Planning for a Cross-America Painting Trip - Part One (1)

I spent the past one week, trying to put together a plan and budget for an all America Painting road trip. Alex Honnold's van really inspired me and I thought to myself .. wow, it is actually possible to live off the grid for a while.

 
Background
I spent almost a decade in America and completed my Bachelors and Masters from Columbus, Ohio. Despite having spent so much time in America, I never had the money or time to travel when I was there. When I first saw what these guys were doing with their van ? Modifying it into liveable space with solar generators and etc ? I immediately approached my friend Scott Stewart,who is an expert in car remodeling, and asked about the feasibility of converting a cargo van into a mobile painting vehicle.

Mind Mapping the a Painting Vehicle

The mission is simple.. To travel from coast to coast and to paint every single beautiful scenery that passes me. (en plein-air) Of course, it doesn't take long before I uncovered both the problems and solutions that lie ahead of me. Though I may never fulfill this dream ? I reckon that the effort I put into moving forward should not be wasted. Here is why I decided to blog about this....Hopefully, someone else can scaffold from what I did and complete a mission that I may otherwise fail.

Research work:

Sleep + Shower :
The first concern would be where to spend the night at inside a Van. Living in a Van is actually illegal in the U.S. and most parking lots would not allowed you to spend the night at their lots. I did some research and read that many homeless people actually live in their vehicle at 24 hours Walmart parking lots and etc. Though this seems viable for the most part, I have also read that more and more Wal-marts are against this. There are also various safety issues that people have sounded out. The next step up from that would be Truck rest stops. These are great for shower facilities and they usually charges a fees (about USD12) with clean towers and etc. I have also read that they charges lower gas than gas station and the prostitutes hustle for business at these places.
The camp site are the other alternatives with shower amenities but when you account for all the fees, the cost of the road trip quickly escalate to a budget equivalent to  car rental and motels.

Truck Stop Rest point

Truck Stop Chains:
Pilot
Campsite
http://koa.com/

Insurance and road side assistance
Since I am not an American. Acquiring a vehicle in the US will be a problem. I can defiantly get my friend to purchase the vehicle on my behalf but the liabilities and insurance coverages are things I am concerned about. Almost no auto insurance, apart from the auto rental will not cover foreign visitors and I have not yet been able to get them to provide a qoutation. I will also have to check if my friends' insurance could cover 3rd party usage on their vehicle. As for road-side assistance ? That's another issue that I have to look into.

Budget:
At this juncture, Scott informed me that I will need to set aside USD6,000 to convert a used van into a great, liveable space with these factors
1) ventilation and insulation from the cold.
2) Stealth from public so I can park anywhere and not get caught.
3) A bed to sleep.
4) Storage for Art supplies, clean clothing & dry food.
5) Solar generator for electric power.
6) Heat when its cold and detection from Carbon monoxide poisoning.
7) A portable potty system.
8) Minimum cooking but electric supply to boil water.