Everyone loves a good collaboration. A well-done mash-up earns an easy nod of recognition. We often come to admire those willing to bring together known elements and reimagine them in a unique and interesting way.
That’s exactly what Melisa and I are trying to do with our van-life adventure.
This is not retirement. It’s not even semi-retirement. We both are in the middle of great things with the work we do, so ours is not a travel-blog for those who don’t punch a clock every day. There will be things to be learned from the business opportunities that arise as a result of our van life choices, and we intend to share a lot of what real life in a van looks like for two career salespeople.
Can we make this work? Can we co-exist in 60 square feet and make our businesses feel like we’ve never left our work from home environment? Will the wi-fi hold up to the traffic we need on an average workday while we’re simultaneously videoconferencing like champions?
Our approach to van-life is reflected in the categories we’ve chosen to each write about in our custom PRKTopia journals we co-created with our friends at Denik. The categories are:
Live: Plant-Based Living, Exercise, Mental Health
Play: Outdoors, National Parks, Van Living
Work: Goal-Achievement, Co-Work, Travel-Muting
Caring: Giving Back, Helping Up, Volunteering
We’ve had journals made for anyone who would like to journal along with us about these topics, and we love the idea of sharing our thoughts and sharing how this decision impacts us across these categories. If you’re thinking about getting out on the road yourself but worry about your ability to still get work done and co-exist with your favorite people in confined spaces, we’ll give you an honest look at what that is really like.
We’re big into memorable experiences, so you’ll see us visiting a wide array of places as we look to build the PRKTopia following on social media. Who knows, maybe we’ll be able to bump into you on the road at a craft brewery or beer festival, ski resort, James Beard level restaurant, music festival or any other place we can invite our growing base of followers to see our van Marian firsthand and hear from us about the realities of van life while we’re hanging out together doing fun things. Who wouldn’t want to do that?
We’re excited to continue our partnership with Drifter Vans and share stories from our time on the road and the realities of starting a fledgling YouTube channel in the van life category. If we do this right, we should educate you about the places we’ll be traveling, inform you about what you need to consider when going on the road, entertain you with our foibles, and inspire you to do more, be more, see more. We’re doing it, you can too.
Follow along with us on our channels as the story starts to unfold.
