Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
Traveling America's backroads, history and road trip enthusiasts - Noah and Noodles - unearth fascinating locations overlooked while traveling.
Living out of a van, they research and visit each story location to share the (often shocking) secrets held within.
If you love travel, history and thoughtful storytelling - join us on the road!
Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
Van Life Diaries - The Great Gathering of Vans (Descend 10)
Dive into the vibrant world of van life with us at the Descend Gathering in Oregon!
Every year HUNDREDS of vans gather for live music, community and a general celebration of non-traditional living - Noodles and I are one of the vans this year.
We share tips and insights for anyone curious about van life and the event that celebrates it.
With countless four-legged friends adding to the charm, Descend provides a space where everyone—whether in a van, car, or tent—feels welcome.
As always we’ll take listener questions at the end, including:
- Is there anything you feel you left out in the Mount Saint Helens episode?
- What is the worst errand in Van Life?
- Halloween is coming up, will Noodles have a costume?
- How do you have enough storage space in your van?
Noah and Noodles here!
We want to extend a heartfelt thanks to every listener of Backroad Odyssey.
Your support fuels our passion and inspires us to keep sharing stories and discover overlooked locations.
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https://www.instagram.com/backroadsodyssey/
Cruisin' down the street. I wonder where this road would lead. So many possibilities. Care to share what you think. Oh, noodle Dolls, what do you see? Back Road Odyssey.
Speaker 1:Van Life Diaries the great gathering of vans, descend 10. Welcome to Van Life Diaries, welcome to the van. It's just me and my dog, noodles, talking to you today. No edits, no scripts.
Speaker 1:Every year, hundreds of vans gather for live music, community and a general celebration of van life, and this event is called Descend Noodles. And I went to this event, and so today we thought it'd be fun to explore this event's history, offer advice if you're interested, and share generally our experience as one of the over 700 vans at this event. As always, at the end we'll take listener questions, but until then, I am drinking the champagne of beer Miller High Life to celebrate this great gathering of vans. Feel free to join me, alcoholic or not, let's hang out, let's talk Descend. All right, let's start at the beginning. So Descend as an event starts with 15 Volkswagens that gather in a sunken volcanic crater in October of 2014. These vans meet to camp, to socialize, to share, to drink. This year 2024, when around 750 vehicles, all of different shapes and various sizes, gather for live music events, potlucks and general van life frivolity. The primary goal was then and is now, I think, to encourage people to get out and to camp and to create positive connections with those that like doing that as well, and that, to me, is maybe the best thing about this event. We'll get into what actually happens our experience this year and whatnot. But you don't have to have a crazy rig or even a van to attend. You don't even have to have camped before right. Bring a car owned, rented, whatever set up a tent, enjoy meeting genuine people, learn about van life a little bit and have a good time. Go camping. That's what's great about this event.
Speaker 1:Noodles and I arrive at our first descend this Labor Day weekend 2024. The venue had since been moved from the outdoorsy town of Bend, oregon, to Yamhill River, oregon, a short drive west of Bend. We check in, drive down a long dirt road and we see cars and rigs bustling with activity on either side of us. At this point we start to search for a spot of our own, but there are clusters of cars tucked under trees, in crevices and corners, generally parked wherever a parkable spot exists. So it takes a little bit for us, but I'll say this, like most night parking situations outside of this event, finding locations to park can be ambiguous, and when I was going through all these cars, I start to smile because glancing at all of these oddly parked vehicles made me feel, for the first time since I started van life two years ago, that I wasn't the only one that dealt with trying to find, we'll say, precarious parking spots. So everyone within sight was in the same situation. But after some time we do find a spot between two large bushes, right next to the main stage, and that's where the following day's bands, djs, morning yoga instructors, comedians and more will generally be gathering. We get the campsite ready. That takes about 40 minutes and we start the weekend.
Speaker 1:I was anxious about one thing coming in, and that was bringing Noodles, my dog, into this long-term, probably crowded situation. But as I'm looking around, my anxiety dissipates entirely. There may or may not have been more dogs than people. Anywhere we look, couples, families, solo travelers walk their dogs on leashes Not just to other vans but to the main stage to listen to music, to the nearby river, throughout the various shops set up in vans across the truly kind of vast collective campsite, and that reminds me of a quick story. So dogs are required to be on leashes at this event. Rightfully, so right. It'd be absolute chaos if hundreds of dogs just sprinted around the campsite.
Speaker 1:So one of the first bands was playing on the main stage, which is by our campsite. It's a small walk, so halfway through I needed something back at the van. I think I was looking for a chair, it doesn't matter. But I walk back, I open the van door and Noodles bolts out of the van immediately and right away. Right, not good, she's not on leash, but she has two choices. She can run to the river, which is less populated She'd be easier to catch or run. She can run directly to the still ongoing concert. That's full of people, and I think it's clear what choice she made at this point.
