Don't Wait Go Do: The Film
We always had this dream to go far far away to see new things and to meet new people and eventually it became our only focus in life so we did something about it for a whole year we worked as much as we could saved every penny we made and then we bought a used cargo van and spent the summer converting it into a home on wheels then when the van was done we quit our jobs said our goodbyes and hit the road day one starting off pretty strong i would say like hour one actually this is bad good way to start off the trip very rainy very lightning very thunder but that doesn't stop us nothing stops us that was like right there okay and that was the beginning of our journey we had left our home state of michigan and began to head west this is being life wow this is pretty nice i like it this is night one we haven't slept yet we just got here we found a little campsite right off the expressway over there so this is just our life now like this is our new home and over the next few months it truly felt like home hi kyle hi it's been so long i know i miss you so much i miss you too so i wanted to start out with like the first night that we had in the van what do you remember how we felt like that night well i remember even though we were literally sleeping beside a highway i think it was in illinois i think illinois yeah we hadn't quite made it to iowa um i just remember being super excited like it was finally real we um i don't know we like we're just so excited to even just brush our teeth in the van it was like something so silly i remember was just so exciting like wash her face and brush her teeth and we're just so excited to crawl into bed and like spend our first night even if it was just in illinois yeah it was like something we wanted to do for literally years prior and we were finally there finally doing it yeah we finally had like the perfect setup and everything so yeah what do you remember most about our first night i think it was just how we like had the van actually there actually sleeping in it you'd like lay in the back and be like oh soon we'll get to sleep and we'll be on the trip and we actually were like that was actually the first night that we were sleeping there yeah it really did feel like so surreal just because we talked about it so much we had finally made it happen yeah and we had so much ahead of us like we had no we had no idea what was still in store seriously i think that was the most exciting part you know like we had all of our days ahead of us we had no idea what to expect yeah that was the most exciting thing and that was like the best part is we had no expectations we just went into it it's like whatever happened happened beautiful sunset and then we're gonna go climb a bridge at this point we had made it 700 miles west to nebraska continuing our journey westward we're almost to colorado we've walked all this way and there it is folks we just wanted a picture with the sign that's all we wanted really we're gonna walk home after this yep it's taking a long time to walk here get it we're gonna walk home because our vans are home that's true we are gonna walk home we ever get back we're having breakfast with the boys i can open some bananas and peanut butter with the boys hello boys after our first few days on the road we had finally made it to colorado where our adventure had just begun it's so flat over there still i know all of a sudden it turns rocky mountain literally rocky it's really rocky mountain they're not lying we are at the red rock amphitheater thing but we're actually not at the theater because they have a show there tonight we just want to climb the rocks i'm not out of shape it's just the elevation this is when it felt like our trip had actually started this was our first time experiencing the rocky mountains and it was honestly unlike anything we had ever seen before we were getting to see all of these sites we had only ever seen before online or in pictures and it was so surreal to actually be there we found an awesome place to park our van that overlooked a mountain range for our first night in the mountains where we got to give the van its first souvenir we're putting the very first sticker on our van which says denver colorado i feel like that's a good spot for it this marked the first of many destinations the van would reach throughout the next year we're trying to get to a campsite in the national forest not sure if van's gonna make it through everything we didn't got him out of now so i think we'll be good that was a pretty steep one we tried staying at free campsites on public land whenever possible but most of them proved to be quite the track for our little van i feel like we'll make it like what's that gonna do stop yeah i mean that would actually back in yeah okay i think we're good now so what do you think the first trip we took that really inspired us to want to do this was i mean there's so many you know we took so many small trips around michigan exploring our home state but definitely the big out-of-state trip that fueled our need to see more of the world was our big trip to tennessee yeah definitely during our senior year of high school we went on this road trip with our friend ian to tennessee it was our first real big trip we ever went on and it honestly changed all of our lives forever but there was one night in particular that was extra special all right so what should this one be about sunset yeah i like that we parked the car on this grand mountain overlook sat in the back and made up some songs with a banjo in true tennessee fashion wow that was beautiful that was amazing soon after our trip was over but our need for adventure had just begun we officially made it to rocky mountain national park in colorado and we were incredibly excited to go on a hike we found this trail that led up to a lake in the mountains and we set off on our way after a couple hours of hiking we made it to the lake and everything was going well up until that point but then we left the lake at this point our options were either turn around and go back to the van the way we came or take a slightly longer route and ride a shuttle bus back to the van and of course we chose the longer route did you grab satellite phone yeah okay but in order to get to the shuttle