Latest / Her Journey Her Way / Can a Woman Over 60 Do Van Life Solo? Jill Drove to Alaska and Back.
Transcript
- Rita Gardner: You're in college, out at sea on a schooner, learning to find your way by the stars. Your clothes fit in a little gear hammock over your bunk. After that, you work schooner to schooner and everything you own fits in one duffel bag. Decades later, you retire. You buy a van just under 20 feet long and drive it all the way to Alaska. That schooner didn't just teach you how to sail. It taught you how to get past one of the things that keeps women from living this life. I know some of the coolest people on the planet. They live in buses and vans and RVs and they tell you they've never been better. I'm Rita and this is Her Journey Her Way, a She Travel Simple podcast. I've traveled all over the country in everything from a tent to a 40 foot bus. The places are beautiful, the people are better. Every one of my friends has been through something, and every one of them has one thing you're going to want to know. Their stories, Their lessons their way. I am so excited today to have a really amazing person. She is somebody that blows my mind with her generosity, her kindness, her wit, her humor, her willingness to help. And I am so happy to have her here for you to get to know her more. So her name is Jill. Why don't you say hi, Jill, and let us know how old you are and where you're from. Hi. I'm Jill and ⁓ I grew up in Rochester, New York. I now live in ⁓ Rhode Island. I have a house in Rhode Island. I spend a lot of time in my van and I am 66 years old and I have a Mercedes Sprinter van, the short wheelbase, standard roof, four-wheel drive, and the 2017 van that I bought in 2019, and then I built it out in ⁓ the beginning of 2022 after I retired. So I spent some time on the road, short trips while I was still working, and then I figured out how I wanted to build up my van and built it out and hit the road in twenty twenty two. So tell us a little bit about what you did before you decided to buy a van. I'm a marine scientist, so I spent a lot of time out at sea. I used to be a a navigator and would go out on surveys and provide the ⁓ precision navigation as we mapped out the seafloor and look for sunken chips or or you know, decide what was the best route to ⁓ put a pipeline or c cable in. So spent a lot of time at sea and then after my son was born I I spent a lot of time doing the data management. So planning surveys at sea and making sure that all the ⁓ the information that was brought back was correct. ⁓ so then I decided ⁓ I was sixty two and and decided it was time to hit the road and travel around. Did you do a lot of traveling outside of work before you retired? So I think when I first got the bite to go in a and and really do a lot of traveling and being on the road was after I graduated from undergraduate school. I spent two and a half months on the road. A friend of mine from high school, we got in my nineteen seventy two Chevrolet Nova and we drove around the country and visited with friends and checked out national parks and you know, just camped using a tent and ⁓ ⁓ just had a great time seeing the sights. So really enjoyed that and so I was like, ⁓ I you know, what a great way to travel. And then we'd go camping every year and decided it'd be nice to have a little bit more comfortable camping than a tent. So you decide to buy a van. Is there a reason you chose a van over, say, an R V or a bus? Well, I I always wanted a van that would like fit into a regular parking space. I didn't want to have a large vehicle. So my short wheelbase is just under twenty feet. So I can just, you know, drive down Main Street, parallel park, and fit right into a regular parking space. So that was one thing I wanted. I didn't want anything too big, but I wanted the comforts ⁓ of a van and a comfortable bed and not having to set up a tent and things like that. Did you have any must haves for your van when you were building it out? Yeah. Building my van, the two non negotiables was a comfortable bed and I wanted to be able to pee in the middle of the night. So speaking of peeing, tell us about what kind of bathroom facilities you have. So I have a composting toilet. ⁓ I started out with a Natchez head and then I switched over to ⁓ a cutty composting toilet. It's a little bit smaller footprint and just fit into my fit into my van a little bit a little bit better. ⁓ so I have a composting toilet and a bed and just a ⁓ it's pretty basic. I call it comfortable camping. I have a powered cooler, 12 volt powered cooler that fits right between the ⁓ driver's seat and the passenger seat. And for water I just have a five gallon jug with a the foot pump for my sink and then it just drains down into another jug. And then on the roof I actually have a four gallon ⁓ shower tube. It's like a sun shower. So that ⁓ heats up. So it's nice it can be like an outdoor shower or it's great to have extra water if I need to wash my dishes or do anything, but just carry a little