Traveling With Grace – How To Live On The Road - Wisdom From A 76 Year Old Van Lifer

Can I ask how old you are? 76. Doing dishes is a challenge, because you don't have your running water. What's the best thing about van life? Expect the miracle. Whatever you need just seems to show up. Be open for it. And it's not until you get into a forest that you can hear. It's not until you see stars that are so brilliant and it's so quiet that you can really believe you can hear the stars. Don't make the choice to not do because you're afraid. We can think of our way out of anything. Well, you have to do it their way. I'm gonna do it my way. Brock Hopper here and today I am with Grace, who's gonna show us how she lives in a van full time and also she has a very important message for all the women out there who are thinking of vanlifing and hitting the road. I met Grace while I was looking for a place to park for the night. I pulled into a campground about eight miles inland from the Oregon coast and asked her about boondocking. We started chatting and I learned that she was a full-time vanlifer who loves to travel and see the world. She has a lot of practical tips regarding van life and plenty of road wisdom to offer you. I went out this winter to Quartzsite because I heard about RTR and I had attended the year before and I noticed how wonderful these people, heart people, they care about each other. They care about us that we're on the road and taught us. Came out, talked about where to put our poop, where to put our food scraps, what to do with our garbage, how to deal with our vehicles for women. The first three days were all women and it's women teaching women and it's women who drive, who are teaching you about your car, your truck, your RV, your four-wheel drive. These women know what they're doing. So explain a little to the people who don't know, what is the RTR? It's the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous started by a guy named Bob Wells. He started it, ooh, a decade or so ago. It got very big. It moved out to, they had to make a move out because like 10,000 campers showed up and they did it all in the campsites. So they eventually came back. They went around doing it in different places, trying to find different places, but Quartzsite was the place to do it. So they came back and now they do it, but everyone camps every place else and they hold this event in a park in Quartzsite and they do it every year so far that I've seen. The first three days are women and then the men show up after that and you can either stay with that because you're gonna learn more or you can leave. But my favorite thing on it was the free table. Tables and people just bring brand new things, putting it on that table for you to pick up because you need it. I've got my stove. I got my hot logic. Plug it into your 12 volt, you've got food. I have now solar because a takeoff of that was VanAid and VanAid, I don't know how long that's going. I don't think it's very long. Somebody told me it was happening when I got there. I was like, well, what is it? Go find out. They asked me what I needed when I showed up. I don't know, what do you do? Well, do you have lights? Do you have refrigeration? No, I don't have those. Okay, then we need to get you solar. They got me a solar panel, two batteries, charger and inverter. Now that everybody's gonna get the same because it's all on donation. I was blessed. I happened to be there when it was, they had everything they needed and they did this for many, many people. So lots of stuff comes in. And the solar farms, you know, they defunct after a few years. All those panels are still really good for decades. So they'll be donated. These people will pick them up, donate them to VanAid and VanAid distributes them. And then you'll see people showing up in their RVs, in their buses, with their tool belts. Okay, let's get to work. I'm like, I love these people. This was what I was looking for. Up until now, I had been to a few rainbow gatherings and that was the big hippie gathering every year. Someplace new, a different state. Been going on probably for 40 years now. I think the first one I went to was the 20th. That was in Colorado. And it was their second time doing Colorado. Their plan was to do every single state, but not every single state is as easy to get 60,000 people in. And that's what showed up the year I went because it was the center of the country. It was the 20th anniversary and it was Colorado. People showed up for that one, but it's not usually that big. And I've been to a few others since then. And they've been maybe 30,000 though. And they set up little villages, poop stations in every section. And they put out their wares. You're not allowed to bring any money. You're greeted by, I think it's called ACAMP, which is the alcoholics. And because of the alcohol and their issues, it's harder for them to get into the camps to set up. So their job is to greet people and to get people set up and sorted and introduced to the whole thing. And of course, they're not gonna be drunk when they're doing that, but everybody takes care of everybody. It's too hard for alcoholics to get all the way in there. So they got their job. And then the people that are in