From left, Addison, Tyler, and myself, Martha.
When my husband, Tyler, got a 4.5 month position working at Rocky Mountain National Park as a field scientist right after graduating from Eastern University this May, we made the only rational decision there was to make: buy a van and convert it for living in and drive on out to Colorado!
Why was this a rational decision for us? Good question, to many it might seem like pure lunacy. We were already quite short on funds from working on paying of my many thousands of dollars of school loans, paying Tyler’s college bills, and the pricey cost of an apartment in the suburbs outside of Philly (where Eastern University is located). This made the prospect of making the move, finding a new (pricey apartment) in a tourist town, moving or buying furniture to furnish the new apartment, and at the same time looking at taking on Tyler’s monthly loan payments as well, all quite appear quite daunting if not impossible. And so, we started looking at alternate housing options….
The converted van/camper (we affectionately refer to it as the “Vamp”) seemed to be the only feasible option with our very limited resources. And so the search began. Tyler insisted that one of our top priorities had to be that the van have a “hi-top” so that we would be able to walk around more or less upright inside the van. I thought this was unnecessary (and raised the price range we had to look in) but I have since recanted and admit that being able to stand up makes a huge difference in comfort and was quite worth the extra expenditure.
We needed something as cheap as possible (we were/are broke, remember) so an older van was what we would be looking at. But at the same time it needed to be reliable enough to make it halfway across the country (a solid 1,800 miles), and preferably still have a bit of life left in it upon our arrival. We set our budget at a max of $3,000. After much searching on Craigslist we finally found our dream van! A dark green, 1996 Chevy hi-top van, with 138,000 miles on it for $2,400. When we purchased the van we only had about a month to get it inspected, make any repairs, and have it fitted-out for our adventures, before our departure date, May 16th.
After a few hiccups and a few hundred dollars in repairs we got our Vamp back…one week before departure. And then the fun began! Tyler’s awesome brother-in-law, Richie, who works for a mattress making company, made the generous offer to make us a custom made, memory foam mattress as Tyler’s graduation present. Talk about luxury. It is fortunate that Tyler and I are both relatively small individuals. Tyler is just about 5’9″ and that is right about the width of the van, so we made the mattress a little wider than a twin (42″) and a good bit shorter, 61″ to be exact. As luck would have it, we also have a master carpenter in the family who was willing and able to build us a bed frame to hold our awesome mattress. First step in our project was to rip out all except the two front seats; leaving a generous empty space for us to work with. Next, our master carpenter, David, went to work. He built a platform at the widest part of the back of the van with a portion extending into the more narrow space at the back doors (this functions as a shelf while the wider part supports the mattress). 
(This is a view from the side doors) The space underneath will provide valuable room for storage. We measured the height of the frame to just allow large rubbermaid tubs to fit underneath)
This was all finished just the night before we left. We had to move quickly to clean up the mess and move everything we would need for the next 4 months in! Annnnnddddd, here is the finished product!
The “head board” at the back is actually just a removable piece of wood that can be stored under the mattress so as not to block the rearview when driving. It serves the dual purpose of giving us something to lean against if sitting on the bed as a couch and it separates the bed from the “shelf” portion of the platform which we see in the next picture.
This area in back serves as our kitchen (as I’m sure you can see). The plastic tub inset in the shelf/counter has a hole cut in the bottom which allows it to drain into the white bucket below. The red laundry detergent container is upcycled to function as a water dispenser for the “sink.” Food stuffs and other necessities are stored below. 
Check out all that storage space! And yes, those two tubs hold all of our clothing. I hope to create a better system eventually, but like I said, time and resources were limited. 
We picked this dresser up for free from the side of the road. It holds more food goods and dishes. Again, I would like to install a better, more permanent storage facility, but that will come with time. To the right you can see our little kennel for our tiny travel companion, Julie. 
Our faithful companion 🙂 That’s all for now, folks! More updates and pictures to come soon!
Snapshots of a Traveler's Life 