Van Gogh to Valdez (Day 1)

Written By Lyss W

Genius is born of necessity, and when my host found a a U-Haul cargo van for pick up in Anchorage, I jumped right on it rather than canceling my second sit, turning tail and heading home. Some people do things for the ‘gram, I do them for a fabulous story. Who would believe that the girl that refused to pee or sleep outside for 20 years would drive around Alaska alone and sleep in a cargo van?

I came pretty close to scrapping the last two chapters of my Alaskan adventure. I was really excited to do both of my scheduled house sits, and I thought finding a relatively inexpensive way to spend my 9 day gap between would be a great little project and adventure. This professional planner was struggling on my own, so I had two travel agents and a dozen tour companies trying to help me. No one could come up with any reasonable rates (under $6K) or fun excursions with transportation to fill my specific stretch of time. Alaska is a bitch to book, there is no way around it. The state is huge, there is so much to see and do, it is completely overwhelming. The summer season is short and expensive, and it’s gotten exponentially worse in COVID. The rental car shortage is serious here, tours are running on limited occupancy, everything requires really advanced reservations, and there is a lot that didn’t survive the shut downs or just can’t staff up to handle the crowds.  I found a cruise I’d have to sell an organ (and didn’t want) to attend, and the Alaska Railroad sent me a sample itinerary that only serious anglers would enjoy. I had read that people were renting U-Hauls on their vacations to get around Alaska and Hawaii, but I have depth perception issues and I really wasn’t sure if driving a giant tin can on dirt roads was going to be a safe or smart idea for me.

I watched Nomadland tucked into a stranger’s bed, surrounded by cats on my very first house sit in Taos, New Mexico. I spent a serious amount of time considering if van life was something I would be up for. Watching Frances McDormand go to the van camping rally to learn survival skills for the road gave me a lot of food for thought. I was positive that everything about it was beyond my capabilities. Peeing in a bucket in a home on wheels just did not jive with my visions of my future. I did do some web browsing of conversion vans, and I had a vision of a van with a giant sunflower painted on the side named Van GO-gh that I filed it away in my brain, but I kept searching TrustedHousesitters for month long sits that came with cars. Then one in North Pole called my name, an opportunity in Anchorage re-appeared, and I had to get creative. Necessity may have made me pull the trigger on this adventure, but I like to think fate, the freedom I’m chasing and fear I’m fighting had something to do with it too.

I had travel drama coming and going to my first housesit. I was hoping it wasn’t going to carry through to my second phase of the Alaskan Adventure. I said my goodbyes, was dropped off at the Fairbanks Train Station and crossed the Alaska Railroad off my bucket list with a magical ride south through the heart of Alaska. I was armed with a willingness to put myself out there and a notated Alaska Milepost Guide filled in by friendly locals and hosts. I soaked up every second of that spectacular train ride, was picked up by my Anchorage hosts, and dropped off at U-Haul to meet Van GO-gh. Reading that I rented a 9 foot cargo van didn’t freak me out, but I had to get the exact measurements to book my ferry ride. Measuring over 18 feet long, I was practically driving a boat myself!

Keep in mind, I didn’t pack a suitcase for Alaska- I packed 1 suitcase for up to a year of travel. I have swimsuits to sweaters, heels to hiking boots in 1 large checked bag. My plan was to train my way down the coast of California. I was packed for the border with Mexico, not a campout near Northern Canada.  I’m a spoiled spinster, so some of my necessities were not exactly REI approved. Lucky for me, my Anchorage hosts are far more outdoorsy than me and loaned me some of their camping gear and essentials for my adventure. I supplemented my supplies with some online pre-purchased essentials and a quick Walmart run, and pointed the van toward Valdez to kick off this van-venture.

Let me tell you, even if I had hated Valdez (which I absolutely did not) I would tell you that every minute and mile of the five hour drive from Anchorage is worth it. It is probably the most scenic ride you can take through Alaska. You’ll pass dozens of glaciers, mountains, rivers, waterfalls, scenic overlooks, and beauty beyond compare. I could feel my heart palpitating as I rounded the curves and saw scenery that will haunt my dreams for the rest of my life. It would be a terrible shame to skip the sites just to make your GPS’ ETA.

Speaking of GPS: I ordered one for this trip knowing that cell service would be poor in several of the places I was heading. Don’t bother with this, those things don’t like Alaska, and you’ll have enough service to map from one city to another. Everything you want to see is off a main highway and clearly marked. Just decide on a general direction, pull over, and do the detour. Alaska is a giant roadside attraction. It takes almost no effort to find a worthwhile place to stop. There are scenic overlooks and photo spots for most everything of note, and they usually have warning signs that you are approaching something worth checking out. This isn’t an entirely foolproof system, Alaska is wild, and some of those scenic spots are completely overgrown and it will take some effort to see the pretty. I’ll tell you more about that on the road to Homer.

There are a couple of great places within two hours of Anchorage that I saved to explore during my house sit. My first stop was Glacier View, and there were plenty of beautiful places to pull off and check out Matanuska Glacier’s river, outrageous outwash, gorgeous gorges, vistas, and valleys en route. I was awestruck and delighted doing the drive. The rain and fog rolled in and cloaked the sights in a fairytale mist.

