like what you see, like, subscribe, comment, share with your friends, and turn on notifications. We would be so thankful. Good morning. Let's see where we ended up. Wow this is gorgeous. I wish we could say that we ended up here on purpose but last night was quite the fiasco. Long story short, for the past month or so we've been in Reno for Rodney's vet appointments and a second snowstorm was coming in so we decided we would go to lower elevation last night and it turned into every vanlifer's nightmare. You know because doing things in the snow on a whim is always a great idea. So one, campgrounds all over are closed for the season so we went to try a rest area and that was closed for maintenance. Then we tried a snow park. Shoot, all the spots are taken in the snow park. I tried a bunch of forest roads. Then went to a truck stop but that was a no-go which I should have expected. Seeing as the highway was backed up like crazy and there were no rest areas for truck drivers to rest. Wow I'm tired. I'm about to just pull over on the side of the road. This is getting pretty ridiculous. So then a couple hours later we tried another dirt road and ended up deep in snow in the pitch black and then we realized we were on a cliff so we stopped to check it out for safety reasons and said, guess we'll just deal with this in the morning. So that brings us to now. Here we are on this beautiful cliffside in the mountains. I am not mad about it though. I do not recommend doing what I did. I recommend doing some research ahead of time. Oh yeah and to answer your question I know you've been waiting for. These t-shirts are still available if you are interested but only for a few more days and then sales will close. In case you missed last week, Camper Rodney and I did create our first t-shirt and we wanted it to be super special about all of us in the community and if you've been watching you know about my project Camper Cares helping animals, vet bills, and local shelters. This t-shirt is super special to us because it's camper and camper cares inspired so not only would you be supporting us but part of the proceeds will go straight to animals in need. I spent a lot of time on the quality, making sure it felt good, it wasn't gonna rip, it has a really well done embroidery, and a simple but nice design. Just go to shop.nickiedelventhal.com or click the link below to sport your own happy camper gear. Oh yeah dog hair not included. You guys want to go outside? Wow. There you go. It's a scrunchie method kind of morning. Man overboard. We're on a slant too. All right so living in a van. You guys are on a bad slant. My camera is sliding. So there's two things we're learning from this experience. One is how much dog hair are you willing to eat when you live in a van because it is going to be in everything. Number two, leveling. There is like a thought process right? At night it's cold, it's dark, do I want to level the van? Last night the answer was no and I ended up sleeping on a diagonal. Now this morning everything is rolling downhill and cleanup isn't as easy so we kind of, you know, give or take. For me usually laziness trumps leveling but if you're thinking about it and you're proactive, I highly recommend getting a couple sets of leveling blocks. Time to enjoy this coffee and figure out what we are going to do today. Camper, Rodney, any ideas? Uh for one, maybe you could not wear pajamas all day like you always do and two, let's go run around in the snow before we leave. All right what are we gonna wear today? That'll work. Okay so we're in a little bit of a decision-making predicament here because I know I originally said we were gonna get to lower elevation and added the snow but uh that was before I realized this morning that I have poison oak spreading all over my body uh that I definitely got last week when we were bushwhacking through the forest. Not to mention we had like 500 ticks. Oh my god they're everywhere. So the question is do we stay in the snow for another 24 hours before the huge snowstorm hits and get a little peace except for, you know, risking getting stuck or do we get off the hill and risk the poison oak and losing our water supply because we have to wash everything over and over and over again and hope that we don't get any tick-borne illnesses. I vote 24 hours of peace and then deal with that tomorrow. Tomorrow we'll go off the hill. You want to drive? Yeah I didn't think so. Excuse me. Oh nice, check that out. The sun is melting away the snow which could mean mud later on but it's a lot better than slipping and sliding. Oh shoot, I forgot my keys again. This is a daily occurrence. All right where are they this time? There. All right one more time. Let's do this again. I am famous for forgetting my keys. Well actually forgetting everything but you know that's definitely like number one thing. So this road is climbing in elevation and the snow is getting thicker and thicker so it might be smart to turn around up here. I don't know. I think we'll push on a little further and see. I think this is where we are gonna turn around. It looks like wild fun but that is some heavy snow and with someone else to recover you and make sure you both are safe, that's one thing but when you're by yourself and the impending snow storm coming in, not to mention current snow it looks like, that could get kind of dangerous. So we're gonna turn around and I know exactly what adventure we're gonna go on. Let's get there. I have never been here before so I don't know what to expect but I think we might try to