When my parents were in their 20’s, their goal was to NOT live in their car. Liam and I are different. For seven days a 2007 black Volvo XC70 was our cozy little home.
Our original goal was to road trip from Boston to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, to spend a week on the beach in what Liam described as “the mecca of kite boarding”. Like Darius Rucker, or whoever wrote the original “Wagon Wheel”, we made it down the coast in 17 hours, stopped to look at some dogwood flowers, and tried not to die free in Raleigh while Hurricane Dorian loomed over our heads.
We (he) converted the back of the car into a ‘glamping’ situation, equipped with a mattress, storage, a cooler, fold out table, and tons of batteries to charge our electronics. We (I) decorated the interior with turquoise sheets and matching pillows, a scenic tapestry of Yosemite National Park to black out the windows at night, and LED lights, pictures, and candles. The ultimate road trip machine!
Here’s how we did it:
We found a 4″ twin-sized foam mattress to use as our bedding. This way, we wouldn’t have to make and re-make our bed every night – it was already set up.
Next, Liam used a Goal Zero battery, an inverter, and a jump pack to ensure we would have power wherever we went. We strung LED lights around the interior for warm-white lighting, which is way less harsh than regular LEDs.
For privacy, I created black out curtains using aluminum insulation, and stitched fabric to the sides. On the outside I chose black fabric to block out any light from the inside. On the inside Liam chose a tapestry of Yosemite for outdoorsy aesthetic. This really helped with feeling safe while sleeping, the curtains prevented anyone from looking into the windows.
Finally, storage. My dad gave us his old Yakima Skybox to attach to Liam’s roof racks. Inside, we stored 2 surfboards, a kite, cooking supplies, 2 bags of clothes, a wetsuit, 2 folding chairs, a skimboard, citronella candles, a tripod and any extra miscellaneous supplies we needed.
As a final touch, we snapped a quick polaroid of our happy-camper selves and pinned it to the ceiling.
And the car camper was complete!
Living full time in a car is much easier than I expected. We kept things very organized and prepared for any situation. It was fun being able to go practically anywhere with everything we needed at our disposal. All the rave is about mobile ‘tiny houses’ nowadays, while we had a very, very tiny house of our own including road bikes and surfboards strapped to the roof. We slept in parking lots, on the beach, and Fort Story Naval Base in Virginia, where we got to shower.
As someone obsessed with travel and murder, road-tripping down the coast with the potential of being attacked at night was incredibly exciting to me. I thought we could be on the news, and I’d get an amazing story if we survived. Liam was not as stoked on the idea, and made us purchase two cans of pepper spray to keep above our heads. I tested the spray… Unfortunately the wind blew it back into my face and made breathing extremely difficult.
Unfortunately, Dorian had other plans for us. Cape Hatteras stayed closed off from non-residents the whole trip. We were not deterred, and explored many other hidden gems that we would have skipped had Hatteras been available.
Overall, the whole trip was many firsts for both of us. Learning to cook over a small propane burner, fighting over who gets to sleep in front of the fan, watching New Girl velcro-ed to the ceiling! I walked away with about 17 mosquito bites and a whole lot of memories. I love being able to spontaneously travel around with my best friend. Our first road trip in the books! And we only ran out of gas twice 🙂
♡ Abigail Reagan
