"My brother Josh and I lived in the same vehicle together for 3 1/2 years, and it wasn't until recently that we traded our shuttle bus home for 2 Chevy Astro van conversions"
Many actually think
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"Well they're brothers.""I could never do that with my brother, so they probably got pissed at each other and traded their bus to have their own space.", -Aside from the common time to time bickering that you would expect over time, we have never really fought to a point where I can remember a certain scenario or major conflict. In fact almost everyone we met would comment on the fact that we get along so well for being brothers so close in age, and living in close quarters.
"Well now i see they got girlfriends, and they wanted their own space."
- Both the girls that Josh and I have found while living on the road have eased their way into our mobile life shortly after meeting them in Oregon. over the years, having a girl thing never began to, or could've separated josh and I. In fact, both of our girls have joined us on the road for certain amounts of time. My girlfriend Sarah was actually on the road with us together for 3 months at one point.
I feel that it was just the next step to get our own rigs after all of this time together.
-The fact that we each have a girl living with us on the road is NOT the reason we traded our bus for 2 vans.
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I'm sure when anybody thinks about living in a small space with their brothers or sisters GIANT red flags go off in their head and their mind skips to all the things that could go bad with that. Thinking about it though, positives can and will outweigh the bad if you could make it work, and Josh and i did that.
Being too much alike would probably be one of those red flags in your head when you think about living in a van with your sibling, but Josh and I (being so alike) both thrived being together, and fed off of each others energy. Whether we were skateboarding, working, finding work, or just socializing, we were just doing it, and after a while its natural to strike a conversation with anyone within 5 feet for too long of time. We each put eachother out there to have a positive mindset and positive outlook on situations, and now, the experience of a lifetime that we shared for the past couple years solidifying our will, will only be twice as awesome by hopefully making a larger impact on the small town teens who feel stuck and resort to "small town actions." Honestly, we just both live for the random conversations with complete strangers in a weird small town, the everchanging skateparks, but most of all we both just live for the memories. Overall we have both enjoyed building this positive relationship with unfamiliar areas.
Lifechanging shit. Honestly.
The type of thing that cant be put in words..
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-THE REAL REASON WE BOTH HAVE OUR OWN VEHICLES NOW- , much like everything else, started with an idea..
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What if we got two different vans, and used everything we've learned about living this to make a film about us crossing the country off of little-to-nothing. we already do that. We could each start with a stockpile of food, full tank of gas and $100. coast to coast. . . . . . . . . . Could be fun! that was the first thought......
So we were in Portland Oregon one night for the POLER X PENDLETON release party.
(2 rad companies coming together to make awesome shit, we didn't want to miss it.)
anyways, we posted on our Instagram that we were going to be there at POLER, and our good friends who also live out of their van said they'll be there, and we were stoked to see them as we haven't seen them since hotspringin' in the California desert.
That night as we were sitting in Matt & Lorae's van and we brought up our idea of trading the bus to them, and it was brought up that they love the bus but when they said they have 2 vans that they would trade for it.. shit got real.
-what kind of vans? low miles? what year? we attacked with questions!
--Astro vans? .... hmmmm
---nah you know were kind of looking for something with more room for outfitting it and what not..
---Matt and Lorae both say at the same time.. THEYRE NOT NORMAL ASTRO VANS!
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well they were right about that.. these are not normal Astro vans..
As the night went on and we realized we were all kind of serious about the trade, and we made plans to meet in Northern Washington 2 weeks later.
It still didn't seem real until we were driving away from the bus we called home for quite some time and took across the nation a couple different times. we of course still miss it.
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Josh chose the more Spacious 1987 Astro Van allegro Adventur-mobile
I chose the less spacoious 1990 tiger Provan.
Both of us are more than happy with our new homes, and our relatonships born on the road.
we aren't doing anything different, now we just have 2 vans. :)
-And yes, Josh and I will be filming a nationwide race off of little to nothing in these vans.
During this adventure we will not leave a state until we find work and do volunteer work in that state.
We will each see at least 4 national parks, hike over 50 miles, have a van party with strangers, and other random objectives as we move across the US hoping to show the world that you CAN just leave. if your in a bad situation, you can work your way out of it, keep your head up and keep going. You don't need a plan, You don't need materialistic things.
You only need a positive mindset and a good work ethic, we have proved it.
stay tuned on details of that, we will be asking our social media audience what other things we should do as we work across the country.
IG @IDIGLIFE
@THEVANWITHNOPLAN
Feel free to shoot me any questions or comments you have.
ill see ya out there. MM
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Being blown away was a constant as we hiked around with them all day. Learning about the solar panels that give them power, the water sources, the gardens, and the individual chicken farms and cattle soon made me realize.. these folks are off-grid out here just living happily under a rock.. Brings a whole new meaning to "whattya live under a rock or something?
