Car Tour Solo Woman Living in a Kia Soul SUV Car

hi everyone welcome back to my next video today we're meeting laura who is living for the moment i guess in a kia soul and that's an interesting choice so we're gonna ask her all about that and find out what's going on in her life so laura hello nice to meet you hi nice to meet you and uh you're traveling in the kia soul i am and how's that working i love it absolutely love it yeah i've been doing it for about two and a half months and i am full time now i don't have a place to go back to and i really really really like it oh wow that's really amazing and so how did you end up living in the kia soul well um i'm in the kia soul because that's what i already had so i was living in what i already had um and i've been you know working most of my life in an office and you know under the fluorescent lights and all that and i just realized that's not what i wanted to do anymore and um i just wanted to actually live life and be out and explore and see things and i was thinking of getting a van and then i thought well you know what let me start with what i already have and i like it i love it so far totally love it and so you're retired well not officially i'm living off the savings right now so yeah yeah and i'm looking forward to social security yeah it'll be a few years down but yeah that's exactly what i did i retired actually 10 years before social security so i had to wait a long time yeah but i had a small pension yeah but so you just have some money in the bank yeah i've been i knew i was going to want to do something different so i just kept saving as much as i could and then i ended i did take some money out of my retirement fund to be able to do this and of course you know most people would say oh no no you should work until the very end and even past the very end and keep working yeah and what was your motivation in uh kind of leaving early and just going yeah i've worked a lot in government and i see a lot of people working in government who are working for the pension like they're not happy they're just like trying to survive just until they can get their pension and i didn't want to be living my life to survive i realized that like none of us makes it out of life alive you know what i mean like instead of playing you say let's live and so i decided i wanted to go out and live while i can you know while i still can so that's what i'm doing and i'm loving it well i've been saying that's been my message for a long long time but um how did you i mean it's so it's difficult to make that decision your friends and family they must all have thought you were crazy yeah you know i was surprised though because at first i was afraid to tell people like my friends i live on the east coast and i just told them that i was leaving to travel to the west coast where i have family i didn't tell them i was like living in my car and so they were they were supportive oh okay you're moving to california to be with your family but as i started to tell people i was really surprised at how many how supportive people were like really they were excited like they wanted to do that but you know and then my family also i was like slowly telling them and so many people were really supportive i mean they like i think that they were kind of like vicariously wanting to do it themselves you know well you have my deepest admiration for your courage well thank you that's not an easy thing to do no well i mean a lot of it is is because i watched all the videos that you've done and i mean that i could not have done it if i hadn't seen all the people in vision that's why i normally i don't like cameras but i want you know i learned so much from the videos that i saw other people that's what gave me the courage to do it so i wanted to give back and you know in any way that i can to show people that you can do it and so there's probably an element of testing it out um and seeing how it works or are you just all in i'm basically all in i mean i i my at least in my apartment was up so i just i'm not going to renew it i have my car and obviously if i wanted to go back i could go get a job and you know get an apartment but i'm treating it as though i'm all in and i'm i'm totally happy like i haven't had any second thoughts yet and that's only been two and a half months but in two and a half months i'm just absolutely happier than i expected ever to be i really really like it wow and in the kia i would think that in a small and it's a small car i mean it's well-designed small car but it's small and i would think that uh my advice would have been to be into a minivan or something that would have been more comfortable but think about if this is working well how much better a little more space would be right and i think like eventually maybe i will want something bigger i mean at the moment i'm totally happy as long as i have my little privacy tent um i so far i am totally happy with what i have and i realize down the road i may want something a little bigger and that's fine you know but right now this is great and uh did you keep uh stuff in the storage i do you do now that's normal that's very common yeah yeah that's i know i probably the most people that i know who've done this kept a storage unit after a year or two they said why am i keeping this