there, they have had donations coming for months, all year, just to be able to feed this many people. And you do not bring any money. So you do not have to buy any food. It's coming to you. Fires will be going. Drugs will be taken. You'll find some young hippie naked as a jaybird show up at your campsite. And he falls asleep around the campsite. You find a blanket, you put it on him. You take care of everybody. Yeah, he was stoned in his face. He didn't cause any trouble. Yeah, lighthearted. Just keep it light. And that's a good way to live. And so I thought that was it. That's the only place I'd ever seen that much giving and that much altruism. It's just so beautiful when it happens. I'd always leave those gatherings so high from the giving, from the love. Everybody's just love, helping each other. That's the hippie way. And that's what I love about hippies. But then I found Granade and I think, it's on all walks. It's on all levels. It's happening. We're not seeing that in the news, but it's happening. There are beautiful, beautiful people that are hearing the call. Just like we hear, we need to go. We're just afraid. They're not afraid. They're showing up with their tools. They're showing up with their equipment, their knowledge, and their time. They're taking 10 days, a couple of times a year, several times a year, just to give people stuff. This is what's happening in the world. This is what we have to do. This is how we have to act with each other. We have to keep caring. You see somebody fall down, run over there and pick them up. Don't wait for somebody else to do it. Oh, who's gonna take care of them? You are. Get up and go over, see what you can do. I don't know how to do anything. Ask them what they need, then go find the person that helps them. You actually did that for a woman in New Zealand, didn't you? I did. She was a runner. And I was standing on a corner. I had just gotten there. And I was pretty excited about the place. It's long life dream. Was the first place I ever wanted to go to. And it was probably about 12th on my list that I got to. But I wanted to be there. So I'm really excited. So I'm looking around and here's this woman running. And I'm looking around, I look back on where this woman should have been if she was not. I couldn't see where she had gone until I looked down and she had hit her face on the curb. Was dazed. So I ran across the four lanes of traffic without a thought because somebody was in trouble. I don't know. That's my spirit maybe, but we can't be afraid to do that. I wasn't afraid to run across the street. Someone was in trouble. So I helped her. Somebody came along because they saw me. He happened to know where the dentist that she wanted to go to. Do you feel safe, ma'am? Yeah, I feel safe. Yeah, I wanna go. There we go. And a miracle had been created. She had a little bit of courage. Yeah, she knocked her head pretty hard, right? She was a little, her mouth, her face. Her whole face went down, but it was her mouth that was bleeding. But she was really dazed. She was in shock for sure. So I did a point, I do acupressure. So I did a couple of points on her to bring her back into her body and calm. And then she made the decision to go to the dentist. And then this guy came along. He happened to know that dentist, took her right to it. So that's how magic happens. And that's how it happens in the world. And that's my experience from the day I've been out here. What's that you got in your hand there? Well, this is a hand vac that my son bought me and I love it. It also, well, the other side is the hand vac part, but it also has a side where you put this in, this part in, and it's a blower. So you get the fire going. Doing dishes is the challenge because you don't have your running water. You have to go haul your water from somewhere. I save everything. I wash one thing and I put the water in, the hot water, in on the other. Okay, so it's just a time-consuming pain. Yeah. And you know, you have to go haul it. It's more than time-consuming. Take your energy and your muscles. You not only have to haul the water, but you have to heat it up on the fire, right? If you want hot water, I don't always wash with hot water. And I've lived in Mexico. If you can't survive on cold water washing, you've just been spoiled, you know. Just get out of it. Do it with cold water. Start cold water now before you get out here. And then that way, you're already used to it. It's not a big deal. And you'll find out it's not that hard. You're not gonna die. Most of this stuff is going to be heated up anyway because you're gonna cook. And I have a unique style of washing dishes anyways. I soap them all up with the sponge or the rag. Usually I like a rag better. And it holds less germs. And you gotta be careful with germs. One of my favorite things to have out here, even though I don't have it right here, is vinegar. I use a lot of vinegar because there's not a lot of water. It helps clean up stuff, germy stuff that you're worried about, might worry about. And meanwhile, I think, well, they've sat in soap, being soapy for 10 minutes maybe. And so they're getting clean. And if you are concerned, then add vinegar or baking soda. Not together, usually. The baking soda will