When Van Life (Actually) Sucks

this morning when I was making coffee and the light was streaming in it was a lovely day a fat mouse scurried across my floor so I have roommates again you know what we learned from the last time that mice invaded Christian's van is that when you see one Mouse in broad daylight it usually means there's more [Music] I was not planning to film this video at all things keep getting weirder and weirder my house batteries died three times mostly because it's been raining and there's not enough Sunshine luckily I made it to this current house hit that I'm at and decided to order a lithium battery charger to charge the house batteries while plugged into the house but the other day I'm driving back from the grocery store and I noticed my battery light is on so I check the battery connections and monitor the voltage and it's pretty low 12.1 yesterday morning I run out to the van to go change the battery I am literally on the way to go get my battery replaced and um my van won't start making all kinds of weird noises I've had this genius NOCO boost since I moved into my SUV so over 5 and a half years I've never had to use it kind of have no idea what I'm doing we're going to try it okay I think this is right negative positive uh I'm just going to power it on and see what happens I guess dang it still not starting [Applause] gosh my key won't come out I have no idea what's happening right now okay so the Noco genius did not work I'm going to try this instead luckily I'm doing house it so I can plug into their house electricity but if I were in the mountains which I was supposed to go shoot today I'd be in a tough spot okay the key is not working I assume because the battery's dead but check this out even with the manual key I can't lock it what the heck you guys if I were in the mountains I'd be so screwed right now I realized that if my battery had died while I was out shooting in the mountains out of service in below freezing weather and I didn't have a manual way of getting into the van okay Moment of Truth nothing wait a minute let's [Music] trying this band has always worked absolutely perfectly I've never had any issues and when I take it to get preventative care it just hits the fan left and right like what oh also I got into an accident with a cement pole at a gas station so yeah that's [Music] exciting where where will we yes no battery light hell yeah W oh my word that was a big drop I was just going to like edit some more and then go to sleep but the van has been rocking like crazy I checked the weather cuz I wanted to film tomorrow and it said that there's a high wind advisory like severe weather warning I am parked right between two trees two tall trees and I walk walked outside and a big gust of wind came and the trees were just like right over my van not good and there's like big branches laying all around me dang it first Branch just fell we got to get out of here I just hit the top of my van okay we're off all right it is 2: a.m. I just made it to a parking lot I'm stealth camping in the city for the night so it's 2: a.m. and I have a work call at 6:00 a.m. um and there's a handful of people on it I guess it's an international call so that's why it's so early probably get up at 5:30 so like I have 3 and 1/2 hours to sleep all right good morning I have 3 minutes before this uh Zoom call starts I haven't even got my laptop out yet got to make my coffee get out my laptop sign into zoom and try to look awake this is probably the most unflattering angle ever I don't if you guys saw this document we have like an agenda where I so far oh my gosh I I'm awake now this is actually good the Cofe I'm fired you [Music] guys oh my God where did it go where did it go what you're looking at is insulation that I pulled from up here where apparently a mouse was making a home and I had no idea I did see a mouse Scurry across the floor which I told you guys about but then I bombed the place with peppermint and I hadn't seen him since so I figured already left but look this was also in the same spot started to CLA my favorite towel so I took everything out cleaned it and put dryer sheets up there and hoping that it doesn't come back because I was around people all day long water almost took out my camera we got to relocate [Music] there's a steady stream of water leaking in from the back window you can see my cushion is soaked and it was all wet underneath here as well my battery light has come on not once not twice but four times since I've replaced my battery I got to take it into the shop tomorrow they said they want it for a full day and I'm like [Music] really that's got to happen on top of everything else right now just one of those days just one of those week it's more like a month tonight I went and got wine then hit my wine glass and wine everywhere it was like a massacre on my my couch cushions put tons of stain remover on it and washed it and it's still extremely noticeable where have I what did I do I had to go pick up my registration had to get groceries oh and I had to fill water now I got to go shower it's been 5 or 6 days I'm excited I'm so excited to feel clean it's like Christmas morning um I got a fat Splinter whoa sorry all right this little van here that's driving away it has cir P around this parking lot five or six times and it stops right next to my van and just like parks there with its lights on and it's so just creepy and so I went outside because I wanted to get some footage I've been waiting for a blue hour and the minute I step outside he comes or she comes I don't know who it is but comes and drives right up next to me and doesn't even like roll down the window or anything just like parks there with their car running look he just parked drove around for like the 12th time stopped behind my van and is slowly driving past it again wouldn't you know coming right back but I'm super uncomfortable at this point I want to leave but um I don't know if this person is going to follow me I almost feel safe for staying here where there's other van lifers he's parked near my van again okay this is what he does he parks next to the van and then he goes around in a circle and drives really slow next to my van it makes no sense I don't get it this has been going on for at least the last hour and a half now he's parked right in front of me what is this guy doing it almost seems like an intimidation itic like it's not cool here he comes again okay y'all I did it again so the person in with the headlights on that's also a female and he keeps parking at her place and then parking at my place and I think she's pissed I think she's about to pull out and I'll tell you what if she leaves so am I look at this unreal what is he doing I seriously want to go confront him so bad but I feel like that's a bad idea just in case he's like on or [Music] something hello hi future editing Christian here so I didn't actually film how this night ended because it was kind of an intense moment I was pretty creeped out so I decided to put away my things and just pack up and leave and once I had gotten into the front seat he suddenly gets out of his van and starts walking toward me something felt very off about this situation and I just felt really strongly that he should not come up to my window so I was very aggressive especially because it was now dark outside and this person could have approached me at any point while it was still daylight like he was was there for I think over it must have been like 2 and 1/2 hours circling around he could have come up when I was outside but instead he chose to wait till it was literally night time so I did not get out of my van I rolled down my window and I shouted at him to basically back the off which did seem to startle him a bit but he kept walking toward me at which point I got very aggressive and he stopped turned and and walked back to his van so luckily there wasn't any face-to-face confrontation once you let someone physically get into your space your options narrow significantly so I do not give people the benefit of the doubt if I feel uncomfortable or threatened in any way maybe he really was just trying to like work up the courage to say hello or something like that but the behavior was concerning enough that I just wasn't willing to take that risk so why am I sharing this um first of all just because this is a side of Van life I have not personally experienced before uh but it was very real and less than ideal and I do think it's important to put out there not only for my fellow solo female Travelers but also just for any male travelers as well who might have questions about like how to approach a solo female traveler um circling around her space for hours is not the way approaching during a vulnerable moment is also not a good idea unless she's like choking and you're a paramedic or there's a bear attacking her anyway y'all know I'm mostly out here sharing all the beautiful parts of living on the road so I just wanted to throw out a little dose of reality um it's been a wild few months just things just kept comically going wrong uh also please don't judge the quality of my work based on the footage from this video most of it was downright unusable and um filmed on my iPhone when it was like completely dark outside so the footage is really grainy and basically unusable but you guys encourage me to share so I hope you like this one and it is my birthday tomorrow and my plan is to go camping in one of my favorite places with potentially a very special [Music] guest I was thinking I might even film a little Q&A I have never ever done a Q&A before not on Instagram or YouTube so if you have any questions you'd like me to answer drop them down below and as always thank you for being here y'all stay safe out there and I will see you next time oh [Music]

Channel: Christian Schaffer

Views: 206,592

Keywords: campervan, van conversion, tiny home, tiny house, tinyhomeonwheels, living in a van, solo female, solo female travel, travel vlog, solo female van life, off grid living, storytelling, washington, travel, safety, scary

Id: S6wamnigmBw

Length: 14min 42sec (882 seconds)

Published: Thu May 09 2024