we had to pass over a mountain which didn't seem too bad at first but looks were incredibly deceiving we're still going uphill still we're like five and a half to go not even uphill it's up a mountain yeah like we have to go up there at this point we started to worry the daylight was fading quickly and we still had miles ahead of us we never expected it to take as long as it did and we had no idea if there would even be shuttles running anymore by the time we got back eventually we stopped taking pictures stopped taking video and our only focus was to get down that mountain as fast as we could hoping that we wouldn't be stranded out in the wilderness but by the time we got back to the trailhead we had made the last shuttle back for the night this is hiking day two not even sure why we're hiking despite our slightly terrifying first hike in the mountains it didn't stop us it opened our eyes to how grand the rockies really are both in beauty and in danger and it taught us to be more cautious in the future guess what we found this little white transit connect sitting on the side of the road all lonely it does look like ours i wonder if it's ours i think that might be our home from there we continued north making our way into wyoming well it's morning time now it is we stayed at this beautiful campsite last night it's pretty gorgeous y'all and katie heard screaming in the night and she thought our neighbors got attacked by a grizzly bear it was terrifying i promise you it really sounded like screaming so now we're gonna head out we're heading they didn't get attacked by aggressive right by the way nope they're right there they're they're doing okay so now we're gonna head off on our way through wyoming and that's that when we started this trip one of our biggest priorities that we had was to hit as many national parks as we could along the way and we did just that right now we're hiking in the rain and the thunder and probably the lightning as we made our way through wyoming the views only continued to get better the further north we went and then we made it somewhere on the top of our bucket list yellowstone national park how is it that blue we're making oatmeal and some tea and hot chocolate it's snowing today we are in yellowstone national park it snowed last night it's pretty cold out look at the bison they're so cute they are so cute y'all so cute those are getting kind of mad i think so okay bye soon so we woke up early this morning yes and we drove here in the darkness yes to see some animals we spent almost a week in yellowstone and it seemed like each day we became more blown away with how grand it really is so this is day 14 of trip we're hiking and we're hiking once again hike twice today we might hike twice just because we can we finished off our time at yellowstone soaking in some hot springs which were incredibly nice and said our goodbyes to the abundant wildlife roaming the park guess what we made pancakes with cinnamon and they're delicious so good we're sitting outside this fancy lodge and we're not staying at the fancy lodge of course guess how fancy they are very fancy they're so fancy they have incense in their bathroom not insects like our campground bathroom incense so i think for both of us one of the biggest misconceptions that people had was we weren't living this luxurious life and people thought we were most definitely oh my gosh the van life was not luxurious in the slightest no um well it was amazing it was very hard it was hard beforehand because we had to work to save up to it you know um our parents didn't provide us with any money for this you know yeah yeah so i know we were both working like 12 hour days like that summer before we left just to have enough money to live off of on the road yeah like i think a lot of people just picture the grand mountain views and the beach views and that that is definitely part of it and that's the biggest reason we did it but that's definitely not the whole picture like there were some nights when we didn't even know we were gonna sleep we've been searching for a campsite for five six hours now trying to find a campsite we don't even know actually where we're even staying yet probably walmart but you know it is what it is i guess van life not everyday is luxurious beach views sadly from yellowstone we continued north into montana where we came across some wild horses it's so huge it's only september 22nd but we're in a winter wonderland it's lovely i love it look at this so gorgeous it looks fake it's not fake we're actually here and we're actually hiking through this it is so beautiful this is glacier national park and while unfortunately a lot of the park was closed at the time due to wildfires we still got to experience this breathtaking hike we're at the lake now so gorgeous oh my gosh we saw a grizzly bear and her and her cob two grizzly bears on her baby yeah they came in high fived up they did basically as we continued north we soon made our way into canada we drove all day all day long and now we're in banff which we like it's really cool big fan so cool very cool i love it where we spent a few days exploring good morning from bam we're making our way up the mountain eventually our days filled with adventure started to blur together it's quite steep we made it i made it to the tea house it's in the middle of the woods we're making some beast here what's going on over there you know it's smoky looking please be here for a report wildfire doesn't look very wild no no it doesn't it looks like construction anyway it is day 23 question mark do you think so 23. i don't even know anymore um we got linked past that point yeah we're in canada still we stayed at this free campsite so now we're continuing on our way after spending some time in canada we re-entered the us into washington where we spent a few nights camping and exploring the city of seattle we're making breakfast we're in seattle it's starbucks not too sunny starbucks not any starbucks but the very first starbucks so cute so cute good morning from olympic national park hello hello it's my birthday what it is i forgot oh i didn't actually it's his birthday it is we're celebrating it in the beautiful mountains here he's turning 12. i am i can finally drive i'm so glad that i'm finally 12 so i