bit of extra water on the roof. So to shower you normally just shower outside? I normally stay at campground, so I if there's a showers at the campground, I prefer that. The outdoor shower I mo mostly use when I'm going to the beach and wanna just rinse off and things like that. Yeah. But ⁓ if I had to I could rig up a a little curtain out the back doors and use it. I always find ⁓ if you if you need a shower, we just wait. Even if you need a shower, we just No, it's too much work. We'll just we'll just baby wipe it or or just I know. If you come for someone who used to every morning take a shower, it's kind of amazing how you morph into like, ⁓ I can go another day. Yeah, like taking a shower like a headache right now. It's I was like I was like, these are glorious four days. ⁓ because I didn't have to shower. That's a lot of work. I mean, imagine having to go four days without doing dishes. It's like, wow, that was relaxing. I think it's the same thing. So doing dishes, do you have a water heater or how do you wash your dishes? No, no, I don't have a water heater, so the shower tube actually heats it up very very warm. ⁓ or I just if I have to heat the water, but otherwise you just kinda, you know, just wipe it down. You try not to have too many dishes. Yeah. I'm eating very clean food. There's no lasagna going on my plate. Exactly. No, and it's nice. Well that's what I love is when you go to a campground and they actually have a dishwashing station, that's like Okay, this is great. Now I can really take everything out and really give it a good washing. Yeah. So tell me how you navigate all of your setups. How do you know how much to bring into the van, what things you need, what you don't need, where you got to where you are today with the amount of stuff you have in the van. Well, what I've learned is you really don't need that much. You can really go with a real minimal amount of clothing. When you're traveling by yourself, you know, I have like two plates. Everyone kind of brings their own. you know, cutlery plates, you don't have to stock up on a lot. So you just kind of stock up on the basics of what you need. I used to work on boats, so ⁓ when I was an undergraduate student, I took a semester at sea, where you spent a semester aboard a traditionally rigged schooner and learned all about navigation and seamanship and you were on board the ship, you know, it's just, you know, very basic. Everyone had a bunk and a little gear hammock to hold your clothes. So learned that y you really don't need much. I would travel around with just a duffel bag and spent time working on different schooners and you just have this one duffel bag with all of your belongings on it. So made me realize you can h have a minimal amount of things to get by on. ⁓ and then I worked as a marine scientist, I'd go out on board ship and many times just traveling around all around the world, different oceans and you just you can't bring a lot when you're traveling on boats and that. So you just bring a little bit and so it's made me realize you can get by with just a small amount of things. So it worked out well when I'm building up the van. ⁓ A good friend of mine who I sailed with. She's an incredible carpenter. She's done some boat building. So she helped me build out the the cabinetry and the van, which kind of looks like a boat. And it's, you know, very, very it's beautifully done, but it's just very, very minimal. ⁓ I don't have a big plumbing system. I just have a a five gallon jug with a a foot pump that drains down into another jug. ⁓ I have a power station that's all self enclosed that has the the power inverter and everything, so I didn't have to deal with the big battery banks and running a lot of wires and that. So it's all very, very, very basic. And as a matter of fact, my van, which is a a crew van, so it originally came with a the a a bench seat behind the the driver's seat, ⁓ which is out. But ⁓ in a matter of a couple hours I could actually pull out my cabinets that are in my van and get it back into just a a crew van. So it's all because I wasn't sure when I first started out would I like this. You know, so it's like, well, let's just build it so it's can come out. Of course it's never come out. I don't know if it ever will. But it could. So you've built out this van and then tell me about your travels. What was your first trip in the van? So well when I first got the van, so it's a two thousand seventeen van and I and I purchased it in two thousand nineteen and I just did a couple trips, ⁓ actually went over to Arkansas during COVID time, my friend who's the the carpenter and I, ⁓ we went to visit ⁓ some friends in Arkansas. So made a couple of road trips to Arkansas and just kind of tried different configurations of the van of So this is before conversion. Yep. Yep. This is my initial just kind of test out. You know, can I sleep across the van? No, that's not quite enough room. I just I realized is all I needed was a twin bed. So I would each time I'd go on a trip I'd