In today's video, i'm going to answer all
your van life questions.
what's going on youtube greetings from
provo utah
in today's video i'm going to answer the
questions you submitted. I really
appreciate everyone
that uh submitted questions and if you
have questions that i don't answer in
this video make sure you
comment below and ask the question and
i'll be sure to get to it
also you asked a lot of questions and i
wanted to make sure
i got to them all so i answered every
single one that was submitted
but this is going to be a long video so
you can look down
in the description below to see where
the question you're interested
in knowing about is in the video all
right so without further ado
enjoy the video i'm going to go enjoy
this waterfall
okay so the first question comes from mr
burussuri from youtube he says how do i
make a living and did i have to save
money before
moving into a van okay so this answer's
a little bit more complicated
than probably most people's answer would
be but i got to give you a little
background
for you to really understand how i
funded my travels so i was in the
military for 20 years i joined at 19
i retired in 2015 so i receive a
military pension
and pretty low cost health care so
initially
that's how i funded my travels with my
military retirement
some investment income things like that
now what i do for a living is i make
youtube videos
believe it or not you can actually make
money making youtube videos
and now i make enough every month that
it funds my travels completely so
it's pretty awesome thank you for
watching thank you for hitting that
thumbs up button and thank you for
commenting because that stuff
all helps youtube show my videos to
other people
and then companies will run ads and i
get a percentage of that ad revenue so
yeah believe it or not youtube is how i
fund my travels now
next up i had two similar questions one
from overland pirate van
why did i choose this lifestyle and the
other from
gabriella how did i make the decision to
start
van life okay so that's actually a great
question
especially since i have so many new
followers that have
only been following me since i got my
van so i originally started out as
an international travel vlogger which is
why my channel is called 30 wake up
i used to live in a country for 30 days
and then wake up in a new country that's
the genesis of the name
so obviously covid hit that changed
everything
so i had to rethink my strategy what was
i gonna do
and i started revisiting ways i had
traveled in the past
specifically when i was a kid
my family had this really crappy rv
which i loved by the way
and we would go on trips in it we took
trips to florida
and to colorado and it's some of the
best
memories that i have in my life so
when i was thinking of how to travel i
kept coming back to that
i started researching different rvs
and eventually i kept coming back to the
van because i like the flexibility of it
i like that i can park it anywhere yeah
it just seemed like a cool way to
explore my own country which is another
reason i chose van life
i had i was in the military for 20 years
as i mentioned
but i had spent most of my time overseas
so i hadn't really explored my own
country
so that's another reason why i chose van
life
my next question comes from jonathan
from great britain on youtube he says
do i ever see myself stopping van life
in old age and do i own a home
all right so let me knock out the home
question first i do
own a home but like i mentioned before i
rent it out so
my only home really is my van i have
nowhere else to go
and that's been the case since february
of 2019.
i quit van life in old age i have no
idea i
highly doubt it i think i'm going to
continue to travel
internationally and in my van hopefully
till i die but you never know
what life's going to bring you so i
can't answer that question definitively
but i believe i'll still be traveling in
my van
at 95 years old okay next question comes
from
sarah and he asks do i think you can
save money living in a van
full time as opposed to living in a
house and then he asked what i think is
a separate question
do i think van life is better when you
own a home
okay let me take the second part of that
question first since it's kind of
related to the last
answer i gave do i think van life
is better if you have a home to go to i
don't necessarily think that's
the case even though i do own some
property they're rented out i can't go
there and stay
i have nowhere to go i've been doing
that like i mentioned
since february of 2019 and i love it
i love changing scenery cities
states countries so for me i don't think
van life would be more enjoyable if i
had a home
okay the first part of your question is
also complicated to answer
um it's just like international travel
like you can spend
20 000 a month on international travel
or you can live like a king in thailand
on a thousand dollars a month so van
life's the same way
you've seen me camping on blm land for
free so you can
live really really affordably
um living out of your van or rv but you
can also go stay at rv resorts
and spend you know 200 a night if you
want
so it just depends on what you want all
right so it's that time again
if you're watching this video and you're
enjoying it you need to hit that thumbs
up button
and even if you think it's the worst
thing in the world you know you can hit
that thumbs down button
all engagement helps so if you're a
hater and you want to hate
go ahead and hit that thumbs down button
