Our Mixed Journey – A van Life and 5th Wheel adventure

As we travel the US in our Class B van, we meet amazing people everywhere we go. No matter where we are though, we always get the same questions. How is it living in a van, and how did you decide to live this life of adventure? What do you recommend for someone thinking of doing the same, and how exactly do you afford it? With that in mind, I have decided to write an article giving a little of our back story, to hopefully answer those questions, and with hopes that after reading this, you are inspired to take a similar leap of faith. 

First off, let me introduce the we in this story. The current and most interesting member of our traveling family is Vincent Van-Go, or Vinnie for short. He’s our van, and we’ve had him for nearly a year and a half as of the writing of this article. He’s not our first dive into the nomad life, but he is the most recent chapter. We’ll cover the previous iterations of a life of travel in a minute, but first, let me introduce the crew that calls Vinnie home on those miles of open road. My wife’s name is Rocio, and I’m Gabe. Together with our dogs Wilson and Journey, we had been living fulltime in a 5th wheel since April of 2018, before we traded the keys in, so to speak, back in August of 2020. 

After living in Puerto Rico for over a decade, the Island was hit by the worst hurricane in its history. Being that we were tired of dealing with hurricanes, we decided to make a move back to the US mainland. Rocio and I spent a couple months considering what would be our next home, but we couldn’t settle on a city. So, after stumbling onto RV life, we took a leap of faith, and we bought a 5th wheel and a truck to pull it. It was a total of one month from the moment we bought the 5th wheel to selling everything we owned in Puerto Rico and catching a flight to Florida, where we would start our nomad adventure. 

RV life began in Florida and took us around the country until Rocio found an amazing job in southern California. Winter was approaching, so we figured we could sit in the 5th wheel for a while as she made a few bucks and padded her resume. We figured it would only be a few months and then we would hit the road again, but that didn’t happen. After those first few months passed, she realized that she was enjoying her job, and the money wasn’t bad either. So, our 3 to 6 months stay in SoCal was pushed back for a while, but we were ok with it, because we were still in our home on wheels, and we were taking trips around the southwest US on weekends and mini vacations. With the calendar approaching a new year, that itch to move was getting more pronounced. So, we began making big plans for our adventures in 2020. 

We figured we would ride out another winter in southern California, and then we would start our next adventure. As everyone knows by now, 2020 did a number on everyone’s plans. Our hope of a spring adventures turned to no travel for several months. We were lucky to be in an RV park where we had made amazing friends, but the lack of travel, with no end in the Covid summer anywhere in sight, forced us to think outside the box. We were in our big 5th wheel, but with Covid restrictions being what they were, moving that around for short trips was a logistical nightmare. So, one day, while watching another endless marathon of Netflix, Rocio turned to me on the couch and said, “babe, what do you think about buying a van to do weekend trips around southern California?”

I figured she was joking, but the moment I saw her face, I knew she was serious. “How and why would we do that,” I asked. I didn’t really expect a legitimate explanation, but she made a lot of sense when she broke it down. We would use the 5th wheel as a home base, buy a van that we could sell back for little to no loss when we were done, and we would finally have a way to get back out on the road. 

After a week of looking at used vans to no avail, we turned to RV dealerships in the southern California area as a possible option. When we did the math, it made more sense for us to buy a new Class B ready to go and with a warranty then to try and restore or build something ourselves. We wanted to be on the road as soon as possible, we’re not the handiest of people, and we didn’t have anywhere to really work on a van anyways. With that, the searched continued, and finally, after over a month of searching, we found the exact van we were looking for. The only issue is the van was 800 miles way in Albuquerque New Mexico. I called the dealership, had them send pictures, and I told them we would buy it. We made a down payment, van unseen, and we left on an impromptu road trip with the dogs the following weekend. 

Simply being back on the road together was invigorating. Watching cities and mountains come and go as we talked, listened to music, and rolled the windows down for a little crisp desert air at night was just what the doctor ordered for our Covid Cabin Fever. When we arrived in New Mexico and signed all the paperwork, we immediately headed out on Vincent Van-Go’s maiden voyage. There was no way we were going to drive straight back to southern California. We had to give Vinnie a proper shakedown trip. With that, we set our sights on a few southwestern classics and hit the road. Forced to carpool back in separate vehicles, we must have called each other on speakerphone every 10 minutes. “Did you see the colors on those mountains? Oh my God, what about all the wild horses?” Without realizing it, we had been instantly transported back to our cross-country RV days, and we were loving life. On that road trip home, we stopped to see the natural and historic wonders that make up Mesa Verde National Park. We saw countless deer – we even had to swerve away from a couple – and so much of the beauty that makes up the southwest US.

We were traveling with this new, compact home on wheels, and it was amazing. Van life was giving us a sense of freedom and spontaneity that was hard to come by in the 5th wheel, and we were loving it. After stopping at several amazing places and boondocking beneath the desert sky without a soul for miles, we were hooked before we even made it back to southern California. Following several more road trips in southern California, I knew I could do the van life on a more permanent basis. So, one day, as Rocio made it home again from her job as an events manager with no events, I could see the utter frustration on her face. It hurt me to see my wife, whom I love with all my heart, in such a down mood. I knew what we had to do. I convinced her it was time to start our next big adventure, and similar to before, within a few months’ time, we had sold the 5th wheel and everything in it. And the next chapter, van life, had begun.

She now runs all of our social media, and she is an online marketing and social media manager. I, since way back during the hurricane days, was fortunate enough to beat the curve. I have been running a mental health corporation virtually since Hurricane Maria nearly wiped-out Puerto Rico in 2017, and these 2 careers have afforded us the blessing of our nomad lifestyle. We absolutely love our life of adventure, and we wouldn’t trade it for the world. Vinnie has been a perfect home on wheels for us, and we recommend this life to anyone with a wanderlust like us. We’re currently waiting out the winter in the North Carolina area, but we’re already planning ours’ and Vinnie’s next big adventure. Maybe, if you’re lucky enough to take that leap of faith like we did, we’ll see you out there.

Follow along with Rocio and Gabe’s mixed journey.

Produced by Jared Melrose Campbell. @youandiandthesky and one of the cofounding members here @vanlifediaries