VANLIFE Stealth Camping overnight on the National Mall in 20°F

it literally feels like it's going to flip over when i go around at any turn and it's not actually it just feels like it is because i'm used to driving a very low 2004 ford mustang gt so this is just way different and i haven't driven this in a while because i've been at my parents house we'll take turns very gingerly until we get a little more comfortable with driving 100 miles an hour in the fast a diesel and a gas pump is free change into some uh pants because it's freezing outside we're gonna put some pants on so we've got pants nice and warm and also i need to fill up my diesel heater tank which is it's in the engine [Music] oh it's so cold i gotta figure out where i'm parking i'm using i overlander and i'm gonna find a find a spot to park for the night i'm thinking i'm trying to find a spot there's a couple spots on the national mall that i want to stay at so i think i'm gonna try those first on uh what's in 7th street yeah i'm just going to go straight try to stay right on the national mall and hope that uh there's parking which there probably won't be at this time of day i didn't think about that but maybe who knows [Music] so i was going to do ratatouille tonight but i think uh just for the sake of making it easier i am going to do cheesesteaks so that's what we're doing i do have masks i bought a pack of this thing the good thing about this van is i can fit it in a normal parking spot so i don't have to like so i don't have to constantly drive around and try to find a spot that fits a bigger vehicle because this just fits into any regular parking spot all right let's go stop for cheesesteaks welcome mobile developer and this is the first time i've ever done any real urban camping in a city so it'll be kind of different for me usually i'm camping like on blm land or just outside of like national parks or in truck stops or places where it's kind of acceptable to do this so this is like the first time that i'm truly stealth camping on the side of the street in the city so this will be interesting yeah we're about uh 41 minutes away so i'm not very hopeful we're gonna be able to find parking up there but if we can't we might have to move somewhere else and just kind of figure it out or we might just have to come back later tonight and see if we can find parking then but i'm not very hopeful so i have been driving around for 30 minutes looking for a spot there is so many people out in dc today there is nowhere to park i drove by two spots that immediately got taken right when i was there and they were perfect right in the middle of the national mall and right when i pulled up a car pulled up in front of me and took the spot so it's really not looking too good i might be driving around for a little bit longer than i wanted to so we found a parking spot we are on the mall monument's that way the capitol building is right there you can't really see it but i'll get out and show you guys around so see the van so i got the van right there national air space museum right there you walk down this way a little bit then there's the capitol building there is the monument and that's where i am camping for the night we're gonna see if we can camp here for the night and not get caught that'd be pretty cool that's if i don't get around and or the police knocking on my door okay so now that we found a spot i'm gonna start cooking some dinner [Applause] okay let's get to cooking whoa hey if anyone has any good techniques for appealing an onion let me know in the comments i'm also going to turn on my heater and see if i can keep me warm while i'm cooking so i just turn it on i hope i got that on video content there she goes again let's caramelize some onions i got the heater on it's so hot i mean it feels so good this is what i'm looking at by the way we got everything out there and then we're cooking onions and i really hope i have enough propane to cook this meat and these onions i guess we'll see now i get a cookie steak all right i'm gonna start thinking about toasting this bread i'm just gonna melt some butter in this pan and just kind of press them down into it and put some garlic in there hopefully those get nice and toasty i don't know if they will onions back in awesome around some so we actually don't have a lid for for this pan so i'm just gonna use this pie tin to cover them up let the cheese melt oh i want these to burn though oh what what there we go garlic bread you selling garlic bread no i'm just cooking dinner oh you're just cooking dinner this is home oh he's not selling he's cook he lives here yeah yeah i'm just parking we're gonna run the store we'll be right back yeah all right cook dinner for the whole mall have a good one they thought i was selling garlic bread and they wanted it maybe i should start a business let's check on that cheese i'm pumped i'm hungry bon appetit philly cheesesteak on the national mall i don't know if it looks advertising from this angle though now we're gonna eat it that's good pretty good cheesesteak this is pretty cool i just cooked a cheesesteak in my car and now i'm sitting here eating it on the national mall where i plan to camp for the night that's my sign that i put up when i go live take that down actually it's definitely not going to win any awards but that's a pretty good cheese stick so after i go to sleep if i don't get arrested or someone breaks in or anything else that could happen sleeping in the middle of the street dc i think we're going to go check out some of the food trucks maybe review some of their foods and then try to go some of the museums and just explore dc but for now i'm gonna enjoy this cheesesteak all right that was good now i gotta clean up this whole mess that i just made from cooking that and then maybe go explore a little bit because we still have some sunlight left so i got dinner all cleaned up the van is mostly clean i'm gonna go walk around the mall for a little bit just because we still have some light outside um i have the heater going to keep the van warm so hopefully when we come back it'll be nice and toasty warm maybe we'll walk down there tomorrow check out the monument and maybe try to go into some of the museums but right now i'm just walking around kind of waiting for it to get dark because we still got probably another 30 minutes before it uh it's actually dark so currently it's 33 degrees outside um but it's supposed to get down to 20 degrees tonight so i'm kind of worried about my pipes freezing but i have slept in the van with no heat in 19 degree weather and the pipes didn't freeze and now i have heat and it's supposed to be warmer so i'm not too worried about it but still in the back of my mind all right so i just walked around the national mall for a little