can drive in all seriousness it was actually my 19th birthday and i don't think i could have picked a cooler spot to be for the day look at this class so cute it's like forever yeah you just fall and fall and fall for days hopefully we don't fall hopefully we don't we do look happy for days and days and days we're in the clouds yeah we are clubs are down below us feeling fine we made it to the coastline after nearly a month of slowly heading west we had finally made it to the pacific ocean and it was absolutely beautiful that night we celebrated by taking a break from the van and spent the night overlooking the ocean from the comfort of a hotel room it's noah's birthday it's my birthday it's his first birthday number one we've had this candle since our first year of being friends yeah and we haven't used it since nope so today we're using it on his birthday because this is our first birthday on the go first birthday this is our first insane like condo thing we've gotten on the go oh yeah it's our first time living out of a van uh-huh it's a lot of first so it's time ready happy birthday to you yeah i got them all i'm sad we have to leave this lovely home of ours i know it's really nice it's got a wonderful beach view how did you enjoy your stay here it's pretty nice what was your favorite part of staying here um probably the bed with the view yeah understandable what was your uh least favorite part of staying here probably my cold shower this morning it's pretty tragic that's really sad i didn't have any hot water left so just like lukewarm i showered beforehand do you have a cold shower no that must be nice oh no i better go we're currently hiking at mount rainier wow it's so grand one of the best things about being on the road is that your life suddenly becomes incredibly unconstrained there are no routines or schedules to follow just google maps and road signs for so much of my life i lived on a schedule and suddenly it just disappeared it's a strange feeling to wake up not knowing where you're going to sleep that night but at the same time it's incredibly freeing wherever we wanted to go we went whatever we wanted to see we saw and it was as simple as that i've been looking forward to this since before we left for our trip i'm having some peanut butter jelly for lunch i'm having some mashed potatoes for lunch she's having some mashed taters for lunch and we're sitting here by the ocean we're at another national park guess which one it has the world's tallest trees not the biggest not the oldest the tallest they're very tall after continuing down the pacific coast we made it to the redwoods which were incredibly massive i really know how to make you feel small here they were so massive that we could actually drive the van through one whoa you drove through a tree we continued down the coast until we hit san francisco where we spent a day exploring hello down there lots of very giant rocks yosemite national park is honestly hard to put into perspective unless you're actually there experiencing it the landscape is so massive that it's hard to believe that it happened naturally and even after being there it's still hard to grasp how big it really is so one thing that really bugged me is how much people told us we were lucky because we really weren't like this wasn't handed to us we went out and we worked for this and we did it we were told like wait till you're older maybe you should finish college first but we didn't wait we went don't wait go do it really seriously and a lot of the people that told us we were lucky i really don't think would have enjoyed living in a tiny van and having to cook out of it and sleep in it every night yeah definitely i think they had um this vision a very uh rose-colored version of what our life was like that we are loving guess where we are we made it we're in nevada yeah we are it looks like this just like that for a long time our lives got to the point where everything ahead of us was just an open road both figuratively and literally it seemed like around every new curve we always had something new to see whether we were in the mountains or in the middle of the desert this is it that's everything there's nobody here just just the cows and it seems like sometimes the simplest moments truly make some of the best memories there is a whole new perspective you get on life when you know you don't have a set bed in a set location set shower to like come home to every night and you kind of have to um make those things happen for you you know when you i don't know i feel like you really get to experience like more in a way when you're not so focused on things like you know what what are people gonna think of my outfit today or like something like that you know like the little things like that that we didn't really worry about very icy shirt of ice rink we're really old trees 5 000 years old literally 5 000. that's crazy we continued through the country and eventually the empty desert landscapes turned to vast red rock canyons we're up early we're walking out to mesa arch to watch the sunrise after nearly two months on the road we started making our long journey back home this is the final night in the van i'm sure i know that's kind of crazy he's gonna miss it in a way i am too at last we had made it back home strange oh my gosh we spent a few months back at home and once winter was over we set off on another journey we're packing the van we are bye love you we're leaving we're uh round two round two and just like that we were once again on the road ready to take in all of the adventures that would lie ahead of us in the weeks to come guess where we are tennessee premium tennessee and it's snowing it is snowing we haven't been here in the snow yet no we haven't we've only been here in the spring in the fall oh technically it is spring but this is pretty winter i'd say the plan that we had for this trip was a little different than last time while we saw a ton on our last trip we still had the southern half of the country to explore so we began the trip by heading south we're in south carolina and we just made a meal in like i would say three minutes maybe maybe six realistically but good morning from walmart a really loud walmart by the way there are like people driving around all night it was kind