"Van Life" ask me questions for college english course

T

Trashpuppet

Member
Hello, In 2010 I graduated from high school a semester early and lived in my van in Colorado for the remainder of the ski season. I from West Virginia drove across the country. I worked the Elan and Screamer booths at SIA and then lived in the parking lots around Summit County, Vail, and Beaver Creek. I cooked all of my food outa of the van. Living off of $150 a month. I was kicked out of many parking lots. I tried living in a heated parking garage during the nights that were below 0 degrees. Never failed that security would find me to move me along to next parking lot. More people take pisses beside your car than you would think. I also saw a man on top of the hood of a car with a shotgun pointed at the driver. PLEASE ASK ANY QUESTIONS!! TRY to keep it PG13. Thanks NS

The following link is to the season edit I made while living in my van. "VAN LIFE"
https://vimeo.com/15972570

-Corey
 
How did you get money to ski resorts? Was anyone living with you?

What were some of the stops you made?

Where did you clean up and poop?

Was it at all worth it?
 
How did you make money?How did you dry everything?

Would you recommend more than 1 person living in the van or whichever vehicle for company, cost, etc?
 
Did your $150 pay for gas too?

Also, what would be an ideal, but still kinda reasonable/on the college kid budget amount per month?
 
How much money did you spend in total?Where did you wash your clothes?

where did you take showers?

did you do it with anyone else?

was the difficulty of living out of a van worth the skiing you did?

 
Purchased my Epic Pass at the SIA trade show. Only by myself, except for the last week my brother flew out and camped with me. Both of us drove back across the country. Stopped at SIA in Denver, then stayed in Summit county and Vail area. Totally worth it, tons of amazing friends made. If it was not for friends I would have not been able to take showers. Showered at friends places, pooped at the resorts. With a legit set up it was a comfortable living for a short period of time.
 
Scariest experience was when a few hundred feet away from my van a man had a shotgun and was on the top of a car hood pointing the gun at the driver. A few seconds later cops surrounded the man with guns out. For a moment I thought I was about to see someone be shot.
 
Loony Tunes edition Chevy mini van. Did not bang any ladies in the van. But I did meet my girlfriend of 2 years while living in my van.
 
No job, only skiing. I became much more passionate for skiing after this experience. Though I did receive a severe head injury attempting the front rodeo 810 out of the shooter rail that rattled my optic nerve (nerve that connects eye to brain) that I am still dealing with. If the opportunity arose I would ABSOLUTELY do it again. Car camping is still a big hobby of mine. Passing the time consisted of magazines, library, and hanging out with friends. I was invited over to eat dinner by a lot of amazing people who reached out, old and young.

My advise would be to get a van, a really good sleeping bag, and play it by year from there.
 
Saved my money before the trip. I had zero income while living in the van. I would dry things on sunny days, mostly with my defrost in the van. My particular van was a smaller but great on gas. I would only recommend living in the van with another if its your significant other. If you have a larger van like the TC van you could live more comfortably.
 
Best memory would be the combination of all the amazing people that reached out to help me. Worst memory would be the smell. I did not do laundry for the 4 months while living in the van and when I made it back to WV it was enough clothes for one load. haha
 
This is a rough estimate of the cost of the trip. $600 for the drive out and back to CO. SIA sells epic passes for $200. Gas and food for four months was $600. $200 for extra curricular activities. So a total of $1600. I took showers at friends houses that I made while skiing. I drove out with someone and dropped them off in Denver. My brother came out to visit the last week. We then drove back across the country. I skied everyday, I was always first in line on pow days cause I woke up in the parking lot, and I became significantly better at skiing. TOTALLY worth it. The living out of the van aspect was super easy! I would occasionally have car camping neighbors that I would cook up food and hang out with. I loved it.
 
I ate an un-healthy amount of Ramen Noodles. Keeping food cold was not a problem because it was winter. Some nights were -25 degrees.
 
what did you eat?

can you run is through an average day?

btw im seriousley considering doing this after im done with my exchange year to thailand next year, or after i graduate college
 
I would usually eat a bowl of cereal for breakfast or maybe a bagel. Coolers kept ice really well because the season was winter. lunch was probably scavenging food that people did not eat in the restaurant on the mountain or a PB&J sandwich of some sort because i would bring lunch onto the mountain skiing. A lot of fruit and veggies. For dinner I had a stove that I could cook up whatever food I wanted to. Doing dishes kinda sucked. Had a big container of water which made it easy to do dishes. use microwaves in gas stations. Beaver creek always had free cookies at 3.
 
You should have seen some of the set ups these old timers had in there vans that I camped beside. They are the legends. This trip was the start to SKIERTRASH.com check it. Would be cool to get a little army of van campers to go on a ski trip. I'm going to work on this idea.
 
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