negate the power of the vinegar. But if you let the vinegar do its job for a little while, then you add baking soda. I think that might be all right. Okay, so what do you do with the water? I dump the soap water. Because I can't really use it again. It still has some soap in it. I forgot one, so I'm gonna use this. And when I soap up the dishes, I let them sit for a while. So here I try to rinse them so that I can save the water for the next dish washing. Any way you can save water, do it. Can I ask how old you are? 76. And how long have you been living full-time in a van? This time, two years. But I've been mostly doing this most of my life. Since about 16, I started, 15, 16, started staying out of home. I lived in New York City, Brooklyn. It was an unhappy home. So I didn't like going there after a while. And I stayed out and just did things. And went from, I don't know, rooftop to basement sometimes. Top of somebody's, you know, apartment house stairs. Top of the roof. And then came to liking living out. And then I found backpacking and camping. And that was a whole new experience for me. And I was living in Westchester, New York. Taking my kids camping was, this was the ultimate thing. For one, I was away from phones. I got tired of phones. I don't even understand what the big thing is here where you're constantly focused on this little box. Or the phone. And it was, I found some of my friends was like, oh, I gotta get home for a phone. Oh, or this one's gonna call me. Or they'd wanna be on my phone for an hour. And I think there's so many things to do. So much fun to be had. Now that I'm looking at it and looking at it is today and there is so much entertainment on there. It's your virtual world. These are coconut bricks. I mean, they're much bigger. I've broken this one up a bit. And you get them wet so that you can break them apart. Put them in your bucket. Then you let them dry. I like this little round one. This is new. That's a more common one. The big one, the five gallon. But it's really impractical in a car if you have a station wagon or a smaller vehicle. And it's not, I don't think all that practical for even a van. It takes a lot of space up. So I like the small one. And before this, I had one of the three gallon squares, which I really loved. However, sitting on them is not that easy, not that comfortable because you have to have, for these and the square one, I used the pool toys. The floaties? Yeah, the floaties, yeah. And they break. And I didn't like going through too many of those. So I bought this, but it didn't really fit on the square one. Amazon, you know. And it wasn't doing so well on there. It slid around a lot. So I got a piece of hose, a water hose. And I wish I'd gotten a bigger one because this one's a little small and it has a hard time fitting on here. And this fits a little bit better on that. Doesn't move quite so much. Okay, so these are your poop pots? This is one pee, one poop. Pee has nothing in it. I rinse it out with water, spray it with vinegar. I also do use a lot of essential oils. This is my vinegar and I'll spray this one with vinegar. Let it sit, rinse it out. I'll spray it with this nice smelling essential oils. I have a bottle around here somewhere. And that makes it smell nice, but it's really not necessary. The vinegar and water is one pee and one poop. So you can throw that out every morning or whenever. Because you're on the road sometimes, you can't get out to go take a pee. You might pee it in the house, in the van. You're gonna always have one with a lid. That's why I don't glue this one on because I may have to take it off and put the lid on tight so you can travel with the pee. Poop, you want to same. You may have to travel in the morning. You don't have time to go. So I have a lid for this as well. And that's why the coconut shell because it really did a better job, I noticed last winter, smell-wise. The smell pretty much kind of negated. I save all my coffee grounds. You don't drink coffee. You can stop in at any cafe. They'll give you a bunch of grounds, usually. Save my coffee grounds and I put it on top of my poop. It smells good. And it smells better and it's quicker. So it'll cover the smell real quick. Cover it up, usually later on in the morning. So that's worked for me. I don't know if these coconut shells, it's the same brand, Zilla, Z-I-L-L-A, that I got online. The first ones I paid $12 and I paid three and change for these. So I don't know if there's really that much of a difference because it's been a year now. I don't remember if the fibers are the same, but they seem the same. And we'll see how well it works, but so far that's what I've been doing and it's been working real fine. Okay, Grace, let's see the van and how you live in it. And we'll see the solar panel set up as well. So I save my coffee grounds and that's for my pooper. Okay. Just to throw on top. Yeah. And here's my vinegar, which I keep in here. Okay, so this is your living space in here. Here's my cooking space. Let's start here at the beginning. Okay. So this is when the guy from Van Life moved in next to me at the last night and said he could do a rebuild. I made the bed when I first bought the van. Okay, so this is where you sleep, right here