#VANLIFE: Travels with Tilly – How I Kept the Travel Bug Going During COVID

Updated: April 2022

As a world traveler/vagabond/gypsy who has traveled full-time since the end of 2017, the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic in the USA in March of 2020 has tossed all my plans into the trash, leaving me frustrated and restless.  I had reservations to fly to Peru and hike Machu Picchu and spend a couple of weeks in a language immersion school in Medellin, Colombia…but alas, that’s all been put on hold (like so many people’s plans for 2020.)

What’s a backpacker to do in order to not lose her mind?  I wasn’t comfortable getting on a plane just yet…What about living in a campervan and traveling around the USA, since international travel was not an option for the foreseeable future?

I started researching, since driving around the country is still an option (with various caveats in order to enter certain states, but I can work with that). As a minimalist and a backpacker, it sounded like something I’d enjoy.  But which kind of camper vehicle type should I get? A travel trailer that I would pull behind my car?  Teardrop style? Airstream?  Or maybe an RV that I would drive?  Or hey – What about a van?

As a solo woman getting close to turning 60 (yikes – just typing that makes me cringe!!) I know my limitations – and I’m not very mechanical. At all. As in, not in the least. 😱 Hooking up a camper to a hitch, backing into a campsite, leveling the camper…these are the kind of things that are no bueno for me. I’m sure I could figure it out, but why not just get a van 🚐?? After all, you just drive it, then park it and sleep in it! Easy peasy!

A friend of mine and her husband in Nova Scotia bought a VW Eurovan campervan a while ago, and she convinced me to look into it as an option.  Terry and Stephen have traveled throughout Canada in theirs, and enjoyed it immensely. Stephen started researching VW vans for sale for me and sending me ads and links for vans for sale, and I took a look at a couple of different types in Denver to see what they were like.

A RV-Trader listing sent to me by Stephen in May had all the right stuff – low miles. Clean condition. Lots of updates and repairs had been made by the one owner who bought it new in 1997. And the price was in line with what this model was selling for, so I contacted the owner, who lived in northern Wisconsin near Duluth, Minnesota to ask about it.

Ellen and I chatted for quite a while.  She told me the story of the van, which had been owned by her mother Janet in Arizona.  Janet Tillotson passed away in November, 2019 at the age of 90, but she had been an accomplished tennis player, a professional and amazing impressionist painter, a political activist known as “The Button Lady” …and a solo camper and fly fisherwoman for years, well into her golden years.  Ellen was certain that the van would be a perfect fit for me and I would be the ideal person to carry on her mom’s solo woman camper legacy – and she guessed that her mother would be delighted that the van had gone to someone like me.

Although it took me a bit longer to complete the sale due to a real estate closing in Denver that I was depending on for the funds for the van, Ellen and her husband Rich were in no hurry to sell it to someone else and assured me that they were ok waiting for me to get there to pick up the van.

So I booked a rental car for a one-way drive to Duluth, grabbed my friend Molly, and the two of us headed east to meet Ellen and Rich – and my new van.  We all met at the Duluth Airport, which was absolutely deserted due to COVID-19, and they took the time to explain every single thing in the campervan to me, demonstrating how to work the sink, the 2-burner stove, the upper bed, the lower bed, the holding tank…you name it, they showed me how it worked!  Janet had left a 3-ring binder complete with absolutely every receipt for all the repairs she had done throughout her ownership of the van – 22 years’ worth of documentation showing all the work, updates and upgrades.

We took it for a test drive around the funky cool town of Duluth and everything seemed hunky-dory.  I felt extremely comfortable handing a check to Ellen to pay for the van – they really couldn’t have been any nicer or more thorough. The vibe was great, the trust was implicit. The van was mine. I put the key in the ignition and drove off into the sunset…

Molly and I headed back to Denver to get the plates and registration taken care of (after stopping for a few nights of camping at the gorgeous and little-known Apostle Islands National Park along Lake Superior, where we kayaked, hiked and tried out camping in the van.)

ABOUT THE VW EUROVAN CAMPERVAN

Compact, smart, streamlined, logical, simple. (Not me; the van! 😘) Easy to set up and easy to take down…this van was designed with me in mind! It’s ridiculously easy to pop up the top (and also to pop it down again). I can jam out to cassette tapes 📼on the stereo. There’s plenty of storage for food, 📚 books, clothes, pillows and bedding. I can make coffee ☕️ on the stove in the morning, set up the awning if I want to hang out in the shade, eat inside on the two portable tables.

With a 12-gallon holding tank for fresh water and a grey water tank for the used water, I can wash up, brush my teeth and do the dishes easily. The little fridge runs on propane, electric or battery, and there’s plenty of interior lights that run off the marine battery in the back. I bought a small USB-powered fan to keep the van cool at night, and I feel safe, secure and comfy as I lock up at night and fall asleep on my new memory foam mattress topper.

POPULAR QUESTIONS

“What about showers? And where do you go to the bathroom?”  These are the two questions I get from everrrrryone. I wrote a specific post about this very question- read about it here. The quick answer is –  I often stay in a campground, so there are toilets onsite of course. And so far, showers at each one as well. When I’m “boondocking” (staying in a free location without facilities like a fire ring, picnic table or toilets) I can use my USB-powered shower sprayer if I want to (or a baby wipe bath is always acceptable!) and use the great outdoors when I need to go to the bathroom. (Or Starbucks. Or a McDonald’s if necessary.) Here’s a great compilation of apps that will make your vanlife much easier! How to find free camping, showers 🚿 , propane, cheap ⛽️ gas  and more!!

WHAT’S MY VAN’S NAME?

A van’s gotta have a name, right? After cracking myself up with suggestions like “Vanna White” or “Vanessa”, Molly suggested I name the van after her illustrious owner, Janet Tillotson.  “Janet” wasn’t working for me, (i kept hearing “damn it, Janet!” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show) but how about “Tilly” for Tillotson??  That sounded perfect! So Tilly she is. ❤️

TRAVEL PLANS

And so it began– Road Trip 2020 – Tilly and I are traveling cross-country to the East Coast, with Maine as the brass ring in the trip.  Starting the end of June and heading to Wisconsin, then to Chicago, Tennessee, Atlanta, Asheville, Carolina Beach and northbound to Chincoteague Island (guys!!! It’s a real place!! I read those books when i was a kid and now imma going there!! CLICK the link to read about it!) Philly, Cape Cod, Rhode Island and maybe more – to be determined.

Having a van has made being flexible so much easier – being able to go with the flow, change gears (literally!) and adapt to the ever-changing conditions on the

road as well as my whims of where to go and how long to dally.

Please do follow my adventures and misadventures on the road on my Instagram and Facebook pages, Posts from a Flashpacker. I’d love for you to join Tilly and me!

The question isn’t “who is going to let me?”, it’s “who is going to stop me?”  ~Ayn  Rand