Solo Female Surviving Hard Times By Finding Safety Living In a Minivan “Van Tour”

hi i'm gail and i'm in saskatoon right now this is my 2008 dodge caravan um come and take a look at my home [Music] do [Music] do i got into van life um i i guess i'm an army brat and i'm used to kind of when i was a kid making forts and living in the bush stealing my dad's ration packs in petawawa in central ontario but um i've been in a 30-year relationship um that became very toxic and as a female i needed a safe place and so i tucked away some money and i created my own safe place because i didn't want to live in a transition house i wanted to be independent and on my own so after 30 years of being in that relationship i'm downsizing to this and i'm going to start a new life somewhere else and i'm not going to be in a big rush to hop into a situation where i don't feel safe i'm always safe in this van i don't even feel safe in the house i'm trying to sell right now but i feel so safe in this van it's my cocoon so anyway here it is most of my stuff um was bought actually um in value village or um scavenged from other things um canadian tire home depot so i'll start with here's my dresser i picked this up at value village it all folds up it has these great pockets on the side this is part of my security system i have an air horn i picked up at home depot in the boat section i have my bat with my dad's army uh old army cord on here actually um and in here is um some dog spray from cabela's um and i also have bear spray so as a female traveling by myself you'd like to have that security um so i have my fire smoke detector i have carbon monoxide detector and i just pull them out as i use them but for traveling i pack them away so i actually built um this in three different pieces it can all come out in three different pieces uh one okay uh two and the bottom part the section you can't see is three so they haven't really changed the design too much of dodge caravans everybody drives one it seems like and a great one to boot so it kind of really blends in stealth was important for me because of safety and not wanting people to know where i was so i picked a dodge caravan because i knew i could pick up parts anywhere from any junkyard if i needed to and i have and um i needed to live cheaply so i picked this up um actually it's a sgi write-off um for five thousand dollars um and there's a fellow in town by the name of um mitch he knew my story and he helped me build it so under here is some storage and my bathroom there's actually a porta potty in there okay um it opens in several different ways i can flip up this way i can flip back this way depending on what i want to get to right away um the quilt value village my sheepskin value village inside of these um king size uh pillow shams are sleeping bags so they serve two purposes so there's my lightweight one and this is my heavy duty one uh so i can go into like minus like 28 with this guy and i have used him um so what i like about this is it's long enough that i just stuff a pillow between i'm five seven and a half now i stick a pillow between the two chairs and i have got enough room to stretch out so when i want to relax i have my shades lounge [Music] [Music] we have the stone go seats in here so the stone go obviously was ripped out of this one to put the bathroom in uh the other stone go is still in there so i can actually travel legally with three people i did leave all my seat belts intact because i didn't want any sensors going off and messing up stuff like that i left this seat belt in as well and i clipped it in here i bolted it in here so uh i can't travel technically with people in here bolted in here or strapped in here but what i do is i've got a box that i can fit here and then i can strap it in so if i step on the brakes it's going to be locked in place okay i'm all about safety um so underneath in the stone go is on one section is my water and it's just a simple pump sink that i've put in here and this is a bowl from dollarama and i don't have any gray water um catch right now i have enough room for it but um i use biodegradable soap magnetic bars are from ikea um i found my mirror in value village and as you see it as i travel it can fold and stick right in the sink as i travel and so back here is more magnet bars just again value village but i do believe they're from ikea and i have magnets everywhere i find that really really helps here we have just little containers on these magnets for the little things that you need like you know sewing kit or safety pins elastic bands i picked this one up just at giant tiger yesterday um super cheap like the automotive ones um and my little lighter bits in there more magnets over here small storage i have my little fan that clips to the seat belt i picked that up at canadian tire i have two of them actually and that's what i like about this van is these windows do open on the sides even this older version 2008 and you'll see when i built my reflectix i actually put screen in my reflectix and little doors so both fans can really kind of get the air moving in here so you're not too hot so this is the coolatron i picked it up used uh for ten dollars so it works just fine for me you know i have used it to haul things so you'll notice there's some it's got some marks in here some character built up uh i recently just um helped fence in an area for goats and stuff so i had to bring in some t-bars um which is not not a problem every little ding tells a story and i love it um this is a 1000 watt pure sine wave inverter and again because i have the stone go seats there's a basement where the battery sits and it's hooked up to the van battery uh if i'm traveling down the road and want to charge this up i just click this on and it charges it um there's my battery maintainer um it's very important to i found out the hard way very important to maintain your batteries you