Meet the lady Who Drove SOLO from Pennsylvania to Uruguay!
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“so as that’s how I misplaced the wheel to my automotive whereas driving it,” Cassey laughs, as if she’s relating a narrative about some trivial, on an everyday basis mishap, pretty than recounting a highway accident that would simply have killed her.
She’s giggly and lightweight-hearted on the cellphone. We is at risk of be two mates catching up on the newest gossip. besides that Cassey’s gossip is full of tales of being pepper-sprayed at riots in Honduras, or her automotive breaking on hills in rural Guatemala.
firstly of final yr, US Naval Officer Cassey Hauser (The Cassey tour) found herself out of the navy and unemployed after ten years of service. In response, she purchased a van, named it Nancy Mulligan (after the Ed Sheeran tune), and set out on a solo journey from Pennsylvania to Uraguay. It was a journey that will see her face numerous challenges, however which finally helped her develop as a particular person, buy new views, and overcome the sense of failure surrounding the dearth of her job.
I adopted the full factor on her Instagram channel, and couldn’t wait to meet up collectively with her as quickly as Cassey arrived again house inside the States. right here’s all of the gossip from our Skype name about life, journey, and precisely what it takes to drive throughout South America solo…
The swap to Van-Life
“I acquired out [of the military] in March final yr and that i made a different to do a go to like this… for my very personal sanity,” Cassey explains. “I don’t know if I can pinpoint it again to an exact second, however principally i found a 1990 Volkswagen Westphalia on Craigslist up in Sonoma.”
Cassey purchased the van simply earlier than she was transferred to Hawaii for the final six months of her service. “however that’s after i actually started to imagine ‘I’m gonna do one factor loopy, like drive to South America’…
“Deep down, I do assume it was a whim. It was so random that I had purchased the automotive not figuring out after which I found i used to be leaving the navy, so all of it acquired here collectively.”
Preparation for the Solo Van journey
Leaving the navy would possibly want been the catalyst for this journey, however her time inside the Navy gave Cassey all of the devices and abilities she wished to sort out a solo van journey inside the essential place.
“I wouldn’t be right here if I hadn’t realized all of the issues I’ve realized inside the Navy, like simple strategies to be actually impartial. however in addition, there’s this aspect of… I don’t should say day-after-day I get up like ‘I’m a badass‘ however with out that mentality, you wouldn’t be in a place to do one factor like this!”
It was actually a fellow ex-naval officer who gave Cassey the final push she wished throughout the border into Mexico. She was staying in Corpus Christi, Texas collectively with her pal’s father Manny, a retired submariner who’d spent over thirty years inside the navy.
On Manny’s suggestion, Cassey loaded up her van with the sort of equipment I’d by no means dream of taking throughout a border. “I had dive knives, I had a taser, I had flare weapons. i used to be actually ready in case somebody acquired here at me!”
however Manny’s assist in prepping the van and loading up on scary-sounding weaponry was solely a small an aspect of it.
“The day earlier than I crossed into Mexico, I had a small panic assault. after which it was Manny who mentioned ‘Cassey, I don’t know you that properly, however you’ll possibly want to get it the fuck collectively. Get out of your head.’ He mentioned: ‘you can have one other day right here and it is a should to depart’. He was so imply – however I wished that. I do larger when somebody does not have fear for me, and has no sympathy!”
A day later, she left for Mexico.
Discovering Van-Life
Solo journey and epic overland journeys by no means fail to excite me, however there’s one factor so partaking with reference to the liberty of a van-life journey like Cassey’s. dwelling out of a van, following your particular person whims throughout continents, stopping each time and wherever you’ll possibly want to… it does sound simply like the final phrase journey.
“if you go backpacking by bus, you’re on the whim of the place the hostels are and the place everyone’s travelling to, which is good if you’re solo, because you meet many people.
“however a pair of of the highlights of being in a van, and dwelling by your self, are that you merely get a methodology extra native view. There’s this app referred to as iOverlander, the place you’ll possibly uncover areas that utterly different overlanders have stayed. a full lot of instances it’s ‘this particular person owns a restaurant and should you eat dinner there you’ll possibly current you with the hazard to camp out for free’.. Very random issues like that. however you then spend time with the household that owns the restaurant and also you see their kids or play with them and also you be taught extra Spanish… you simply get like a methodology extra native really feel of journey.”
Challenges on the highway
journey, freedom, distinctive native experiences… an overland van journey has a full lot of attracts. however a go to like this will not ever be with out mishaps. And Cassey confronted her justifiable share, lots of which I adopted, fascinated, on social media from different side of the world.
“one in all many largest challenges was undoubtedly a brake problem that I had in Guatemala” Cassey begins, cheerfully.