right right but it was it was a good thing to do yeah and i brought way too much stuff with me and then you know we just weeding it out you know and i've already gotten rid of so much stuff from my little car but yeah yeah that's the problem is with out with that little space uh too much makes your life very unpleasant shuffling it around finding it right right and so you've got it down now yeah i'm pretty i'm pretty happy with what i have now yeah good yeah very good so you would think of yourself as a minimalist then yeah when you have to be exactly you don't have much of a choice if you're in a small vehicle but yeah yeah and so when you were in your normal life normal life in quotes i think you're in your normal life now but what most people think is a normal life were you a minimalist in or did you have a lot of stuff i i had a lot of stuff um when i had a house and then i moved from my house to an apartment and i had to get rid of things and somebody said to me well you're a minimalist and i was like i'm arguing no i'm not i used to have a lot of stuff and then i realized you know what i'm happier with having less stuff so maybe i am a minimalist because really the less stuff i had the happier i was so yeah i guess i wasn't mental house and yeah so this has kind of been a normal progression house to apartment to kia soul that's the american way everyone does that exactly now a lot for a lot of people that come out they're a little bit afraid about lonely being lonely on the road and finding friends or will they become hermits and they go crazy uh have you had a problem finding friends and and being part of a community um no i'm actually i i think i'm a little bit of a hermit in the first place but um once i got i drove across from the east coast to the west coast and once i got here i um i joined the women's caravan from through howa and it's amazing i mean the women in this group i mean that's the women's chairman so it's all women but um people are so generous and so friendly and i've learned so much from everybody and it's just like you come in not knowing anybody and it's like as though you've known people your whole life i mean it's just everybody is just so wonderful and and like you said the generosity i mean if somebody i've just seen so many people somebody doesn't have something and somebody else just gives it to them i mean it's just you see that every day and it's amazing so yeah i've already made friends just you know in a week i've been here so yeah it is i think that of all i've done i think the caravans are the best thing i've done and i'm very grateful that people like you were coming out they have a place to go oh yeah a community waiting oh yeah very important yeah we've had like i took about a month to drive across so i was on my own during that month but we've had people who just like come here it's the first day they don't they've never camped before they don't know what they're doing and people just help them and and yeah everybody just feels really welcome and yeah it's wonderful well that raises another question that i try to always ask everyone is were you afraid i mean you hear so many stories and and you've lived in ivasuma city and so there are they're dangerous cities can be very dangerous were you afraid for your safety and in two and a half months has that been a problem um actually not because i've watched so many videos with people talking about how you know and you think logically you're you're in more danger in a city than you are when you're out here and you know i you know i lived in a city i mean literally in the city i went outside to the sidewalk i could walk everywhere um and and so being out here it's it's so much it just feels so much safer i mean i i didn't i wasn't afraid in the city either but it just yeah i don't i have not been afraid at all than i'm being out here not at all good yeah and i think that that's the story i hear all the time is that yeah i had a certain amount of fear but boy it just was it's not there yeah no no reason to be afraid yeah i think my my biggest fear when i first started out was people are going to know i'm sleeping in my car and i think well then what are they going to do i mean the worst thing they're going to do is ask me to leave you know what's going to happen you know just like you know the police are going to come and knock on my window oh i'm so scared right and that hasn't happened in any way i you see so many other people also in their cars so so like i'm not alone right absolutely you're not alone and my experience has been i think the experience of the community as a whole is that the majority of the time if if a cop knocks on your door and sees especially sees you're a woman alone his he's there to help you not to cause you harm now he may have to ask you to leave because of circumstances but he's not the bad guy right sometimes they are i mean that's that's true but most of the times they're not right so that's uh have you had a knock no no yeah and and the odds are you won't yeah so there you have it folks you know you every i all these uh questions i try to go through with everyone and the answers are all basically the same it's if it's been safe it's been fun you're making friends it's it's a it's a really good quality of life well would you mind with showing