VAN LIFE (our daily routine on the road)

This video is sponsored by Target.

We're Kara and Nate and we've been traveling the world for the last four years. So excited about this. But 2020 brought us back to the US where we bought a converted Sprinter vans that we've been living out of full time for the last three months. After living in a mechanic's garage for the past week, our van is road ready again and we are officially leaving Colorado to make the 17 hour drive to the Pacific Northwest. No real plans. Yesterday we hit the road and made it six hours, which put us just outside of Salt Lake City, Utah and we rolled into our campsite in the middle of nowhere just as the sun was setting.

My favorite thing about this new heater that we installed is we ran the control panel all the way back to the bed so it's only I had to get out to turn it on. So I usually end up laying here for about 15 minutes before I get out of bed.

It's.

Coffee'S ready.

I'm not sure that we ever have normal days, but this is probably about as close as it gets. Today is what a typical day looks like for us if we're not going out, exploring a new place, going on some big adventure, or having something break in the van. Also, Target has hooked us up with a very generous gift card so that we could stock our van up with food from their Good and Gather line. Just look at this. Good and Gather. Good and Gather. Good and Gather. Good and Gather. Good and Gather also. And.

So in addition to our daily routine, we're also going to be sharing what we eat in a typical day, which for me starts with yolk or cereal or some kind of oat.

Just coffee for me. Nate eats enough for the both of us for breakfast. You're about to spill and on your pants.

Love you.

Have a good one.

Thanks.

I think it's a tad bit aspirational to include this in our daily routine video, but we try.

Think the real reason I run so I can listen to podcasts and still feel productive at the same time. Also, just don't lose everything I work for on the bike trip.

Not a bad view for a run. It's a great thing about living in a van. The views change every day.

How's your run?

Hard. I think I'm losing it.

In the last three months I have showered one time in this van because the hot water heater has not worked since we bought it. But last week.

I'm about to take my first touch shower.

When we're living off the grid like this we always have to be conscious about how much electricity we're using and how much water we're using, electricity we can make more of. So that's really not that big of a deal. But water, we obviously can't. And I've always been curious how much water it would take for both of us to shower. So yesterday I picked up this four gallon blue bucket. I've just left our tank open, so everything from the shower is going to drain into that and. Yeah, we'll see.

This hot water heater is awesome, but I still can't take, like, a long, enjoyable shower because we only have 40 gallons of fresh water. So that means I have to turn on the water, get wet, turn it back off, get soapy, turn it back on, rinse, turn it back off. So could be better has been worse.

Kara's made a genius discovery. She put the towel in front of the heater, and it doubles as a towel warmer. I feel like we've gone from roughing it to living in luxury just in the last couple weeks.

Wow, that's less than two gallons.

Whoa, baby. To be fair, I didn't wash my hair, but that's like, nothing. We could take 40 showers. Go us washing my hair. So when we first moved into the van, we couldn't find a mirror to fit this door. So I ended up just buying three separate mirrors and sticking them together. And this is how I get to get ready in the mornings. Here you go.

Can you grab that corner for me?

We just stuff everything up in that cabinet.

We used to fold it, but what's the point?

Thanks.

We're being honest. We convert this back into a desk 50% of the time. It never gets less annoying to do.

I was glad we did it, though.

I know anytime we have table, I'm like, wow, we should do this first thing every day. And then we don't.

Never once.

Ready to get to work.

If you've seen a lot of our videos, it's probably easy to think that all we ever do is go out and have fun on adventures. And don't get me wrong, we do a lot of that. But the reality is we probably spend more time doing this.

How good is this?

Best office ever.

Work for us means that I'm editing and Nate's doing the business side of things.

I think I need some food.

Emailing, planning, and researching our future.

Anything of this that's a good idea.

And anything that has to do with our finances. I always like to say that I'm in charge of our social media and Nate does well, basically everything else. The good news is we really like doing this because we're always on the move. The opportunity to just be still feels like rest, Like a break. It's work, but it's rest. It's confusing.

I feel super stereotypical saying this, but if we're eating lunch in the van, it's usually a smoothie. And I think I figured out why vans and smoothies go so well together.

They're super quick. It's an easy way to get a bunch of healthy stuff in your body at once. I don't have to cook anything. And probably most importantly is there's, like, no. No cleanup. The only thing I have to wash is this. Every smoothie I make consists of four main ingredients. And from there, I just added any other fun things I have in the pan. In this case, dragonfruit, coconut chips, and honey.

