VAN TOUR: Elizabeth’s No-Build Ford Transit 250 short wheelbase

it's a Ford Transit 250 and it's a low roof and the shortest wheelbase I'm Elizabeth I'm from Central Alabama and this is my first van Meetup here in DeLand Florida and I have enjoyed it very much it's exciting and you welcome you finally you find your Kindred Spirits because everybody's got that same feeling because they're all here so it's been so much fun I feel like I've made friends and want to travel with them and everything but I just want to show you my van I was an antique and vintage dealer for years and this was my work vehicle this is what I carried all my stuff around down and then when I got out of the business I was trying to figure out what would I do with this then I started watching videos and seeing the van life and all that kind of stuff I thought it's a low roof but I'm going to go with it I don't spend all my time in there anyway I call her Gypsy Pearl I liked having like when I'm walking up from like we're around the campfire this is solar powered and I'm just going to keep it in the windshield so to charge while I'm driving and I just added a battery to the back and I just put it up here it's from Harbor Freight very inexpensive I can't remember how much it was was less than ten dollars I just sold this back like this I do this so that I can work like a mosquito during the day I leave these my back doors open because my lights automatically shut off these are tables these are like end tables and um that's what my bed is on and because they were Oak and there were 15 for both of them I couldn't buy the wood for that here's the plywood and then this is I'll tell you this is ratchet strapped through here just to hold everything down and um I haven't I've got to redo some things here this this is not working so great for me but it it's a process like I said it can progress right and the more you use it the more you're like oh that's not gonna work let me try this and I use bungee cords to hold things in like see here's my little table this is my my toolbox and my some emergency things I was looking for you know those bed sub tables you see everywhere at thrift stores usually they're solid wood 99 of the time and they just got at least two drawers in them and they're kind of low that's what I was looking for because out there I'll have drawers and I'll have a base for my bed and they're a little lower than these tables are when I start looking for them couldn't find them so I found these and my nephew built this so that if I find what I'm looking for he said all I gotta do is unscrew some things and pull these out and pop them in there and screw them back down so y'all come on in and check out my little gypsy wagon I have not insulated it I have not you know done any of that so use magnets are my friend because I've got all this metal roof everything's on magnets and this these are just the little puck lights you know you can get and they have a remote control right here so I can get in bed and turn off my lights and that's my bedside table these have got those same lights in them but they're just little um you know Silver Plate you know those Silver Plate serving dishes and stuff and I took the tape as that real thick tape I got in my drawer I can show you in a minute and I can still take them off change the batteries put them back in and they have stayed up through the Alabama heat they have stayed in there hanging up and didn't fall off and I just like the way it looks and I just got them on some magnet hooks up there those are really strong magnet hooks the Ford transits had these big thick styrofoam covers because that's where all the electrical is and I decided to use it as a bulletin board that was my grandkids these are just old Atlas maps that I've put up there with a little again magnets and I had the the down the road flash card I had in the picture here it just got a road and it's got the mountains and so it's it's hooked up there with magnets and vintage Fields this right here is in a little oil painting that I was helping a friend clean out a barn and um I found that little oil painting and I loved the Stream So I tucked it up there again with magnets these are just silly little things you know those are just little old cuckoo clocks but they don't work some people would not like this to be too cluttery for them but I like this feel I feel like I'm in a like in a Cracker Barrel yes yes that's what's fascinating to sit around and look at everything yes and these are just pieces of wood from you know from uh old pieces of furniture I just glued magnets on the back of them the little Mexicans hung in my mother's car for years I gave them to years and years ago and they hung in her her car window and she has to mention now so she can't drive or anything like that so I've got them in here this was my business so I had to put her up there that was my price tags and my business cards was the front and she's from an old postcard um my grandfather lost his mother when he was seven months old and the Spanish flu so all he had of hers was a book of postcards that she had collected like 1905 to about 1915 somewhere in there she was in there and there was other pictures of people in there we think she was the little sister of the others they're my family but I don't know who she is we don't know for sure so I'll just call her Lulu but she she had to come along you know I just I've I've that's been my identity for so long my little spice rack right there those are little baby socks those are my grandkids and my daughter's socks when baby baby little tiny socks when they grew out of them I just cut the bottoms off and put them around those jars to help them keep them from rattling the fun little thing that I you know this got them with me and my cousin built this and this it's out of old molding house moldings everything in here has been for a while just to make sure I'm gonna like it the way it is before I permanently nothing's gonna be permanent except for my bed but um I think I'll just screw this down to here to this piece of wood and so it can just stay there I'll still move those out when I travel obviously this is not travel mode I went simple you know I didn't I've been here for I've been in here for four days and my little 240 jackery still has 45 power on it so yeah it's just a little bitty 240 because