Meet the 71-year-old nomad who sold all her belongings to travel across the US in her campervan – on an epic 6,000 mile road trip.
Barbara Hansen left her two-bedroom rented apartment in Green Bay, Wisconsin, US, and got rid of all her belongings before buying a Winnebago Spirit Motorhome for $22k.
Since then she has visited 22 US States including – Illinois, Michigan Ohio, Texas and Louisiana.
Barbara – who has two children grown up kids – says her favourite place she’s visited is Turkey Bayou, Illinois, where she stayed in a swamp for a month and went hiking.
The grandmother of four loves van life so much she is renovating a Ford Transit van she bought for $37k and is planning to visit he East and West Coast in it.
Barbara, a retired sales associate and a volunteer camp host, from Green Bay, Wisconsin, said: “Covid was just getting started and I took a trip up to Alaska to visit one of my boys and I had a ball.
“When I got back I started thinking about how I didn’t want to stay in my apartment and I wanted to live a little.
“I gave up my 30-day notice on my apartment, bought a camper online and flew for Florida to pick it up and the rest was history.”
After buying the Winnebago Spirit Motorhome for $22k in February 2019, Barbara was determined to drive it back home but she got as far as Atlanta before it broke down.
She sold everything she owned and hit the road full-time and has been travelling around the US for the last five years.
Barbara said: “Everything was wrong with it, it had been sat on a beach for 20-odd years.
“The electricity didn’t work and it took a month or so to get fixed.
“I then sold everything I had and hit the road – I have been living on my camper for five-and-a-half years now.”
After hitting the road in February 2019, Barbara headed to Illinois, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana and New Mexico.
She said that she has loved every moment of living in her van – especially meeting new people and visiting new places.
Barbara said: “I have met some really cool people, there is no better group than the nomad group.
“This is going to sound crazy but I loved Alaska, my son, and I went out on a moose counting trip.
“One of my favourite places to be has been Turkey Bayou, Illinois, it was in the middle of the swamp.
“I stayed there for a month, it was in the middle of nowhere and there was a lot of wildlife around.
“I went hiking for days – it was very secluded.”
The hardest part of van life has been what Barbara calls “stupid breakdowns”.
She said: “You expect a vehicle to break down every now and again but what is really annoying is when you create the disaster yourself.
“I loaded up my Fiat on the back of my tow vehicle one day, after I loaded up the car I forgot to disengage the emergency break and I drove off with it engaged.
“By the time I realised what I had done, I was dragging my Fiat down the highway.”
Barbara is currently staying on a campsite just outside of Las Vegas, Nevada, where she is fixing up a Ford Transit van she bought for $37k.
Barbara aims to make the van liveable and set off on the road early next year and do a live in renovation and sell her old camper.
She said: “I have wanted a van for a long time, when I saw one come up online I knew I had to have it.
“I personally want to make sure it has insulation as I don’t want to deal with too much of the elements.
“I need some kind of bed set up and a little kitchenette.
“I can stop at gyms and do showers there for a while.
“I am not going to build it out fully in the first year, I am going to do a partial build and then live in it for a year to see what I need.”
Places she’s visited so far –
– Michigan
– Illinois
– Indiana
– Missouri
– Wisconsin
– Minnesota
– Ohio
– North Dakota
– South Dakota
– Wyoming
– Montana
– Arizona
– New Mexico
– Texas
– California
– Florida
– Georgia
– North Carolina
– South Carolina
– Virginia
– Nebraska
– Louisiana
