I had the honor of being a guest on my friend Steve Harper’s podcast, The Ripple Effect.

If you’ve been along on this journey from the very start, you might remember our previous podcasts – one before I’d even moved out of my house, and the second after our first full year in the van.

Steve has created a great online community called The Pond, where he brings people from all over the world together to connect, support one another, and gather in a safe space. More than content and resources, this is a safe and supportive place to take your connection practice to the next level by tapping into the power of the Ripple Effect together.

You can read Steve’s kind words about our conversation below the video.

Enjoy!

Watch the Video Here:

Have you ever asked yourself who you actually are when you strip away the job title, the routine, the expectations, and the version of yourself you’ve been performing for everyone else? When nobody is watching, and there’s nothing left to hide behind?

Most of us never get that moment. We’re too busy, too comfortable, or too afraid of what we might find.

My friend found it. She sold her house, bought a van, and drove off into the unknown with her dog Paco and no real plan. That was seven years ago. And she has not stopped.

This Ripple Spotlight is one I have been wanting to do for a long time, because Lisa is one of those people who make the decision most of us talk about but never make. And what happened on the other side of that decision is something I think a lot of you are going to feel deeply.

Here’s a taste of what you’re going to hear in this one:

• What Lisa calls van therapy, and the unexpected personal process of peeling back every layer of who you thought you were, when there is nothing left to distract you
• The lesson about control that completely changed the way she moves through the world, and why letting go of the plan turned out to be the best plan she ever made
• What happened when she stopped painting entirely in that first year, and the identity question she had to sit with that most of us are quietly avoiding
• How a random encounter at a hotel in Washington led to one of the most unexpected opportunities of her van life journey

If you loved Lisa’s unique way of expressing creativity and living life completely on her own terms, you can find her paintings and everything she has been creating at lisabussett.com.

For a behind-the-scenes look at life on the road with Paco, follow her on Instagram, where she shares the landscapes, the process, and the kind of content that will make you want to pack a bag. She is also on Facebook with a dedicated van adventures page where all of her road stories live. And if you want to see the magazine feature we talk about in this spotlight, pick up the summer issue of Where Women Create at any Barnes and Noble, Books a Million, or local bookstore near you. You can also order it online at womencreate.com.

This one’s for everyone in The Pond who has ever wondered what it would actually feel like to bet on yourself. Watch it through to the end. I think you’re going to be glad you did.

Ripple On!!!

The Where Women Create summer issue will be available starting June 12, 2026. 

I received these two questions about healthcare and insurance in my “Ask Me Anything” post:

Not having easy access to a medical provider who knows me – or Paco – is definitely a downside to the nomad life.

Every vanlifer handles healthcare and insurance differently. The key is to find what works best for you, and of course, then hope you stay healthy and injury-free along the way! I’ve met several people who don’t carry health insurance and use Urgent Care if a need arises, but I’m not brave enough to take that risk. I may be paying more in the long run, but I like the safety net of knowing any major costs will be covered should I ever need it.

So far, I’ve been lucky in health while out on the road (knock on wood). My lifestyle and meals are certainly more nutritious, which has helped me stay healthy and strong while adventuring.

In all my years in the van, I’ve only been sick once, and that happened to coincide with a visit to a friend’s house, so I had easy access to over-the-counter drugs to knock myself out, and I got to sleep it off in a bedroom rather than the van.

Healthcare

Before I left my job in Austin, I knocked out as many of the big health-related exams, tests, procedures, etc. as possible while I still had superb health insurance. Since being on the road, I’ve used Zion Healthshare for health insurance, and while it’s not fantastic, it does the job at a reasonable cost when compared to other options.

December has become my “medical month” since the holidays take me back to my family in Oklahoma. I’ve established a primary care physician, an eye doctor, and a vet there, so both Paco and I can get caught up on all medical needs while at a temporary home base.

Prescriptions

I do take one daily prescription. When I first moved into the van, I kept my Austin doctor, and she required blood work every six months. I ran into a few hiccups with that, as I tended to be in remote locations, not in large cities where drop-in lab clinics like Any Lab Tests Now existed. Thankfully, since my prescription hasn’t changed since 2007, my current doctor only requires annual blood work, which makes things SO much easier.

For prescriptions, I generally use Walgreens since they’re nationwide and have a shared database. It’s easy to update the pharmacy pickup location on their app, submit a refill request, and pick it up while in a random town running other errands. Of course, sometimes Walgreens wasn’t an option, but I was able to call and have my prescription forwarded to a local grocery store and get everything squared away.

