My friend had to move back to Regina, leaving him with a house and lots of other things to deal with before he could leave Vancouver.
A job didn’t make things easier. There were a good 3-4 weeks left in the house before he had to be completely moved out and hand it back over to Gwen, the landlord. To get rid of all the things the idea was, very common in Canada, to do a big yard sale and that’s what we did, a massive yard sale with the aim to sell a complete household over the course of three days in the back alley. For me it was a great experience, hang out all day, have beers and spliffs and finally get to know all the neighbors on good terms, after all I had been living in the backyard for 4 months now. It went quite well, Dustin made a bit of money from all the sales and the people loved our ghetto-creative approach, from the signs we build out of trash (a piece of styrofoam, spray paint molded letters, pushed a hole through it, with a baseball bat for the stand) to the stuff that was up for grabs, the cheap prices, our staff pics, the ridiculous deals we were up to do, our sales tactics etc. Some people bought so many things they furnished their homes, others regretted not buying early enough, others came back every day and enjoyed the even lower prices… it was great fun, convincing the people to buy the things. We had little stickers announcing staff picks, stating great value or other funny useful/pointless information. It was funny to see how some things I thought would fly off the shelves didn’t sell at all while other things I thought weren’t great left our sale on the 1st day. The eye of the beholder. All whilst not being frowned upon for drinking beer and smoking spliffs, oh Canada.
Legendary 3 day yard sale marathon, Vancouver, Canada
It wasn’t as bad as it sounds, it was actually great fun. We had it all set up into little sections, household, clothing, camera, sports to make it look more appealing. It was so much stuff, basically a whole household up for grabs. All that could remain needed to be able to fit in the van whilst still allowing for space to sleep.
With the final day of the sale came the end of the house, we had to vacate the premises a couple of days later, in desperate need of two overnight parking spots somewhere in the city.
Luckily Dustin had gained some vanlife experience in Vancouver earlier and knew about the Trout lake community center, which had a sweet parking lot with the possibility to stay over night, options to lounge around in the building and free hot showers all day. A modern facility with ice hockey rink, cafe, fitness center, function rooms, tennis courts all on a beautiful lake in a park close to the city centre. We slept in the parking lot, hang out in the park, barbecued… we basically used it as a camp site. The only downside was the frequent traffic, a lot of regular people visited the center in the daytime, kind of ruining our BBQ’s. When we first set up camp we didn’t really knowing if we would get kicked out or could stay for the night, but got quite confident over time.
Once it go to 10pm all the normal cars in the carpark had left, leaving just us and a few other obvious sleeper vehicles in the lot. The gate closed at 10 or 11, so we would be locked in, but that was fine, great actually as it was the perfect excuse to stay overnight. After staying for a couple of days we sure got the hang of life in the carpark. A few regulars staying almost every night, not even moving their vehicles during the day, mixed with a couple of randoms that visited only for one or two days. Some people only came for the showers and Wifi, they wouldn’t stay in the carpark but move their vehicles to a more quiet side street for the night. The amount of people living in their vehicles in Vancouver is high. The real fun began in the mornings, around shower opening time (8am) when the crowds came rolling in. Very entertaining, the vehicles, the people… everything, from 50k camper vans to 500$ sedans, everyone came for the hot showers.
After a while we felt like a bit of heat may have build up, so we switched it up and found out that the area around Ambleside skatepark was perfect for a couple of nights as well, but there were no hot showers in the morning. Right by the ocean, overlooking Stanley park and the city skyline in the back, they did have bathrooms, just no hot showers, the skatepark made up for it, but worked in the opposite direction, rather causing sweat than washing it off. The library out in west Vancouver was exceptional as well, very beautiful and less crowded, after all Vancouver is a wealthy city. Finding good overnight parking spots in the nicer areas of Vancouver wasn’t that easy. It was a bit of a drive to get back to Trout lake, about 20-30 mins through the city and crossing the inlet. Since we both had jobs we would deal with them in the daytime but would always get together in the afternoon, meet somewhere and figure out the place to sleep for the night. Luckily Dustin’s van was quite spacious on the inside, even with half a household crammed into it. We would hang out in there at nighttime, enjoy dinner and a few shows on the iPad.
Dream team ready to sleep, Vancouver, Canada
Our house… in the middle of our street… Those two gogreous vehicles, who could ask for a better combination of classic cars? A camper-van for all the sleeping and comfort needs, paired with a strong SUV to get through the jungle? Parked up at Ambleside, ready for the night after a few TV-shows in the living room.
Man with a bag, Vancouver, Canada
I was just playing homeless, I have to admit that, at any given time I could have booked a 5-star hotel and stayed there for the next month, but maybe because of that it was just too much fun and I didn’t. Unlike this person, most likely carrying all his belongings in a bag over Cambie Bridge.
Too lazy to skate ourselves, Vancouver, Canada
We didn’t skate much, if at all, mostly because of sweating and a general lack of energy. Hanging out one day in front of shop Task, probably annoying Leon and his Co-workers, we encountered this crew of highly motivated individuals, the guy throwing his Fs 180 kickflip probably 50 times.