and also if you like this kind of
content and you haven't subscribed yet
please consider subscribing
i put out a video every week and
we just have fun on this channel i
answer every single comment if you don't
believe me
comment down below and test it out okay
next maymay from youtube asks
given the current world situation what
am i hearing about traveling to mexico
canada
central and south america so i'll be
completely honest with you i've been so
occupied with
traveling in the u.s that i haven't
really kept up
on the travel restrictions to canada
mexico and south america i know
initially i was gonna go up to canada to
nova scotia and i wasn't able to
but that was back in may so things might
have changed
i heard you can take the alaskan highway
up to canada and still be okay
but i'm not sure about just going into
canada
to travel in an rv i think mexico is
very similar
i have some friends with the escapers
that are actually planning a trip down
to baja mexico
and i think they're going to be able to
do that
other countries in south and central
america i'm not a hundred percent
sure so i don't have a great answer for
you but
that's what i know all right next mercy
broku from youtube asks what's your
favorite place
in the world to travel okay so i've
answered this question in other videos
this is a really hard one to answer
because it's like asking someone who
their favorite kid is
there are so many different reasons i
love so many different countries
but if somebody asks me i can only go to
one country
what country should i go to my answer is
always
peru and the reason for that is peru
has a little bit of everything you can
go to the wakachina desert
and sandboard and then the next day go
surfing at the beach
and then the next day go skiing in the
mountains
you can explore man-made wonders like
machu picchu
you can go explore mother nature made
wonders like rainbow mountain
it just has something for everybody and
that's why
i recommend peru if you can only go to
one place
next ramona from youtube wants to know
how do i deal with constant driving
do i need rest time in between don't i
get tired things like that
okay so the simple answer to your
question is i
don't constantly drive if you've noticed
i usually stay in a place
for a week or two so at the most
i'm driving every 7 to 14 days
i also like to travel short
i try to find a place within two
to three hours of the place i'm
currently at
um so i don't have to have long drives
but when i do have to do a long drive my
strategy is i try to leave as early as
possible so like four or five in the
morning
so if you have a seven hour drive you
leave it five in the morning you get
there by noon
and you're not as fatigued and exhausted
plus
it gives you extra time to stop if you
need to
and rest and relax and you're not
getting to your campground
like super late if you leave early and
you have to stop and rest for a little
while
okay next joe wants to know what class
of rv would be my second choice
so if you told me i could not have a van
what would i get
i would get a truck camper i really
really
dig the host truck campers and
i like the idea of having a truck
that can take me almost anywhere and
still having my house with me
so if you've watched we're the russos or
you've watched story chase scenes
tour of wendy's host camper
that's something i would like to get
something like that if i didn't have
a van next up is q from okinawa and he
wants to know about the lift i put on my
van
he also wants to know what the
advantages and disadvantages
of the kr he's kind of worried about
opening up the back door
and the world seeing your toilet okay so
by the time you see this video my lift
video should be out so i'll go ahead and
link that somewhere here so if you're
curious
some of the advantages and disadvantages
of the k um
i love the open floor plan i think one
of the disadvantages of the k
and the g is having a black tank i
personally
rather have a cassette toilet like is in
the heimer active
or in the new um winnebago solus
i think that would be so much more
convenient for um
dumping personally i can't really think
of a lot of disadvantages of the k
i know you mentioned the bathroom like
opening up your rear door
and people seeing your bathroom but to
be honest with you
um there's a lot of like
van life stuff that romanticizes van
life and people
always have their back door open but in
real van life
there's not too many places you can
leave that back door open
in because bugs will get in so to be
honest with you
i rather have my bathroom in the back
so i can have an open floor plan where i
have views from every angle
in the space that i actually spend time
in all right next up from youtube
catherine wants to know where i'm from
because she detects a little bit of an
accent
all right so i'm going to answer this
question from the great salt lake
in salt lake city utah if you're
detecting any kind of accent it's
probably
because i was born and raised in
missouri
okay next up is sylvie and she has a few
questions but i think i've
answered a couple of them already or i'm
going to answer them
so i'll just take care of her last
question which is since i was a world
traveler does
traveling in just the usa feel limiting
so the short answer to that question is
no
and the reason for that for me
personally
is i mentioned i spent 20 years in the
military
well most of that was spent either
living overseas or deployed overseas
and i never really got to explore my own
country i left at 19.
