FIRST 48 HOURS OF FULL-TIME VAN LIFE

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After weeks of renovation, we finally left our hometown in Tennessee to begin full-time #vanlife however, we had one more problem to fix along the way. / Travel vlog 720 | Nashville, TN | Filmed June 30-July 3, 2020

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“Entropy”
“Jakarta.”
“Hurrungane”
“368”

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Originally from Nashville, Tennessee, we got married June 2013 and quickly caught the #travel bug! We started “travel hacking” & finally decided we wanted to travel for one year. After 2 years of saving $ and over 2 million miles and points, we sold our cars and apartment and left home January 10, 2016. We started this #travelvlog to share our experiences with friends and family, then decided we really liked vlogging and traveling! After achieving our new goal of 100 countries before 2020 and all 7 continents, we have no plans to slow down anytime soon, and we are incredibly thankful to do something we love every day. 🙂

We’re Karen Nate we’ve spent the last four years traveling full-time to a hundred countries the original plan was to continue traveling internationally but you know 2020 so now we’re back in our home country of the United States where we bought a converted Sprinter van that will be our full-time home as we

Explore our own backyard for the last month we’ve been parked in Nate’s parents driveway trying to get the van ready to leave but it’s been a more challenging process than expected uh-oh our ceiling lights broke then a rock chips the windshield one of our tires went flat our Shore power quit working

Our solar panels quit charging drawer latches broke then there were the upgrades we willingly made like installing the headliner shelf new fans fixing the table and installing a swivel seat If we’re being completely honest it was a lot more effort than I thought it would be to get ready for this moment but it is finally time to pull out of my parents driveway for good and we are heading three hours north to Lexington Kentucky to the office of the place

Where our fridge is made because it’s broken so a month ago before I bought this fan I didn’t know what a compressor was and now I know that it’s this little black box right here I still don’t completely understand what it does but after spending an hour on

The phone with the company that makes this fridge the other day I’m pretty sure it’s broken and that’s what we need to get fixed in order for our fridge to work so the original plan was to head west but it’s gonna be kind of hard to live in this van full-time without a

Working fridge so we’re heading north out of necessity I have a fridge that needs to be repaired closed I think the worst part about our french breaking is I had bananas in the freezer and we didn’t know that it was broken for like an entire day and

Just hooked in here and the whole fridge just smells like no longer have access to my dad’s workshop and I’m left with my small childhood toolbox did not think I have what I need to get that phrase out in there yeah oh I did a wrench okay

Now if we’re lucky it just slides right out we’re unlucky there’s bills huh he’s just really heavy yeah yes that’s attached that was done anything in there k nope well honestly just thought we were gonna show up and they were gonna like do everything for us but this isn’t like an RV repair

Place this is literally the company that that makes the fridge so they don’t work on vans just like there’s not like a waiting room or a place where like customers go like quick to show we’re just at the warehouse change the cover the parts in there that it gets covered

On you as well so it’s there they should be good good thank you so much sweet took like five minutes and it was free now let’s put it back in oh yeah that’s already cooling so good yay don’t want to drive three hours out of the way but it was so worth it

Alright it’s almost like it never happened now I just need to figure out how to get rid of the rotten banana smell we weren’t sure if they were gonna be able to fix the bridge in one day so we haven’t made any other plans and it’s

Almost dinner time so and if I’m to where I eat and somewhere to sleep for the night so we don’t this app that’s supposed to show you places where you’re allowed to park for free overnight and there’s the sporting goods store right down the road that’s on the list but

Because we’ve never done this before I was gonna call and see if it was okay because I didn’t want somebody knocking on the window in the middle of the night telling us that we weren’t allowed to sleep there but I guess we’ll just go and hope for the best

My sister actually used to live in Lexington so I asked her what we should get for dinner and she said eating a hot brown from Ramsey’s diner is the classic Lex Antonian thing to do so and I give one hot brown just the traditional one also a veggie plate I think we might

Have a heart attack according to the whoa I am so glad we did not get two of these look at all of that cheese this is great so according to the Internet the hot brown gonna has a fun history it originated here in Kentucky at this really fancy hotel like

A hundred years ago the chef there just whip it up with the ingredients that he had and now it’s in it wow that is a thick layer of cheese As worth the hype this dish contains two pieces of toast one layer of Turkey one layer of ham this beautiful creamy white sauce I don’t even know what this is some sliced fresh tomatoes a little bit of nutrition in there huge layer of melted cheese and just to top it off

