72 HOURS OF WINTER VAN LIFE (when nothing goes as planned)

Good morning from Taos, New Mexico. We're about to pack up the van and head north in search of better snow. Not that Taos hasn't been great.

Tao is the best one yet.

But along the way, we have a long list of to dos, including find a hot spring to relax these sore muscles. Find somewhere to dump our gray water tank, fill up with fresh water, take a shower, shave off this mustache, buy some skis, finish the ski locker in the van.

Wow, this clothesline is working out surprisingly well. What did we ever do without this?

We didn't ski.

That's true.

Well, Taos has been good to us. If you have a camper and you enjoy skiing, we can highly recommend it. Now we go in search of the natural hot springs.

Actually, before we head to the hot springs, we need to dump our gray water tank and fill up our freshwater tank. Because we just found a gas station that not only allows you to fill up with fresh water for free, but they also allow free dumping, which I think is unheard of. At least it's a first for us. So we're gonna get rid of this gray water that we've been building up over. Wow.

The whole sink.

Oh, that's nice.

After living in the van for four full days and washing dishes at least once a day, we filled up about five of the seven gallons of this gray water tank. Producing just over a gallon of wastewater per day is pretty good.

Oh, no. It's froz.

Live in the van in winter, they said it'll be fun, they said.

Woo nicely.

Yes.

Don't splash me in the face.

No. I love this setup.

I don't really feel it.

Yeah, nothing's coming out. Maybe it was just east opening.

What happened? I don't know. Went off again. Water pressure left a lot to be desired. Only got up.

These things are horribly made. Anytime I've ever tried to fill up with DEF fluid, it always leaks. So I've just started going ahead and grabbing a handful of paper towels and just stuffing them down in the box so that when it does leak, it just goes straight to the paper towels. DEF stands for diesel exhaust fluid. And every thousand or so miles, we have to put some in the van.

All right, all of our fluids are in a good place and it's time to hit the road.

We may not be going to the hot springs after all. The road has just turned into an ice skating rink. We have winter tires on the van, but it's not four wheel drive, so I don't think it's worth the risk. It's It's a no go.

Can we walk?

One of us decided we would not be so easily deterred. We're only a mile and a half from the hot springs, so we're going on a little hike.

So far, I'm very happy with our decision not to drive.

Feels good to move our legs.

I'm realizing that I might need this hot spring a lot more than I thought I did. Every muscle in my entire body hurts right now. Skiing was a lot of fun, but it was also apparently very rough on the body. Well, apparently for some vehicles it is possible to drive on this.

We're still on solid ice by the way.

Whoa. Speaking of, I'm going to be honest, I thought with the road being icy, we were gonna have these hot springs all to ourselves. Turns out I was the only one too scared to drive my car down the icy road.

Alright, we were about to see if the hike was worth it. Do we have beautiful private hot springs all to ourselves beside the river or. So turns out the hot springs were a bust. If we would have been all alone, it would have been magical. We were not all alone. And.

We learned from personal experience that it's clothing optional.

The pool is only about this big and there are already eight people squeezed in there.

It's not that we have a problem with clothing optional, it's just I'm not about to get in a pool with a bunch of strangers I don't know touching legs with other people who are taking advantage of clothing optional.

And we definitely weren't going to be the people bringing a camera to the naked pool party. You'll just have to use your imagination.

All right, back on the road.

New Mexico, New Mexico, New Mexico, New.

Mexico, New Mexico, New Mexico, New Mexico, New Mexico, New Mexico, Colorado. We're back, back high back.

Oh, if you've watched any of our past videos in the van, you know how much we love Colorado. But we've never been here in the winter and it is even more beautiful. Just look at those mountains covered in snow.

Lamosa.

I am so hungry. I can't go any longer without food. Thank you for choosing KFC.

Can we get two beyond nugget combos? Two of the six piece nugget combos.

Is there more than six piece? Two the 12 piece.

Two 12 piece combos.

32.50 is your total.

Thank you. Wow.

32.

$32 at KFC.

