An LGBTQ couple decided to save some pennies by converting a van into a home as they were tired of paying rents every month.
Crystal Drinkwalter, 25, and Jazmyn Canning, 26, bought a 92-square-feet 2006 Mercedes Sprinter for £15K ($18,400 USD) and transformed it into a home.
Crystal said: “If we were in a big city, we’d be more worried but we are in the middle of nowhere. I feel like we are in the safest position.”
“We spent the last few days hiding out in the jungle and only seeing four other people so we’re not too freaked out. We’ve seen more sheep than people in the last few days. It’s not going to stop us.”
They had no experience of plumbing and electrical but still, they managed to turn their dream into a reality by taking the help of YouTube videos to see how it is done. The pair from Barrie in Ontario, Canada decided to quit their jobs as waitresses to spend the last year travelng through North America in their mobile home.
Jazmyn said: “We didn’t want the van to just be a travel mobile, we wanted it to be our own home mobile.”
Crystal added: “The cost of living definitely deterred us from getting an apartment. Rent for a one bedroom apartment in the Toronto area starts at $880 [1200 CAD] and then you are paying bills on top of that.’’
“How can you do the things you want to do when all your money is going into the roof above your head? We wanted to make life our job, rather than make our job our life.”
It took them five months to find a perfect van and an extra eight months to turn it into their home. “We found a 2006 Mercedes Sprinter with no rust,” said Crystal. ‘’It took us eight months to outfit the van and it was a lot of trial and error.’’
“We had no prior plumbing, electrical work or carpentry skills. YouTube was our biggest educator. We were working full time while we were building.
“The van cost $10,200 [14,000 CAD] and the build cost $8,200 [11,000 CAD]. We needed a four season van with a heater as it is freezing about eight months of the year in Canada.”
Jazmyn said: “At the front of the van we have a bench that pulls out into a small bed and we call it our reading nook. We put our kitchen at the right side of the van.’’
“It has 127 liters of running water. We have a cooktop, a sink and a fridge which can hold 72 beer cans.’’
“We also have a floor-to-ceiling pantry and that’s where we store all our dried goods, pots and pans, dog food and coffee. In the back half of the van we have a bed that we can fold away.’’
“Our electricity comes from two AGM batteries that are fueled by our solar panels on our roof. We don’t have a bathroom. We didn’t really want to clean a toilet in such a small place.’’
“There are so many amenities out there and everyone is kind enough to let us use the bathroom. We let the dogs out all the time so when they go to the bathroom, we go to the bathroom.’’
“We use a shovel and we leave no trace. But we do have an outdoors shower.” They finished the van in January 2019 and in February the couple jetted off to travel.
“We went to Washington, Oregon, Utah, California and Arizona,” said Crystal. ‘’We then came into Mexico, taking the ferry from Baja, a state in Northern Mexico, to mainland Mexico.’’
“We are almost at the border of Guatemala now. We are going to do all of Central America and we will ship the van from Panama to Colombia. From Colombia, we will go to Ecuador, Peru, Chile and maybe Brazil.”
Jazmyn said: “We sleep for free every night. We feel a sense of security in the van. The dogs help us out,” added Crystal.
“They are the perfect alarm system when we are sleeping. They let us know if anyone is outside the van.”
Jazmyn and Crystal said they have to take extra precautions while traveling alone as they are an LGBTQ couple.
“Our license plate says ‘Van Wives’ and we were thinking about changing it. But we are just going to be who we are and we get so much more positivity than negativity from that license plate.
“When we were at the American border, the border security officer said: ‘It’s a shame that you two are gay. But we have moved on from it.
“As an LGBTQ couple, we have to do our research. We haven’t had any issue at all in Mexico. They have a lot of Pride flags all over the streets.”
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