Right to big cut pieces of crispy bacon I love it this is a thing to pair with our hefty entree we have five classic southern side fried okra fried green tomatoes fried apple fritters cornbread and my favorite mac and cheese growing up with my grandmother cooking a lot of these sides

For family get-togethers I give those like a seven out of ten but totally worth coming forward just for the hot brown according to the app there were two spots are out back as you can’t just party anywhere well hey RV service area hey sweet hey neighbor sorry you know yeah

It’s not like the dreamiest spot that we could have ever parked for the first night but it is free and there’s a semi-truck and a camper on the other side of that that are sleeping here as well so I feel pretty good about it Hey Siri what’s the humidity what’s the highest humidity can possibly beat one of the things that I was a little worried about when they bought this van was not having a/c and the back when we were trying to go to sleep and 10:45 and I’m still sweating a little bit it’s

About 80 degrees and the humidity is currently 79% it’s warm but I think if I like really still and I don’t put any sheets on top of me I think I’ll be able to fall asleep I think we didn’t even get to call toilet closet

Not that bad not that bad not quite as romantic as I pictured our first real night well done just our first full day in general getting our fridge fixed sweating all day sleeping in a parking lot you know this is a rough day and it

It wasn’t that bad and I’m excited to be doing this Believe it or not we both got cold last night which is so good I just thought I was gonna sweat every single night in the end all right time to get moving we’re gonna leave it as a bed until we need it as office head northeast toward Polo Club Boulevard

Their circumstances have led us to Kentucky we were hoping that we can make the most of it by doing like a socially distance tour of a horse track forest of a distillery because those are two things that Kentucky is really famous for however after a couple hours of

Research last night we learned that pretty much all of those things are still closed due to Kovan which is probably a good thing so instead we are going to stick to the original plan and start driving west today We just made it to Louisville and since we have a working fridge it’s time to stock up I think I don’t even feel like we have enough food for breakfast lunch and dinner for the next two days and somehow our pantries are already full this won’t fit anywhere guess we’ll just have to sit with me and Francie alright so the goal for today is to make it to st.

Louis which is about a four-hour drive west we don’t really have any plans today so we’re just gonna take our time get in there Nate has a business call in a few minutes so while he’s doing that I’m going to make us on the avocado toast

For lunch I know none of this seems super exciting but the fact that we just were able to pull up the interstate into a random gas station parking lot and like live our life because we have everything that we own with us right here there’s a pretty cool feeling After a long rainy drive through endless amounts of farmland we have made it to st. Louis it’s our first time in the city so of course our first stop is the arch so we left here in the middle of a pandemic we knew this was going to be

Kind of a weird time to travel and there’s pros and cons to it the pro is that we’re one of three people at the st. Louis Arch and the con is that it’s still closed for another week and we can’t go up to the top and anything that

We say like Kobe related and about stuff being closed isn’t us complaining we almost expect it it’s just to kind of like share the current situation with you and and what we’re experiencing firsthand So I’ve known about the st. Louis Arch for as long as I can remember but I just learned today that it’s the tallest arch in the world it 630 feet We’re ending tonight at one of our friends barbecue restaurant let’s go a little salt and smoke and we’re so excited that we finally get to try it we’re starting with a st. Louis original Ravioli this placeis with their own spin on it – it’s tough with a brisket and serve with their white part Phillips oh my gosh which tastes like ranch that’s a little bit more cheating there so toasty this is a brilliant idea I do not think that the u.s. is going to be

Good for my waistline but a little bit double my sauce our waitress told us that the mac and cheese here has won several awards I can totally see why this was amazing we have pulled pork brisket and a pop-up Our friend owns this restaurant so I might be a little biased but it’s delicious and you should eat us all this moment become stateless Oh in his childhood tool box oh that would’ve been cool so that was exactly what I need it let’s get the kitchen drawer out of the bathroom I’d be

Surprised if this doesn’t clog one of my arteries immediately not so traumatic this is crazy our band is so smart I was so confused all of a sudden the windshield wipers just started going I guess there’s like a moisture sensor it’s so smart so Scott’s a killer innate and follow me

On instagram WK tears a lot of a channel yeah