us around your kia the big tour of the team none at all show us how you you're fairly comfortable in it oh yeah very comfortable okay well let's check it out so now we're standing here at the back of your kia why don't you go ahead and show us how you've got it set up to live in okay this is sort of like my daytime mode um my bed's on this side you can see this uh it's actually a twin size futon fits in here from the back and right now it's folded down not all the way to the front but when you fold it down it hits the back of the passenger seat um these are my window covers which um someone showed me how to make they take up a lot of space but i really like them because they insulate really well and it's been cold at night and they're actually made with um like a foam board like a styrofoam and then i covered it with uh like a blackout curtain and then put duct tape around the outside and then if it's warmer when i first started out it was warmer weather and i have a little fold downstairs through my window a little bit and it falls down and can let some air in right and then i have a fan for when it's warmer right and then i keep my this is my laundry bag pillowcases are wonderful you can use them for so many things that's my laundry bag i keep out here and then at night time when i have the window shades are up i just put the laundry bag up here so i have room for my feet so this is kind of like a little uh cover and your feet go under it yes my feet go under this this is the cover that comes with the vehicle and um yeah my feet go under right here and then this is my i keep uh because when i'm traveling through cities and such as stay in parking lots this is my gym bag i have a gym membership so i just always keep my bag ready to go i can just grab it and go in and work out and take a shower and all that whenever i'm in the city uh who who are you your membership with it's actually i i found this membership it's not a silver sneakers because i'm not of that age but it's similar and it lets you go to all different gyms so i can go to planet fitness 24 hour really anytime fitness some some cities let you go to the ymca um just all kinds it's a little more expensive than just like a planet fitness membership but you can go to all these different places you know whatever i have back here i just move that to my to the front seat um just from the driver's seat i just you know move it over to the front seat and then i can fold this forward and then you know without the stuff there it lays flat and you're uh fairly tall and you can lay totally out really yeah that's impressive and um what holds the bed up i had i had these two bins at home in the first place and then i have a little um you know this little white bin on top and i had those already and they just happened to fit so like that's great yeah there's perfect that's amazing it just happened to be the exact right height my food is in those bins okay the top thing has my food in it the bottom bin has like extra stuff like you know my big jug of vinegar because i only have a vinegar and spray bottle the extra big jug all the stuff that i don't have to get to very often isn't that bottom and then i keep when i'm driving i keep a black sheet just it covers everything so if somebody looks in the window they just see black and then i just use bags that i already had so you know you know underwear and stuff in this bag and my shirts are in this bag and you know sticky bags right they get smaller and fit in little nooks and crannies you got to fill all the nooks and crannies then i have my pillow which i take to the campfire with me and this has my winter coat and extra sheets and extra towels oh wow that's a great idea sit on it at the at the campfire and have a nice cushy seat great idea put it on top of my stool right and then i have my water i keep my cap carry four gallons of water on the floor there and here behind you is the most important thing of all this is wonderful okay yeah this is my privacy tent i absolutely love it um you can shower in it which i haven't done yet but it's also a wonderful bathroom a restroom yes um and it folds up it just folds up and it twists and it goes into this nice little bag um and it's just like about this thick takes no space it's great the wind will blow it a lot so um like the pillowcases are a great thing this is my bag of rocks what a good idea when it's blowing too much i just lay it down and put the rocks on top of it and then it won't at least it won't get damaged i hope in the wind right now right right and so uh you're just using a um a standard bucket yeah it's got a bucket and yeah the normal things we all have and so you're probably getting pretty fantastic mileage here out of the uh kia yeah i just checked it's been 28 29 miles to the gallon for probably basically over the average of the whole trip yeah yeah yeah that's pretty amazing yeah it was great so yeah so that's a really nice thing and then when i do i still do you know like i go into cities and i'll stay in a parking lot go to the gym in the morning and then explore the city and you know you can park anywhere because it's just you know it's just a car and you know just go anywhere you want to go no one thinks a thing of it yeah no one in their right mind would be living in a kia okay fortunately the only