bit i've been here a million times i grew up in the area so there's nothing really new that i haven't seen so i think for right now i'm just gonna head back to the van hang on in there for a little while until it gets dark and i might come back out again and just i guess we'll see right now it is uh it's 6 30. i have the diesel heater absolutely cranking i don't know if you guys can hear it but it is so hot coming out of there uh it's very comfortable in here it's like 25 degrees outside and i can be in here with shorts and uh short sleeves and be perfectly comfortable so diesel heater very good but for right now i think i'm just gonna make some tea this is the best tea ever i love this tea all right i actually just went outside for a second and looked around and i'm parked right under a street light so it's actually pretty well lit and i actually don't feel too unsafe where i am i'm gonna get uh dressed up for outside and then we're just gonna go outside and walk around and see what we can do and then maybe i'll go try to find a restaurant and sit down and get a drink or something who knows also so i'm gonna go do that right now in my toilet what's up right here not gonna record that but use your imagination so i kind of want to go outside and see if i can tell that all these lights are on or if i can tell that someone's in here if it looks completely black like i wanted to it's actually not bad can't really tell the back looks like it's just a normal van i don't know if you would be able to tell that someone's staying in there honestly i think it looks pretty good there's a little bit of light coming through over there but other than that it's pretty good pretty sealed up in the corner over there there's some light going through also i know i told you guys that my diesel heater makes some sort of noise so this is the noise that it makes so it's not too bad but it might be bad in dc because it kind of sounds like it's a ticking bomb so i don't know i might leave it on all night i might not i guess we'll see how cold it gets but for now i'm gonna walk down the street to this bar that i looked up on google maps and maybe sit down and get a drink real quick make sure she's locked says it's a nine minute walk straight down this road so i got all the way to the bar and realized that i left my wallet in my van so now i have to go back and get it and then walk back here also whenever i have a lot of money my doors on my house better be that big or i'll be pissed those things are massive you feel like 30 people standing up on top of each other through those doors oh there it is back to the bar we go we made it back and we're going to the headquarters sports tower feels weird being here by myself well never mind i can't get a drink there because i don't have my vaccination card with me and i don't have a picture of it so sadly they couldn't serve me so i guess i am just heading back to the van at least it is nice and warm in the van so that's nice it's not freezing cold when i get back but well now i'm just laying in bed drinking another cup of tea which is better for me i guess but i think i'm just going to watch a movie and call it a night so i got my remote voc road up here oh i'm going to turn the tv on first and i hope it's on the right hdmi because i have three hooked into the tv and it's not so i got to i have an hdmi i have an hdmi splitter though so i can just press a button on the back of the tv and it will flip through the different hdmis until i get to my roku which is there so now i can go to netflix and watch a movie transform as it is and i'm actually going to pull this out so i can see a little better from my bed it's actually still pretty warm in here pretty comfortable in short sleeves diesel heater still kicking pretty hard and this is what it looks like on my window there's right on the side of the road pretty cool so it is currently 9 43 here it's still pretty warm in here the heater's still going uh it probably lasts me three days at the current level of what it's set at yeah i'm probably just gonna hang out sit on my phone for the next hour or two and then fall asleep and hopefully wake up and get some food from one of those food trucks it is pretty loud though there have been people driving by really fast and loud cars but not too bad so i think for now i'm just gonna go to sleep and then i will check back in the morning and go to one of those food trucks so i'll see you in the morning it's currently 9 30 in the morning this is our view and i actually moved my location last night like seven parking spots over just so i was more centered on the national mall so yeah let's get ready good morning so i'm gonna show you guys where i move the car to so basically we're just down the street a little bit right out in front of the the monument that water is so cold wow but it's not frozen oh wow i'm awake now let's go world's best food you guys open okay i'll just get the uh steak quesadilla then and then can i also get some bacon cheese fries and a diet coke that kid can't be old enough to be working in that food truck there's no way thank you kids in there beating the out of my quesadilla you i think i get the diet coke thank you have a good one juice fries aren't bad this quesadilla looks pretty torch quesadilla is pretty good i just wish i had some sour cream or some sauce or something to dip it in but that's pretty good i'm gonna go walk over to the monument after i finish eating oh my god jesus bird was hiding in the trash oh we made it so many people out here running and i just had bacon cheese fries and a steak quesadilla and a diet coke for breakfast makes me feel like a fat ass which maybe i am wow dc is such a weird city it's the only city where you'll see a skyline like this no high-rises i don't really know the real reason honestly i've never looked it up before i just know that there is a high restriction on buildings which is why they look like that but anyways this is the monument it looks way bigger up close like spider-man and then down there is the lincoln memorial i don't think i'm gonna walk all the way down there and the reflecting pool all right so since i don't have my vaccination card with me i can't get into any of the museums that are all over the mall um so i think i'm gonna head back to the van and probably head home but let me know where you guys want me to camp next or try to camp next and maybe i'll turn this into a series but anyways if you haven't already make sure you click that like button make sure you subscribe see you guys next time

Channel: RyanTwomey

Views: 87,750

Keywords: Vanlife, van build, conversion van, rampromaster, stealth camping, travel, camping

Id: WzJZ6PP7FFA

Length: 15min 51sec (951 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 07 2022