of unnecessary so yeah we survived our first night in the van we're outside of savannah georgia right now we're gonna go watch the sunrise on the ocean we're on the ocean it's sunrise it's not even sunset we actually woke up early so beautiful one of our goals on this trip was to go from coast to coast our first stop was the atlantic side and once we made it to the ocean we spent a few days roaming the beaches enjoying the warmth and of course taking a swim we're watching the sunrise from the back of the van because that's what you can do with the van you can just park here and you can watch the sunrise we've always been a huge fan of sunsets but there was something about waking up early to catch the sunrise that made it that much more magical we're having some lunch at this rest area we are it's kind of buggy here ak323 is making some pizza pizza cutter oven heating up one of those days where you keep driving and like you get nowhere yeah basically we're in new orleans and this is the pastry to get one question we always got asked was where do we shower yes that was definitely one of the most common questions from everyone and the answer is really anywhere we could yeah a lot of campgrounds yes lots of campgrounds we didn't end up going with the gym membership even though it's something that we did talk about um we decided against it because we weren't really in areas that would have gyms you know there's no gym in the middle of the rocky mountains yeah but we also had a portable shower bag uh we did use once which was nice but um as you can imagine you know we didn't really have a water heater yeah it was definitely quite the challenge at times yeah whenever we would have a shower though that was a good day shower day was always a good day so great yeah we usually made a shower day laundry day um clean the van day you know kind of all in the same thing and then we're all clean and refreshed and ready to hit the road again those were the best days definitely our luxury our form of luxury i guess we finally found showers are yours not nice they're all right like everything oh you get definitely seen worse but it doesn't seem better yeah they do have the push button though they do have the push button yeah and we had to pay six dollars to get in here but that's okay that's not too bad at least we're getting showers we eventually made it to our next stop which was texas we spent some time exploring cities in some historical sites in the walmart parking lot soon after we headed into the desert and made it to big bend national park we're here at big bend you can cross the border into mexico so we took a ride in a rowboat over the rio grande to mexico and we rode donkeys into the village of boquillas to spend the the birds afternoon turks and caicos and i read like a truth commercial but we feel bad so we get stoned into snow angels the next morning we woke up early and went to a hot spring on the river where we watched the sunrise over the desert it's nice and chilly out in the desert now it is yesterday it was very very hot today it will be very hot again but the sun's not up yet so we shall see yesterday yes we're going on a hike up there yeah okay it might be i think it is yeah like we're just kidding like i literally think that's where we might be ending up i don't know it's pretty nice time today actually yes i'm like a little warm in a light jacket but a little cool in a t-shirt so it's like the best isn't it i think so we finally drove to the entire state of texas after spending a few days in texas we continued heading westward to our next destination you seen our blood ties do you see what's behind noah's head right there it is a cactus not just one not just two not even three but millions many more than three there's there's all over what a tall cactus i didn't realize they'd be so tall they're taller than noah they are taller than me he's pretty tall wow i'll stand next to it you can see how tall it really is height reference are you shook yet because i am we kept walking through the park and we came across a snake hiding under a bush so of course we approached it there's a snake do you see yeah it doesn't really matter how small it is we clearly didn't know it at the time but that's a rattlesnake anyway we lived so carry on we're camping wonderful camp spot here in the mountains where's our lime greens once we got the van we really didn't attend camp too much anymore so we set up the tent for the night and had to complete the camping experience with some s'mores over a fire but we don't want a whole fire also we don't have wood also we don't want to smell like smoke because we just showered today also there's a fire ban but this is the van life compromise no i decided to join the bees for a drink of water yeah i hope they don't think me they look very upset they do they're like but that's our water we can't have our water as we continued our way west we soon accomplished our goal of going from coast to coast i can't after spending some time exploring san diego we made our way north to los angeles when in l.a it was a goal to try something that i had never done before so i thought i'd try flying a plane so we're going to channel islands we're on the boat right now listen it's going to be a really rough ride out there though so we've never done anything like this you um have to leave the boarding dock and head out to the island and another fairy may come pick you up tomorrow hopefully they'll come tomorrow it's just like we started the hour-long ferry ride from the california coast to santa cruz island where we were going to camp for the night well we made it no seasickness once we got to the island the ferry began heading back and we started the journey of backpacking to our campsite there's so many foxes here channel island was one of those places that was hard to believe was even real we had never experienced any kind of landscape like this and it was incredibly magical just arrived the night in the tent we did none of the foxes came to get us no they tried i heard them and while they may have been unsuccessful in their attempt to get into our tent they did manage to get into our food later that morning okay i'll reenact it i was standing right here he comes up he snatches the kind of right there and he runs