First Night Alone in My New Home _ DANGEROUS Drive through California Flood Alert (1976 Chinook)

I just bought a 1976 Chinook. I know, I know, I know. 50 years old. Why is this girl buying something so old? Is she crazy? And the answer is yes. It is super dangerous. I'm going literally 40 miles an hour right now. Home sweet home baby. Home sweet home. So I'm at the airport right now. I am in Oakland of all places and I'm here because I'm gonna see if I buy a new house and it's gonna be a house on wheels because I cannot afford a real house. So far it looks like a really good deal for the price. I've been looking at so many vehicles for like over a month now. I do want something with a bathroom. It's the smallest biggest thing I could get and hopefully it's easier to work on. I do have a friend that is a mechanic that will help me out with this van so I'm feeling so much better. But I'm gonna have to drive from Oakland all the way south to San Diego in really bad weather. It's raining so much for all these few days. So right now I'm waiting for the owner of the van to pick me up from the airport and see the van for the first time. I'm excited, I'm excited. It's the right move guys because I've been struggling so much with my Westfalia and breaking down all the time that I'm thinking every day that I'm not gonna have a place to sleep because my van is just not gonna start again and it gives me so much anxiety. So just having something that is gonna have a bathroom and that hopefully is better than what I have. At least I would have two vehicles you know what I mean? So if one doesn't work the other one should hopefully you know. I've done this like so many times that it's not really rare for me. I drove and flew to many different states just to buy a good deal. Because sometimes that's what you gotta do when you're looking for the vehicle you want. You gotta go far away to go get it because the succulent prices are not gonna be in Southern California unfortunately. Oh I see it. I saw it already. It's coming. It's coming. I might not film everything. I want to be a responsible person. I don't want to be filming it. It's interactive. All right there she goes. Oh my gosh. Oh my goodness. Three hours later. Hello I just bought a 1976 Chinook. Let me show you. So as you can see it's a little bigger than my 1985 Volkswagen Westfalia and definitely bigger than my Citroen 15 in Spain. Much bigger. I know, I know, I know. A lot of you are gonna be saying that why I bought something even older because it's almost 50 years old and great question. Whenever I show you all the things that this van came with you're gonna freak out. In this video I'm not gonna do a van tour. I'm just gonna focus on making it back home safely. I am in Oakland so I have to drive almost eight hours all the way to Southern California so that I can start working on the van and fixing things because yes it's gonna need a lot of work. If you're new to this channel you might be thinking why is this girl buying something so old? Is she crazy? And the answer is yes I'm crazy guys. I am very crazy and actually it's not my first vehicle that is this old. My very first RV that I lived in it was a 1976. It was just a Chevy instead of a Dodge. I have a friend that is a mechanic that is gonna help me out with this van so I feel much better that nobody's gonna rip me off this time. So can't wait to start guys. Tell me what you think in the I know how to drive big rigs. I'm driving the big rig. Okay I'm not afraid of driving big rigs. This one is not as big, it's 18 feet. I stop at these lobs before I continue driving because I need some food and also because my gas gauge doesn't work so it says that it's empty right now and clearly it's not. So I'm gonna fill up the gas tank, stop every few hours so I don't run out of gas and get gas and then hit the road and hopefully make it safe all the way to Southern California. Wish me luck! All right so let's do it. Oh all right I can't wait to show you everything guys. It's so cool. Pump some gas to the engine before trying to crank it up. Doesn't sound very well. I think it does need a tune-up, probably needs engine mounts, probably needs a lot of work in suspension. Brakes are shot. I have to have a big distance between cars and go extra slow but it was expected. I have drum brakes on the front and disc brakes on the back. Definitely something I'm gonna upgrade whenever I get home. There is a lot of things that need work but this is a much easier vehicle to work on than my Westfalia. There is way more parts for this vehicle, a lot more mechanics can work on it. And yes I love this hat, okay? If you don't like the hat then unsubscribe. This probably needs a carburetor rebuild. She needs to warm up. Spring Park. Oh anyway. So the gas thing is like on the back. I've never had a vehicle that had it on the back really. And it's supposed to say gas on the key. Okay. All right. For this van I really have to hold the nozzle all the time because it doesn't really stay inside like any other new car. I just don't know how empty your food is this, you know? So it's hard to tell, you know, when the gauge doesn't work. Oh okay. Yes. It's done. All right. We're done with the gas. Now I gotta park the van somewhere else. So I don't want to be that person that takes the parking lot for themselves while they're inside while people could be getting gas already, you know? Excuse me. All right. We have some food here. Some fruit. I'm gonna get fruit and some something. Here we go. Thank you. Tins and windows. We like. All right. We made it. Oh yeah and here is my camera guy. I know guys. You got me, you know? It's like I'm chatting with him every day. Success. All right. I got a sandwich and I got a watermelon and some green tea and some pistachios. Any sign of pump or gas? Oh she's being shy. Okay. There she goes. Let's go. I just dump all my tea. At the light, turn right onto CA-33. This is not going smooth right now. This tea, everything is moving. Everything. Oh my goodness. All right. So now I am gonna be on the road for hundreds of miles on the same road. I'm on the 5. Right now it's not raining. I'm trying to escape the rain but it's supposed to rain a lot. Like flood alert. This is what chaos looks like the day before Christmas. The northbound 15 freeway looks more like a parking lot. And also wind alerts. So with a big vehicle you don't want to be driving when it's windy and you're unfamiliar with the vehicle and the brakes are not really working really good. When you're driving vehicles that are old and they have drum brakes, sometimes