Dental

I’d been slacking on basic dental exams over the years, and that created some headaches – or toothaches.

While dog-sitting in Breckenridge, CO, I cracked a crown while eating sushi the Friday evening before Christmas break, when everything shuts down for a week. Thankfully, there was one dentist in town open that Saturday, who, ironically enough, used to live in Austin. He squeezed me in, and I walked out that same day with a brand new crown – the best early Christmas present ever!

Another dental mishap occurred while in Scottsdale, AZ, and I ended up at the dentist three days in a row for a deep cleaning and other procedures. There, I learned about a Dental Savings Plan, and can now get dental cleanings – as well as annual eye exams – at a deeply discounted rate.

Paco

Paco’s health routine is the same as mine. Every December, he goes to the vet for his annual exam, and I buy all his heartworm, flea & tick medications in bulk so I have a 12-month supply with us in the van.

I carry a large First Aid kit in the van stocked with supplies that, so far, have met all the needs both Paco and I have faced for minor injuries. Paco has had his share of cactus pokes in paws and legs from overzealous pursuits of jack rabbits, and he’s torn paw pads, which I treated using techniques taught by a friend to bandage his paws and get him back on the trail.

Let’s hope our good health prevails as we continue along this journey!

I was talking with a friend about hiking the Enchantments – “a stunning, high-alpine basin in Washington’s Cascade Mountains near Leavenworth” – and it made me nostalgic for the time I spent in Leavenworth last year.

This was one of the many paintings I created from our time there, inspired by the many walks Paco and I took along the Waterfront Park Trail, a lovely trail system that winds along the Wenatchee River and through quiet riverbank forests.

The fall foliage was absolutely incredible while we were there, and I could not get enough of it. For a trail a stone’s throw from the hustle and bustle of town, we often had it all to ourselves. The solitude was perfect, and we saw more wildlife in the park than we do in our forest campsites: deer, turkeys, geese, ducks, eagles, and signs warning of a bear that we thankfully never saw.

We also had the pleasure of meeting some great locals along the trail, Paco made dog friends, and that little slice of the Wenatchee River carved a path deep in my heart.

This painting is currently available in my shop.

It turns out I haven’t been so great at this blog thing, but you probably already noticed that.

I was more than a little embarrassed to realize I’d gone an entire year without an update, especially since I’d brazenly invited readers to “Ask Me Anything!” in my last post. Many of you DID ask questions, and I even began typing answers, but they never made it past draft form.

2025 took on a life of its own, and I found myself spending more time in houses than I did in the van. Thankfully, that wasn’t due to any negative implications. Instead, Paco and I got to spend time with friends, reconnecting with people we hadn’t seen in years.

Our year began in Scottsdale, Arizona, with friends, painting, and dog-sitting, then an unexpected two-week stint in Henderson, Nevada, to paint a colorful backyard mural. We scooted through Nevada, California, and Oregon to southern Washington to meet a friend, then stayed in the area to connect with more friends visiting from Austin, TX. After that, we headed to Whidbey Island, WA, and spent nearly six weeks helping friends with home renovations – well, I helped, Paco supervised. Next came a few weeks in Seattle with family and exploring the northern part of Washington state.

An exciting surprise was being chosen as the Artist in Residence at the LOGE Hotel in Leavenworth, WA, which was a fantastic three-week span of creating large paintings, selling ornaments in a local shop, and making new friends. After that, I bee-lined it to Breckenridge, CO, for our annual Thanksgiving dog-sitting job, then headed home to Oklahoma, where we stayed until early February.

Sure, there were times spent in the van in between all of those stays, but not much! I’m not complaining by any means. How lucky am I to have so many friends and family across the country with whom I can meet up and spend long periods of time? That’s just one of the many perks of being mobile and rarely having a set schedule to adhere to. We still got to camp in lush, moss-covered forests, hike to multiple waterfalls, and Paco got to swim in the salty ocean, as well as many lakes, rivers, and streams. We stayed among the red rocks of Moab, UT. We got to see the world’s oldest living tree at the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. How amazing is that? And I still had plenty of time to paint several new works of art and a whole slew of ornaments, too!

Besides, I’ve always said I wanted each year of van life to be different from the last – I just had no idea HOW different each would be!

So, here we are, rolling into our seventh year of living in the van. Even I can’t get my head around that. But, I have good news – I’ve written answers to nearly every question asked last year, as well as other blog posts on varying topics, so buckle up! You’re about to go on some adventures with us.

