ROAD TRIP WITH US (back to van life)
This is a first-person vlog-style YouTube video by Nate and Kara Buchanan documenting their return to van life after international travel. After a North Pole cruise and a sudden trip back to Nashville for a grandmother's funeral, they unpack the van and begin a multi-day drive north toward Canada, using Harvest Host stays and roadside attractions (including a large Jungle Gyms/Buc-ee's-style store) along the way. The footage covers van routines (workouts, showering, cooking peanut-butter ramen and vegan barbecue mac and cheese), border-crossing logistics into Canada, and reflections on the past year—most notably Nate's skin-cancer surgery and their friends Eamon and Beck's experience with breast cancer (Beck is now cancer-free), which frames the trip as a celebratory reunion.
Chapters
It doesn't really stink. As soon as I get used to living out of a suitcase again, boom. I get all this space back.
A portion of this video is sponsored by Capital One Shopping.
I missed the van more than I thought I would.
I can't believe it.
Wow, this feels weird.
This is one of my favorite parts of van life. Grocery shopping. It sounds really simple, but just buying all the foods that I want to eat this week is very satisfying.
So last time you saw us, we were on an icebreaker above the Arctic Circle and now we're back in Tennessee in our van. How we got here is kind of a long story, but I'm going to try to give you the shortest version possible, starting with the original plan. After our North Pole cruise ended, we were supposed to be spending a few more weeks in Europe and then fly to Canada to meet our friends Eamon and Beck. Unfortunately, shortly after arriving in Europe, I got a phone call that my grandmother had passed away. So we booked a last minute flight and flew back here to Nashville last week to attend the funeral and spend some time with my family. So now for the new plan. So even though we easily could have jumped on a direct two hour flight to Toronto, we dec. We missed the van. So yesterday we unpacked all of our stuff from our suitcases into the drawers and cabinets of the van. And today we're starting to drive north.
I'm so excited.
15 hours.
Is it really? It's gonna take us like a week. Especially considering it's 1:30 and we haven't left Nashville yet. To Canada.
Wow.
Bless you.
Ah, the kombucha.
All right, Canada, here we come.
It is so funny how polar opposite this is. The North Pole. Oh, polar.
Made me think I was going to.
Run into a car. I'm sorry, you said. Oh, sorry. I cannot wait for you to make me pour over coffee in the morning. Nothing compares anywhere in the entire world.
How about Panama?
Yours is better.
No, you're just saying that. Stop it.
On the road again.
I just can't wait to be in the van again.
This life I love is driving with.
My friends and I can't wait for you to make me coffee again. That's pretty good.
Great.
We've been on the road for a grand total of 15 minutes and we have already hit traffic that Google Maps says will be a 40 minute delay.
Tennessee. Tennessee. Tennessee. Tennessee. Tennessee.
Tennessee. Tennessee.
Tennessee. Tennessee. Tennessee.
We're kind of off. We're rusty.
Yeah, it's hard to say Tennessee. But.
In typical van life fashion, we don't Know where we're sleeping tonight.
I did miss the last minute flexibility that we have in the van. We left Nashville having no clue where we were going to sleep tonight. And there is zero stress because in the van, there's always somewhere to sleep.
Hello, miss Wortham, My name is Kara and my husband and I are Harvest Host members and we're wondering if we could stay the night tonight. We're just giving a call back. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you. Bye.
For those of you who haven't been around during Van life, Harvest Host is a website you sign up for, you pay a yearly fee, and then there's thousands of breweries, wineries, and other local businesses around the US that allow you to stay the night for free as long as you go in and buy something.
She text me back, of course. Find a spot on our lot and sign in at the bar. Thanks.
Nice.
I'm going to say yay. Cheers. Emoji. Beth. Check.
Pov.
Pov. You're on your way to see your best friends in Canada.
I've been watching way too much TikTok.
I was not expecting that.
In case you can't tell, we're sitting still. What does this mean on the interstate? No, we're not moving.
No.
Oh, tragic.
I'll eat it. Let the time lapse begin.
So we didn't make it quite as far as we had planned today. But the good news is we have four days to make it to Canada and no plans. So this is home for the night.
As soon as we walked into this brewery, we met the owner and her friend who just happen to be big fans of our channel. I think it goes without saying we had a great night together and left with a bunch of free stuff. Top three most memorable Harvest hosts we've ever been to.
Sorry. Are you okay?
Do I mind?
Grammy?
The zombie apocalypse. What?
No. Why? Would you like that? I don't know. The whole ominous entrance.
How hot do you think it is?
It feels like it's about 80 degrees and 100% humidity. Reminds me of the first night we ever spent in the van.