at the back of the van. Yep. Here's my bed. That is a wall that I had put in after the bed and that had sliding doors, which does not work anymore. But that was very nice. I liked the idea that I could get out the back, but I can't now. Somebody put up some hooks up there. I have nice hooks that I keep my hoodies on and my hats and stuff. Sleeping bag, extra sleeping bag. This is some sewing project that I have because I want to put pockets here because normally I have all this junk up in here and it's a pain and so I want to have more organizing. But the one thing that the guy, Richard, who did the rebuild for me said that he taught me and that was it's never finished. You always want to do something. So those are things that I still have on the plate. Here is something that I can't believe is so valuable. A handbag. This particular one, ready? This particular one has power pack, two. So that you can charge anywhere, but I have an inverter on my solar so I can charge it. It charges just nicely and it came with all these. It's a very strange name. So I can't, it's M-B-N-G-F. And I love this one. I was looking for another one, but this turned out to be better. And there's a piece that goes on the back and that will blow this way. So when you're making your fire, it blows right into the fire, lifts it right up. So it serves me well in many ways. And last year I had mice. It was maddening. I hear them back and forth up in here and in the walls everywhere. So I finally got rid of them, but I realized a big part of it is I'm pretty sloppy. I drop things a lot and all that food's on the floor. And they had plenty of food. So I very much wanted one of these. And my dear son got me one. And so that is very valuable tool. All my other tools. Now, when I made this bed, it's just was easiest thing to do. Boards here have three. It holds up slats that I screwed on to these pieces from the top. Those boards, and they were on sale. They're pretty, you know, painted now because of mess I made when I did the floor. So we were talking about rain and how miserable. That was the thing that concerned me the most. And I had no idea that there was so much padding underneath this floor. This was a vinyl floor. It had lots of padding and thick, like a wool rug thing. Anyway, it held moisture. And I thought by the time I got to the desert that whatever moisture I had from the winter, it would be gone. But it was not. And then I spilled a gallon of water. It just leaked out. So very careful about that, folks. Keep tight lids on everything. Keep them in stuff that, you know, could contain the water if it spills because that was traumatic. I had to pull up in the desert in Nevada. Found it on the way home, back to Oregon. And I didn't want to come back to a wet Oregon with water because it was still, I think, summer, spring. It could still rain. So I pulled it all up. And I painted, painted the floor white this time because I want to be able to see the mold or whatever. And I've been using these foam, which, you know, with this, was all taken care of when it was insulated. And it kept a lot of the cold and the heat out. So I needed something. And somebody had given me this also at Bernice. And they were several of these. And this goes underneath there. So that's all hidden. And there's another one that fits in. And then another one. You get the idea. But these had to be adjusted after I had the rebuild. I didn't have all these things before. So that was rebuilt. But with the painting of this, I used Ace Hardware. And I used their product, their brand of Rust-Oleum. And it smelled horrible. Took, after three weeks, it was still impossible to move in here without the doors being wide open. And as you can see, did not stay on well. It's just poor quality. Came right up. I did not scrape this. And it had at least three weeks before I even moved back in here. I didn't scrape any of this. There are places where I scraped it a little bit. And it came right up. It was a horrible experience. It smelled bad. It was hard to use because of that. Because you had to breathe it. And so then I started getting dizzy and got real sloppy, I noticed. So be very careful about that because you're gonna have to live in here. And having a tent is really important because I found that out in Van Aid when they wanted to put in the panels and put in the electricity. I had to have everything out. Having a tent was important to put everything in. All my stuff went in the tent. A small tent is fine. Also, I didn't have to pull my tent out because in Van Aid, somebody put out a free tent. So I used it, took all the stuff out. That's when they put the solar panels in. That was at top. Let's talk about the solar panels. First off, what is the wattage of the solar panels? Do you know? I do. One, the one that they gave me at Van Aid, was a 200 watt panel. And I asked one of the electricians there, what's the wattage? And he said, well, it's a 200 watt, but it is a donation. It is from a field, solar field. So probably he's at 190, around 190. I was like, okay, because it's a fairly new one. Because quite often, some of them, they don't just lose them at, you know, we'll get rid of them at five years. Some of them actually just defunct and they go