can't just leave it in the winter and then not touch it take care of them and they will last you much much longer so this was all done up in the summertime along with the plumbing um i have my little i like the ambiance from this what's that store um as seen on tv i just saw it and i love fireplaces i absolutely love fireplaces they mellow me right out and i i'm i have a very peaceful life now i am so much happier um and i just i'm so relaxed in here and this actually gets a good giggle because uh even in times where um people have there's a fireplace ban i've literally brought this out and stuck it in the middle of the group so we all have something to stare at so anyway um this bar i picked up uh walmart and it has um those usb plugs a lot of this stuff runs on usb my fan runs on usb um i have some lights oh this light i love this light from uh canadian tire it's really um really powerful so this is the reflectix that i had left over from a project in my house i built a stream room but there was also a small hot tub and there's hot tub insulation that you get so i took packing tape and i just sandwiched them together and in between actually i put one of those screens uh from dollarama that you can cut up so those sit in the in the side windows and my fans clip onto the seat belts and they can lift the air around your side that's a good i've also done that with the um front windows as well it's a little peekaboo spot too that's great yeah i plan on getting the rain guards for the side windows so that way i can still have air circulating through and if it rains it's not going to come into the van so i went to the wrecking yard i found these little these guys have been very helpful but i went to a wrecking yard and i went to every dodge caravan and i started uh taking them out because i find these tie downs really help i struggled for the longest time trying to figure out where i'm going to put these reflectix and this is just easier and i actually have them in a certain order so i can be in my van and pull them out and i know exactly which one i want at the time so i have my little solar charger on that on the lid of this but this is my candle heater there's a candle heater in here um so again i pie these straps i buy these straps at like dollarama and i just screwed them onto the back um again at the wrecking yard i found uh stuff like this these little bungees that are coming out of other vehicles and i just yeah strapped or screwed them in there um all my extra cords are in there again with the choroplast if you take a look i modified this room a little bit this basement this is where my water sits this water container you can get them at um cabela's so the hose just actually weaves in through the little holes that are already in there and it goes right down into my tank so and i also built this so there's about 38 days worth of dehydrated food in here kind of a prepper that way um if you take a look it always stays cool in the basement okay so even if you have medicine this is the place to keep it right because even on a hot day even without this um reflectix it was nice and cool down here so i built this since then and this is just an old fanny pack i got from value village so you don't want your medications getting hot and bothered right otherwise they're not gonna work um so it actually pulls right out in one piece that's the one thing i did spend money on is the sea to summit dishes i have bigger ones as well and then of course there's pokey and gummy to keep me company so it pulls out my working seat and my stove fits there [Music] so [Music] so yeah i just i want people to know that um you know if you're in a bad situation uh you can make it better for yourself and it didn't take much it didn't take much at all i probably built this for under a thousand dollars definitely a lot of stuff found uh scavenged tuck your money away when you go out to walmart you can always get an extra little bit here and there to put away dehydrated food um a little pillow whatever you need to do and make a plan ahead of time make a plan ahead of time i this was in my head for six months before i built it i i knew the end was coming i needed to be safe and so this is what i created um i i just took off and did it all in one weekend with a friend you just need to know that you don't have to be stuck in a bad spot plan ahead and whether you're 54 like me or 17 and you can buy a minivan and do it all up i'm happy here i'm i'm safe i know exactly where everything is um i i'm much happier sorry i'm gonna cry i give me a second um i suffer from ptsd now because of staying in a relationship um that went way past what i should have stayed in um but just know that there you can create your safety um you can you can create your piece uh don't give up um just make a plan be safe if you have to go to a transition house go to transition house [Music] i know when i get to where i'm going i feel like i'm not going to be in a big rush i'm not going to get myself in a situation where i'm going to be living in a sketchy place i'm going to be in my van i'm going to be safe i can take the time to make good choices for me what's best for me and it'll all unfold um as it's meant to be that's just my belief okay that's perfect [Music] you

Channel: VANCITY VANLIFE

Views: 1,585,644

Rating: 4.9554224 out of 5

Keywords: vancity vanlife, vancity van life, van life, vanlife, van life canada, solo van life, solo female van tour, solo female van living tour, van tour solo female traveler, van life tour solo female traveler, van conversion tour solo female, van tour full time solo female traveler, van conversion, travel, van tour, solo female traveler, tiny home, solo female van life, camper van, van your, tour a campervan, minivan life, mini van camper, micro camper, female van life

Id: -9jVhanqeZY

Length: 18min 7sec (1087 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 02 2020