Nancy Mulligan’s brake pads ran out, and wished changing. however nobody in Guatemala might get Cassey the Volkswagen elements she wished. fortunately, she was planning to meet a pal in Costa Rica, so the pal launched the elements collectively with her. Cassey flew to Costa Rica and again to get the elements, after which decided to fluctuate the brakes herself.
“i used to be in Antigua Guatemala, staying on the police station as a outcome of they permit overlanders dwelling in automobiles to park on the police station for 5 days. at no value! So i made a different to fluctuate the brakes on my own, and in spite of the whole lot every police officer acquired here out of the woodwork to level out me how brawny they’re and the methodology fantastic. so as that they’re all serving to me try this.
“And they had been filming a neighborhood film in Guatemala with a chase scene, they usually had been doing it there the day i used to be altering my brakes.”
So Cassey, surrounded by film crew, policemen, and dashing vehicles filming a chase scene, modified her brakes. however she didn’t realise that the jack had sunk into the softer floor on the left side of her van, so as that when she put the wheel again on it was at an angle.
“so as that’s how I misplaced the wheel to my automotive whereas driving it,” she says, pausing for properly-deserved dramatic impression. “Not even an hour on the highway, we had been going up a hill and my tire simply rolled proper off the automotive and rolled down the highway.”
Cassey was travelling on the time with a French lady she’d met climbing the Acatenango volcano, who fortunately spoke fluent Spanish.
“Thank God she was with me! We had been caught on this hill and there was no shoulder. So I immediately stopped, clearly, and that i ran down the hill, however I couldn’t discover the wheel.
“Then this man stopped on a motorcycle and was so good. And he helped, he held site visitors for us, and randomly a tow truck drove by two minutes later, so he stopped and towed me off the highway, all in decrease than 10 minutes.
“And then the police acquired here up the hill and had the tyre on the again of their truck and gave it again to me!
It had rolled down the hill onto different side and proper into a ditch they usually noticed it and picked it up for me and gave it again to me. So good!”
Not solely might the full ordeal have gone pretty a bit worse, however it certainly might have ended up costing Cassey a fortune – particularly needing the rotors resurfaced after smashing the van into the underside. however in whole, she spent $forty on being towed, getting the rotors resurfaced, and having the whole lot repaired. And the Nancy Mulligan was again on the highway to El Salvador by the tip of the day!
Tear gasoline in Honduras
maybe Cassey recollects the dramas of her brakes and misplaced wheel so cheerfully, as a outcome of they seem pretty a bit extra mild-hearted in contrast with a pair of of the challenges she confronted afterward her journey. Like when she drove into an illustration on the border in Honduras and was hit with tear gasoline.
“We actually drove up the second the whole lot went down” she says, explaining how her small convoy of overlanders found themselves surrounded by chaos. “The teams all started working and screaming and the cloud of smoke started going up and that i used to be like, ‘oh shit, it’s tear gasoline’.
“My eyes had been burning however i used to be far enough again and my house windows had been up. And there have been people working up and banging on my house windows screaming in Spanish, ‘the gasoline, the gasoline’. They couldn’t even open their eyes. and that i had my flare gun, actually loaded sitting on my proper side simply in case I wished to shoot somebody inside the face. i would have.”
extra Brake Challenges
There’s one other story I even should ask Cassey earlier than we cease talking about disasters. I adopted her journey on social media and had seen her submit about this second. however now I even should hearken to the particulars.
WThis was basically the most traumatising second of my journey. And it is my fault,” she begins.
“i used to be driving from Bogota to Cali [in Colombia]. and that i started winding up and down all these mountains – i did not realise how mountainous this space was. as properly as, all of these vehicles had been travelling as a outcome of it was virtually Christmas.”
Tackling the hills slowly, in first gear, caught behind vehicles that couldn’t go faster than 10mph, Cassey bumped into factors.
“So my automotive was stalling out, and that i started using the brakes methodology extra… and I crested one in all many hills and that i misplaced the brakes.
“The brakes hit the floor as I acquired here up over it, and I principally simply went into navy mode: I drove up on an embankment, I acquired here again down onto the highway, and that i used to be in a place to get it into first gear and cease earlier than it went down the following slope.”
Her encounter in Guatemala had made her extra trusting, so when two guys on motorbikes stopped and provided their assist, she took it.
“This makes my blood boil, however i really feel i used to be very susceptible, proper then, as a human, as a lady. And at this level it was 4pm, so it was going to get darkish and the fog was coming in. So I accepted their assist and that i requested how a lot it was gonna value they usually stored not telling me.