out of business in less time. And so these people collect all these solar panels. And there's a company in a store in Phoenix, Sand Something, and I can't remember the name. You could maybe check in on Van Aid if you go online. But that's who collects all these solar panels, gets them to Van Aid. And I'm sure they have other sources as well where they get their donations. And then all these people, this is an offtake of RTR, the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous. So all these people come from wherever they are around the country with their rigs, out of a bus, whatever, you know, their school bus, with their tool belt on, ready to work. Where is it that you need us? So they kind of will do all the electrical work. And this guy on the very last night happened to move in next to where I was camping. And we started talking and he wanted to do the wood part, the rebuild, because all I had was the bed, two seats. Now I have compartments with my cooler where I have to go and buy ice every couple of days. It's really a pain. I much prefer using frozen bottles. And when I'm someplace where friends are, I would just exchange my bottles from their freezers. But on the road, you have to buy ice and it's just impractical in the cooler. It's a mess. So I wasn't happy about that, but I didn't have anything. So now they've got solar coming and I got an electric cooler. And it was an igloo. I wasn't very happy with it. It sucked a lot of energy. They thought also it sucked more energy than it would work. But it was only 190 watt that I had at the time. So that's why I went to Phoenix with this guy and we got another panel. Because this guy did do the rebuild. No, he didn't do a rebuild yet. We had to go down and get wood for him to do that. But he did rebuild my back and made a pantry. And so that was just an amazing thing in itself. And I thought, well, he's capable. So when I did have a little money come in, I said, let's go get the wood. Let's go get another panel. And that's what we did. And it was only $63 in this place for a 375 watt. So now that was probably at one point a 400 watt, but it's been used. So it's down to 375. So now I have 190 and 375. I had the refrigerator already, the refrigerator cooler, but now I needed a refrigerator freezer. So that's what I did. I bought the refrigerator freezer. I keep it on freezer. I freeze my ice bottles and I put it in my cooler and I don't use the electric on the cooler. So tell me about your solar panel set up, your inverters and such. What do you have? When they installed it, they installed, that's how to move everything out. So they got in here and they put in the inverter. Let's have all these wires. So the inverter's right back in there? Back in here. You can see the red light. Yeah. See that in there? Yeah, yeah. Okay. That's the inverter. And in the back, I'll show you, there's a charge controller. Okay, so coming around to the back of the van, you got a charge controller. And where is the- These I lucked out in getting some silver bags and they protect a lot of stuff because the heat on the coolers and the freezer will of course make them less efficient and they're gonna need more power. So I wanna protect the refrigeration as much as possible. And so that's why I put those up. But this is what Richard first did. He made this cabinet, these shelves for me. How much wattage is it drawing on this freezer back here? Right now, oh wow, I'm very well stocked on my batteries. I'm at 14.3. To see what it's drawing, I'd have to go look at that inverter on the inside because that's the one that measures that. And it flashes, I'm not familiar with this stuff. This is all new to me. But it's flashing zero. It's pulling nothing. It's really pulling nothing. So I'm going right off solar. Okay, so at night it's probably pulling maybe 100 watts. And it gets down to about 13. Now it's 14.1 with the full sun. And at night at 13, 13.1, then I turn it off because this is also drawing power. And I'm gonna be using lights at night, but that's about all. I rarely have to charge something, but sometimes I do and there's enough power because I can really get it down to 11 and something. Like I think 11, high 11. They say don't go further than that. And I rarely get down. I haven't been down to that since last winter. Okay. Yeah. So you can pretty much charge up everything you have here. Everything. And I have, Richard also, we bought lights. So he installed all this stuff because he also knows solar besides the building stuff. He put in six lights and I just put a shade around that one because I like it a little less bright and miserable. And you can see even with, so now this is on. This is a fan, a little fan. Okay. Which because of the humidity in Oregon, I keep a fan going now. Those are the lights, how bright that is. I have six of them. Two in the back, in the pantry side, one in this corner, one, two, and three, one on cooking. Okay. So you've got- Pretty much most of my electricity, except for my laptop. I have a little Apple laptop and I charge that and I charge my phone. I don't really have a whole lot of else. Last winter, I used an electric kettle, had no problem. I got it down to 12, didn't drain it. So that was fine. So what's the