Not that bad.
No, not when you spread out like this.
You're the maximum.
It's so bright.
False alarm.
Okay, for real this time.
Good night.
Van life.
Sam. You too. Love you. Love you.
Four months of being away from this van has really made me realize the things that I love and this the most about van life. One of those things is my weights and my yoga mat. Two things that I obviously do not carry in my suitcase abroad. It's a super cloudy morning. There's a nice breeze. No one is in this parking lot because breweries are not open on Monday mornings. Perfect conditions for an outdoor workout. It's going to be great. Let's get ourselves started with a warm up.
Nice work. Pull the bra. Woo.
Surprise, surprise. Nate is still running, so I'm going to shower first. It has definitely been a while. I can count on one hand the amount of times I've showered in this van. So we'll see how this goes. I think living in Airbnbs and hotels again with unlimited running water has kind of spoiled me. If this were last year, I'd probably go another two or three days without showering. But we have plenty of water and I'm very sweaty. I think I'm gonna lift this mat up. Ew.
Gross. We added this shower mat whenever we converted our shower into a ski locker back in January. And then we kind of liked it, so we left it there while we drove our van down the Baja peninsula. And there is so much sand. I'm just gonna leave it. I can't deal with this right now. Okay, here we go.
Oh, it's cold. How is this water so cold when it's so hot outside?
Still turning the water off in between rinsing. I won't make you listen to me complain the whole time.
That's on. I just let go.
Oh, I thought it was gonna take off. No, no, no.
That's just like it's.
Now I just go up.
Keep going up. Don't run it.
What? You better get to running.
Good luck. Don't run into anything.
I've been meaning to learn to fly the drone forever, but it's just like we're always in a rush or we're trying to get a specific shot. There he is. Wow, look at him go.
I'm doing it. I'm flying the drone. Wow. I am so proud of myself. Which way are you gonna go? We're turning left, which means I turn like this. It's so hard when I can't see it. Get in the middle. Oh, shoot. I have a whole new appreciation, Renate.
Well, this is fun. Going back to the van. Here I am. Oh, this is so fun. It's been so long.
Kara said I'm just gonna make something real quick before we get on the road. An hour later, here we are. It does look like a very healthy post run snack. Would you say that cooking is what you miss most about the band?
I don't think there's a most of anything, but there's a long list that are all up there.
When you're traveling internationally, it just doesn't make any sense to buy, like, spices and, like, the little ingredients that you need to really make a meal. Good, because then you just have to carry it from place to place or just be super wasteful and buy it at every place. Go. Spices.
At this point, we've been back in the van for over 24 hours, and we've made it about three hours north. I said we had all kinds of time to get to Canada, but at this rate, we're not gonna make it. Oh. Oh, no. That wasn't it. Gosh.
Don't do that.
I thought we missed a border crossing. It was about to be tragic.
If I had the hiccups, you definitely would have gotten rid of this Lawrence, y'. All. Airplane.
Santa.
Wow. I love this train with the city. Kentucky. Kentucky. Kentucky.
Kentucky. Kentucky. Kentucky.
Kentucky. Kentucky.
Kentucky, Kentucky.
I feel like this is a mall. I'm so confused. I'm not really sure what we're about to get ourselves into. But this next stop comes highly recommended by a lot of locals. And a couple years ago, when we were living in the van Full time, 2020 in general was just weird. And we found ourselves doing some weird things, like spending 24 hours at some very odd, unique roadside attractions. So we spent 24 hours at Buc Ees, the world's largest gas station, the world's largest truck stop, and the world's weirdest drugstore.
Are bunnies with antlers real?
And this place that we're about to go in called jungle gyms. Gym or gyms.
I think it's jungle gyms. Jungle gym is where you, like, go play with kids.
We're not going to go play with kids. That would be really weird.
Wow. First impressions? It looks like the world's largest liquor store. I think it's just the section we walked into.
Oh, that's cute. Underwear.
Did you look?
It's a real restroom.
This place started as a small fruit stand on the side of the road, and now it's grown into a 200,000 square foot grocery store that has everything you could possibly imagine. I haven't done my research yet, but this may be the largest grocery store in the entire world. Where are you? Oh, there you are.
He's kidding me.
Things got a little out of hand. We weren't expecting to buy anything.
You got four cup.
Oh, Jungle jam. Right, the jungle.
Two hours and almost $200 later, we bought all the fun food in the store.
This is not where we came in and I honestly don't know where our V. I feel like we need to go that way.
I think we need to go that way. We might have to come back here and do another 24 hour video. There was a lot.
Oh.