Matanuska Glacier is approximately 2 hours from Anchorage and the only glacier with drive up access. I did a quick drive by on my first visit, but dug a little deeper on my second. Supposedly you can drive yourself right to it, but we never found a route. We tried a couple ways, but found that you still have to book a tour ticket to access a road to the ice. It is a beautiful place to explore, and you can see it really well from the public roads. We hiked around the state recreational area a few weeks later and thoroughly enjoyed the fog and fall foliage. It looked like a completely different place with all of those beautiful yellows added in.

Just before Thompson Pass and Blueberry Lake I discovered an RV that put Van GO-gh to shame. I pulled over and marveled at this vintage cobalt blue camper rocking both famous Starry Night paintings on the sides. I shrieked with glee when I walked around the camper and saw the Starry Night over the Rhone replica.

A brief sidebar for you- I brought a sleep mask with that painting on it, unable to resist the irony of blocking out sunlight in the land of Midnight Sun with a Starry Night. My friend Andrea gifted it to me as a birthday gift to commemorate our European Expedition and hunt for that damn painting. We tried to find it in its supposed home of Musee D’Orsay. Golf claps to the four different docents that insisted it was in the Impressionist room. When we finally talked one into walking us to the painting, they were SHOCKED to find it missing. We eventually found a sign in a different part of the museum saying that the painting was on loan in London.  We searched for it at the Tate Modern when we got to London, just to learn that we’d missed the exhibition by a day.

I may have missed Vincent’s version, but a Van GO-gh sleepover felt like serendipity I couldn’t resist. (It didn’t hurt that I also wanted to try to see the pass again with less fog/rain in the morning.)

I said see ya later to the camper, drove through the pass, and checked out the beautiful Blueberry Lake Recreational area. I ate my bagged salad dinner beside the lake, pinched myself about this crazy campout, took advantage of the facilities, and drove back the couple of miles for our Van GO-gh gathering.  Overall, a super successful virgin voyage for the van-venture!

I can’t tell you how excited I was to climb into the back of the van and set up camp.  Van Camping in Alaska is pretty simple. Boondocking is legal, so if it’s not private property, there aren’t “No Camping” signs, and you aren’t a danger to other passing vehicles- it’s pretty much fair game.

 A safe spot to me is:

  • Far enough off the highway to prevent becoming roadkill and mute the regular semi-truck traffic

  • Not so off the grid you’ll stay awake all night afraid to find a bear in your face

  • Wont turn soupy and get me stuck in the rain

  • Preferably within a few minutes drive to a bathroom

  • I personally prefer to park near another car so that if I wake up to a dead vehicle, I have a higher chance of getting help

  • Within the city limits, grocery stores or Walmarts will usually let you park overnight. Be sure to park in the back, go in and buy something (keep your receipt), bring your toothbrush, and be grateful for a flush toilet.

Spoiled Spinster VanVenture Shopping List:  

Items I purchased for emergencies (but returned unused):

  • Jumpstarting Battery: to be able to charge devices and charge the van should the battery crap out (You can’t ship or check these- so either carry it on the plane with you, or buy it in Alaska

  • Luggable Loo (a bucket with a toilet seat and little bags full of gel to absorb liquids and neutralize smells

  • Garmin GPS

  • First Aid Kit

  • Duct tape, bungee cords, and twine

Items I purchased that I absolutely loved having:

  • Multi-device cigarette plug rapid-charger (powered my back up battery, cameras, phone, and apple watch.

  • Blackout curtains (hung with magnet clips)

  • My Van GO-gh flags- it made me happy and excited to climb in the back each night. You don’t have to do a full van build, but getting into a sterile cold empty van can get depressing. Bring SOMETHING that makes you happy to see every time you clime aboard.

  • Closet over-the-door shoe organizer for kitchen supplies, cleaning supplies, toiletries, bear/bug spray, and odds and ends that needed regular access. This was an impulse purchase and SO HELPFUL

  • Cheap slippers- you don’t want to be barefoot in the van, but wearing your hiking boots and tracking in the dirt and mud totally sucks

  • Udon/Ramen packs, pull top canned soup, tuna salad packets, a small box of croissants for breakfast/to eat with the tuna, mandarin oranges, and iced tea packets to caffeinate because I slept even less than usual. Bagged salad kits hold up great on a cold bottle of water if you get ones with vinaigrette. I kept a small bag of spinach in the cooler to dump into anything I made for some extra veg.

Items I borrowed that saved the day:

I may not have made it to all the way to Valdez as planned, but I had an awesome first night in my van-venture. Rain on the VanGO-gh roof was just as soothing as a southern tin roof. I loved that I was parked beside a quirky work of art, a glacier, a mountain, a waterfall, and that I was embarking on an adventure that was completely outside of my comfort zone. I was going to push myself to learn, grow, try new things, challenge what I know, think I can do, and the way I think. At the end of day 1, I still had no idea how much this trip was going to change my life.

Lyss W
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