Speaker 1:I spent the next 15 minutes running around the crowd trying to catch noodles as the band played, but when she was caught, eventually, via treats that I had acquired, we got a very loud applause from the audience, which felt nice. We felt bad, but that made us feel a little better. We felt bad, but that made us feel a little better. But after this, the next couple days went by really, really smoothly and really really well. We had a great time. I'd get up to walk in the morning to go to yoga. I'd meet new people throughout the day go see their vans, their rigs, go see bands, share food, share drinks, meet new puppers. Noodles made so many friends and it was fantastic and the whole thing ended with an 80s themed dance party, which was just so fun. Like I said, I had a great time. Noodles loved to sit outside the van and greet passing people, greet passing dogs. So she had a good time.
Speaker 1:But I will say this again and again and again the one reason anyone you, your friends should consider going to Descend next year or just in general, van or not, is simply the people that you meet there. No one is there with an ego or an agenda there with an ego or an agenda. It's just simply people who enjoy camping, who enjoy good food, drinks, music and good company. As somebody who lives in a van, it was nice to bond over similar struggles, share stories on the road. But if you're considering van life, or even if you're just interested in talking to people who camp a lot, who have vans, they're crazy welcoming, it's great, it's a great place to start. Either way, before we get into this week's listener questions.
Speaker 1:I'll share some common questions asked on the Descend site so you don't have to look it up. Is Descend open to all vehicles? Yeah, pretty much. Whatever you can conceivably camp in is allowed, which includes, I'll say, rental cars if you're looking into flying in for the weekend. What should I bring? Stay hydrated, that's the biggest thing. Most things aren't provided right, except a large line of porta potties, which was fantastic. I'd also bring layers, good food, sunscreen, a swimsuit if you want to go to the river. But yeah, yeah, just remember, whatever you bring, it's camping. So things like trash, you have to collect it yourself. So plan for that, have fun. Feel free to reach out to me backroadodysseypod at gmailcom with more Descend questions or general questions. I'll post a link to the Descend website in the show notes if you're curious. And with that said, let's answer some listener questions.
Speaker 1:Is there anything you left out of the Mount St Helens episode? Yeah, yeah, it'd be impossible not to. It's such a big topic. But you know, strangely enough, for one single episode, this took the longest for me to research and to write, mainly because I wanted to make sure that I told the story right. I wanted to make sure that I did justice to Johnston, especially the volcanologist who saved a lot of people's lives. So, in terms of what I felt needed to be explored, what I got from going to Mount St Helens I think I told everything that I wanted to.
Speaker 1:But there's plenty, plenty of other stories surrounding Helens that I had to cut out or didn't feel contributed to the story Stories of a photographer who died in the explosion, photos that he captured, how his camera was found, but that's a really harrowing story. There's stories of campers fleeing these descending lahars coming down from the mountain. Maybe my favorite story was Jimmy Carter was the president at the time and as he was going towards the blast zone after the eruption happened, there's a report of him looking out his plane window seeing just chopped down trees, devastation everywhere, and he said to have said my God, look at that devastation. And whoever was with him at the time leaned over and said we're not to the mountain yet, that's just a logging operation. So yeah, makes you think what's the most frustrating errand you have to run in van life Frustrating errand?
Speaker 1:Generally, going to the bathroom, taking showers is a more complicated process when you're in a van, but if I had to single out something that's not so often, something you don't have to do all the time. I'd say laundry. Not that I don't do my laundry, obviously I do my laundry. That's why it's frustrating, because you have to do it all the time. But yeah, stuff like finding a laundromat, waiting there for hours, that can be frustrating. It's a good time to get work done, but, yeah, definitely frustrating errand. Where are you headed to? Next Great question I'm going to loop through the Arkansas, alabama, georgia area. I've not explored any of those areas as much as I would have liked to, so I'm very, very, very excited for that.
Speaker 1:How do you have enough storage space in your van? That's a great question. Over time, honestly, you just learn what you need and what you don't need. So at first it was very hard. I wanted to bring all these things and you know what? 40% of what I brought I didn't use. I didn't touch once. So yeah, it's just experience. You learn what you need and you you minimalize everything and then storage becomes, you know, not as necessary as you thought it might have been.
Speaker 1:Halloween is coming up. Will noodles be? Will noodles have a costume? Honestly, I've been thinking long and hard about this and hopefully I would love for her to be like a ramen soup, like a noodles can or something, but I haven't gotten deep enough into the planning of it. But that's on the top of my mind, I assure you, and one of my first priorities it's Noah here. Thank you for listening to this week's van life diaries. Thank you for listening to Backroad Odyssey in general, really, talking to you personally, I appreciate your time. Like I said, if you have any more questions about Descend, um, if you're curious at all to learn more about it or go to it, backroadodysseypod at gmailcom. Happy to have a conversation. And, speaking of Halloween, I feel like next week might, may or may not, I don't know have a spooky theme to it. Until then, be good to each other. Where to next? Backroad Odyssey.
