Jill stood on a glacier in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and filled her water bottle from a blue stream at her feet. She got there in a 2017 Mercedes Sprinter she built out after retiring at 62. Jill spent her career as a marine scientist mapping the seafloor and hunting sunken ships, and living on boats taught her you really don't need that much. Her first big trip lasted over a year and put 31,000 miles on the van. You'll hear her two non-negotiables for a build, the mechanic move that gave her peace of mind before Alaska, the phone checklist she's tested for years, and why you don't need a finished rig to hit the road.
Follow Her Journey Her Way so you meet the next woman worth knowing. For road tips, blogs and every episode, head to SheTravelsSimple.com.

In this Episode:

• She Travels Simple: https://shetravelssimple.com/
• Composting toilet (Nature's Head, Cuddy): https://a.co/d/00jyVp8R
• Rolef Screens: https://www.rolef.ca/
• Espar diesel heater: https://a.co/d/092rjS5r
• Skoolie Swarm: https://skoolieswarm.com/
• Peace Love and Van: https://www.peacelovevans.com/

Dawn got divorced at 57 and started pet sitting on the side. In six months she slept in her own apartment ten days. So she bought a van.

Now she's 60. She walked away from her nursing job and pet sits full time out of a 2021 Ram ProMaster with two beds, one of them for her 80 year old mom.

We talk mooch docking, $5 a night camping in the Pine Barrens, a gas heater that ran all night on about a gallon, a toilet that wraps everything up like a Diaper Genie, and the night she showed up at my house not knowing a soul. Plus, mahjong.

Mentioned in this episode

Dawn's pet sitting: www.innercompassadventures.com
Laveo by Dry Flush toilet: https://dry-flush.com
Harvest Hosts: https://www.harvesthosts.com
Boondockers Welcome: boondockerswelcome.com
Skoolie Swarm: https://skoolieswarm.com/

More road tips and more women worth knowing: SheTravelsSimple.com

Nikki May is 58 and she's been living in a school bus for four years with a full size bathtub sitting right in the middle of it. She didn't wake up one day fearless. She ran a test trip with her dog in her car first, figured out the one thing she wasn't willing to give up, and sized the rest of her life around it.

We get into what the build actually cost her when she hired van guys to do a bus, where she sleeps for free, the app that holds every place she's parked in four years, and why she wishes she'd walked into a Schoolie Swarm before she spent a dime.

And the part I want you to hear: it took her about four years to take her first real solo trip. Solo doesn't show up all at once. You build up to it.