only the people in their right minds would be living in the camp that's the way i look at it you got to be in your wrong mind to live in a house yeah because i mean you can go anywhere you want right you're not stuck in the same place yeah look at the view right you can change your view every day if you want to and you're just starting out but it's probably been pretty cheap to live this way oh goodness yes and your savings will i would imagine would go a long ways yeah i actually i actually needed new tires on my car and i was like oh it's so expensive but then i realized it was less than one month rent yeah you know like for four new tires even though they were i guess i don't know i didn't realize they were more expensive than your standard tires what i needed for my car but it was still less than one month rent so i was like okay it's not that bad uh how are you having electricity we all have some mechanic electrical devices we need right right yeah what i did was i took i took your advice while but you said not to buy things until you're kind of out and see what you need so i didn't buy them like i didn't buy this until i was out um i bought a little um a little generator like 150 watt um generator which i have in my um in my car right now and then like and that can i charge up my phone three times on it and it didn't even go down from like five bars to four bars it hardly used any energy at all and um but i realized if i'm going to be staying out you know out here in the desert for for time i'm going to have a need to have a way of charging my generator back up so then i just bought some like i don't have to call them a suitcase solar panel but it's just the ones that they're really really thin and unfolds and unfolds into four little panels it's 100 watt and um you know just sit that out in the sun and it charges it up right away real quick and now those with your minor use 100 watt panel would is all you're gonna never need more than i need yeah that's why i don't even have it out today because i charged everything yesterday i don't need to charge anything that's nice yeah that's nice and so you had a fan and that will become more and more important as the year goes on uh is it 12-volt or usb yes usb yeah and so that's fantastic too and when i started i started out in in the southern east and even in the beginning of november it was hot so i used the fan when i started and now it's you know chillier at night so i don't need it at night right yeah and i have a usb um uh light rechargeable light i don't use my car so i can read or whatever yeah little usbs will go a long long ways you can go a long ways on those and after a while you'll know exactly what you want maybe you'll want to get bigger maybe you won't yeah uh i've known people who lived in well my friend suanne she's lived in her prius for on and off for 10 years and really likes it i like to see when other people are talking about turning when it's cold at night they're talking about turning on their heaters right i have not needed a heater like i haven't had to turn my car on for heat it's just i guess a small space and you know the windows are well insulated when i put my covers up mm-hmm i've been totally warm every night i mean warm i'm not like i'm shivering i've been totally toasty warm and by the morning the whole car is warm wow that's good i'm good it's been a very cool uh uh winter so far here in the desert it's been in the 30s absolutely quite a few nights yeah and i had one night that was in the 20s and i was still totally warm wow that's amazing yeah it's good uh do you have a divider that you separate the front and the back with uh i have i i made a have a curtain that i can use but i haven't even used it because i just put covers on all the windows and so i don't even i haven't used it having soup for lunch so i have it on my windshield up there heating up in the sun [Laughter] do you have a stove i don't know that's the thing i don't um i've eaten a lot i mean i'm i'm vegan and i you know anyway in the first place so um and i've also eaten raw over times in my life and so i'm good with eating raw and so i just said you know what when i first start out i'm not gonna worry about it i can just eat you know get get food and eat it um but i did buy a um like a sort of like a little tea kettle it hates one and a one and a half cups of water and i can i can use it on my little generator thing can heat it up and so i have boiling water so i actually had some quinoa yesterday and put some dried vegetables in like freeze-dried vegetables and my quinoa and i had a nice nice warm meal yeah good good yeah makes uh find ways to make things work well laura thank you so much for sharing your home with us and your new life i sounds wonderful to me and i hope it just keeps getting better and better oh thank you folks i hope you've been inspired by laura's story and i'm sure you have if you have like us on youtube subscribe to the channel hit that thumbs up button and we'll talk to you later [Music] you

Channel: CheapRVliving

Views: 232,748

Keywords: live, living, car, van, RV, Full-time, nomad, gypsy, camper, camp, boondock, travel, snowbird, caravan, tiny, house, tribe, RTR, adventure

Id: Fjf2McDPLy0

Length: 19min 46sec (1186 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 03 2020