nothing runs on power except for my phone and I charge my fans and these little fans from Walmart are fifteen dollars at least they were who knows what they are now but they charge USB charge and they've got these little legs that you can adjust and they will last I used it all night and then part of the next night I have two of them so I can swap them out or I can just plug them into my jacket and just have them on all the time but they're great and they're from Walmart and but I like these little legs and that fits and that's a cup holder from Harbor Freight and so I've just put it I fold these up and slide it down in there and it stays put got a little hook on the top also so if you want to hang it you can my bed is just um it's just the y'all can see all my mess my bed is just you know wood but that's just a memory foam mattress that I ordered I ordered the mattress that was you know in the little bag and we let it unroll in the in the frame I wouldn't have been able to wrestle this in here we've got these little bump outs and I'm I'm used to be five nine I'm probably about five eight now five seven and a half but that allows me to sleep this way and I sleep I can sleep stretched out by using the space where a window would be I might eventually insulate and do all of that but this is working for me right now in the winter time if I go somewhere I'll probably stay in a campground where I've done this I've I've camped in here in the upper 30s but I was in a campground and I had electricity so I ran a little ceramic electric heater so that's dry heat and I'm constantly checking from condensation and I'm not finding it here now I'm not saying there's not any you know somewhere else because this first time I've had a mattress like this in her I haven't caught before and it ran this way and took up so much room you know so far it's working for me I like it I put this in here that's you know my storage uh that's my stove this lip keeps it from flying out I don't cook in here I'll pull it out and cook in there okay so is this actually an antique here well it's probably about 40s 1940s and it's just it's got the cap and these clothes I put things here to keep it from opening but I just keep you know my um things in here my drawers open up and there's another cabinet there and I'll just I just my drawers work really well it's crammed right now I do know after this been here this long there's some rearranging I need to do this is this right here that's my toilet episode on my bench I wanted it I had I asked my nephew to build the box for me he has all the tools he has the knowledge I think I could have done it but he had everything he needed and I was more than happy to pay him a little bit to do it for me and it's just you know this is where I store my stuff I Put A real toilet lid on it and I just have the bucket underneath and it works great and um he screwed that in into the wood for me made sure it's good thick wood enough to hold that what type of material do you use in your toilet in your bucket um I use the the pine pellets you know that you get from Harbor Freight the horse bedding uh pellets but I also found I recently read it somewhere I saw it on YouTube I'm sure they're the pads that go in the bedside toilets for when you have you know having to take care of an elderly person or you know your little bedside pull it you can hit by your bed you know this on the frame and they're little pads that go in there that when you urinate it it turns to jail like a diaper and so I put those in there depending on usually you still have to use that one every time you might can get by with two it just depends on how much you go or how much you drink how much you drink exactly but then when I do other than that um I sprinkle the pellets on it but I as soon as I do that I wrap it up and pull it out and you know tie it off right and look for garbage can if not I think I'm going to get another bucket with a gamma lid on it you know the screw on Lids that if I'm in a place that doesn't have garbage that I can throw out easily or quickly I'll set it outside and put it in there you know and then get rid of it when I find a place that I can I enjoy having this it's and it's yes and I strap it down when I'm traveling and stuff but um it works great for me to be able to sit you know I can just about reach everything this is just a piece of driftwood from um from Fort Morgan Alabama where you know and one of my favorite places to go this this is my sink it's just a vintage enamel uh bowl and just the water dispenser and of course I got again all that comes down when I'm traveling you know if I get doing this more and more then it might be something I want to do I have a husband who we've been married 42 years and he is very encouraging of this you know know he's go do what you want to do you know my daughter and she's like Mom go my husband's a retired police officer so he's a little little you know can you you know he gets worried about some of the things that you know talk about camping out you know at bmland or something like that so I might keep telling that's something I want to do and he's like I don't know he doesn't like the idea of me being out there by myself but he is comfortable the fact that I can pull away I think somebody be pretty crazy yes to come here with a this many women in bands yes and we got stuff in here oh yeah we do we got stuff yes we do and then you know I keep my key over here I have a hook and I keep my my van key I keep both of my sets of keys but I keep my van key here so I could hit my you know my panic button you know on my vein on my my alarm thing on my fan I'm cautious I pay attention to my surroundings if I'm feeling uncomfortable I'm not going to stop there even at a gas station on the way here I need to go the bathroom I pulled I was like nope and I pulled up you know went to another one and amazing how we know sometimes sometimes you can't even say well that person looks sketchy or something or other and you don't know why it's just you just know just go with your gut instincts you've got everything not just this your whole life you need to deal everything you do in your life you need to go to those instincts that's why we have them and just to trust those instincts sometimes it might work out sometimes you might have been wrong but I'd rather me rather yeah I'd rather be