Coconut. Oh, let's forgot.

Okay. This is so weird. Nate's at the top of the hill. He was getting a video of us down here, and I decided I wanted to try to make some coffee. And so I tried to turn on our water boiler, and it wouldn't turn on. Then I turned on the music I was listening to and realized that there was a very loud beeping noise coming from under the bench where I was sitting. This is all the stuff that we just got fixed. We literally just left the shop.

Overload alarm.

What does that mean?

Don't know. Is that what happened before.

Did this really technical thing where I turn it off and back on, and it seems to be working really, since we've never had hot water before, We've never ran the hot water heater and the water boiler at the same time. And I bet that's what overloaded it.

You're so smart, living out of the.

Van for three months now, and I'm working.

So between the water heater, the water kettle, the blender, and all the electronics that we're charging today, we're using a lot of power and putting quite a bit of stress on the van. But the great thing about our new setup is because we have the alternator charger, all we have to do is turn the van on, and then everything will charge back up. Where before we would had to go to a campground plug in. It would have turned into this whole big ordeal. But.

All right, I'm pretty much done with this vlog that I've been editing. But before I post it to YouTube, there's one last step, and that is what we call our final watch and.

Edit round, also known as A guaranteed fight in our relationship every time. At this point, I haven't seen any of the footage since I filmed it behind the camera. And Kara's spent 20 plus hours editing this video. She's super invested and it's my job to tear it apart.

It's just this weird thing where I need fresh eyes on it. But because I'm so emotionally invested in anything Nate wants to change, she's like, we started doing this really cheesy thing where before we start, we all hold hands and we're like, okay, I love you.

We're on the same team.

All right, you ready?

Let's do it.

Coffee tends to help. Okay. So I have.

I think that whole.

I think this is like why I like it.

I think it's. The other issue is we have very different creative styles.

I like, like well lit, steady, maybe even verging on the edge of cinematic shots. And care will take like the real raw.

That's funny.

I think we've been doing this long enough that we've started to understand that like these different creative mindsets are what help shape our videos and have turned our channel into what it is. So in some ways we're grateful for it, but it doesn't make this any easier.

Yep.

Is that it?

We did it.

We're still married.

I wasn't that bad.

I would not consider myself a good cook. But I do love to eat. So every once in a while I tend to whip up something yummy. So earlier this year, my sister in law showed me this chickpea curry recipe and I totally fell in love. And it has been a staple.

Ever since. So when we were on the bike trip, I made this for the guys and a ton of people asked for the recipe. So that is what I'm going to make us for dinner tonight. And all these ingredients look a little intimidating, but trust me, it is so simple and it's so hard to mess up. That's what I love about it.

Unless you like, really love garlic. This is probably a bit excessive.

You need this much. If you don't like garlic. I'm sorry.

Wow, you put that much olive oil.

I love it. Okay, step one, chop up some fresh ginger, fresh garlic and fresh onion and saute in a whole bunch of olive oil. All these smells made me so happy. I think these are like the three strongest things that come from the ground. And pretty much every step of the way I add salt and pepper. And while those are simmering, I drain and rinse the chickpeas. Alright, next I get my spices Ready? And this is a new jar of turmeric. And last time I opened a jar at altitude, it didn't go well.

My whole face is burning. I'm scared.

Okay, give me a knife. I'll do it outside.

Okay.

Point it at you.

Be gentle.

It didn't explode. Oh, good.

Thank you. Typically, I am a big time measurer when I'm cooking. Like, I like to measure things perfectly, but for some reason, with this curry, I just. Oh, that looks good. Makes me feel like a real chef. So the main, most important spice in this curry is turmeric. Okay, now I'm just gonna let all of this simmer for just a few more minutes. All the flavors get nice and married.

Don't drip it in the curry.

All right. While Kara's cooking us dinner, I've been tasked with refilling our peat moss and our composting toilet so that we can start using the solid side of things again. This is the first time I've ever done this.

Mmm, smells so good. All right, last thing that I put in here for a while are the chickpeas. And I let this simmer for several minutes because I like it when the chickpeas get nice and crispy. Just walk away.

I think that's it.

So this is what it looks like inside. And then after you go to the bathroom, you move this thing around and mix everything up. Also, I think I used about 2% of this bag. You have to use organic peat moss, and the only size I could find was that. It's so heavy. That massive bag feels kind of wasteful. But it was only $12.

