Meet the O'Neal Mobile (and how we get up and go with six kids)

Okay you guys, this is the post I probably should have written first, because every single week somebody asks me about the van.

So. A few years ago we bought a big blue Ford Transit and it completely changed the way our family travels. We built removable bunk beds in the back so we could just GO whenever we felt like it. No booking hotels weeks out, no waiting for the perfect time, no logistics spreadsheet (okay, sometimes a logistics spreadsheet). Load up and leave. We named her the O'Neal mobile and she has now hauled us through 47 states. Three to go.

And we started saying yes to things we never would have before. A last minute weekend trip. A seven week loop around the country (itinerary here: bellebucket.com/fall-road-trip-itinerary). A random detour because something looked interesting on the map. The van made all of it possible and honestly I don't know who we'd be without her.

So this is what van life with kids looks like for us.

The van itself

She's a Ford Transit, the tall one, and the back is bunk beds we built ourselves. They come out when we need to haul something big and go back in for trips. Every morning we convert the back from bedroom to living room and every night we convert it back. I'm not going to lie to you, it's kind of a pain. But it means we're ALWAYS ready to go, and that makes it completely worth it.

Our window covers are homemade. Silver bubble insulation cut to the shape of every window. They're not cute but they work.

The one thing I'd buy again tomorrow is our Jackery portable power station. It runs everything, the fridge, the phones, my blow dryer, the Yoto at bedtime, and it charges off the van while we drive so we never roll into camp empty. If you only get one piece of gear for family van trips, get this one. I wrote a whole post on it: bellebucket.com/jackery-review.

Before every trip

We write "honk if you love Jesus" on the back window with paint markers. Every trip. It's one of our favorite family traditions. Some states are VERY enthusiastic about it. Some are decidedly not. My six year old once heard all the honking in New York City and said "everyone here loves Jesus," and we didn't have the heart to tell him the van was parked in Poughkeepsie.

Every kid packs their own bag, and the bag is a cheap drawstring cinch backpack in their color. Clothes go in, dirty clothes come out into the same bag, and nobody's suitcase is exploding across my floor. I have tried packing cubes and fancy systems and this twenty dollar fifty pack wins every time.

Snacks and books and chargers go in the hanging pocket organizer on the back of the front seats. Each kid gets their own pockets and I stopped hearing "mom where's my" about 70 percent of the time, which is the most any product has ever done for me.

The full packing list, every single thing in the van, is here: bellebucket.com/road-trip-essentials.

How we leave

We leave in the afternoon. Usually around 3. Get out of the house, get five or six hours behind you, pull over somewhere and sleep in the van, deal with the rest tomorrow. Starting at 3pm instead of "first thing in the morning" is the single biggest thing that got us out the door more. Morning departures turn into noon departures turn into "let's just go tomorrow." Afternoon departures happen.

And a lot of the time it's just me and the kids. Chris is Army and can't always come, and he is honestly our biggest fan and helps plan every trip. He flies in to meet us for the big stuff and I've made my peace with the rest. Our dream is all eight of us in this van with nowhere we have to be. We're working on it.

Life in the van

We play praise music with the windows down. We do audiobooks (Harry Potter has gotten us across more states than gas has). We have inside jokes that make no sense to anyone outside this vehicle. Nobody's on a screen, nobody's too cool, we're just all there with each other. Some of the most spiritual moments of my life have happened in the driver's seat going through Kansas.

There's a LOT of dry cereal.

The trash can hangs off the seat and doesn't tip over on mountain roads, which I mention because the one before it did.

Bedtime is the Yoto. Every kid has a card they love, the lights go off, and the van goes quiet. I can't recommend this thing enough for big families.

School happens in the backseat too, and it's more fun than it sounds: bellebucket.com/roadschooling.

When it goes wrong

One time the van broke down on the way home and we limped across what felt like half the country at a crawl, praying the whole way. We made it. My son wrote a song about that trip called "American Road" and played it for me in the van one day like it was no big deal, and I'm still not okay about it.

A bear got into our stuff in the Smoky Mountains last fall. That story gets its own post.

Stuff happens, and it always turns into the story we tell at dinner for the next ten years. That's the deal you make when you get up and go.

If you're thinking about it

You don't need a van. You need to decide you're the kind of family that goes. We did years of road trips in a regular car before the Transit. The van just took away the excuses.

Everything I've learned in this thing, the routes and the packing and how we keep it cheap, is what Belle Bucket is (read it here). Start with the free National Parks bucket list on the email list, grab a fall list if you want the whole thing (bellebucket.com/fall), and come say hi if you see a big blue van with paint marker on the back. It's us. We're probably lost.