As always, thanks for following along, even if you thought I’d fallen off the face of the earth. xo

Next month marks the start of my sixth year living in a van. SIX years! 

I wouldn’t have believed it if you’d told me that on day one of this journey, and what a journey it has been.

Despite six years of experience, I by no means consider myself a “Vanlife Expert.” I have, however, learned a LOT.

When thinking about this blog post and what topic I could focus on, I decided to turn the microphone toward all of you.

As a follower of my journey, you no doubt have questions and curiosities, or maybe you just want to hear about some random experience and how it affected me, or what Paco’s favorite critters are to chase. 

I want you to submit as many questions as you have – don’t be shy – and then, I’ll answer every single one as a separate blog post.

This is as beneficial for me as it is for you. It forces me to step up and get more active here on my mostly neglected website, it makes me sit down and pause to reflect on my answers – all of which will be long-winded yet thoughtful, and it will remind me just how far I have come.

You can send questions by completing the form below, as a comment on my Instagram or Facebook posts, or as direct messages through either of those platforms. I’ll compile a list, and get to work cranking out replies.

I’m eager to roll into Year Six in our new home and explore all the new areas our last van couldn’t traverse, and I’m excited to take all of you along for the ride!

It has been a while since I’ve posted, and some of you may have worried I drove the van off a cliff and fell off the face of the earth – thankfully, that’s not the case.

This has been an interesting year, and it has also been a great one. I’ve always said I wanted each year in the van to be a little different, and BOY has this one been out of the ordinary.  

The year started with my original van dying and Paco and I staying in Scottsdale, Arizona for an unexpected six months.

During that time, I bought a new van, built it out, painted a 65′ mural, helped with minor construction projects inside my friend’s home, and made many new friends. 

We left Scottsdale on July 17 and spent 34 days camping before reporting to dog/house/cat sitting in Breckenridge, Colorado.

This gig has been on the books since last November – a four-month stint in the same house, which has been fantastic.

It sounded even better last year when I agreed to it, long before I knew this year we’d be spending more time in houses than in the van.

Living in a house has several perks, though I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss being in the van. The biggest and best perk – and the reason for this long-winded post – is that I have taken over the dining room table and converted it into my art studio.

I have been painting every single day since we’ve been here and am now ready to share it all with the world. 

My style has changed dramatically – maybe the mural in Arizona planted that seed? I’m excited about these new paintings and this new style, and have been getting a lot of great feedback about them. I’ve even sold ornaments to a local shop here and will hopefully be replenishing their stock frequently!

I spent an agonizing two months scouring the internet looking for a replacement van – a search that left me overwhelmed, exhausted, disheartened, and wondering if I should just take it as a sign that it was time to hang up our van life hat and start a different journey.

Then, I found my unicorn.

I was searching nationwide and found a Craigslist ad from the Greater Portland, Oregon area. The original listing price greatly exceeded my budget, but I saved the link anyway. A few weeks later, I ran across the same van on Facebook Marketplace, and though the price had dropped, it was still far more than I could afford, but I saved that post, too.

I continued my search, and just when I was about to give up on it all, I got a message from the sellers – they were willing to accept my offer. I can’t begin to describe how overjoyed I was, along with the wave of relief and excitement and panic and wondering if it was financially more than I could bite off (it was a big bite!). My friend Sandy was here – it’s her house, after all – and she helped calm my nerves, helped me work through all scenarios, helped me look at it from the perspective of investing in a new home. Spending large sums of money always makes my stomach hurt, even if I know it’s the right thing, but I pushed forward.

Everything then fell into place like magic – which is exactly what I needed, because when that sort of easiness occurs, I can’t help but feel it’s because I’m on the right path.

I had frequent flyer points with Southwest Airlines that have been sitting in my account for nearly a decade. I didn’t expect them to still be valid, but was delighted they were, and I booked a one-way flight to Portland for the grand total of $5.60. It was perfect! Sandy was in town a few days longer and watched Paco while I headed to the Pacific Northwest.

As serendipity would have it, my dear friend Christa had texted the night before I’d received the message from the seller, to say she was visiting her family in southern Washington, and she’d look at vans in the area for me. Her parents live 45 minutes north from where the van was for sale, so once I booked my airfare, I reached out to Christa who picked me up from the airport, drove me to see the van, and I was able to stay with her and her parents that night. Another perfect arrangement! I didn’t have to spend a dime on a hotel or rental car, I got a delicious home-cooked meal, and had a chance to spend some time catching up with Christa and her parents too!

During the flight, I pulled out the sketchbook I’d been using to keep all van-related information and began to make lists. I flipped to the first page and found a list I’d titled “Unicorn Van”.

