Cruisin Hills goes Cruisin' USA, Full-time!

[Bhill_teq]

"Well, I put in my two weeks." Hearing those words from my wife Lauren hit me like a Miata hitting a brick wall. We already had the van. The camper conversion was basically done, save the electrical portion of the build, and we had spent the last two years preparing for this moment. But when she said that, it finally felt REAL. Like, holy crap, we are doing this, aren't we?

And we did. I left the Toyota dealership I had worked at for 10 years a month later. I sold my Tercel Wagon and my motorcycle, donated a ton of furniture and clothes, and purchased an old shipping container to store our Land Cruiser in while we are gone.



Before we were completely out of our apartment, we took the van on a test run up to Northern Idaho to stay in a decommissioned Forest Service Fire Lookout for our 9th anniversary! It was a great trip, and everything worked really well! No glaring issues, and tons of room for improvement.

 

[Bhill_teq]

January 6, 2023, we bought two one-way tickets to Portland, Oregon to pick up our future home.


We were immediately in love with the plucky little van. And the plan was already in motion for how we were going to build it out.

Have you ever heard of a small shop in Long Beach, California called Squirrel Concepts? Their specialty is 90's Toyota trucks, but V is an extremely talented wood worker, and had already completed a handful of camper builds. I sent them an e-mail back in December, and V was way into it. And to be honest, I didn't want anyone else to do the build. No offense to the Sprinter shops, but that's not what we wanted. We wanted Toyota guys who are as passionate as we are doing the build.

We started bouncing ideas off of each other immediately, but it wouldn't be until late Summer before they could get it worked in. We were happy to wait, and for that kind of custom work, it was a very reasonable waitlist.

That didn't stop us from getting out and enjoying it, though!

 

[Bhill_teq]

July 28, 2023, I picked up our good friend Chris at the butt-crack of dawn and we headed West. Well, South, then West. Lauren and I stripped the rear interior in our driveway two days prior to this, and Squirrel was ready for us.



Driving through Vegas and the California desert in July was BRUTAL. HiAces are famous for running warm, right? I was watching EGT's and engine temps the whole time, and we spent a lot of time in the slow lane climbing hills with our hazards on lol. But we got there with zero issues.



Now that she was in V's hands, Jupiter was about to have the most significant glow up since arriving to the U.S from Japan.

 

[Bhill_teq]

Life went on while our little home was under the knife in California. We went to Descend on Bend in August, New Jersey in September, and I planned a trip to the Dollhouse in October. The Dollhouse is deep in the Maze district of Canyonlands National Park, and I took the Cruiser on a solid end of camping season solo adventure.

 

[Bhill_teq]

Just like that, she was done. And it was an incredible journey to get there.

 

[Bhill_teq]

We brought Jupiter home November 19th, 2023. Incredible turnaround, given what V had done. We hibernated over the winter, and little progress was done on the van. It was a looong, cold, snowy winter in Utah. So you know, a normal winter lol.

In April we took her down to Monument Valley for our first campout in the new build. It wasn't finished yet, but we had our
cushions done, and the kitchen was fully functional. We had a blast! But it got really cold in the Valley of the Gods, and that Diesel heater wasn't plumbed to fuel, and had no electrical components to power it. So we froze. And laughed knowing that it was there, perfectly useless lol.

 

[Bhill_teq]

So between November of last year, and August of this year, we finished prep of the van, stashed more away into our savings, and hit the road. I know, I know. That's hilariously over-simplified. But when I get into the interior setup and the buildout, I'll go more into the work that it took to complete it.

Where do you go first when you make a drastic, irrational and scary life decision? West.

 

[Bhill_teq]

The Oregon coast was amazing. I cannot even begin to explain how good it felt to sit in the van and watch the sun set over the Pacific Ocean. We were doing it. It was really happening.

After Descend on Bend, we pointed East. We had a trip to California planned, and would be flying out of SLC. Immediately following that, we would be bombing up to Washington, back in the van, for a concert at the Gorge and a trip through Mount Rainier National Park.

 

[jim65wagon]

What a fun story! Congratulations on your fulltimeyness. That feeling you get when you walk out of a job and first get on the road is one that sticks with you for a long time. I still think back fondly to that day. Fulltime is the best time!

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[Bhill_teq]

What a fun story! Congratulations on your fulltimeyness. That feeling you get when you walk out of a job and first get on the road is one that sticks with you for a long time. I still think back fondly to that day. Fulltime is the best time!

Sent from my SM-G986U1 using Tapatalk

Thank you! I worked there for a month shy of eleven years. My manager could not wrap his mind around me quitting so we could live in our van and travel. Lol. It is the best! Are you still traveling fulltime??

 

[jim65wagon]

Thank you! I worked there for a month shy of eleven years. My manager could not wrap his mind around me quitting so we could live in our van and travel. Lol. It is the best! Are you still traveling fulltime??

Still full-time, since June of 2020. We don't remote work, so we get jobs every once in a while to earn travel funds.

Currently, we're on our last few days of a 5 month stint at a solar farm. For work periods, we live in our 19-foot travel trailer.

Once work is over, we'll go swap this camper for our teardrop and travel free for 3 or so months.

We try for 3 months fun/3 months work schedule, but this time, we had to make up for working less last spring.

My wife and I did 29 and 27 years respectively in our old jobs and I really do not want to ever go back to owning a house, land, and grinding 40 or 50 hours a week just to get a two week vacation every year!

Some people really struggle with the concept of traveling full-time!

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