Travel Nurse Van Life: How Tess Turned a Class B Motorhome into Home
- Sunny Lane
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Written by Sunny Lane,
When Tess started travel nursing in 2015, the adventure was real. New cities, new hospitals, new mountain ranges to explore on her days off. But behind the highlight reel, something important was missing.
“Every three to six months I packed up and moved into yet another apartment,” she says. “Furnished with other people’s things, filled with memories that weren’t mine. I loved the adventure of travel nursing, but deep down, I never felt like I had a true home.”
Like a lot of travel healthcare workers, she was well paid and constantly in motion—but always sliding into someone else’s space.
Discovering Van Life as a Travel Nurse
In 2017, Tess moved to Denver to train as an operating room nurse. One day at the climbing gym, a stranger casually mentioned that his dream was to live in a van.
That night, she did what a lot of us do: fell headfirst into the van life rabbit hole—YouTube builds, tiny home layouts, travel nurse van tours. For the first time, she saw a version of travel healthcare where home moves with you.
The First Rig: A Nissan, a Cot, and a Lot of Heart
Not long after, Tess bought a Nissan NV2500—her first van.
“I was determined to build it myself because YouTube made it look so easy,” she laughs. “Spoiler alert: I quickly learned I was a better nurse than a contractor.”
Instead of waiting for a perfect build, she threw a cot and a folding chair in the back and started taking weekend trips into the Rockies.
“It wasn’t fancy, but it was mine. I didn’t want to wait to use the van. I’d just finish a shift, drive into the mountains, and sleep under the stars.”
Turning a Cargo Van into a Real (Simple) Home
She took out a small loan and hired a company in Fort Collins to do a basic build:
“It wasn’t fancy: plywood, a six-gallon water tank with a pump sink, and a mini fridge. But it was mine—and it was far more comfortable than that cot and chair.”
Her home was small, but her world was wide: mountain towns, ski resorts, national forests—and no leases.
“I got to experience some of the best ski mountains in the U.S.—Tahoe, Utah, Colorado—not from hotel rooms or expensive apartments, but from parking in the places I wanted to be.”
Hitting Pause…and Realizing What She Missed
When the pandemic hit, Tess moved back into an apartment in Denver after years on the road.
“As nice as it was to have a steady place, I kept yearning for the mountains,” she says. “By 30, I was financially stable and decided I deserved to treat myself to something I had always dreamed of—a ‘fancy van.’”
The first build had been enough to prove the lifestyle. Now she wanted comfort: heat, a toilet, more room for Teva, and finishes that felt like a real home.
Leveling Up to a Drifter Custom Coach
This time, Tess wasn’t just looking for “a van.” She wanted a coachbuilt Class B motorhome—a true custom coach designed around how she lives as a travel nurse.
“I’d proven to myself that I could live in a van,” she says. “Now I wanted something that felt like a real home and not just a clever setup in the back of a cargo van.”
She called Drifter Vans and chose the Wanderer Layout as her starting point.
“The Wanderer layout just made sense for how I use a van,” Tess explains. “I needed a real bed I didn’t have to rebuild every night, a space to cook decent food, and room for my gear and my dog. That was my non-negotiable list.”
From there, everything became coachbuilt—a custom Class B built around the way she moves through a day:
A fixed bed sized so she and Teva can stretch out after long shifts or ski days
A kitchen with real counter space and an Isotherm fridge, so she can cook instead of living on takeout between contracts
Smart storage for ski gear and outdoor stuff, so nothing ends up piled on the bed
A proper toilet and heat, so winter assignments in mountain towns feel like an invitation, not a punishment
What surprised her most wasn’t the systems—but the design process.
“Working with the interior design team was a huge part of it,” Tess says. “They didn’t just ask what colors I liked. They asked where I sit with my laptop, how often I cook, where the dog sleeps, how I move when I’m getting ready for a 6 a.m. shift. Every cabinet, every cushion, every light switch is where it is because I actually use it.”
From fabrics that could handle a wet dog to lighting scenes that shift from “charting after work” to “winding down in the mountains,” the Wanderer became more than a layout. It became a custom Class B coach that reflects who she is.
“With my first van, I made my life fit the build,” she says. “With this one, the build fits my life.”
Life Now: Travel Healthcare, 49 States, and a Real Sense of Home
Today, Tess and Teva have turned that van into a life.
“Since then, we’ve driven across the country three or four times, visited 49 states, and built a life where home is always with us,” she says.
Instead of juggling leases and deposits between contracts, she brings her home along:
“I don’t worry about rent, and I can stay in places that would otherwise be too expensive. I wake up on the side of a mountain watching the sunrise, coffee in hand, dog curled up beside me.”
For a travel nurse who spent years in borrowed spaces, the biggest change is internal.
“Van life gave me freedom, flexibility, and comfort—but most importantly, it gave me a sense of home.”
What Tess Wants Other Travel Nurses to Know
Her story didn’t start with a six-figure build. It started with a stranger’s offhand comment, a used van, and a cot.
“It all started with a stranger telling me it was possible,” she says. “Then an empty van with just a cot. And now, years later, I live the life I once thought was just a dream.”
For other travel nurses or travel healthcare workers thinking about van life, her message is simple:
“You don’t have to wait until everything is perfect to start. The first step might be uncomfortable, even humbling, but that’s where the adventure begins.”
If you’re moving from contract to contract, always in someone else’s space, Tess’s story is a reminder: sometimes the most stable “home base” for a travel nurse isn’t an apartment at all. It’s a van that goes everywhere you do.
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