I’d written it in late January when I was at a pretty low point. I’d just gotten to Scottsdale and received word my van was beyond repair, then I got horribly ill and was literally in bed for a week – the first time I’d been sick in five years! I’d seen a great van for sale in the REI parking lot and it seemed like a perfect fit, but it was already sold by the time I called to inquire about it. I sat on the bedroom floor, weak with sickness, heavy with grief of losing my old van, feeling like the rug had been pulled from beneath me, overwhelmed by the search for a new home and everything that would entail, and I scrawled this list.

When I re-read it, I realized the van I was flying to see had every single thing on my list except for solar panels. Every. Single. Thing. – even what I’d written in the sub-category titled, “Ideal Add-Ons”. It was a physical manifestation of what I imagined to be the best van to continue our adventures in. 

She is a real beauty, though, and I know this van is going to take me on adventures I can’t even fathom, and introduce me to so many people as well – it already has, but I’ll leave that for the next post.

I’ve been relentlessly working on the interior since mid-March, and am nearly finished, which is WONDERFUL!

This post, though, is to introduce you to the van – I’ll write another post about all my hard work once we’re back out in the wild.

I have reached the point of my journey where it’s time to let go of my beloved van and let her cross the rainbow bridge.

I knew this day would come. I knew it when the van first entered my life with an odometer reading just shy of 200,000 miles. Despite being pleasantly surprised to have gotten five years together and pushing it to 246,296 miles, the news still hurts.

I also knew the van is old, and it’s highly possible there could be a major underlying issue I wasn’t aware of. When I left the van with the mechanic, I told him that while I wasn’t ready to let it go yet, I also recognized we might be at the point of its life where it doesn’t make sense to make a lot of expensive repairs if it didn’t guarantee bettering or extending the life of the van.

When the garage finally called, ten days later, I was elated to discover all repairs were achievable and they were getting to work. A week later, it was ready to be picked up. I was in Texas then, so my parents picked it up for me. They hadn’t even made it home before my dad realized some of the things that were supposed to have been repaired were in fact not, so he U-turned and dropped the van off again. Later that day, it returned home, and everyone was overjoyed.

Christmas came and went, and I spent the week before New Year’s working on the van. I thoroughly cleaned the interior, upgraded the toilet, built a small slide out for it to sit on, rearranged everything, thinned out clothes, reorganized food jars and art storage – the whole nine yards. I wanted to spruce the van up a bit and give her a little facelift, so I installed brand new headlight, taillight, and turn signal assemblies, added a backup camera, bathed her, and resealed awning bolts. By the time I was done, she was gleaming like a brand-new van – at least in my eyes.

While cleaning, I noticed oil dripping beneath the van in all the areas it had always dripped. When you live in your van, you become intimately familiar with it. I frequently wriggle underneath to check on things, whether out in the forest or a busy parking lot, I have no qualms about sliding beneath the van to keep tabs on how well she’s running. Having just spent nearly $4000 on repairs, I was not pleased.

I drove a short 26-mile round trip into town for gas, then re-checked the leaks when I returned home. The underbelly of the van looked like an oil explosion. Far worse than it ever leaked before – oil coated absolutely everything, all the way back to my exhaust pipe.

So, the van returned to the garage, where it sat for another week – making a total of four weeks in the shop.

A call from the garage stated they had found the leak, replaced a gasket, and all was good. I had many questions – why hadn’t that gasket been found the first time? Wouldn’t a seasoned mechanic assume that if one gasket is bad on a 2001 vehicle with 245,000 miles, there’s a high probability that all gaskets might be bad? I was told they would clean the engine and run dye through everything that would allow easy identification of where the leaks were – had they actually done that?

That third trip to the garage set me back another $1153.26.

I added three quarts of oil and bought more for backup. I had seven more hours to drive to Scottsdale, so I drove along I-10 with a death grip on the steering wheel and knotted stomach, praying the engine wouldn’t seize or blow up along the way. Every 100 miles or so, I stopped to add more oil. It took five quarts of oil to get me the 389-mile drive from Las Cruces, NM to Scottsdale, AZ.

By the time I reached Scottsdale, I was a nervous wreck, but we were thankfully safe. I created a pad of cardboard boxes to park on so I wouldn’t rain oil onto my friend’s driveway and called a local garage the next day.

Once again, the van was in the shop, but I walked back to the house hopeful it was just another gasket repair. That is, after all, what the prior garage told me to have the new garage check. I anticipated another $2000, but that was fine because I’d hopefully get a couple more years out of the van and then we’d see where life had taken me by that point.