wrong than to not do it and not go against my instincts and find out that I should have and so um but I enjoy it I just it's just something I enjoy doing it gives me a chance to I enjoy being by myself some I'm not a person that has to be around people all the time but I enjoy being around people like you know last night the campfire when we're all sit around campfire I was that was wonderful and but I also enjoy being by myself too I'm comfortable by myself you know I didn't cost you very much money at all uh the most expensive thing was probably the wood for the bed but most of this stuff was done with scrap between what I had and what my nephew had and um these rag rugs came from Five Below for five dollars a piece and you know I had I bought this in a place in Oklahoma and uh about you know these were my cousins and these are just shears that I've got back there but I keep them close together and they work great to keep bugs on I've got magnets on the side just to kind of close them down and I'm able I've never slept with them open but I like it to have this open in this opening to get that breeze going and I leave it open most the days you need to be okay with your own thoughts you know some people don't want all that going on you know because when I'm alone my brain's running more because I'm you know I'm thinking something's happening in there yeah something's going on but um you know so they you know I I'm fine with that and then I'm also comfortable around people and and I think a good mix of that is is what life is good about you know do that for life you you can you can be alone and you can be with people so that makes life a lot easier you know and I know everybody can't and no judgment on that it's just it's my personality yeah I really respect the women that have to overcome anxiety to do this I have so much I think they are the bravest absolutely I have a hard time understanding ending it but but you know we I get that anxious like we all do you know something new you get anxious but I I do I'm just I'm like you those people who have overcome that to do this is incredible and I'm hoping doing this is helping that anxiety for them yeah you see that it's possible in so many different types of women and they love it and you've got to do you know my neighbor here on this side she was just in a a truck camper not a camper but a shell and her dog and that's how she lives but that's what she loves and she she is she full-time yes she's full-time I wonder she's left yet she's already left it was Debbie right next here and she she was delightful she was she was just fun and she's the one who was singing last night one of the ones that was singing oh they were so great yes they were and she has a dog Nelly that's the biggest sweetheart ever big old teddy bear and that's how she lives she says she loves it she's she did everything she owns is in that truck and she says she loves it that way and she enjoys it and so yeah that's what I mean we have that and then we have people and big beautiful you know professional built bit Rigs and then you got my little gypsy wagon and you got mini vans I want to start hiking but I've got to um uh I you know I gotta get me some shoes that I feel comfortable with and I'll need to stick because my knees are are kind of bad so I don't feel comfortable I don't feel strong enough stepping up onto something or something like that I'm hoping that will increase the more I do it will and and I've done it yes and you were talking about Danny you know uh living free with you and me living free yes um I watch her also she encouraged me and I've I've told her in the comments how much she has because I'm a big woman and I've let my size keep me from doing something because I'm concerned how I would look doing it you do me too you know I'm like Oh They'll be gonna go oh my gosh what's she doing you know but then I'm I'm starting to get over that you know but don't you have respect for someone to see them out there trying yes and Danny encouraged me she said if you can't walk the whole Trail stop and rest and that's what I thought you know yeah I can stop and rest and then work a little bit more a little bit more or turn around if I need to but I'm moving have you ever tried walking sticks the two of them I'm going to get those did you see my video on that travel grandma was demonstrating I'll have to get that I'll have to watch it I don't think I have I'll have to oh well it's it's on my channel but she's do it it's when we were in the uh Redwood forest oh okay I don't remember if it was on the Redwood video probably not okay I'll find on it yeah yeah we've been married 40 so you know and um and I'm very thankful I have him that that he under that he understands my desire and doesn't feel slighted by it or like I'm you know I'm trying to get away from him or anything like that can you explain that desire to get out um I I kind of can but I kind of can't um it I think it's just having a little bit of an adventure you know and to prove to myself that I can do things on my own and um I think that um I have the desire to do to be out in nature and to do this I'm 61 I'll be 62 in June of 23 and I found myself sitting too much and I did not want to do that I've watched other people do that and just go quickly go downhill quickly and um I think it keeps our brain because we constantly you know when you're doing this you constantly have to be thinking you know and I'm sure challenge yeah it's yeah I'm sure you do because you're full-time and so you constantly have to think things through and um I don't have a TV I do have my iPad and have my phone and I will I'm not going to say I'm not gonna sit and watch it but my favorite thing to do in the evenings is to sit back if I'm not reading a book is to watch YouTube channels if I got enough coverage I'll download some before I leave home where I have Wi-Fi I'll download some movies sometimes to my iPad I think it's just a desire to to have a little bit of an adventure you know it's wonderful I think that's what makes this so much fun to get together

Channel: Butterfly Tracks

Views: 41,549

Keywords: #vanlife, #van tour, #fordtransit250, #seniorwomensmeetup, #seniorwomenscampingmeetup, #seniorwomanvanlife, #seniorfemalevanlife

Id: xWJtZtwT9dQ

Length: 17min 35sec (1055 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 10 2022