worst thing about vanlifing? Yeah, probably the weather. If the weather's rainy and miserable, that's probably the worst of it. Plan for it. Start the engine, go someplace where it's drier. There's a lot of things you can do. Take the time and relax. Stay in. This I haven't actually done, but I'm trying. Candles, by the way, will take down the humidity some, a degree or two. But I made, I've heard of a terracotta with a- Candle? Candle and all that. So I picked out a smaller version. I didn't try it long enough because it wasn't very moist and I didn't want to waste my candle. But I, so this is, in theory, how this is supposed to work. Okay, so you've got some terracotta pots here. Yeah. And you're gonna do what? I'm gonna put a candle in there and I'm gonna burn it. And supposedly, it's going to heat up this terracotta. And I have seen it in action, but I thought it was kind of dangerous because it burnt, my friend burnt through her counter. And so, what I learned from that, and I have metal stands. This I've made. This is a great thing for cooking on fire. Big potatoes, put it right in there and it'll bake. And that, you can see, has got pretty nasty. Works great. This I made because this place, especially in the desert, you don't want to leave a mess behind. You don't want to leave your ashes. Believe in leave no trace. So this is a bucket. Bucket. Inside a pot. Well, the pot is new and it's gonna be used eventually. But it's a bucket that's important. And so the pot is just for my use because I'm gonna make me good stuff. I do medicines. I make herbal medicines and things. I lost my pot. Who's got that? So now, took this pail. I didn't have a metal drill, so I took a nail and I hammered it around until I made air space. Rocks in the bottom. You have to put rocks, I don't have them. Or a grate because you don't want the bottom of this burning out. This is a galvanized bucket, so you cannot use a galvanized bucket right off. You have to burn that off. So we burnt that off in a fire like this overnight. Small stuff in there. You cook. Put a pot right on the fire. Okay, so you put your coals in the bottom of the bucket and then you put your pot. Put your wood in there. You can put straight wood, burn it up, get it down. I have a grate that goes over the top and I put this right on the grate. You have the idea or should I get you the grate? No, got the idea. Okay, and these things to make sure that this doesn't put out sparks when you're in a place where you shouldn't have fire. That's to hold the sparks in. Okay. Well, you know, keep them from... And you keep the ground kind of wet there. Keep it as safe as possible. You don't have to worry so much in the desert, but if you're gonna do it out here and you need to make a fire. And then I have a little grinder that I've taken out just right now, but I have a little grinder that I use. These are magnets that a friend of mine found on Facebook. Not Facebook, what am I saying? They are like miracles here. They really make van life fun. They work in so many ways. But that's just one of them. So magnets are a great thing. You have metal, magnets are good. Dust and sand, I've not figured out that one yet. It's always there, especially in the desert. Well, let's talk about this right here, your artwork. So you did this, you painted this window here? Yes, from the inside. So that's painted on the inside. And this was a real challenge because you have to paint backwards. All of the, and I didn't get that right away, so I did a lot of scraping. You have to get all the accents in. So this is my first attempt, not the best. But you get all the accents in first, and then you do the lighter stuff on the outside. And that's, of course, just opposite. So that was a challenge, but we did it with a template. Friend drew it out on a piece of paper. This was hers, her template that I began with. And taped it on the outside, and got on the inside with glass paint. I got it off Amazon. It's important to get glass paint, so I wouldn't get just acrylic. And have a razor blade to scrape it off when you make a mistake. Because you have an artistic background, right? I do watercolor. I don't work with, but yes, I have a background. But I don't work with acrylic, it's very different. And it works differently on window because it's not paper, it doesn't hold. It slides, it smears, it was a challenge. But I'm learning how to do more and more. And so anyway, this was my design. And I did it without the template. I knew what I wanted to do, and I just did it. So yes, the background helps. You can kind of figure things out. You were in the desert, Anza Borrego? Yeah, down at the bottom of California. Beautiful place. The wind was so bad that the first day, I just stayed in here the whole day, I didn't come out. Couldn't be bothered. But I don't need to come out. I have my cooler, my food. No need to get out. So I'm fine. Like I said, the worst part is the rain because I don't like the moisture. I'm not like most people. I've got tons of fabric everywhere. Most people wouldn't have this much fabric. You know, my linens are here. I have a lot of clothes, I like clothes. I like pillows. I like pretty things and hanging things, so. But sometimes you do get stuck in the van on