try different configurations until I figured out how I wanted my van to be configured. And then after I retired at the end of ⁓ twenty twenty one, I ⁓ built out the van exactly how I wanted it. So it's all set up and so f finished that in twenty twenty two and then ⁓ took a big trip in October of twenty twenty two, was on the road for a little over a year and drove all around the country out west s and then up to Alaska, spent the summer up in Alaska and circled back around to back to Rhode Island in a little over a year and put on thirty one thousand miles in that time. Wow, that's lot of miles. Yeah. So while you're on the road you had to do oil changes, right? Yeah. So I ⁓ I found a really great ⁓ sprinter mechanic out in California. So when I went out to California, had the oil changed, had every fuel filter changed, and I basically said, you know, go through the van, anything that needs to be changed in the next five thousand miles, let's just do it right now. I didn't want to have any problems when I went up to Alaska. So invested a lot of money in doing some maintenance, but it worked out well because ⁓ went up to Alaska, had no problems at all and just and peace of mind, which is worth worth a lot. Yeah, that's that's some really great advice before going on a big trip. Just get your mechanic to go over it with a fine toothed comb, make sure you're good for the next five, ten thousand miles. Well, you know, especially when anyways going up to Alaska. And you know, if I was just driving around town, you know, and local, I wouldn't worry so much. But going up to Alaska, it's a long ways and Especially in the sprinter vans, the parts aren't as readily available and people who work on it are not as readily available. So, ⁓ just really wanted to make sure that I didn't, you know, minimize the chance of having some kind of breakdown in that. So tell me a little bit more about your van. Can you stand in the inside? Not quite. Do you have difficulty doing anything because you can't stand up in it? Well, yeah. Sometimes when you're just trying to ⁓ drink a bottle of water and you get towards the end you just gotta do a little squat just to make sure you can ⁓ you can just Tilt that bottle all. Tilt the bottle all the way and get done. To be honest, I don't spend that much time in my van standing up in my van. So I'm usually outside or asleep in the van or or you know, so it's not that too much. I try to cook outside when I can. I also do have an induction cooked up that I can plug into the the power station. ⁓ but it's not too bad. Like I said, I just have to cock my head a little bit. If you're taller than me, it it might be a problem, but I didn't really want the high roof. It just had that much more windage to it all. So because it's four wheel drive it already sits up pretty high off the ground, which is nice. So I can at least reach up onto the roof and if it was a high roof it would be you know a little bit more difficult to do. You'd be carrying around a ladder. Yeah, exactly. Do you have air conditioning in that? No. But ⁓ 'cause I wanted to minimize the power requirement. So I do not have air conditioning. I have screens on both the slider and the back door. these really nicely custom made screen doors from ⁓ Roloff, which is up in ⁓ Montreal. Went up there and you know y custom order them and I went up there and they installed them and they're great. I needed to make sure I had screens on my doors before I went up to Alaska because all the mosquitoes and that. And it's worked out great. So I if I need to I can just open up the slider and open up the back door and get a cross breeze. I have a ceiling fan and it just gets enough ventilation that it keeps it cool enough. And ⁓ I try to avoid the real hot places. What do you do when you get to real cold places? How do you stay warm? So I have a a diesel heater. It's a Mercedes with d diesel engine. So it runs off of the diesel from the diesel fuel tank and it works great. It just and especially with such a small space. You just fire it up and heats it up in no time and it's been really, really nice. And tell me what kind of diesel heater do you have? It's an S bar. Okay. And you've had no issues with the S bar? No, no, no. The only time I ⁓ the little exhaust one time rusted, so I had to replace the exhaust 'cause that's underneath the van. ⁓ But other than that, the the heater itself works great and cranks up. You just gotta fire it up and test it. You know, make sure you it runs and just let it run and burn off all the ⁓ whatever that carbon that is on there. But it works great every time. So being proactive, just test run it before you need it, right? ⁓ definitely. Yeah, yeah. I c I fired it up yesterday for a few minutes just to make sure because it looked like it might be getting cold later on this week. So I just wanted to make sure that I had heat if I needed it. That's great. So I know you have a home. So when you do call home Are there things that stay in the van or do you take everything out of