36-year-old travels the world in a Toyota Tacoma: Her No. 1 takeaway

In 2015, Ashley Kaye’s father died and she or he inherited her childhood dwelling in Waterford, Wisconsin. On the time, she was 27 years previous, working in company healthcare and transitioning to a consulting job, the place she labored 80 to 100 hours every week.

“I labored from dwelling, so I simply walked from my bed room to my workplace to the kitchen and repeat,” Kaye, now 36, tells CNBC Make It. “I used to be a zombie in these instances,”

Whereas touring, Kaye met somebody on a scuba diving journey in Honduras who helped her understand what she wished was to depart her profession behind and journey full-time.

“We simply hit it off and chatted the entire time I used to be there. We spoke in regards to the worst of the worst, the perfect of the perfect, and financials, too,” Kaye says.

“He informed me he wished he had finished it sooner as a result of it is a lot simpler and cheaper than you suppose. That modified every little thing for me. I went dwelling and labored increasingly more till I give up the subsequent 12 months.”

Kaye spent the subsequent three years touring in the course of the covid-19 pandemic. Whereas on a visit to South Africa, she obtained sudden information that her aunt was sick and she or he’d must fly again dwelling to Wisconsin.

“That flight was in all probability the second the place not a single ounce of my being was like ‘Yay, I am going dwelling.’ It was like, ‘I do not need to be right here. This is not it for me.’,” she says. “I like being on the islands. I like having the ocean close to me. That took away the hesitation I had in earlier years about promoting the home.”

Whereas Kaye was again dwelling caring for her aunt, she ready her childhood dwelling on the market and regarded her subsequent transfer. She thought lots about making an attempt van life and residing and touring along with her canine.

“Touring by airplane with a canine simply gave the impression of a horrible concept,” she says. “I do a whole lot of images, so I knew I wished one thing the place I may attain harder locations.”

Whereas ready for the sale of her dwelling to shut, a pair reached out to Kaye on Instagram to ask about her time in South Africa. They shared their expertise overlanding in a Toyota truck with a camper within the truck mattress.

Overlanding is a type of self-reliant journey that entails adventuring to distant locations, usually in a automobile of some sort.

After doing a little bit of her personal analysis, Kaye was all-in and bought a Toyota Tacoma truck for $42,934, in accordance with paperwork reviewed by CNBC Make It.

Kaye picked up the truck in South Dakota and drove it again to Wisconsin to complete packing up her dwelling when it formally offered in March 2023.

Now that her new dwelling was the truck, Kaye set off on her first journey: A drive all the way down to Baja California, Mexico. She stayed there for 3 months and deliberate out the renovations she would wish to make the truck extra livable.

“My life is form of like ‘the plan is there isn’t any plan.’ Most individuals plan any such journey for years. I did not actually have a truck once I accepted the provide on my home,” she says. “It was very spur of the second, so I wanted to take a pause and determine issues out.”

Whereas residing in Mexico, Kaye discovered an American firm that made the truck mattress replacements that would offer exterior storage and make it simpler for her to reside and journey within the Toyota Tacoma. However, the set up could not occur till September.

Within the meantime, Kaye realized as a lot as she may in regards to the truck and the form of camper she would wish. She estimates that she has spent over $50,000 on the renovations.

Prices included buying a camper, including solar energy, changing the truck mattress, upgrading the suspension, new tires, customizing a bumper, and putting in an electrical cooler.

When the truck was prepared, Kaye determined to journey the Pan-American Freeway, beginning in Denver. The freeway stretches from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina.

“It is actually an unimaginable technique to journey since you get to set your personal tempo and for those who discover someplace that is lovely and peaceable you possibly can keep so long as you need,” Kaye says.

“However there’s execs and cons to each mode of journey and a whole lot of purple tape and logistics crossing borders. It may be exhausting, particularly while you’re alone. It’s a must to discover a steadiness that works for you, however general, it is positively one of many coolest adventures of my lifetime.”

Since residing and touring within the truck full-time, Kaye has visited Mexico, each nation in Central America, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and components of Argentina. In complete, she’s been to over 20 nations up to now.

“I do not need to be a cliché and say it is a dream life as a result of it is a whole lot of work and there are a whole lot of issues that you must handle and keep,” she says.

“However it’s actually unimaginable to have the ability to get up and simply have a look at the map and say, ‘Ought to I’m going sleep inside this volcano or go to the jungle or go to the seaside?’ You will have a whole lot of actually lovely choices, so I am unable to actually complain.”

In any case this time on the street, Kaye says the largest lesson she’s realized is that life is just too quick.

“Ever since I began touring, [I learned] life is simply too quick. You do not have to go and give up your profession to journey the world however no matter your desires and objectives are in life simply begin now and every little thing else is simply determining a objective,” she says.

Kaye says when she was youthful, it was her dad who taught her that she was able to something.

“I grew up with my dad elevating me and telling me daily ‘You will be something you need while you develop up and you are able to do something,'” she says. “He was 57 when he handed away, so he by no means even obtained to retire. His passing taught me find out how to reside life since you by no means know the way a lot time you could have in life.”