“however then they instructed me I wished to pay them $1,000…
“finally, I paid $250 as a outcome of I referred to as Manny, the man in Corpus Christi. They had been making an try to current me this sturdy time, however then as quickly as he acquired on the cellphone and spoke Spanish to him, they had been like, ‘okay, positive’.”
you’ll possibly current you with the hazard to nonetheless hear the anger in Cassey’s voice as she recollects screaming on the two males, desirous to damage them. Scared, susceptible, and livid that these two strangers had been making an try to use that vulnerability, she threw a full lot of pretty spectacular curses and threats their methodology.
“It was exhausting as a outcome of I additionally trusted them barely bit extra to start out with as a outcome of in Guatemala, which have was so vastly utterly different and everyone was so useful. however on this situation, now it’s 10pm and darkish they usually’re making an try to get $1,000 so, yeah… principally choke in your blood and die, I hate you!”
Don’t Give Into fear
These three dramatic tales seem terrifying, and that i maintain in thoughts being terrified for Cassey after I noticed her submit about them by means of the journey. however i do know precisely what she means when she jogs my reminiscence that these are solely three moments all by means of a six-month journey that was in any other case a full success.
when it includes journey, it’s simple to give consideration to the potential disasters. Cassey recollects how household and mates principally instructed her “you is at risk of be gonna die” when she introduced her journey. these fears and negativity fed into that preliminary panic assault in Corpus Christi, the day earlier than she crossed into Mexico.
“however I’m glad that up to now as suggestion goes, I listened to my very personal. as a outcome of I might have been stopped and that i undoubtedly did panic and assume, ‘what am I doing? How dare I? What am I pondering?’ however then I went anyway, I simply put all of the fears aside, and mentioned ‘no, that is for me, and that is what I even should do. and that i’m gonna go do it’.”
and naturally, she’s now so glad she did. I’ve by no means confronted down an journey pretty as epic as Cassey’s, however I maintain in thoughts the sensation of terror the night earlier than I stepped on board the airplane for my first solo backpacking journey. I might simply have given in to these fears and stopped myself from taking what turned out to be amongst the numerous most interesting – and most spiritually vital – journeys of my life.
private progress
“This journey undoubtedly was about my very personal private progress and overcoming what I believed to be failures, even when it wasn’t an all-out failure,” Cassey explains. “There was one factor that I wished to do inside my soul, to restore it after being kicked out of the Navy, you already know?
“I’m actually completely happy the place my life has taken me, however there was some bitterness, there was some upset… so i used to be doing this very private journey internally.
“i used to be pondering as I drove down throughout the border to Uruguay, and that i used to be not desirous to give up and wished to protect going as a outcome of my purpose had been to go all of the most acceptable different to Ushuaia. however inside the timeframe that I had, it was not going to be possible.
“however after I crossed into Uruguay, i believed, ‘wow, I’m a motherfucking badass and no-one can cease me’! I had been put by means of so many psychological challenges and, you already know, it is a should to be in a very good place with your self to do one factor that is at risk of be so isolating.”
simple strategies to be a Motherfucking Badass!
Cassey is a motherfucking badass in my e book. dealing with down threats with a cool head, driving and dwelling alone in a van relying utterly and utterly on herself, repairing her personal van pretty a pair of instances, and merely having the coronary heart to do one factor so many people dream of however by no means actually do.
Solo journey is an monumental extreme, and one factor i really feel everyone ought to try of their life. however an journey like this takes a particular sort of particular person, and by no means everyone has it in them.
“i really feel everyone and anyone can do it. however I do assume that it is a should to have the becoming mentality. it is a should to be dedicated… i used to be solo, i used to be alone. so as that means that as a substitute of being a pair working collectively, or being with journey mates, each factor solely rests in your accountability to deal with.
“if you can have mechanical factors, you’ll possibly current you with the hazard to take it to a retailer, in spite of the whole lot. however it certainly’s a should to work on the logistics of the elements. it is a should to get your particular person water and guarantee it’s filtered. You’re doing all of your particular person cooking. So the whole lot that you merely do day-after-day makes you very self-reliant, however it certainly’s your accountability.
“however i really feel when do, you get a mannequin new perspective on life – usually journey not simply in van-life. and that i really feel there’s a full lot of alternatives these days to get these new views with out dropping your job! So I simply assume any alternative you can have, you should take it… critically.”
For Cassey, the journey continues. She was again in Pennsylvania after I spoke to her, planning her subsequent journey with the Nancy Mulligan. Our cellphone name gave my limitless wanderlust a mannequin new lease of life. although I doubt I’ll ever be as a lot of a motherfucking badass as Cassey, talking to her rekindled my love of solo journey, and impressed me to start out planning the following journey as quickly as I can.
observe Cassey on her weblog at the Cassey tour or on Instagram.
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