INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) — Winter seems to be the time of year we like to plot an escape from Indiana to get away from the icy, freezing, snowy and dreary days.
While the typical trip lasts a few days, for a central Indiana woman, it lasts a few months — which is just part of her truly unique story.
Kristin Holden travels nine months of the year, typically travels alone, drives everywhere and spends each night in the back of her van, but don’t think of the famed Saturday Night Live skit — this is a legit, decked out, van-turned home.
The 29-year-old had her 2017 Ford Transit 250 custom-built inside, opting for the medium roof model and the 148-inch wheelbase. On the outside, it looks like a plain white cargo van, but it’s the secret to how she’s able to see the United States as cheaply as possible.
"It's my tiny home on wheels. It's a cargo van that I live in and I cook back in my kitchen area, and then I have my living room beside it, and it converts to a queen size bed at night for me and my two dogs to sleep," said Holden. "This is how we travel full time around the country to see it."
The 60-square-foot space is a dramatic change from her previous digs.
"I had a 1,700-square-foot two-story home for just me and my two dogs. We shared a three bedroom, two-and-a-half bath home in Geist, and I sold that and moved into this," Holden explained.
It's fueled by her love for traveling and not wanting to leave her dogs behind.
As an auditor for Delta, she's able to work remotely, except for the winter months when she gladly stays with her parents in Pendleton from November through February. She'll begin driving to Florida in March.
She says the number one question people ask her is how she uses the bathroom since there’s no visible toilet or shower. The answer is also creative: she has a small, portable toilet under the sink she can pull out in an emergency. She has a nationwide gym membership, so she can pull over for a workout and shower. She refills a water tank a few times a week to provide drinking and cooking water out of her sink.
Unlike an RV, her van gets 19 miles per gallon. The van and custom-build interior cost Kristin about $55,000.
"It was time to downgrade — well, I think it's an upgrade," she laughed.
When asked if she ever gets claustrophobic and wishes she had her traditional home, Holden said "no."
"I don't miss my home at all. If I feel it's too tight in here, I open up my doors and have the whole world really to go to," she laughed.
Solar panels on the top give her the electricity she needs along with batteries under the hood that help charge batteries in the living space.
Holden shared a 20-minute tour of her van in a YouTube video, which also included the cost of the build and main components inside the van.
“I filled up an entire walk-in closet and now I have a small little bench I keep full of clothes so it's definitely a much more minimalist lifestyle and it's been a really good healthy challenge for me to learn how to live with less,” she explained.
Holden limits herself to a maximum of four hours of driving per day. She can park virtually anywhere, cover up the front windows and pull a sliding door closed to separate the driver’s area from the rest of the van for maximum privacy.
Her love of travel started by accident.
"The first trip that I did solo was because my friend couldn't come, and I was like 'I have this bucket list item to go to another country — I'm going to do it,'" said Holden. "I'm really big on not letting the fear of being alone hold you back from accomplishing your goals. You meet people, and it just challenges you to get out of your comfort zone and talk to people, and you realize you're not as alone as you might think."
She doesn’t have any plans to slow down.
“I think it's easy for me to say maybe five years, but I don't envision myself in anything else other than this lifestyle.”