Tour of Nomad Living in a Minivan

hi everyone welcome back to my next video today we're going to meet a really interesting person i think you're going to really enjoy meeting jayden hi jaden hello hi bob and uh you're a young guy you're fairly young yet and how are you're out on the road full time yeah and uh you got quite an interesting setup here uh what uh what led you to be being out on the road um i did it like two years ago for a couple months after college and then uh then when the coronavirus hit i uh when i found a job and worked there for did iron work for a couple almost two years and then decided to hit the road again and this time i really want to make it to south america hopefully so do some international travel yeah yeah yeah at least to panama we'll see if i can get to south america from there but it's kind of a pain to do that yeah after panama gets a little more exciting yeah it is the crossing is very difficult yes uh yeah and so uh how are you supporting yourself now uh just mostly savings and also a little bit of crypto trading so yeah but i saved up quite a bit and and i don't live expensively right that you barely know with cheaply yeah whatever money you get you save so that's really how the way to do it and you're a musician on the road and are you making any money doing that uh i haven't this time yet but last time i traveled i made pretty decent money um busking in a few like touristy areas like sedona and taos those were pretty good spots so i'm gonna definitely go back there to those places pretty soon right and play play a little bit it's a really good way to meet people too and so a lot of people are be thinking well that's all well and good but aren't you thinking about your future what about your age no definitely um i have it you know i got my environmental engineering degree and i haven't really used it yet i did do a couple internships but i really wanted to work with my hands for a few years so that's why i did construction ironworking and i really wanted to get more travel experience in because um i have like in my early 20s i did travel internationally and it was amazing lots of ups and downs but amazing experience and there's this cool website it's called work away and you can you can do volunteer work of like pretty much anything in exchange for room and board so that's kind of going to be my means of travel so traveling internationally right yeah and also in the states my first work way is in the states oh so you have one plan i do yeah it's in southern arizona yeah it's at a homestead oh so you'll be working and they'll provide you room and board a little bit of pay they uh some of them do provide pay yeah but not this one not this one just work just room and board yeah yeah then you get to see experience different things yeah for sure yeah i uh when i was uh first starting out as a work camper i looked really hard at a job at a ranch and uh that's hard work but i just thought i would like to work on a ranch yeah save some money yeah so yeah i can understand that that urge to do that uh so really you're just you're sowing your wild oats and who knows where you go from here kind of yeah pretty much i mean i sort of got it planned out i'm not going to be at the southern arizona place for a couple weeks so i have time until then but i'm gonna definitely mostly be you know traveling around and playing some music before then so yeah yeah it's all new you can do anything you want that's the great thing about this life is of course the freedom the freedom right yeah it's awesome uh so why don't you go ahead and show us around your rig it's pretty impressive what you got here thank you all right let's check it out sure this is my privacy curtain canvas thing i got from home depot and uh obviously it's kind of windy here so it needs some rocks and i made this little tucking thing right here and i can just stuff everything in there when i need to shut the gate and uh that is my storage area right there that's all just you know leftover wood from various projects of some sort and i can fit like my bike and guitar and keyboard stand and a few other few other essentials in there right and uh obviously i sleep there and put a bunch of miscellaneous stuff on top of the shelf thing and uh the lighting is the electrical which is very minimal it's just you know a small solar panel that i actually found on the side of the road wow you just found it on yeah yeah and it's enough to charge my battery so i can play my you know electric piano and charge my devices right behind the seats here i can fit um it'd take a while to demonstrate but i can fit like here i'll take that uh i can fit this a black this black table put my keyboard on top of the table and then there's that little thing on the ground that i put on my keyboard so when i'm stuck in my van for whatever reason i can just like cook on it and stuff that's pretty much it oh and i do have a little bit of stuff on the top i got these uh bottles right here and i drilled some holes in the roof and sealed them with silicone and i got a little water system that water is primarily just for washing things not for drinking although it is drinkable and they have a little tap kind of hidden away in the van so the water is in the hose yeah it's it's in the pipes and then they go go down the the other system is for a potential shower i haven't made it yet or i haven't completed it yet it needs some work but i will once i'm more settled in a place with tools that i can use so yeah that's interesting so you got your spare up there yeah if you carry water up there and your hot water heater is up there yeah yeah at least it will be i actually probably should use the abs pipe and not a drain pipe yeah i'm not sure that would be uh food no foods it was a lot cheaper so i got it but uh yeah i need to replace it right right it's amazing how much stuff you can fit in this little minivan right and you've got no money in the build yeah scrap lumber yeah to build that wall yep pretty much and that's it yeah i did spend you know a little money on the plumbing stuff right yes tire and not much else really oh yeah it's pretty great so you're going just about as cheap as you can go here pretty much yeah yeah in this van i mean i i've had it for a couple years and uh i took it on this uh off-road event called the gambler 500 which is like really popular in oregon and a few other places and it survived that i mean i didn't drive i didn't drive it very carefully you know and uh tell us a little bit about the van well it's a 2000 honda odyssey it's got i bought it when i had 180 000 miles i bought for 1800 and i've put another over 40 000 miles on it and i did have to unfortunately replace the transmission a few years ago or have