I'm so hungry. We skipped lunch today. We were too busy looking for the naked hot spring party. I need food.

This is the side of care that normally only I get to see. This is not the first time that this has happened a lot. The only way to order food is through the drive through, and the van doesn't fit. So show me your shoes. I'm embarrassed for both of us.

I feel oddly comfortable doing this at this point.

Yay.

All right.

Oh, my gosh. Milan.

This is an unsolicited review of the KFC Beyond Fried Chicken made from plants. Chicken nuggets.

Cheers.

Haven't had a chicken nugget that looked like this since McDonald's as a child.

Oh, my gosh. That is the best chicken nugget I've ever had. It seriously looks and tastes like real chicken. My mind is blown.

I disagree with that. Because we're only eating vegan this month and because of how hungry we both are. 10 out of 10.

It really lived up to my expectations.

We're gonna enjoy these.

My little crummy. I only ate eight of my 12 nuggets.

We have just arrived at the Alamosa Community Rec center because according to the Ioverlander app, there are two dollar showers here with unlimited hot water. And since we converted the shower in our van into a ski locker, it's been five days.

Hi.

Is it possible to take your shower? Yeah. So that would be $4.

Thank you so much. Welcome. This is a first.

Not bad.

Not bad. It'll definitely have more hot water than the van. Okay. It's time to keep my promise. I'm not gonna lie. Two weeks ago, when we filmed that video, I really wanted it gone, but I've grown kind of partial to it. Six weeks of hard work, the fact.

That I'm at basically a ymca and that was one of my top five showers ever. Really shows that living in a van makes you appreciate the little things, like unlimited hot water.

Maybe I'll just keep it like this.

Are you ready? It's gone.

No.

I don't like it.

You don't like it? No. A little bummer.

You look naked. I hate.

Has to feel good not to feel hair, though.

No, I like.

If this video gets 50,000 likes, then I can shave my mustache. Deal.

I'm so mad at you.

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Last night we drove about an hour and a half from Alamosa to Salida and we found this awesome free camping spot right outside of town inside this beautiful canyon. Today is Friday and this year we're posting our videos on Saturday. Which means that today is a work day. Cara's finishing up the final edits on the video and I'm planning our next adventure. So we're going to sit here, enjoy these incredible views while we get some work done and we will see you tomorrow.

Good morning. Very productive day yesterday. It's time to head back into civilization and if all goes as planned, by the end of today we will both own our first set of skis.

Are we about to spend all of our money?

Probably. The idea of investing I say that with air quotes. Thousands of dollars into ski gear that we knew nothing about quickly became overwhelming. Women's are men.

Five and up, a.

Little more efficient and flatter. Torsion. Okay, thank you so much.

I think I comprehended 20% of what he was talking about. It turns out you don't just walk in and buy skis and walk out. So we retreated back to the van to reassess our dream. Owning our own skis. I'm questioning everything now, and I don't know what to do. In all honesty, we stressed way too much about buying versus renting skis.

Quite the process.

But looking back, it probably had less to do with the skis and more to do with the fact that today was just one of those days where it felt like we couldn't catch a break and everything seemed to be going wrong.

But you know what they say. All's well that ends well. We decided to completely scrap the rest of our plans, and we drove up to Leadville to meet up with our friends that you probably already know if you've watched any of our more adventurous videos.

Rick is the one who talked Nate into riding all 500 miles of the Colorado trail and running a half marathon with a donkey in the thin mountain air of America's highest city.

Come on, Dolly.

His wife Beck, and their kids, Evie and Frankie, joined us at Ragbride and pedaled this crazy bike 450 miles through the grueling summer heat all the way across the state of Iowa. Apparently, all of Leadville comes to this ice skating rink when it's a full moon, so.

So here we are ice skating for the first time since I was 10 years old.

I can almost skate backwards.

Wow. Look at that.

That was pretty good. Wow.

The biggest challenge here, not running into a.

Hi. Hello. Hi.

Still haven't hurt myself.