away with it i was right here regardless we went on with our day until guess what we found we stolen titans that's ours didn't even eat the whole thing if they were gonna steal it might as well eat it as we left channel islands we were followed by a pot of dolphins swimming beside the ferry which honestly felt like something out of a fairy tale movie once we made it back to land we headed up to big sur and we came across this waterfall in the woods so we decided to take a swim and despite how freezing the water was it was definitely worth it we drove along the coast one last time said goodbye to the pacific and started heading inland we're headed off to sequoia national park now we are we slept at walmart last night we did um and a cop came and knocked on our window yeah not in a bad way he was just kind of wondering you know what we were up to we're like okay you know just passing through town don't worry folks so we got our first snack yesterday but we weren't told to leave so that was cool it wasn't a bad documentary no the curious knife yes he was curious so we're leaving town now headed to the park we stopped first at king's canyon national park where there was this hike at this mountain that we wanted to do we're hiking we're going to bueno vista peak snow having been on the ocean only a day prior it was kind of strange to see snow once we made it to the top we were quite literally in the clouds and it was such an awesome view from every direction we're at the general sherman tree is by volume the biggest tree that we know of on earth it's very voluminous it's very voluminous wow that tree's got some good volume to it these are the sequoia trees i am also one of these sequoias he is tall enough his neck alone so we're in the middle of nowhere california zero miles till empty and 2.7 miles to the gas station this was the only gas station oh we're a little nervous right now like we've pulled into the gas station on one before i pulled into it on zero right as it turned zero but it's been on zero for the last two miles now it has the town's house we've been posting downhill for like two miles though so so we'll see if we make it okay we're really nervous right now oh my gosh wow so last night we spent the night at walmart we did and now we're off to death valley we're in the middle of nowhere as we ventured deeper into the desert we eventually came across this ghost town which was a really cool sight to explore we're at bad water basin now the water is bad here it is not like toxic but it's very salty which makes it bad yes so salty the mules won't drink it is what we learned yep the further along we went the more the landscape changed and soon we were in the canyons of utah walking through these narrow canyon walls felt like we were on a different planet and it was definitely one of the coolest hikes that we got to do one of our main destinations in utah was zion national park and there were two hikes in particular there that we knew we had to try and despite being in the same park they're both very different from each other the first one is the narrows which is essentially just hiking through the water of the virgin river that sits deep between the canyon walls north and arrows right now gorgeous it really is we made it down like two and a half miles maybe around there and now we're gonna walk back walk we're gonna trek through the water in our water shoes in our water pants yes the next day we took on the second hike which is angel's landing instead of hiking down below the canyon walls like the day before we were now hiking up the canyon walls i never associated a hike with being scared for my life but that changed after this one it's one thing to be on a mountain but it's a total different thing to be on the side of a cliff where you look down and you can see the ground over a thousand feet below you it's scary up here as far at a certain point the fear of heights got to us and we decided that the risk of one misstep was not worth it so we didn't make it all the way up to the top but we definitely made it far enough to get the adrenaline rush are you terrified i'm death gripping i don't i just can't help but to look down that's the only word it's the only way to look thankfully we made it down unharmed after a few days of exploring we left zion and we made a few other stops at some sites in the area wow with one of our last destinations being the grand canyon itself and finally we started making our way home once again so what was the biggest lesson that you think you learned on the road there were so many definitely so many um we learned a lot from a lot of different people from a lot of different backgrounds um but overall from the whole experience i would say that my biggest takeaway was really just to make that life happen that you dream of living you know um you want to have a life that you can look back on and tell stories about to your friends and your family and just have a life that you enjoy living because really that's the only one you got and it's for you so really my biggest lesson was just to create a life that i'm happy with what would you say is your biggest lesson that you learned on the road best friend of mine probably that when you chase a dream and you have a dream and you actually go about chasing it you can make it happen i know that kind of sounds cheesy but like if you do chase your dreams you can actually make them happen and this was by far the biggest dream we had up until that point in life and we worked as hard as we could we saved every penny we made and we really made it happen like we built the van out we planned out this whole trip and we lived this amazing wonderful journey that we got to experience together and i think it brought us so much closer as a result obviously we were already best friends but once you live in a van with someone it kind of takes it to the next level that's kind of a bond that we've created that you can never never break and like that we had accomplished something we had dreamed of for so long the phrase don't wait go do has always meant a lot to us and it's something we truly live by we showed ourselves the magnitude of what can happen if you actually go do something instead of waiting for it to happen and i'm forever grateful we did you
2021-03-26 17:05