you have to bump the brake as you're braking. So it's not just braking like this. It's like bumping the brake so that it brakes, you know. Now I'm going to be driving for at least an hour and a half and then I will stop by another gas station as I don't know how much gas I have. I already can feel that the wind start picking up because my van is like kind of rocking back and forth. So I gotta be very careful guys. I'm gonna do my best but I'm gonna try to be safe mostly, you know, obviously. It is really hard to explain but when I do these adventures that I buy old vans and I have all this vision of things I want to do with them, I feel alive. I feel that that's what I'm meant to do in this world, you know. Like I love it. If you're a car person like I am, there is not a better feeling than buying a ---- box that runs. Because honestly this van is 50 years old and so far it's driving really good. For being neglected a little bit, it is neglected. I think the person that sold it to me had zero knowledge on mechanics and it shows, it shows. There's many things that need attention but that's probably why he sold it is because probably it was getting, it was getting tough to maintain but because I've done it already so many times I'm not scared anymore. It's a piece of cake. Now the fuel tank is saying that I have half of the tank. It might be, it might be real, it might be not but I'm gonna stop and get more gas. Yeah I don't really trust the gauge because it said empty this whole time and now it's saying that I have like more than half of the tank but... All right I'm done in the gas station. Snacks, water. It's about to start raining, I can see it on the clouds. I still have 300 miles to go, like more than 300 miles. Let's get back on the i5 or like everyone says. What is, oh my gosh it's my back door. Sorry bro. Oh my gosh my back door was open. Okay now we are definitely getting in the i5. It's like a truck behind me thinking like what is she doing? Nothing, just driving with the door open. Not a biggie. With this tank on gas I'm gonna put two hours, get more gas and then see how the traffic is. I don't really want to drive on traffic with this thing because I don't know, it didn't overheat at all, like doesn't overheat or anything but I don't want to put this vehicle through a lot of traffic so... That's so easy, I love that. I'm glad I'm here, safe. Yeah it started to be kind of sketchy the drive and I drove like over 200 miles today so I feel good about that. This is my humble bed for the night. I don't have sheets or I don't have pillows, I just have these cushions and this blanket so I barely have any clothes because I barely brought anything so I'm honestly gonna sleep with what I'm wearing right now. Wake up tomorrow and try to finish the drive because I still have three hours left. The weather is supposed to be worse than today, tomorrow. Yeah wish me luck for tomorrow. I am saying a gas station tonight because it was so dangerous to keep driving. It was so windy that my van was just rocking back and forth and side to side and I was like look I'm gonna stop in this gas station, I'm gonna stay here and then I'll drive tomorrow you know and call it the night because I'm so tired, I'm exhausted. A plane, then doing all because I put the van to my name and everything already so I did that in the morning and I barely slept yesterday because I was so nervous. I was doing this, I was like freaking out, I was like oh my god what am I about to do? Goodnight. I honestly haven't slept much because the van was like rocking back and forth like this and there is so much rain that it's crazy. I you know I can't even show you outside because it's dark right now but I can feel it you know. I just received this alarm that I should not be driving or doing anything and stay put here so I'm gonna have to stick around this gas station because there's nothing else I can do right now just wait around this flood and rain and wind alert you know it's really dangerous driving this vehicle like this you know very very dangerous so okay I'm not gonna move anywhere the weather is not good but it is or me driving in the rain or me driving with crazy wind that is gonna start in a few hours so I'm gonna book it with the rain I'm gonna go extra slow it is super dangerous I'm going literally 40 miles an hour right now if it gets more dangerous I'm definitely going to stop but for now I'm just going in the truck lane basically and going super slow taking it easy and I'm keeping a big distance between me and the trucks in front of me because the brakes they are very very soft and like I said earlier they go to the left when I'm braking so I cannot believe how much is raining right now in California I got so many I don't know what's happening really but wow all right I'm in Anaheim and I'm about to put gas for one last time last leg of the trip it stopped raining great news it's been very stressful I'm not gonna lie I do not recommend that someone does the same thing that I've done without experience I have 11 years of experience I had already a vehicle this old before I've driven vehicles that are even worse than this so I know what I'm doing so call me a professional okay um don't recommend if it's your first time doing this on the rain okay but let's get it guys one more hour and a half because you know it takes a minute rage money power I made it to San Diego so freaking ho if you're new to this channel make sure to subscribe if you want to see how I fix this van up if you're not new then you know why I got this van I'm gonna try to see if it's gonna be better than the one I have or if I just made a big mistake check the next videos if you want to see more thank you so much I love you and I'm so happy that I'm alive I made it safely to San Diego home sweet home baby home sweet home all right I'm gonna call my mom and see this is a video call hello, how are you? I'm good, and you? you're very pretty, they cut your bangs a lot better this time here I have a sofa that this one gets bigger and then here I have another sofa that can also be put together like two and you can have a giant bed here and then here you see, but it has windows on both sides the windows on both sides I love it and look the brakes are super my god when I stepped on the brakes I was like wow it kills me it's a plus because having a a gas generator that works with the gas tank of the van that's a super weird thing nobody has that and it's integrated in the van and it's been in the van for a thousand years and it still works Lidia, a kiss I love you, bye have a good time thank you