Okay, now it's getting exciting. This is all sizzling. It's time to add the liquids. Starting with coconut.

So good can be a little stubborn. There we go. Now we're cooking. Okay, not going to worry too much about some scraping the rest of that coconut milk out, because the way I measure the vegetable broth is I just pour it in the can. One less measuring cup to wash. Oh, yeah. And we like it spicy. So I add a bunch of these.

Okay. So now I really just have to walk away. And it's just going to stick, simmer, and thicken and become a curry.

While the curry was simmering, I made some basmati rice, and now we just have one last ingredient. Add in some fresh greens, stir them in, and let them cook for just a minute, and they'll be ready to serve.

I'm using a measuring cup as a ladle here because van life. So to finish it off, I add a Dollop of Greek yogurt, a hefty serving of cilantro because it's our favorite. A squirt of lime, a tad bit more olive oil. And I top it off with a little bit more turmeric just because it's pretty.

So ever since we first got married, Kara's done this thing where right before I'm about to take my first bite, she looks at me like this.

Tell me what you think.

You love it.

And I decided early on that I was just gonna be honest so that I didn't have to eat food that I didn't like for the rest of my life. And to her credit, she takes criticism about her cooking a lot better than she does about her editing. But I have no criticism of this meal. This is one of my favorites.

Tell me again, how good is it?

I'd like to say that our dinners usually look something like this. This where we're staring into each other's eyes and engaging in deep conversation. But the truth is, it usually looks more like this because we spend all day together. It's not like we have a lot to catch up on over dinner. So we usually end up watching YouTube.

Thanks. I hate doing dishes, and Carrot hates making the best, so this works out pretty well.

Compromise.

All right. We hope you enjoyed this peek into a day in our life when we typically don't pick up the camera whenever we have days like today. It can be for just one day. Or sometimes we do this for seven days straight. It just totally depends on what we have going on. But now you have a better idea of what our real life looks like in between videos. So are you gonna get up and turn off the lights or do you want me to do it?

Thank you. I love you. Love you. Goodnight.

Good night.

I know this scene of Nate and I kissing goodnight and snuggling and going to sleep together is super romantic. But.

The reality is, 50% of the time, I stay up another few hours editing. And that's because Nate is more of a morning person. That's when he feels most productive. And I'm kind of a night out. Hence the reason why Nate brings me coffee every morning and has to basically shake me to wake me up.

The air is free.

No way.

Yeah. This tire was on 20.

What's it supposed to be on?

70. Wow.

It's warm. Oh. Are you okay? Are you bleeding?

Say something.

Are you okay? Are you bleeding? Where did it hit? All right. On your temple.

Can you see straight? Yeah. Are you sure?

Yeah.

It was so loud. Okay. Yeah.

Just.

My Brother in law is 6 6, and he hits his head all the time. And I always laugh at him. And ever since we moved into the van, I feel so bad for that. Oh, I nailed it on one of the handles. I do this at least once a week in the van. Never used to hit my head. I'm short.

Same. Wow, that sun feels so good.

Oh, I'm hot. Cold.

We really like doing this. Ow.

We've gone through points where, like, this is bad for our relationship. We shouldn't do this anymore. But Kara requests that we do it.

Every time I need it.

It's mainly me cutting stuff out. And so me deciding that, like, this 30 seconds is boring and needs to come out. And Kara knows that. She spent an hour putting that together. I can see why it makes you mad.

Yeah. But I know that he's right. That's the annoying part. It's like, I don't want to take it out, but I know that he's right.

All right, let's do it.

Let's do this. I love you.

We're in this together.

We're on the same team. I don't care what it looks like. If it's funny, even if the camera is pointing at the ground, I think it should stay in. And it's like, no, take that out. And I'm like, it's funny. And he's like, nobody's gonna think it's funny because they can't see anything. And I'm like, it doesn't matter.

And then I'm probably gonna watch this one more time.

That wasn't your plan. Well, that looks like a salad.

Hello, Kara from the future here. This video makes it seem like I cook this proper meal every single night, and that is so not the case. At least half the time, our dinner looks like this.

Meat, cheese, crackers, veggies, a dip. It's one of our favorite meals.

You never have to go out eat this every night.

Unless you're a drummer and you can use your hands at different.

Thanks again to Target for sponsoring this video.