Good morning. You know how I said we just couldn't catch a break yesterday? Look at this. That right there, that's our new bath mat that we just installed in the bottom of the shower. Completely covered in pee. Kara's clothes also covered in pee. Last night, when nothing was going right, it wasn't very funny.

It kinda was, though.

Okay. I wasn't gonna go into how it happened, but I'm blaming this on our friends Ammon and Beck. They encouraged us to install this pee funnel. It makes it more convenient to go to the bathroom in a van, Especially when your bathroom is full of a lot of stuff like this. The problem is, last night in the dark, the bottom of the pee funnel froze. I'm not sure if you can see this or not, but that tube right there is supposed to be clear. It has that kind of yellow color to it. That's. That's because it's still completely full of pee. But last night, Carrie didn't know that the end of it was frozen, and she was going to the bathroom in the dark, so she didn't realize that it was filling up until I felt.

It running down my leg.

And I was driving and could do nothing to help. I could just listen to all the chaos unfolding behind me.

Literally, my worst fear.

Kara said that she was gonna have pee anxiety for the rest of her life.

So I'm not sure what today holds, but we're in one of our favorite cities in the world, and we've only ever been here in summer. We've never gotten to experience the snowy, frozen winter version of Leadville, and our friends Rick and Beck seem to always come up with a fun adventure. So I don't know exactly what's gonna happen, but it should be fun or at least memorable.

As usual, Rick has planned an adventure for us that will push us us slightly outside of our comfort zone. We've tried this once before.

There you go.

Looking good.

Look at you go.

I'm a lot better in the track.

Somehow Kara's way faster than me. I'm gonna blame it on the 1980 skis I'm in, but it's incredibly beautiful out here, and it's a great workout. Could not ask for a better way to spend the day.

Quick update. We've been going slightly uphill for over 30 minutes now. It's 36 degrees, and I've officially broken a split. This is a great workout. We're at over 10,000ft of elevation, and I don't think we've quite acclimated yet. So I'm a bit more out of breath than I think I would be if we're at sea level. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

All right. Rick said if anyone's going to crash, it's going to be right here.

Oh, ye.

That's nothing like regular skiing. Something about these skis makes it completely different. Good work.

Yeah, that was definitely a rush.

The January continues. We really worked up an appetite on that little trip. So for lunch, I am making a creamy mushroom curry. I feel like on the fanciness scale, it's, like, up here, but on the effort scale, it's down here. This is, like my sweet spot when it comes to cooking. Fun fact, this is the first time I've ever bought shallots. In my mind, they're just like, smaller, more expensive onions. But this is what the recipe called for, so thought I'd give it my best shot. I actually don't even know how to properly cut one. How do you cut a shallot slice off the top and bottom of each shallot? Creating.

That was very helpful. Nate just said he was going to go check on the funnel situation outside, and all of a sudden all the pee is out of the funnel. I have no idea what he did, but I just really hope it didn't splash up in his face when it came out. Hey, want some coffee? Yes.

Do you want the good news or the bad news News?

Did the pee splash in your face?

The good news is the funnel is unfrozen. The bad news is there's now a puddle of pee all over their driveway.

No. Sorry. Rick and Beck.

About to cut my first shallot with this very not sharp knife.

Great.

Aggressive.

Don't slice off the whole root end. Oh.

So some more bad news that we didn't mention this morning was something between the sink and the water tank is frozen. We're not really sure what's going on, but for now, we're living out of bottled water. These shallots feel like they came straight from the dirt to the store. They're very dirty is what I'm trying to say.

That smells.

Coconut milk's a little bit frozen.

With the combination of drinking hot coffee, the heater on full blast, the propane stove going, and the sun coming through all of our windows. This fan is a thousand degrees right now. Also, I chopped a jalapeno and then I rubbed my nose and it's literally burning my skin. Like, my nose is red right now.

Ah.

Hey, Siri, set a timer for 15 minutes. You don't have the timer app installed.

What the heck?

Set a 15 minute timer. 15 minutes starting now.