Somehow it is almost 8pm so before we hit the road for a few more hours of driving, Cara is going to cook dinner for us. And this is the meal that I've been looking forward to most since we decided we were moving back into the van. I'll give you one guess what it is.
Peanut butter ramen. Peanut butter Ramen.
That is not the Peanut Butter Ramen song.
Back when we were living in the van full time, peanut butter ramen was my go to meal. And all it is is instant ramen. It doesn't matter what flavor because you ditch the flavor packet, mix with your favorite things with a scoop of peanut butter, and there's no recipe. It's just whatever mood you're in. So tonight my mood is this ginger and garlic, a yellow onion, a jalapeno, and then I'll top the whole thing with green onions and of course, most importantly, cilantro. Oh, it was the cilantro song. I love cilantro. Yes, I do. What about one of my best.
What about It's Guacamole time?
It's guacamole. I don't think I ever did that. It's guacamole time. These are all my dry ingredients for the sauce. You saute the veggies, then you add the water or the vegetable broth if you have it with the noodles and all the seasonings, you cook it all together, add your peanut butter, and you're good to go.
It's that simple. It's only like 40 steps. I'm grateful for it. It tastes amazing. But it's not the fast, easy meal that it used to be. This was Kira's idea. I'm not trying to be ungrateful. That was the first. A guy just drove up right beside our van. I figured he recognized the van and was just going to come say hey. And then he said, are you a food truck? Like, are you selling food? Which. Fair enough. Car's cooking with the door open and we're just in the middle of the parking lot.
Next. What do you want? We only got one thing. Sorry.
What's my time?
27 minutes.
That is not an hour. I think someone owes someone else an apology.
Sorry.
This is exactly how I pictured us using this roof deck when I spent three days of my life building it. Sitting up here, having dinner, overlooking the Jungle Gyms parking lot.
Sometimes we're at the beach and sometimes we're at jungle gyms.
Good work.
Pretty good if I do say so myself.
Good morning. Let me quickly catch you up on what you missed. After leaving Jungle gyms, we drove three hours north to Toledo, where we stayed at our favorite free campground. Then yesterday, after sitting on our computers all morning, we drove north to Detroit, where we spent the afternoon with Kara's family. It's a video. Then last night we slept in our cousin's driveway, which is 20 minutes away from the Canadian border, which is where we're heading now.
To Canada we go.
Okay. Hopefully this goes better than last time we attempted to bring an illegal weapon into Canada.
We have no mace, sir.
Apparently pepper spray is illegal. It's not if you call it bear spray, but we learn that later.
What the heck was that?
That was wet. Oh, it was your water bottle.
Oh, gosh. We'll just call it mop day.
No turning back now.
Credit card. What are we paying for?
I think this is the first time we've ever had to pay to cross a border.
I feel like the line is way shorter this time. Yeah, I'm nervous.
We don't need two strikes. Here we go.
What's happening? I'm scared. Hello.
Just two of you on board?
Yep. Yes.
Move your sunglasses, please. Sure. Where do you live? In Nashville, Tennessee. Where you going today? To our friends that live near Kingston till the 25th or 6th. There's no one else in the back? Nope. Anything coming into the glare?
No.
Weapon, Firearm or handgun on board?
No.
All set. Thanks. Thank you.
Have a good one. You do?
Well, that went well. Canada.
I still find myself freezing up when they ask the simplest questions. Like where are you from?
United States. How specific do you want me to be? Wow. I'm so happy we're here. Although we can't use a dramatic title and thumbnail for this video like last time.
I'll take as many people really quick on easily crossing over the Canadian border.
Super drama. Free Border Crossing.
Hello? Hello. I'm calling about a harvest host day tonight. Just come. No worries. Great. We won't be there until close to 6 o'. Clock. Is that too late? That's fine. So make sure you leave around 8 o' clock in the morning. Sounds good. We'll do it. Bye. I guess we're sleeping at another brewery. I wanted wine. Okay. Back on the road. I am in control.
It's not raining anymore. The plan is to spend the night in Toronto and Then wake up in the morning and head straight to ammonia.
What is that sound?
I think you need to get off at your next exit.
Why?
Oh, that's not good.
It's been flapping around up here for a while. I have a confession to make. I was really proud of this roof deck that I built, especially the original idea that I had to put the boat flooring on here to make it padded and comfortable and so it wouldn't get hot in the the sun. But when my parents drove the van back from Mexico, it wasn't attached. Very good. And most of it came off and, well, that was the final piece. All right, back on the road. Wow. So beautiful.
Wow is so beautiful.
Home sweet home. Your destination is on the right. Yep, we're here.
We have stayed at some beautiful harvest hosts in the past, and this is.
Not one of them.
