People don't realize how much work Van's life really can be. Especially at the drop of a hat. You may have days or weeks where nothing goes wrong and you're just cruizing through your usual plans, sightseeing, going to cafes, or just working, and next thing you know the vehicle you've been living in starts to have trouble. This happened in Vegas and Salt Lake City and on both occasions, they were things that I didn't have knowledge on. I learned a lot and I'm glad I had someone to walk me through the steps to fix this home I made. 

The reality of this life is that a lot of things happen like dominos. A few days ago I arrived in Casper and stopped in a Walmart Parking lot to rest. There isn't a lot of BLM land around so it was the only option to save money and to rest. Things seemed fine the first day and of course, we did a lot of driving to get here. A total of 13 hours to escape the bitter cold and it was worth it. Here it's around 40 - 50 degrees and I will take that over 8 or below. Truth be told I was in such a rush to get away from the cold weather that I didn't notice anything wrong with the van. Not right away. 

That first night in Walmart things were fine and the day went on without a hitch. Eventually, Lylah and I retired to our beds and slept through the night. When morning came I went to turn on the van and it struggled to turn on. It took a long time to turn over and at first I thought I left one of the doors slightly ajar. I've done that before and it kills the battery overnight. So I figured I would see if anything was wrong throughout the day and at night just double-check the doors and make sure everything was airtight. 

So I went about the Day just like that. We got back to Walmart after a full day of doing chores, exercising, and working and I settled in. I made sure all my doors were closed and went to sleep. Now, this was my day off so I slept in and enjoyed every second of it. I got up to turn the van on to get ready to head to a cafe and it wouldn't start. So I got out my generator, got a shopping cart to match it up to the correct height to reach the battery, and jumped the van. Knowing that the battery was dying I also planned to change my oil since it had 1% left for its oil life (I use an app to tell me how much percentage I have left for my oil). 

Let me just say that most people my age probably have never changed their oil on their own in their life, let alone a car battery and I managed to do both in an hour. The oil was messy because it was super windy so it sprayed all over the parking lot but I got it done without it getting on me and afterward I had the pleasure of carrying this brick of a battery into Walmart to get it exchanged. I did it without a hitch and I did it all without help. Sadly I know too many friends that have no idea how to do these things and if you don't, that's ok but also realize that knowledge in these types of things can really save you a lot of money and time and I managed to make that happen. I spent half the cost it would have to have someone else do it and i'm proud that I'm able to do things like this.

So if you have kids teach them so that they can also feel proud to have that knowledge and use it to the best of their abilities in this crazy world we live in.