the van? And how do you make sure everything gets back in the van before your next trip? Yeah. Well, yeah, depending on how long I'm home for. So like this last summer I was based out of Rhode Island for most of the summer. So a lot of things end up coming out of the van as as time goes on. And so I have a really good checklist. So I have this checklist that I use. I created it when I first was going on the road and now I I just keep adding to it. So before I leave I go through and make sure that everything on my checklist is in the van. A lot of things stay in the van, but I still like check off the checklist like, yep, the mattress is still there, you know, 'cause you never know when when you may want to pull things out of it. So I have a have a really good checklist and then ⁓ I know if w if everything that's on that list is in the van, that I have everything I need. I was on the road for over a year with that, so you know, I have my summer clothes, my winter clothes, b one pair of boots, you know, it's very There's not a lot of redundancy in my wear and you know, it's like wear the same same clothes over and over again, but until they wear out. I love that. It's a tested list. It's not a list you're making up while you're sitting somewhere having coffee and you're like, ⁓ I gotta remember to pack an umbrella. Your list is your list and you use it each time and it's a tested list. Yep. Exactly. And so how do you keep this list? Is it on a piece of paper? Is it on a whiteboard? Is it in your phone? Where do you store this list? It's just ⁓ It's a little checklist I have a as a note on my on my phone. And I just, you know, check the things off and then just kind of keep track of it. And like I said, I add to it as I go and ⁓ it's works out great. So tell me about traveling and meeting people. How do you meet people on the road? Well, events like this, Schooly Swarm, we're we're here in Bainbridge. it's just a great way to meet people. And, you know, this is my second time here in Bainbridge. ⁓ I've done several of the schoolie swarms down in Melrose and that is just a wonderful way to really meet people that are on the road and everyone's so supportive and things. You know, a lot of times at a campground you may run into people here and there. but I would say that these types of gatherings are probably the best way to really meet people and connect with them and everyone's so willing to like share their ideas and help you out if you have questions. Yeah. So were there have there been other events besides Schoolie Swarm that you've been to? Mm. Yeah, yeah, I've been to a number of events. so ⁓ down in Florida there's a Van Fest and another Peace Love and Van event. And those are those are nice. They're like weekend events. They're they're more commercialized. They have ⁓ you know, sponsors and professional van builders will show their vans and they give a lot of workshops and you know, they it's they're fun. They're fun. But ⁓ a lot of people come to them who wanna get involved in van life and checking out vans. And anyone who wants to get in van life, it's a great opportunity to see different rigs and what they're set up like. ⁓ the schoolie swarm is a little different in that it's more of a community and we have more, you know, potluck dinners, community breakfast activities. You see the same people and then you meet new people. ⁓ then out west there's a a variety of of events that I've been to, ⁓ descend on bend. I did ⁓ really b you know, it's it's it's a whole different scene there. Fun, they're just different. It seems to be very nice and you can find the people that you like to hang with and you can move around and meet new people. ⁓ Northwest Nomads, that was a a very fun event. Northwest Nomads, that's good to know. So tell me when you bought the van and you were going to travel, what did your friends and family and neighbors say? Well, a lot of people always ask, You're doing this alone? Like dou how c do you feel You know, are you okay just doing this by yourself? How do you do it by yourself? And it's but I you know, it makes it really easy because you can make all the decisions. You don't have to consult with anybody. Most people are intrigued. It's kind of fun. My son is twenty seven years old and his friends all just love it. And they're like, ⁓ you know, and they all like to see the van and they like to hear about my travels and so I think ⁓ most people are incredibly supportive. I've always been a pretty independent person anyhow. But I think, you know, it's a great way to see different places, travel around and what I also like is I've been able to connect with ⁓ family and friends who otherwise I never would stop, you know, I haven't seen them in years and years and years 'cause they just where they live is a place that I would never fly in and out of. But it's great to be able just to adjust your itinerary and your route so you can kinda g go and stop in and visit some relatives that you haven't seen in forever and catch up and it's been