The Scottsdale garage called back the following day.

He started the call by saying my van was “the nicest 22-year-old van with 246,296 miles I have ever seen,” adding it was obvious I had taken great care of it. I clung to his words with hope, anticipating the next sentence would be good news, but it wasn’t.

The van had a blown head gasket, which is ultimately its death sentence.

What hurts the most and is most frustrating is that the first garage completely missed the head gasket repair. I wouldn’t have spent $4,707.28 on all those repairs or the additional $200 on all the unnecessary cosmetic upgrades I added after the fact. All that money is essentially just gone, and while that might not sound like a high number to some people, $4,707.28 is a LOT of money to me. That’s nearly four months of living expenses.

Now I am in search of a new van. A new home for Paco and me to continue our adventures. I always knew this would be my “first” van, but it still hurts. Thankfully we’re in a safe place with access to a house, all the amenities brick and mortar homes offer, as well as amenities big cities offer. I’m within walking and biking distance from a whole slew of things, so we aren’t destitute or stranded. The weather here is pretty perfect, too, so no complaints there.

This is not the end of our van life, just a pause while we search for van 2.0.

I’ll keep you all updated on this new chapter of our journey and will do better at keeping this blog and my social media channels updated with where we are. There will definitely be another post where I wax poetic about my van and all we’ve done and seen together, but right now my mind is processing the cost of all these repairs, the cost of a new van, the stress – and excitement – of searching for a new van. Navigating how I’m going to build a new home while staying here, where at least I do thankfully have access to tools and a large driveway. Figuring out how what to transfer from my old van, and lots of other overwhelming decisions to be made.

I know the perfect van is out there waiting for me and will cross my path at exactly the right time.

Thank you for your continued support and if you read this far, thanks for reading about our tumultuous December! While I’m certainly sad about this change, I’m trying to keep my chin up and trust something better awaits. If there’s one thing I’ve learned again and again and again from my travels, it’s to trust the Universe and keep myself open to all the ways I can be surprised and delighted by its unexpected gifts.

xoxo

If I had to think of one image to define my Bussett heritage, it would be a big red barn.

It was a place off-limits to play, but none of us heeded those warnings. We raced up and down the rubber conveyor belt that hoisted hay bales to the top floor. We climbed, crawled, squeezed, and shimmied through every crevice. An artifact that fueled our imaginations and filled us with a sense of wonder.

Welcoming, yet ominous, it held a stillness. For me, walking into the barn always felt like crossing the threshold to another realm. The air felt cooler. Microscopic dust particles floated through sun rays shining through gaps in the boards, like tiny specks of glitter suspended in air. The earthy aroma of livestock drifted through and mingled with the sweet, grassy warmth of hay stacked upstairs. It was a place of pure magic.

As I’ve grown older, I’ve realized just how lucky I am – how lucky we all are – to have such a close-knit family. We may not see or talk to each other on a regular basis, but each of us knows there’s an army of cousins behind us should we ever need support. For that, I am grateful.

Painting the Barn

Attending a family gathering during my last visit home, my cousin’s wife pulled me aside to ask if I’d be interested in painting the barn. It felt serendipitous as I’d recently had that exact thought, but knew it deserved to be a big painting, and up until that point, I’d only been painting small sizes in the van. I asked what size she was thinking, and she said 3.5’ x 5’ – just a little bigger than I had ever painted since living in the van! Anyone who knew me prior to vanlife knows I used to paint large portraits. My heart is definitely still drawn to large sizes, so I said yes without really thinking through how it all might work.

The exterior of the van became my easel.

Utilizing a combination of clips and magnets, I suspended the canvas from the awning, keeping the canvas as taut against the van as possible. It was constant trial and error to battle wind, rain, and blinding sunlight. I love a good challenge, and this large painting has inspired me to create even more large canvas paintings in the future.

I am SO very grateful to have been given the opportunity to paint such an important part of my family’s history. I have to admit I had a lot of conversations with my ancestors as I painted. I was nervous when I first began because the barn holds such a huge place in all our hearts, and I wanted to do my best to capture the magic of it, to give reverence to the sacred space it has become for all of us. So, I asked previous Bussetts for help, which may make me sound a little crazy, but I’m okay with that. I think a little crazy runs through all our Bussett veins anyway. 😉

Bussett Farm Prints

While the final painting will hang proudly in my cousin’s beautiful new home, I’m excited to offer both paper and wrapped canvas prints of the image.