get to that river that was underneath our camp spot. Maybe cold plunge, maybe not. I don't know. Let's go. All right here we go. I'm not really sure where this is gonna lead us and if there's a way down but it's a ton of fun regardless. We did it. We were parked right up there. All right should we test these waters first? Oh my god it's turned my hands bright red already. I don't know you guys. I'm shaking. That was so cold. Yeah we're gonna do it. Let's do it. Oh my heart rate's sky high. This is so good for your stress levels, for your immune system but it is freezing. There is nothing like an ice cold plunge to make you feel alive. All right we need to warm up. That was one of the colder yet more controlled plunges I've ever done. My serotonin levels are through the roof. Wow I think we've won the fashion award of the year. This is so funny but on that note we are cold so we're gonna hustle back to the van. We'll meet you all there. Home sweet home. All right let's get out of this wet bathing suit. Let's bump this heat up a couple degrees. That will also heat the floors so I am so excited about that. Well some of these boys had a ton of fun. So I'm thinking before we make food or anything, I'm so hungry it's already three and I haven't had anything but uh I do want to be situated so I think we'll go to the place we're gonna sleep and then be settled for the night. I always get so nervous the van's not gonna start for some reason because there's that little stall from like PTSD from the last van. Oh goodness. All right you ready camp? To our next pull out where we will sleep for the night. I feel like this is counterproductive going back up the mountain but I saw a spot that looked really cool and I don't think it's supposed to snow that much. Oh right here. All right let's put this up and get a view. Oh my goodness that is gorgeous. All right we are gonna eat. What are we gonna eat? You know I haven't had pasta in like forever. Oh don't worry boys it's dinner time for you too. They know look at that. I'm ready. I had a little powdered goat's milk when we're on the road. Good boy. Good boy. All right straight from Italy baby. We've got sauce, veggies, cheese, cheese, and more cheese, and more greens. Oh that looks great. We gotta shred some cheese on this bad boy and by some I mean a lot. There she is. When you live in a van uh you want to conserve as much water and also you just don't want to do as many dishes um but also living in a van is a great excuse not to have a lot of dishes so you're just like yeah I'm gonna get out of the pot today. Oh come on ma can I have some of that uh yeah lady you're gonna give us some of that or what? All right carrots for the boys. Good job. We reusing this household baby. We'll see how much of it actually ends up getting into the jar though. Oh it's all oh no. Oh gosh I think that defeated the purpose. It is everywhere. All right boys let's go. Good boys go potty. So we train them go potty so they eventually know to go immediately when we tell them to. Every morning he just throws his head on my neck or his paws. Hey good boy. Good morning everybody. What are you ready to go? I know it is pretty beautiful out. We can do it. All right you guys go potty. I'm gonna make some coffee. I love seeing them play together. This is huge. Oh wow guys we are having a slow morning. There you go. Good. Uh excuse me sir are you gonna make my coffee for me? So living in a van I will say one of the hardest things to establish is routine and routine is really really healthy for us uh and that's something that I think I've struggled with a lot over the past eight or nine years. So when we're in a place like this where we know the hike down the road, I know the cold plunge, I know we're not going to get kicked out and we're allowed to camp here, you know there's something really reassuring and relaxing about it because on the other end uh when you're constantly moving and doing all these things you are in this constant state of stress. And although studies do say that some of the happiest people in the world are those who venture beyond what they know and they're curious and they're always doing new things, I think there's something to say about having both. And I think the happiest people in the world are people who have mastered both of those. So that's my goal. A little bit of stability with a little bit of chaos. I think that is the perfect mix for Nikki Delventhal's happiness. So today we're gonna do that. We're gonna get our familiarity, we're gonna have these boys running around on that hike and shock the system with a cold plunge, but then we're gonna do something new that we haven't done before and uh yeah. But also how could you not be happy with this view? To avoid repetition and despair you guys the routine, we're gonna get out of here, take these boys on a much-needed hike, cold plunge once again. It's a lot colder today than it was yesterday, but this time we are going to utilize it as an opportunity to also shower off. And that is my kind of morning routine. Then back on the road to head to a place that we have been meaning to check out for a couple years now. I am so excited. Oh no. Oh my goodness you guys. I'm so bummed. I was looking forward to the breakfast sandwich all week. Honestly let's be real, two years. So uh oh well. I guess we'll make our own breakfast and we will have to find a place to camp around here tonight so we can get it again tomorrow. Also I really hope the family's okay. So yeah on that note, we love you all. We'll see you all next week.