Full Time Overland Travel

Episode #120 - Link to Episode - Download Episode

Those few times in our lives when our biggest dreams and goals come to fruition. All the planning, all the little hurdles along our paths of accomplishing mini goals along the way. For us it’s been a blend of surreal, a little frantic, along with a trifecta of snow, wind and hot dry dusty days. Complimented with unbelievable scenery, desert flowers of shocking beauty, sunrises, sunsets, followed by clear night sky we’ve not enjoyed for years.

We’re more than delighted to share with you our new home on wheels after a roller coaster ride of small amounts of panic last December. After a little shy of 1,300 miles from Portland Oregon to Fort Lupton Colorado, we took delivery of our new pop-up truck camper, the Hallmark Victor! Hallmark Campers is re-introducing this classic floor plan they first released in 1968. The primary distinction between the Victor and their other models is the dinette. The Victor features an East & West dinette, where all their other models are a North / South layout. The much larger table was the winner! We have two separate ways to position the table, with an added bonus of putting the table, in what we refer to as “Night Mode”. This is removing the table top and placing it against the sink side of the camper, basically making it disappear. In Night Mode we have a plethora of floor space, making it much easier to enter and exit the bed, or just allow two people plenty of room without bumping butts. 

As we gain experience as full-time Overland Travelers, learning all the little tricks of both our Truck Camper setup, along with day-to-day realities of exploring the world via four wheels, expect a few changes to the podcast as we do interviews of fellow overlanders, along with sharing real-world numbers as it relates to current costs. These reports should include our cost on fuel, miles driven, food, any camp site fees / accommodations and any miscellaneous expenses. If there’s specific numbers you’d find helpful, feel free to reach out to us anytime!

For anyone new to the GHT Overland Podcast or website, we are Chris & Lisa :) we’ve spent the last five years planning and preparing for where we're at today. We sold our family home after raising two amazing young men in Washougal, WA. We’ve sold our business that we spent the last 14 years building, that demanded unhealthy amounts of our time and energy. We’ve sold or donated many unnecessary things, consolidated and stored everything else. And now after fourteen years with an average of three days off a year, we’re now living our dreams in the absolute polar opposite world. As of today our biggest challenges are making sure we’re good on water, where to set up camp, and getting used to living as nomads in the dust.

As of today May 7th 2022 as we record this episode, it’s only day 4 of full time on the road, so obviously there’s lot’s of experience to still gain. Clearly it helps that we’ve been interviewing and learning from experienced overland travelers since late 2017 however what we’ve found in four short days, is there’s still a gap to fill between everyone else’s experiences and your own! Like no joke, why are we breaking Golden Rule #1 on night one, trying to find a camp spot at 10pm. And what were we thinking going up in the mountains of Colorado over 8k feet in May? Why were we surprised to end up in a spring snow storm, waking up to six inches of snow, now worried about freezing water lines and running out of propane? As foolish as it sounds looking at it from the bleachers, this was the circus we threw ourselves into in all our blind excitement.

Playing it safe we waited for the snow to melt off the roads as we spent day one relaxing, organizing and letting our new reality settle in. On day three we stuck to our guns on a 3pm deadline for decide on a stopping point (dead set on escaping cold, wind and snow). We then found ourselves second guessing an overnight stay in a Walmart parking lot even with nine other Vans, RV’s and 1 other Overlander. 

This is where we met Vern, regrettably we didn’t get much time to chat with Vern, a twelve year full time traveler full of life and light hearted humor. So we’re looking forward to a lot more Vern’s along the way.

Look for a full review of the Victor truck camper by Hallmark Campers along with our day to day experiences on our YouTube channel. Do expect a few weeks as we record and edit, before this goes live. In the meantime were focused on getting into that travel rhythm Brittney and Eric talked about a few episodes ago, from HourLess Life. We could not be more excited to be sharing our experiences as we learn new things, meet new people, along with all the unknowns on our trails ahead. 

Lisa’s Favorite Features of Victor:  

1. Open floor plan
2. Array of 16 Windows
3. Pantry Supply Storage
4. Under Bed Storage

Chris’s Favorite Features of Victor: 

1. Build Quality
2. Insulation Factor
3. Windows with no joke privacy, blackout, bug screen, clear double pain acrylic by TernOverland  
4. Interior & Exterior Lighting 
5. LifeBlue lithium batteries 
6. HighTech Solar panel 
7. Built-on Work Boxes 
8. Built-on Ladder 
9. Walk-On Roof 
10. Pre installed 10+ extra gallons of diesel storage 
11. Light Weight nature of the truck camper 
12. Pre installed Super bright back up lights by Nilight
13. Pre installed Back up camera
14. 12 volt Dometic RTX2000 AC 
15. MaxxFan 
16. TorkLift accordion style steps with fancy adjustable feet

From two people who spend embarrassing amount of time researching, we feel very confident in our decision with Hallmark Campers, and could not be more impressed with the friendliness of everyone at Hallmark!!! As always, do your own research, executing your best plans for you. Just make sure to include Hallmark on your short list of possible options. They incorporate key features we were unable to find from other companies.