really a lot of fun. Yeah, and I love it because you have You're bringing the spare bedroom. They don't have to make room for you. They don't have to sleep on the couch so you can have the bed or anything like that. And ⁓ yeah, you say, I I just need a kitchen chair to sit at the table and talk to you or ⁓ you know, sit outside and chat and catch up. No, it's it's great being totally self sufficient, you know. It's just d I just need a relatively level place to park and I'm good. I have everything I need. So So speaking of places to park, what are your preferential places to go? Do you like to go to campgrounds, Walmarts? ⁓ do you do harvest hosts? Tell me about the places that you stay at. I mostly stay at campgrounds. So ⁓ if there's a you know, national park or a state park or county or city, but mostly I try to get a campground. That's kind of my preferred way. I don't mind, you know, spending a little bit of money. Because I'm in my van and I'm totally self sufficient, a lot of times I can just get a tent site, which is usually pretty cheap. I don't have to have hookups. ⁓ so my number one thing is to to if I'm traveling by myself is just to to get a campsite. And then I like that because I just I don't have to worry about getting a knock in the middle of the night. ⁓ they're safe. I just I know that there's a place I'm staying and and you know, a lot of times they'll have, you know, bathrooms, showers sometimes and so that's kind of my my number one place. If I'm traveling with other people though, I'll boondock, I'll, you know, pull over wherever. And a lot of times I end up visiting friends and that and then just parking in their driveway or Moochdocking. Yes. Yes. Assisted van life I call it. ⁓ That's funny. So tell me about the places you've been to and where was your favorite place that you've been to. And why? Yeah. Well I think well I drove up to Alaska, so that ⁓ was my biggest trip. and getting up to Alaska I took the Alaska Highway, the Alcan, all the way up to south central ⁓ Alaska. And my favorite place was Wrangell St. Elias National Park. It's the largest national park of all the the US national parks. And it's just gorgeous. There's glaciers, there's ice falls. It's just amazing. Mountains all around, different mountain ranges. And you can actually drive. It's an old ⁓ railway. ⁓ Kinnicott was an old ⁓ copper mill. And they so they had a railway that would bring the copper down to you know out of the mountains and down to Cordova. ⁓ which is on the water. So there's a road that goes in there that ⁓ where the ⁓ where the railway was. And it's just very very, very scenic road going in and then ⁓ then you stop and it's the road of McCarthy. And the ⁓ town of McCarthy, you can't actually drive there. Only the residents can drive there. So you have to stop. Then there's a bridge you can walk across to get to McCarthy. But the place where you stop it's it's beautiful. It's like a It's like a glacial ⁓ moraine field, so there's a lot of rocks, but you just kinda find a place to park and you camp there and it's this beautiful glacial lake with icebergs floating in it and this ice fall behind it. It's just like one of the most scenic campgrounds you'd ever see. And then you can walk across the bridge into the town of McCarthy. And it's kind of fun. There's like there's actually a saloon there, which is a saloon inside of a national park, which is something I think it may be the only one. And so that's a lot of fun. But the saloon in Alaska alone is is mind blowing, let alone in the national park in Alaska. Wow. And then you go up to Kinnicott and then you can tour this old copper mill, which is really really quite amazing. You should definitely do that. And then but then there's a hike you can take off and then you can actually go and walk on a glacier. And it's just amazing. You walk in, you get up to this glacier and you don't know. You know, you look around and it's ⁓ this incredible scenery, mountains, glaciers, ice falls. Then you look down and it's just like, you know, blue pools of water and you can there's like little streams going. You can fill up your water bottle and have this glacial water that is just so pure and tastes tastes great. And it so you don't know whether to look up or down, around. It's just everywhere you look is just totally amazing. ⁓ wow. Is there anything on your bucket list, that place you really are looking forward to go to? One place I've been w wanting to get to is ⁓ is Newfoundland. So I've been wanting to get up to Newfoundland. so hopefully maybe next summer we can try to Gotta make that work. Yeah. Well, funny you should say that because just recently we had Sandy on the podcast and she mentioned that her favorite place she had gone to was Newfoundland and that she wants to go back to Newfoundland. And the funny thing is that she said she was stationed in Alaska and she said that Newfoundland was a bit like Alaska, but just on the east coast, a lot closer. So So I'll have to ⁓ introduce you to Sandy or you'll have