Count Me In!

Alevander has SOLD!! THE BASICS Year: 2015 Make & Model: Ford Transit 250 Twin Turbo Eco-Boost Length: 148” wheelbase with extended-length cab Height: High roof (max standing height with build: 6’2”) Engine: 3.5L 275hp gasoline eco-boost twin-turbo engine Color: White … Read More

Taking a vanlife sabbatical was our dedicated time to disconnect, relax, slow travel, try new things, and improve our Spanish skills. We had no real agenda or destination other than to do “whatever we want” with all the hours of … Read More

Ah, the tamale. The tamale is as traditional as Mexican food gets. It’s usually made of masa (nixtamalized corn), stuffed, and steamed in a corn husk or banana leaf. Tamales can be a cheap, quick snack, or several of them … Read More

Thinking about an overland trip to Mexico, but don’t know where to go? In this article, I share with you why the town of San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico should definitely be on your destination list! San … Read More

San Cristóbal de las Casas, tucked into the mountains of southern Mexico, makes an excellent home base to explore the State of Chiapas, Mexico. But don’t let these activities distract you from exploring San Cristóbal itself! Indeed, so many “Things … Read More

After months of overlanding through Mexico in our self-converted van, we have discovered the most unique and truly fascinating town in Mexico: San Juan Chamula in Chiapas State, Mexico. San Juan Chamula is just a 20-minute drive from the tourist … Read More

A van build is expensive. It’s always more expensive than you think. After spending four months and thousands of dollars on our conversion, we didn’t want to do any more work on the van! We could do without it, whatever … Read More

You see it on Instagram all the time: a converted van with doors wide open to frame a sparkling blue beach in the background. Maybe there’s also a hippie or two, a dog, or a margarita. (And, of course, I’ve … Read More

Thinking about an overland trip to Mexico, but don’t know where to go? In this article, I share with you why the small, beachy stretch of Playa Zipolite, Mexico should definitely be on your destination list! Playa Zipolite (Zipolite Beach) … Read More

Thinking about an overland trip to Mexico, but don’t know where to go? In this article, I share with you why the tiny but beautiful mountain village of San José del Pacífico, Mexico should be on your destination list! Yes, … Read More

Hierve el Agua is one of the most popular day-trips from Oaxaca City, Mexico. It’s a 1.5-hour drive out of Oaxaca City into a dry mountain landscape, a totally unexpected place to find swimmable, spring-fed pools and petrified waterfalls. In … Read More

In our past 11 years of dating and marriage, if there is any year that truly deserves a thoughtful review and reflection, it is definitely 2019. 2019 was an incredible time of change, challenge, and adventure for our family of … Read More

Eating out: It doesn’t have to expensive to be good. It doesn’t have to be fancy to be enjoyable. It doesn’t even have to have chairs! That is how we roll when we’re eating out. If this is you too, … Read More

What it is: Mexico’s El Día de la Revolución (The Day of the Revolution) is a national holiday commemorating the beginning of the Mexican Revolution that began in 1910 and lasted for ten years of political and social conflict. When … Read More

The Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) holiday is a fantastic time to experience the beautiful and charming town of colonial San Miguel de Allende. In this article, I share with you all you need to know about … Read More

Thinking about an overland trip to Mexico, but don’t know where to go? In this article, I share with you why the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, Mexico should be on your destination list.   Why VanLife in the Sierra Gorda … Read More

Thinking about an overland trip to Mexico, but don’t know where to go? In this article, I share with you why the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site of Zacatecas, Mexico should be on your destination list. VanLife in Zacatecas, Mexico … Read More

How should you upgrade the suspension on your overweight Ford Transit 250 camper van conversion? Read on to find out! Overweight Ford Transit Campervan Conversion We’ve added quite a bit of weight to our 2015 extended cab Ford Transit 250. … Read More

It’s so satisfying when you fix something yourself, isn’t it? Especially if it saves you $265! Here’s the story of how we fixed a common problem with our Ford EcoBoost engine. We replaced the spark plugs on our 2015 Ford … Read More

Before #vanlife, Jon and I lived in Los Angeles and San Diego. To make up for the high cost of living in these cities, we rarely ate out. Instead, we loved to cook delicious, (sometimes) healthy and budget-friendly meals in … Read More

Have you heard of Telluride, Colorado?! Unless you avidly seek out small mountain towns or epic ski adventures, you may not have heard of this tiny place in southwest Colorado called Telluride. Coming from Southern California, we certainly hadn’t.

Mesa Verde National Park In southwest Colorado, about an hour from the famed “four corners” where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona meet, is Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde NP was established in 1906 to preserve and interpret the … Read More

Van loaded, good-byes hugged and coffee mugs topped off, Jon and I hit the road on June 3, 2019. We first made some brief stops in Los Angeles, CA and Ojai, CA to say more good-byes, and then we started … Read More

In early May, my group of bestie girlfriends from college picked a date and location for our next reunion – June 6 in Kansas City, MO. For the first time in five years, all six of us would be together! … Read More

You may have noticed that we’ve been incommunicado for the last several months! A couple weeks into the van build, we realized that as much as we wanted to document our van building journey, we also very much desperately wanted … Read More

It’s been a month and a half since we purchased Alevander the Great. It’s been about two weeks since we started hard-core working on it. This means every day from 9am – 6pm (except for one day, Jon’s birthday). Yet, … Read More

Most van builds incorporate at least a handful of roof battens spread throughout the van. Usually of wood, they are used to provide your plywood ceiling something to attach to.

Today, I am 37 years old. Is that a big deal? Well, given our decimal-based numeric system, turning 37 is conventionally uneventful. Usually, a 37th birthday isn’t an overly-celebrated event. It certainly isn’t 30 or 40.

Another momentous day! We installed our first major item – one of two vent fans in the roof! I can’t tell you what a relief it is to feel like we’ve officially begun. As of today, we’ve had Alevander for 24 … Read More

You can charge your coach batteries off your car’s starter battery (your car’s alternator) for your recreational vehicle (RV) or van conversion (class B RV). , To date, I have not found a single resource that describes the pros and … Read More

We did it! Our house was finally listed for sale on Friday, February 22, 2019. After a month of hard work, our home looks great and quite fit to be sold. (Although, truly the home stager and the photographer probably … Read More

One of the best side effects of this crazy goal to sell our house and convert our first ever campervan in a period of 2 months, is that we were able to enjoy some of the unique excitement – and … Read More

It’s the ninth day into our van build. We’ve gutted almost everything previously built into the van. There were a lot of pieces. This is because the previous owner, whom we’ve named Steve, built his own mobile man cave inside Alevander.  … Read More

I can’t help share our next big adventure with anyone who will listen. Be it coworkers, family, or friends, I’m eager to let folks know that we’re selling all our possessions (house included) to beach it up in Mexico and … Read More

Get it?  Alevander the Great, instead of Alexander the Great 😀 After a month of researching and shopping around, we have FINALLY found our van.

Traveling across Mexico and Central America for a year?? Woah, that’s super cool. What’s not super cool is getting a ton of stuff done in order for that to happen…

We spent one month roaming across Southeast Asia: Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, in that order. For this trip, I took two complementary bags:

I was walking back towards the wife. I knew she was going to be sad. She’d had her heart set on it – or at least on this van search being over. And I was about to burst her bubble.

Hello! Thank you so much for checking out A Dang Good Life! You might be asking, “What is a Dang Good Life?”