and so this has been a great opportunity
for me to
find all the amazing places in the us
that i've been showing you in videos
that most of them i didn't even know
existed so i don't think it's limiting
at all i actually think it
has expanded my travel options to be
completely honest with you
next up is one of my escaper friends
xena and
she asked about being lonely on the road
how do i balance
life with friends and with solitude
okay so this is probably one of the most
popular questions i get
loneliness on the road for me
i'm an introvert so spending time alone
isn't something that bothers me
as much as it might some people now that
being said i still need human contact i
still need to see people
and to be completely honest with you
i've actually spent more time
with people in van life because i keep
hooking up with all these different
groups like the winnie b
group or the escapers group
so for me it's actually
made me less lonely and shifted the
balance
to where i actually hang out with people
almost as much as i spend time alone
okay next up is questions from jd jim
and robin i've grouped these together
because they're all about a similar
topic which is cold weather
jd asks what about winter and snow do i
have any tips for her
um jim says rv in the summer is easy
what are you going to do during the cold
winter months and finally robin asks
how do i prevent pipes and tanks from
freezing in the winter
okay so the winnebago trovato kl
national park edition
is actually a four season camper
or it's supposed to be a four season
camper so all of my water tanks have
heating pads and my volta lithium
battery pack
also has heating pads so theoretically i
should be able to
operate this vehicle in winter
however i can also chase the sun
i mean there are plenty places to go in
the winter
when you're van lifting in the u.s you
can go to utah new mexico
arizona california texas
florida georgia there's plenty of places
to go
when the cold weather hits so i'll
probably do
some cold weather camping but most of my
camping i think is going to be focused
on
um just chasing 70 finding warm weather
uh to camp in okay next up is janine and
she has a few questions so let me handle
these
one at a time the first is what national
park
or camp rv is most liked and why
so i'm not sure if you're asking for my
personal opinion or you're asking what
is the most popular
for people to go to so in my personal
opinion
it's teton national park now
i haven't been to a whole lot of
national parks so i'm basing that on a
very very limited amount
of experience if you ask me what is
probably the most popular in the us
it's definitely yellowstone for obvious
reasons it's like the subject of
probably 20 million national geographic
specials
it's amazing i haven't been there so i
can't say that i like it better than
teton
everyone tells me i'm gonna love glacier
but like i said my experience is limited
so let me get the yellowstone let me get
the glacier
let me get the crater let me get to
acadia and then i can answer this
question
better in the future next from janine is
am i staying in colorado
and or traveling as a group with others
so if you've been watching my videos you
know i'm not in colorado anymore right
now i'm in utah
filming this question and other
questions i'm in other states probably
i do plan on going back to colorado i am
going to be filming a couple of
van tours so i'll definitely be going
back um
to colorado the solo vs group travel
i do both um right now i'm traveling
solo i'm not traveling with anybody
but i just left teton national park
where i was traveling with
ginny um from the winnie b organization
and before that i was with a bunch of
escapers i was with
um amber from story chasing i was with
wendy whose
camper she toured and i just talked
about um it's a combination of both
whenever i run into people from escapers
or um winnebago owners i go hang out
with them
and then when i feel like going off and
doing my own thing i go off and do my
own thing like
i'm here in utah getting a lift put on
my van right so the answer to that
question is i do a little bit of both
and last from janine she wants to know
is there a membership fee to park
what are the time day limits and is
there a fine print that would keep you
from accepting mail and packages at
campsites or rv sites
okay so the mail question i think is
related to
rv miles recent video where they were
kicked out of an rv park because
they got a package sent so the answer
that question is
i'm sure a lot of rv parks have rules
i don't stay in a whole lot of rv parks
i actually am right now but i normally
don't do that
and so when i need a package sent to me
i find
a place in the town oh i almost fell
in the town i'm staying in that'll
accept packages sometimes you have to
pay
sometimes you can send it general
delivery to that town
normally i just find a place um that i
pay for that service
because that's to me that seems like the
most reliable
so to answer your question on limits i'm
not sure exactly what you mean
most rv parks are not limited other than
space available and you know the price
you have to pay
if you're talking about blm land and
national forest land
it's different depending on where you're
at when i'm in colorado most of it's 14
days
but if you watched my video where i was
in the tetons i stayed in the national
forest
and the limit was five days so it just
depends on
where you're at what the rules are
usually when you drive
into a national forest camping area
they're going to have signs up that tell
you so you're not going to have to guess
but you can always go to a site like
campendium or freecampsites.net
and it'll tell you usually how many days
you can stay
um in an area so i hope that answers
your question i'm not 100 sure if i did
if not go ahead and comment down below
and ask follow-up questions
next up from instagram zilla guy wants
to know what is the most limiting thing
about
band life that i wish i had more of
so i'm gonna steal this answer from my
