Hey guys its been a while since I've had an update! I finally have some progress to show off. So I've been doing some serious thinking about my life and I what I want to do with it. This past year I saw myself in a bad spot and I decided to do something about it. Basically for the past year I have been working two separate jobs clocking in almost 60 hours a week to fuel my expensive hobby of building an offroad vehicle while trying to make a living here in costly California. I hated my full time job, which made me hate my life, but I loved building my truck which is what kept me going. But I wasn't sure if this was really what I wanted.
What I want is to travel! Explore! Adventure! And Live! So I halted all the truck mods and stopped buying useless things that didn't pertain to my goal. That goal is now an obsession I have to follow through with the trip of a lifetime. I have been scheming up a possibly 3 month long road trip across the U.S. From sunny Southern California all the way up the coast to Canada. Then I will loop around through Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona to get back home.
So with all the money I had saved up for a used long travel kit, fiberglass parts, paint jobs, and other mods I decided to tuck it all away. I then toughed it out a couple more months and nearly doubled my savings. As soon as I felt like I had enough for the trip I quit my job. My last day was a few weeks ago and every day I wake up knowing I don't have to go back to that hell hole just makes me ecstatic. I picked up more hours at my part time job to live off of until I leave in June. Now I'm pretty happy with my life at the moment.
So for the trip I'm doing a very budget friendly run through meaning no hotels, and hardly eating out. For accommodation I will be mostly camping and staying in hostels with the occasional stealth camp here and there. Luckily for me my dad is a proud owner of a Thousand Trails membership and since I am his son and under the age of 23 that means I also have a membership! I get to stay at any of their nationwide campsites for free. As for food I will be cooking most of my meals out of my fridge powered by solar panels and my new Coleman Triton camp stove so that cuts out expensive fast food. As for activities that will be the one thing I will try not to budget too much. I hope to never give up a once in a lifetime opportunity because I was too cheap to buy in.
Now for the updates! My old coworker, who is a carpenter, busted out this amazing sleeping platform! It'll be a huge factor for the trip keeping everything organized and easily accessible.
I've also removed my backseats so that I can get on Rickashay's level and make myself a nice kicthen area like this.
Then after I complete that I would like to look into options for water storage. So far the Road Shower looks like the best bet for my needs but I will have to rig up a mount for it on my roof rack. Then I'll need a bed. I was thinking of either a futon mattress or a foam mattress topper. I would like to keep the head room so a blow up mattress is out of the picture. Anyone with a foam mattress please chime in with your experiences.
Thats it for now. I plan on creating a trip report when the time comes but you can also check out my progress on my Instagram page @Reefry. Tell me what you guys think so far. If you have any ideas for my build or destinations to visit on my route I am all ears.
Thanks for Reading.
I cant wait to hit the road!