But never judge a book by its cover.
Oh, hello. We're the harvest host I called earlier today.
Any way you want.
No problem.
Two ways.
Oh, okay.
Perfect.
Thank you so much. Have a good night. Bye.
Well, this is definitely one of our more interesting harvest host experiences. Normally you show up at these places, they're super excited to sell you something that's the whole reason you stay, so that you can pay money and support a local business. And we got here and.
The place was closed 30 minutes early, and the atmosphere is very industrial, but it's a free place to park for the night, and we're gonna make the most of it.
This is probably not the wisest thing to do in a van, but setting them in. So when we were at jungle gyms the other day, we found a huge section of just vegan food. We bought a few fun things to try. And tonight for dinner, I'm going to attempt to make a very southern classic dish. Barbecue. Mac and cheese sounds like the most unhealthy thing in the world because it is. However, these are pretty healthy. The barbecue is only jackfruit plus seasoning. That's it. Not only is tonight's dinner vegan and not unhealthy, but it's also instant. I don't really know how I feel about already cooked noodles in a bag. Looks like Mac and cheese.
I think I'm gonna add a couple things. Olive oil, salt and pepper. More nooch.
Might have been a little too much. I'm gonna throw in some garlic. Ah, spicy.
Okay, let's try it now.
Oh, so much better. Okay, next up, the jackfruit, which I think you also. Yep. Just put in a pan and heat it up. It also Needs some help. Like, all the same things.
I can't keep anything simple, so I chopped up some onions and cilantro to put on top. Whoa.
Is it almost done?
Yeah, we're almost ready.
That took, like, two seconds.
I know.
Wow. So beautiful.
We're so lucky. We have nature on this side, architecture on this side.
Sunset's actually pretty nice.
We're alone, quiet. There's no one around. It's very quiet. I'm just joking. This is totally fine. We sleep in Walmart parking lots. Look at this. It looks like real barbecue Mac.
She's unconvinced.
I think the Mac and cheese didn't meet my expectations, but other than that, I actually think it's really good with the onions and cilantro on top. And knowing that it's pretty healthy makes it taste better.
That looks like meat. That's crazy. Oh, you gave the Mac a hard time.
You like it?
It's a solid seven. And plus, out of all of this is. This is the fastest meal that Cara has ever cooked. I'm very. I would eat this every night. As a cohesive unit. It moves up to an eight.
Wow.
Maybe an eight and a half.
Honestly, I mean, if you factor in how easy it was, it's gotta be it.
Home sweet home.
My brother pointed out that we don't have a home to go home to. I'm enjoying being back in the van way more than I thought I would.
Me too. Every other day of our lives, we're in other people's space. This is the only place that's ours.
Even though, technically we're parked at a random.
Love you. Love you. I'm so happy we're here.
So we're super close to ambx, getting very excited. And over the past four days, with all the driving we've been doing, we've reflected a lot on the past year because it was pretty much a year exactly since we made this drive last time. And it's unbelievable how much has changed in the last year and how much.
We have to be grateful for. This time last year, we were driving to Canada, and I had a giant bandage on my head.
At that time, there were a lot of unknowns. Like, Nate had just had this giant hole cut out of his head, but we still didn't really know if they got it all, how big of a deal it was.
It was skin cancer, and we were up at Ammon and Beck's at the lake, and I couldn't even enjoy the lake because I couldn't get my head wet. So I Had to wear a shower cap if I wanted to go swimming.
Thankfully, that has not been a problem. Problem, A very happy ending bald spot. But also, last time we were here, Bec had just gotten her breast cancer diagnosis. But we also had no idea how serious that was. And pretty much as soon as we left, it got really serious really quickly. And in case you haven't been following along on their channel, she has spent the last year going through chemotherapy. I mean, she's gone through a whole list of things that nobody should have to go through. I mean, she has been so positive. Her and Eamon, so inspiring. Like, it's an unbelievable story.
We tried to go up and see him a couple times this year, but for multiple reasons, it didn't work out. One of those being that I got Covid while we were trying to get here last time. But ultimately, I think the timing has worked out perfect because this is more of a celebration trip now.
Meg is officially cancer free. And I'm just so glad that we get to see her finally. But especially now, when we can go and celebrate and just know how much we have to be thankful for all of us. I mean, not to compare Nate's little skin cancer to Beck's breast cancer. Like, those are on completely different ends of the spectrum. But they both put life in perspective. I can't imagine what they've been through this past year. I wish we could have been here physically for them, but better late than never. I can't wait to see them. Like, I just can't believe we're friends. They're so awesome. Ow. I'm sorry. I scratched.
Oh, my.
God, sam.
