Fred: My name is Fred Thomas. I was formally from Seattle, Washington for 32 years. But now I am full-time mobile. This is Betty, this is my van. And I’ve been here for 5 months. Hopefully, I’ll be here another – I don’t know – 17 years. That might work.

WV: What is the bigest advantage of the van?

Fred: How has this van changed me? It changed the way I travel. It’s simple. I travel everywhere now. So, I’ve been all over the Western United States. There’s no limitations. That’s what I love the most. I go to the mountains one day, I can drive to the ocean the next day. I can drive to another mountain, I can drive to the crag and I can go mountain biking. It gives me complete freedom to do anything I want. Without this kit, because I did a ton of research, I don’t think I’d be this happy. This is rugged enough to fit me, I don’t want part with it. I’m on a van. This is my baby.

WV: What has been your most memorable experience with your van?

Fred: The most fun adventure that I have been on; I just went to City of Rocks in Castle Rocks in Southern Idaho and I took a friend with me. We climbed for three days. Being able to pull right up into the rock fields, the crag and camp and wake up and, you know, the rock’s right there. You can climb all day, come back to the van, hang out, eat. You know, laugh, play games, whatever we wanted to do, then head back out to the crag. The simplicity. Van life for me, especially this layout, is about simplicity. That trip, absolutely was amazing.

My point is: it never would have happened. If I didn’t have a van, that trip would have never happened. And it did. And it was absolutely three days of bliss. As I’ve traveled, I like to talk to people. You know it might be obvious by now, but … I’ve talked to what it feels like a thousand people. In ski lifts, at coffee shops, or whatever. And everyone who sees my van asks me how I love van life. And I always talk about Wayfarer. They cannot believe for the price, that Wayfarer can convert a van and in 4 hours. They don’t believe me. And I have to sort of talk them into like “hey no, the real deal all this was done in 4 hours including my windows, my lights, my fans.” And they’re blown away. So I don’t know if anyone has reached out to Wayfarer but so many people love the idea of the turnkey approach of Wayfarer.

WV: What’s your favorite customization or van hack?

A few things I love about my van, I’ll make this quick. These magnetic hooks are all over my van. You can hang anything from it. I also use what’s called a quick draw all over my van, or carabiners. You can see here, I can hang anything … towels, clothes, all kinds of things from it.I have four or five of these lights all over my vans. Instead of using my lights, I use the headlamps. I’ve got 5 gallon water bottle with an electric pump on top. You can get that for $12-$15 on Amazon. You push this button, it squirts, you’re good to go. Besides that, I love my cutting board. These little pieces here that stick, you can get those on Amazon too. They’re double sticky and they’re awesome for sticking things to counters. My phone holder. That’s something that I absolutely love.

And, besides that, you’ve got to see my deck. So, I love a lot of things about my van, but my favorite part of my van is right up here. Voyager 4×4, they put a ladder and a rack on my van, which is perfect. But I went with them because I wanted to put the most important thing on my van. Which was my deck. So, if you look down, you can see that I put a deck on my van, and the reason I did this was because I want to camp up here. I have a full tent that goes up here. I also have a beautiful mat, so two of us can lay up here and look at the stars. We can hang up here at night, plus if I have two people inside, I can have two people on top so I’ve got a four person van hotel. Which has been super handy on my travels. I love my deck, check out the view.