You can read about vanlife, you can watch vanlife content on YouTube, but I’m here to tell you… there’s no way to actually know what driving 2,000 miles in a van and sleeping inside it for multiple days in a row is going to be like until you do it. And last weekend, I did it. My wife and I drove from Oklahoma City to Hurricane, West Virginia and back over a period of six days. That’s 1,000 miles in two days, two days in West Virginia, and two days home — in a van lacking, among other things, cruise control.

I’m still organizing my thoughts and compiling footage into videos with some sort of narrative, but here are five things that went wrong and five that went right on my first real vanlife journey.

FIVE THINGS THAT WENT WRONG

1. THE BED. In my rush to finish the van build, I neglected to notice the rear of the bed was resting on the wheel well, causing the back to be roughly 1 1/2″ higher than the front. This wasn’t a big deal when sitting, but when sleeping it caused me to continually slide out of the bed. The first thing I did when I got home was cut a notch out of the offending 2×4, alleviating the problem.
2. BROUGHT TOO MUCH. 1/3 of my under desk storage was taken up by my Mr. Buddy heater. Yes, I brought my Mr. Buddy heater on a trip in the middle of June with expected temperatures of 90F+ all week. Worried that I would forget something important, I simply brought too many things.
3. ORGANIZATION. Cramming so many things into the van made it impossible to access things without opening the doors. I had my clothes packed in two different bags and my shoes behind the microwave; getting dressed felt like a building project every single morning. I thought putting “things behinds things” was a smart way to bring more in the van, and it was, but those same things were inaccessible.
4. WATER SYSTEM. Two days before we left, my wife requested that I “get the sink finished.” I sacrificed a lot of storage space for a water and sink system that ultimately didn’t work, which is two losses in one. The reality is, all the water we needed came from water bottles we packed in the fridge.
5. BATTERY FAILURE. My brand new, name brand AllPowers power station failed with an obscure error code on the first day of the trip. The battery has to be sent back to the factory and replaced, which is a huge hassle.

FIVE THINGS THAT WENT RIGHT

1. SOLAR PANEL. Two days before we left I added a 200 watt solar panel to the roof with low expectations. It actually performed pretty well, bringing in around 100 watts on average and a high of 130 watts while driving in the sun. The panel was enough to keep my battery at 100% for most of the trip.
2. CHILLY REFRIGERATOR. I wasn’t sure how it would perform, but the refrigerator I purchased worked great. There was more room inside than I thought and we had plenty of food, drinks, snacks, and treats inside. I kept both sides at 45F, which drew a consistent 35 watts from the battery.
3. ON THE ROAD REPAIRS. After discovering my bed had a fatal flaw, my wife and I stopped at Home Depot, purchased a 2×4, had it cut in the store, and made a temporary riser on the bed. It felt good to put our heads together and come up with a solution on the fly.
4. MY GADGETS. From my LED puck lights to all my little USB power packs and my indoor/outdoor thermometer, everything worked. I didn’t use everything I brought, but everything I brought that I needed worked.
5. THE VAN MADE IT! 2,000 miles in a 17-year-old van with questionable bones. The repairs I paid for prior to leaving paid off as the brakes felt like new, the van handled and accellerated better than ever, and the gas mileage went up nearly 50% from nearly 10mpg to almost 15mpg!

Like I said, some of these things you just can’t plan for. It’s not until you’re actually inside a van, surrounded by your own bad ideas and good intentions, that you can start to see what’s going to work and what has failed spectacularly. I had an absolute blast on my trip and can’t wait for the next one.