it rebuilt but i got it done at this place in california that was like a fourth the cost of anywhere else i could find so it wasn't you know it wasn't a bad deal and i like it because obviously it's roomy and it gets pretty good gas mileage um like i've gotten about 25 on the freeway which is pretty decent and uh super reliable well it's a honda you know that kind of says it all right there it has an amazing engine that's a that's the big thing it's the engine is great they just make great things whatever they make is really good yeah for sure so uh this is your life for the time being yes and uh it's you're probably enjoying every little bit of it i am i sure am so out of the uh since you've been doing it uh what has surprised you by how hard it's been uh i think the hardest part so far was probably when the rainstorm came a couple days ago and everything i do is like outside so i pretty much just hunkered around hunkered down in my van did a couple little chores like fix my bike up a little bit and then once it really started raining i just drove around and like explored the area and just kind of like hunkered down in it in the evening and like read and you know watch netflix and stuff and it was a little you know i got all i put every single thing inside my van so i was a little cramped and i didn't take that much time like really packing it tight so but other than that i was fine definitely a fair weather camper though so you know yeah yeah you need a lot of space uh if you're gonna be inside a lot yeah for sure that's the problem the minivans are great for so many things but uh they don't have a lot of extra space yeah that's true honestly i like just about everything um i think i can i thought i was an introvert but i think i'm more of an extrovert so when i'm by myself for a few days it gets kind of lonely so i really like having a caravan to spend you know spend time with people and get to know other people um but yeah probably like the times when i've been like alone for a while are kind of tough but i also think it builds character you know so yeah you probably need both yeah just like everything else in life yeah definitely find a balance yes whatever balance works for you yeah so uh one thing i have to ask everyone is uh how do you go to the bathroom well you have we saw you have a toilet tint there yeah and i'm you're just using a bucket i bucket and trash bag and i scoop dirt over it and call it good and it's fine yeah and showering showering you know i just go find a body of water and clean off eventually i want to make that shower work so that'll be my shower right so yeah anyway if i can't find a body of water i'll just wipe wipe down you know uh so do you want to play us something cheryl play a little bit alrighty okay [Music] shhh [Music] and that can go on forever [Music] do [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] oh it died so you're not just plinking around you're you're trained yeah i took uh lessons for like all my childhood pretty much four to eighteen classical mostly and i did a lot of like you know jazz bands and uh some like chamber orchestra um guitar ensemble in high school that was fun and been in a couple little bands um when i was younger but right now i just i've been playing so long just by myself i like to just pull an instrument out and just play it and what other instruments are you carrying uh i'm carrying a classical guitar right here and um it's a flamenco guitar that my grandpa he lent it to me like 10 years ago and i think he forgot about it so i'm still happy you know violin what else do i have oh yeah my mandolin which is in my van um a harmonica which is somewhere i don't know where it is right now and i have a melodica which is like this little it's i need to tape it but it's like this little um little keyboard that you like blow into but the hose broke so yeah it's fun to play the keys and with my left hand and then this was my right hand so yeah very very good and this is my my newest instrument [Music] yeah again really really good amazing thanks [Music] i don't know very very good i have to warm up yeah honestly but and show us your gym my gym okay my gym uh this is my my gem right here oh yeah i got these weights too these are really handy it's weird how useful dumbbells are for like weighing things down like those canvas and uh and then this is my kind of macgyvered pull-up bar i've had it for a couple years and i think i need to like replace the boards um but yeah it works just fine and you just like unscrew it and i put it on my roof when i'm done using it so you can jump up there and reach that uh i have no i can't i have to put a couple carpet squares down right before i can jump up i mean right now oh yeah i guess you can yeah like i can reach it but as you can see it's a little wobbly it's a little wobbly but it adds to the workout you know because you gotta like stabilize your body while you do pull-ups so yeah it's fun yeah well jayden thank you so much for sharing your or your life with us it's uh really really admirable so do you have any final words to other young people who are considering doing this oh just do it just do it even if even if you have a miserable time which you won't but even if you do you'll still have good memories and it'll build character and you'll feel accomplished for being able to live so simply and uh and see so many things that you won't see otherwise you know there's so many so many surprises when you travel you know anywhere just around even around your state or province or whatever so much to see out there you know so just go just do it i don't think i've ever heard anyone say anything wiser you've learned much in your young life well i hope to learn keep learning yeah good good well folks i'm sure you have learned from this video and been inspired thank you jaden i really appreciate your sharing your your story with thank you bob i really appreciate all you you and your team do it's really awesome thank you really inspiring so folks if you got anything out of this video like us on youtube subscribe to the channel hit that thumbs up button and we'll talk to you later bye now

Channel: CheapRVliving

Views: 47,804

Keywords: car, van, RV, Full-time, nomad, camper, camp, boondock, travel, caravan, tiny, house, RTR, Bob Wells, Nomadland, CheapRVLiving, Cheap RV Living, vanlife, van life, how to live in a van, van dwelling, van tour, van conversion, living in a van, camper van, van build, diy van build, sprinter van, van living, #vanlife, van dweller, campervan, vandwelling, diy camper van, RV Life, Living in an RV, Class B, Class C, Truck Living, Living in a car, boondocking, Living in a RV

Id: cBwbyZGuFEA

Length: 16min 47sec (1007 seconds)

Published: Sun May 01 2022