Thank you.

I love cilantro. Yes, I do. I love cilantro. Who else does, too?

Well, lunch has turned into dinner, but you won't hear me complaining because if it was up to me, I'd just be eating cereal tonight and most nights probably if Kara didn't cook.

This is the final product. I have a feeling this is gonna taste way better than it looks. Cheers.

Cheers.

Wow, that is so good. Did you get that from Aan and Beck's cookbook? Is that what they told us to say?

I think I got it on amon and beck.com.

Is it only $19?

Yes. Isn't that such a great deal?

Good morning from Cooper Mountain. We are just outside of Leadville and it is our first time skiing in Colorado. Great news. The skis saga has finally ended. We each have skis in our possession for the rest of our trip, but we ended up renting them instead of buying because has just made more sense with our nomadic lifestyle. And even better news, when we're done with them, we are going to store them in our ski locker which is finally complete. But for now, I'm going to enjoy this first run.

It is absolutely incredible.

It feels like we have this ski resort on to ourselves.

Make us a quick quesadillas.

If we're being honest, we really feel like our skills have plateaued. At this point, we're not really getting any better. And every time I post a video on Instagram, we get lots of advice. And I've also been told that lessons aren't just for beginners. We have hired two professional skiers and hopefully by the end of the day we'll be better than when we started. I'll let them introduce themselves. First we have Evie.

And Frankie and you are six. You will see these girls in the Olympics one day. They are actually pros and we're gonna see if I can keep up with them today.

How many years have you been skiing?

Seven.

Yeah, six more years than me.

Look at him go.

Nicely done. Are you gonna teach me how to do that?

Thanks for the tips today.

You're welcome. You're the best. I want to be just like you and I grow up.

We could not be be any closer to the slopes mountain.

Van.

This is our first time putting the new ski locker to the test and I'm really excited about how it's working out. I had to completely scrap the original plan which was to hang the skis on this big metal hook. So I use these little towel hooks with double sided tape on them and then I attach those to Velcro and it's much lighter weight setup but it's working exactly like it's supposed to. The boots that perfectly, perfectly in the bottom of the shower, the padding on the back wall is protecting the skis from banging up the tile. And the velcro straps are holding the skis tightly against the wall so they don't rattle around as we drive. Plus, the helmets still have their perfect hooks. I love it when a plane comes together.

Nate is so excited about his ski locker that he wants me to film it as we drive out of the parking lot. Brace yourself. We are on a bumpy gravel road. Not even the helmets.

Look. Where are you going? Down an icy road with no other cars.

We are going going to put that ski locker to the test the next couple weeks.

We never know what unexpected thing we're gonna get into when we come to Leadville tonight. I'm subbing in on a curling tape, and I could not be more excited. Right through the middle.

This might be the most fun game I've ever played. It's like a more intense game of.

Cornhole, only in Leadville.

What happened?

Too far.

So here. And cross the ice way down.

That's nice. It curled behind that one, too.

Okay, we're officially moving to Leadville so that I can join a curling league. That was so much fun. And there's a little beginner's luck at play. We want one. 12 to one.

Wow. I didn't realize this by that much. I don't know how to read the scoreboard.

Yeah, it is kind of confusing, huh?

A lot of people think that it tastes like soap. And that makes me really sad. Cause cilantro is dope. Oh, and there's a.

Pilarasaurus. Hello. I don't know, it's like something like a pillar saurus. And whatever you don't do. Like the skis where you go like this. If you don't do that, the Pillarosaurus comes out and snaps your feet. That sounds scary. You have to do pillar skis. Whatever it's called. I don't know. Parallel skis. Where did you get marshmallows? Mom packed me tons of marshmallows. And I got baby odor gummies. No way. The sheep like baby Yoda. Why do people throw their panties and necklaces on the trees? And their bras? So the trees look like Christmas trees.

Oh.

Does it matter what tree you throw it on? Or does everybody throw it on the same tree? It doesn't matter. You can put it there. You can put it there. You can put it there. You can put it there.