occasion, huh? Yeah, but I don't consider it so stuck as a choice. I just decided I don't want to go out. I mean, some people don't mind the wind so much. I do. But I mean, in the desert, it can blow 40 or 50 miles an hour consistently all day long and all night. Yeah, so always have your water in, food in here that you don't have to be, especially with wind because you're kind of blowing this way, everything's blowing that way. Quite often, you know, I bring everything outside and I want to. I need to get some space for myself. Okay, so the weather is the worst thing about van life and especially the wind. What's the best thing about van life? What do you love the most? Everything else. I mean, friends, people. People you meet along the way. The scenery. The places I get to see. The amazing places I get to see. Now, I have like done that specifically where I'm going to a particular destination. I want to see, I want to go to the Rockies and hike for a while. I want to do this or that. You know, there's those, but then there's that special time when you're just driving along and you don't know what to expect and you look up and you're in Canyonland and wow, this wasn't even on my list. So it's like, this is excitement. It's something new, something wonderful. Sometimes you end up in some places this is miserable and I'm too tired to drive any further. That's kind of being stuck in your van too because you don't want to get out in a miserable place or a miserable time or a miserable time of day. So yeah, this is what makes this so special. You can lock all the doors, close all the doors and you're home. You're home, you're comfortable, quiet, whatever you need to have. Now, do you boondock most of the time or do you find campgrounds or a combination of the two? Combination. I see friends, I hang out with friends for a while. When I'm in towns like Port Orford and Bandon, I have to find different places where I can park. Not always so easy in Bandon. Port Orford's a little easier but still, you gotta choose your places. You don't want to be close to 101. So many places close to ocean and close to river, close to creeks that you can camp still without them hassling you just so far. And it's true, it's the drug stuff that's really causing problems. So it's causing problems for us too because we don't want to be camping with people who are unconscious. So that can be a problem. So watch out for that. You can tell when there's drugs. They are different. If it's meth, it's real speedy. If it's heroin, it's gonna be really drowsy. Energy's off. Keep your energy clear, you'll be able to see what's out there and be able to protect yourself that way. But if you're in a situation, you're tired, you can't go any further, trust your intuition about where to go. I was talking about going, I think this was Gallup, New Mexico, about going to Walmart because I heard you could park overnight there and it's okay, they won't roust you. When it is bathrooms, it's open late, opens early. So I was gonna do that and I brought the subject up in a restaurant and I realized people heard it. And I thought, I'm not gonna go to Walmart. That seems like a red flag to me because now everyone knows I'm going to Walmart. So I didn't go to Walmart. Now I don't know where I am going. I have to trust the universe to find me that right spot. And that's what I ask the universe to do. I drove out. I came down the right street. I looked over, there was an alleyway in between two defunct businesses. I pulled right in. Couldn't open up the side doors, it was that tight. The front had a gate. Couldn't get through that way. All I had was the back and nobody can get through my back. So I'm well protected. Lock the doors, sleep through the night, it's perfect. And that's what I find the most fascinating and fantastic about being out here is the serendipity of finding whatever you need. Whatever you need just seems to show up. Be open for it. Expect the miracle. And ask for a miracle. You're allowed. You're a worthy human being and you're allowed that support. And the universe does support. Even when things go bad, I know it was something to move me from here to there. And that's okay. It was meant to make a right instead of a left. So I do it. I don't fight it. I listen to the serendipity. Yep, that feels better. That's the way I'm going. I didn't go to Walmart. This alleyway felt better. And it certainly was. And you've had some magical moments out on the road, right? So many times. I mean, Vernade was a magical moment. I didn't look for that. I didn't expect it. It came to me. Well, I mean, I know I drove to Arizona, but I didn't know why. And so it drew me in. Yeah, and interesting thing to note about those solar panels in all those solar farms is they only use them for about four or five years because they want to maximize the output. And then they just throw them all away. Everyone is performing an excellent service to the universe by recycling them. The people collecting them, the people putting them up. We are the force that is going to change the wrong in the world because we're doing it with love. We're turning things around. They're making a mess. We're going to find ways to clean it up. Right, because what happens with 90% of