{"id":6342,"date":"2019-08-16T03:01:37","date_gmt":"2019-08-15T19:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.you.co\/en-SG\/?p=6342"},"modified":"2019-08-16T17:59:50","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T09:59:50","slug":"epic-6-month-usa-road-trip-self-converted-van","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.you.co\/sg\/blog\/epic-6-month-usa-road-trip-self-converted-van\/","title":{"rendered":"Epic 6-Month USA Road Trip in a Self-Converted Van"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The diary of an ambitious 6-month road trip across USA where our YouTrip ambassador couple rebuilt their secondhand camper van from scratch.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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A road trip across the United States of America sounds fun, doesn’t it? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But imagine the amount of research, planning, and logistics needed for a 6-month long road trip. \ud83d\ude31 Plus, rebuilding a camper van without any carpentry skills just sounds like a recipe for disaster!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Believe it or not, our YouTrip ambassador couple Zhang Quan and Ziyan took on the demanding challenge and had the time of their lives. This is the diary of their epic USA road trip in Berry, their self-converted camper van. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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#1 Entry \u2013 9 January 2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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D-35 | Welcome to our page! Yan and I will be traveling around North America in a van for a couple of months and we’ll be sharing our journey with you guys \ud83e\udd17\u2063<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Really excited for the trip! But for now still have lots to prepare and plan \ud83d\ude05\u2063
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#2 Entry \u2013 13 January 2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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D-30 | My B2 Visa! It’s a tourist visa that allows travel within the US for up to 6 months. The person who interviewed me at the embassy thought it was a bad idea lol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interviewer: “What are you gonna do in the US, and for how long?<\/em>“\u2063
Me: “I plan to travel in a van for 6 months<\/em>.”\u2063
Interviewer: “Really?! And are you doing this alone?<\/em>“\u2063
Me: “Yes, and maybe my girlfriend would join me.<\/em>“\u2063
Interviewer: “Well, nobody’s gonna join you for 6 months in a van\u2026<\/em>” \ud83d\ude2c
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#3 Entry \u2013 16 January 2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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D-27 | Since we’re gonna live out of a van, the weather conditions will play a huge part in our journey. So we did up a weather map to decide on which is the best route to take to always be in the “green zone”.\u2063<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is harder than it seems because there is no aggregate of such information online (or monthly weather map) so it’s mostly manual labour. Let me know if I wasted my efforts!\u2063<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2714\ufe0f Green – Most comfortable temperatures
\ud83d\udd35 Blue – Wayyy too cold
\ud83d\udd34 Red – Anything that makes me sweat
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#4 Entry \u2013 1 February 2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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D-11 | Less than 2 more weeks to outbound! Visa issue settled, new problem now \ud83d\ude31… The converted van that we wanted got sold \ud83d\ude23 ZQ suggested to just get a gutted van and convert into a camper van ourselves. Sounds crazy cause we are no carpenters and I don\u2019t know if I trust ZQ\u2019s building skills \ud83d\ude02. But what choice do we have? #faithinZQ <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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#5 Entry \u2013 21 February 2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Things haven’t been as smooth sailing as we wished. Never expected it to be easy, but also never expected us to be that unlucky \ud83d\ude02 Nevertheless, we managed to pull through the hiccups for the past week and ready to face more challenges building our van! Thanks for the encouraging words \ud83d\ude01<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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#6 Entry \u2013 25 February 2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Took us a couple of days to get the flooring done. Thanks to the offer from our dear friends, we got to work on our build from their garage for the weekend!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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#7 Entry \u2013 3 March 2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Crashing another garage~ so thankful for the friends who supported us with space \ud83c\udfe1 and tools \ud83d\udee0, made our van building so much easier! Time to build the bed \ud83d\ude0f<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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#8 Entry \u2013 11 March 2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The past weeks have been such a great experience for us. With zero carpentry and electrical skills, we build a van from nothing to our home for the next 5 months. I’m amazed by my dear partner (Zi Yan) who proved to be a building genius. \u2063<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to the great help from our friends Wai, Jiayi \/ Mansion for letting us crash your spots and use your garage \/ tools. Also, our great carpentry mentor Jace Miller for putting in so much work as if it was his own project and gang for the warm hospitality. Couldn’t have made it without everyone!\u2063<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More details on the build process coming up \ud83e\udd19\ud83c\udffc
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#9 Entry \u2013 14 March 2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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