to listen to Sandy's podcast. Yeah. And ⁓ I believe that was episode five. And so she may give you some pointers on where to go or maybe want to go back with you. Yeah. I know that's on my list to go to and possibly next summer. So we should we should do a little trip up there. Yeah, definitely. ⁓ imagine there's someone out here listening and they are on the fence whether they should go. What would you like to say to the women? who are thinking about going on the road, thinking about getting a rig. What advice do you have for them? Well, I definitely encourage everyone to just to go ahead and do it. And you don't you don't need to have a fully built out rig. You don't have to you don't have to have everything that you think you want before you hit the road. ⁓ when I first had my van, I just set up, you know, threw a mattress in there and had a cooler with ice and just you know, started camping out with it and then you kind of as you go you see what you need and how you like things set up and you can slowly add things to it. Then I added a a powered cooler and you know I put, you know, screens on all the windows and that. You can slowly add to it as you go. You don't need to have everything perfectly built out. ⁓ so just go and, you know, try it. Get get on the road and give it a try and go slow and, you know, just you know, d enjoy it. ⁓ Coming to gatherings like the swarms is a great way to to meet people and and find out about places that are really fun to go to and things. But yeah, don't think you have to have it all set up exactly how you want and spend so much time building it out that you don't ever get a chance to get on the road. And am I correct, you're not an auto mechanic and you're not a professional builder or an electrician. You don't have to have a lot of knowledge in these areas to to get started. No, no, no, not at all. Like I said, I have friends that help me with the with building out my van and I'm just very proactive in terms of having my van looked at by a mechanic before I hit the road. But no, just, you know, it's ⁓ I haven't had any issues. I've been I've been real fortunate. One time my van ⁓ needed a diesel ⁓ particulate filter and it was a little challenging 'cause the part wasn't available, but luckily it was at a place that I I had some friends that weren't that far from where it broke down so I had a place to stay and could get the part shipped in and get on my way. But you know, so sometimes things happen. But ⁓ I think ⁓ in general though, no. I do just kinda, you know, just trust your instincts, you know, trust your intuition. And and if if you go to a place that looks like may not be a safe place, just keep going, go to somewhere else. But it's been very rare. There've only been a couple of instances where I've pulled in somewhere. I said, I don't know about this place. Do you have a system for your driving, for example? Do you drive in the afternoon? Do you limit your drive to three hours? How do you determine how much driving you're gonna do in a day? Do you have a system? Well, ⁓ yes and no. I try not to drive too much in a day if I can make it work that way, you know, like a few hours, ⁓ a couple hundred miles maybe. but ⁓ what I'll do is I don't really plan too far ahead. I'll maybe plan like a week ahead and kinda like say, Okay, where am I gonna go next week if I'm if I'm just travelling and then kinda look at like what itinerary would I'd like to do. So like last spring I wanted to I was down in Florida and I decided I wanted to just go up the coastal route. So I just kinda looked at the map and figured out some nice nice parks along the way and wanted to get over to Okra Coke and on the outer banks and things. And because it was off season it was really easy. I could just pull in places and just Some places you have to make reservations, but you can do it a day or two beforehand. You don't have to you don't have to plan way far ahead. ⁓ or you just kinda look at the campground. But I don't plan usually maybe a week ahead is the most I plan and then gives you a lot of flexibility 'cause you never know. You get someplace you don't know. You may decide, ⁓ I want to spend, you know, several days here and and then you don't have to worry about that. So I know you don't plan ahead, but where where are you going to next? ⁓ well I'll kind of stay in New England for the fall and then ⁓ gonna go head down to Florida in ⁓ in January, February, March, that time. There's a few of the the gatherings down there. Probably hit probably get on the Florida Keys this year. And then after that I'm not sure. Well thank you so much, Jill. ⁓ you've given a lot of great advice, a lot of things for people to think about and I appreciate ⁓ it's always a pleasure to be with you, Rita. That was Jill, and that is Her Journey Her Way. If you'd like more road tips and to meet more women worth knowing, head over to she travelsimple dot com. There you'll find blogs, tips, and more episodes. Until next week, I'm Rita and this is Her Journey Her Way.