friend kaz
the most limiting thing is the amount of
hot water i have
for long long showers i love
long showers and you just can't do that
when you're limited on the amount of
water
and the amount of hot water you can
produce
next up from instagram desiree
wonderlost wants to know about
blm roads are they paved gravel soft
honestly most of them have been pretty
good i mean they're usually gravel roads
so um they're not gonna be like driving
on
a highway or a paved road but for the
most part i've been really impressed
on how the national forest service and
bureau of land
land management maintains those roads
next up rv adventure gal from instagram
would like to know if i could make one
change to my van what would it be
alright so that's a good question what
would i change my rv and this is a
perfect location
we're standing next to a pit toilet here
in utah
so if i could change one thing about my
rv i'd switch out my toilet with a black
tank
with a cassette toilet because then i
could just
pull out the cassette toilet little
luggage thing
and carry it into a pit toilet and dump
it
i wouldn't have to look for a place to
empty my black tank
every time it filled up it'd be so much
more convenient
there are pit toilets everywhere
especially in the west
plus i could take that little cassette
toilet into
a fast food restaurant or any public
bathroom and dump it in there
robert lyle seaton from instagram wants
to know how often
do i shop for groceries so for those of
you who've been watching my channel you
know i don't cook much so i usually just
load up on non-perishables so i usually
go grocery shopping about every two to
three weeks
from instagram sarah aviram one of my
remote year homies wants to know
how many big bang theory episodes have i
watched
so that's one of the shows i always have
i want to go to bed so 97 episodes and
counting chad and paul from both
instagram and youtube
wants to know what's one thing that i
wish i could fit in my van
i wish i could fit more of my family in
my van so they can experience things
like
bridal veils falls here in provo utah
jimmy sayan from instagram wants to know
what a typical day
on the road looks like for me so my
typical day i get up
i answer comments obviously most of you
know i answer
every single comment i get on youtube if
you don't believe me
comment below and i'll answer it um
and then i'll usually go for a hike
um something like i'm doing right now
it's early in the morning
i just mentioned i'm at bridal veils
falls waterfall
uh here in provo so that's a pretty
short hike
um and then i'll go back and edit and
work on videos like i'm recording this
video right now
so i'm gonna go back and start editing
this thing and then i just kind of hang
out and try to figure out what to do
like everyone else does another remote
your buddy lindsay wants to know
what do i miss about living in an
apartment or a house
so this answer is pretty similar to an
answer i gave earlier what i miss about
living in an apartment or a house
is long showers i really miss being able
to take
a long hot shower the jill pill from
instagram wants to know
how do i find reliable wi-fi
so i'm still trying to figure that out
here in the us
i have a glocal me which is a chinese
company
and they provide pretty reliable
internet
in foreign countries and so i started
using that here in the u.s
and it's actually worked out pretty well
it's a little expensive
the plans a basically an unlimited plan
is about 150
a month but they use whatever
service is the best in the area so
sometimes it's att
sometimes it's t-mobile i'm not sure if
they use
verizon but i've never had an issue
connecting so far
so i'm really happy with that i also
have google phi because i was an
international traveler
and they used t-mobile sprint u.s
cellular things like that so that's what
i've done for now a lot of my friends
use att and verizon hot spots binola has
two questions
first do i feel closed in such a small
space
okay so my answer this question is you
don't really live in your van
you live out of your van so
the small space doesn't really bother me
because i end up in so
many open spaces bb nola 3's
next question is how much mechanical
knowledge does one need to live this
kind of lifestyle
so my navy friends that know me are
probably laughing at this question
because i know i'm not very
mechanically inclined all you really
need to know
is how to follow a maintenance schedule
anything that you need to be able to fix
you can fix it with this next up from
instagram angela watkins wants to know
if you're in a campground and decide to
drive somewhere
do you risk losing your campsite yeah so
when you're at a campsite that's not one
you paid for
you do risk losing your sight when you
leave the campsite to go explore
like explore things like this waterfall
but there are certain things you can do
to let people
around you know it's your site um you
can leave like some tables and chairs
or like uh some cones out or something
like that letting people know
you've claimed that campsite i've never
really had to do anything like that
i've always been able to keep my
campsite or hitch a ride with an escaper
buddy
so i don't think it's that big of a
concern next up another question from
robin
do i have to level my rv to accommodate
my fridge
and freezer when i park all right so
good question
my refrigerator does not need to be
level to operate
so i don't have leveling blocks i don't
really care about my vehicle being level
as long as my head is higher than my
feet
that's all i really care about and the
last question from
cyrus is do i miss having a relationship
while on the road
who says i don't have relationships on
the road filling
out my cup coffee talk on the screen
porch
so in love now you're the one i'm losing
sleep for
and i hope the wrong one slip right
through your magic fingers
and i hope we find some way to fall in
love like we were
yeah you're the only reason i was
california dreaming in the first place
