36-year-old travels the world in a Toyota Tacoma: After 3 years on the highway, that is her No. 1 takeaway

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 On the time, she was 27 years outdated, working in company healthcare and transitioning to a consulting job, the place she labored 80 to 100 hours every week.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

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

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

“He instructed me he wished he had finished it sooner as a result of it is a lot simpler and cheaper than you assume. That modified all the pieces for me. I went dwelling and labored increasingly more till I give up the subsequent yr.”

Kaye spent the subsequent three years touring through the covid-19 pandemic. Whereas on a visit to South Africa, she acquired sudden information that her aunt was unwell 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 really like being on the islands. I really 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 thought of her subsequent transfer. She thought loads about making an attempt van life and residing and touring together with her canine.

“Touring by aircraft with a canine simply seemed like a horrible concept,” she says. “I do lots of pictures, so I knew I needed 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 car 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, based on 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 bought in March 2023.

Now that her new dwelling was the truck, Kaye set off on her first journey: A drive right 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 type of like ‘the plan is there isn’t any plan.’ Most individuals plan any such journey for years. I did not also have a truck once I accepted the supply 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 concerning the truck and the type 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 strategy to journey since you get to set your individual tempo and if you happen to discover someplace that is lovely and peaceable you may keep so long as you need,” Kaye says.

“However there’s professionals and cons to each mode of journey and lots of crimson tape and logistics crossing borders. It may be exhausting, particularly if you’re alone. It’s a must to discover a steadiness that works for you, however total, 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 international locations thus far.

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

“Nevertheless it’s actually unimaginable to have the ability to get up and simply take 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 seashore?’ You’ve got lots of actually lovely choices, so I can not actually complain.”

In any case this time on the highway, Kaye says the most important 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 goals and objectives are in life simply begin now and all the pieces 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 day-after-day ‘You will be something you need if 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 methods to reside life since you by no means understand how a lot time you have got in life.”