those solar panels is they end up in the landfill because they're not recyclable. And so this so-called green energy isn't green at all. No, and even if you use them to the end, they're still going to end up in the landfill. They cannot be recharged or whatever they do. So yeah, that's not all that green. The electric car, we're in Afghanistan for the lithium. Yeah, we're not in there to protect the... We're in all these places to protect the American interest. Not America, the American interest. And so we have to be aware of the new technologies. It's the old ones that work real well, the fire and the pit. Yeah, so it's interesting because they're tearing up lots of land and taking down Joshua tree forests, saguaro, cactus, and all that. And they're leveling all this for the solar farms. And then they only use these panels for a few years and then they redo the entire thing with new panels. So first off, they're destroying the landscape and then they're putting up non-recyclable. And things that still have value. And, but they're still usable, but they... And as wacky as it is, and we're not all for it, but we get to use it. To me, that's serendipity, turning it around. It's what makes it okay. We didn't go out and buy these and create these or level any forest, but we were given this. By reusing these, which still have lots of life in them, you're actually keeping them out of the landfill. And it's providing you with electricity. It's a win-win. Win-win. And that, that to me is the real magic out here. Is finding this, there's so much love out here. People just love people. You don't see them in the news. If you don't get out here and find us, you won't know us. You won't know us because nobody's going to tell you. You have to experience this world, this life. It's amazing. And it's not until you get into a forest that you can hear magic. It's not until you see stars that are so brilliant and it's so quiet that you can really believe you can hear the stars. You don't get that in the city, you won't get that in your apartment. Get it out here. It's all right. That was it. Okay. Road life, cooking over an open fire here on the grill. Making toast. Toast and eggs. So at night you're putting away your stuff. Want to make sure if your dishes are out and you haven't washed them, make sure they're rinsed well. I take that water and I toss it on the fire, the fire out. So that kind of conserves water. You want to put away anything that's going to get wet. Or critter might can get in or can damage. So I take my chairs and I slide those underneath just to keep them dry. I often have a cushion on it, so I don't want that to get wet. And everything else, bring in and secure. Anything that is perishable or can attract critters. You don't want mice in your vehicle. So anything you want to keep dry, but it's not super important, you can just stash right underneath the vehicle. If it's not going to be pouring rain, some things are just fine. And most things are fine actually underneath there to stay dry. And you don't have to bring them in at night. Most of us have a little bit of room under there. And I have quite a bit of room in the van in the back. You can see that bucket almost fit under there. And I leave buckets out, empty buckets. Right where that is, we'll collect water. So that works for your toilet or cleaning out your buckets or all kinds of things. So collect water too, think about that. I have a lot of stuff running off the van, so it runs into the bucket, perfect. That's usually even shipping in the morning when I get up. So even dew will collect in there. And you can use that same bucket to go collect water if you can, from the creek, from the river, wherever you are. You can use that water to clean anything except for dishwashing. You might want to boil that, especially the rinse water. Do not use rinse water from a creek or a river because it still has algaes and all kinds of things. Okay, but it's good to have a bucket along when you're traveling. Always have to have a bucket. You need your pee and your poop bucket, but you also need a nice clean bucket. I have not that size bucket, but the five gallon, but just a small rectangle bucket. You can get all these buckets from a supermarket. Most of them are bringing stuff in in these plastic buckets and tossing them out. So different products, you find somebody who has a nice oblong-shaped bucket that fits under your vehicle or around, whatever fits underneath on the inside, underneath your bed or someplace where you can store it with your pee and your poop pot, then you have that extra bucket for the dishwashing or water carrying or whatever you need. In the next episode of Traveling with Grace, hear Grace's special message to all the women out there who are considering getting out on the road and living the van life. I'm so grateful that I never liked phones because I got to live a world. I got to live a life. I saw two hippie girls with backpacks traveling. I was like, I want to know you. I hope you learned a thing or two about living on the road and van lifing with Grace. Don't forget to give me a like on the video, share and subscribe. Until next time, this is The Rock Hopper. See ya. Be in your love and be in peace. Blessings.