Confidences of travelers | A cocoon on four wheels, summer and winter

Traveling is like riding on a mountain road. But among the ups and downs, there will always be those indelible memories that you carry with you all your life. The Press recounts the adventures, big or small, of fearless travellers. Today: a couple of young retirees traveling by vanin every season.

Her name is Dechinta. In Dene, a northern aboriginal language, dechinta means “to be in nature”.

She is the van of Yvon Milliard and Louise Petit. Their little cocoon. Their retirement project, too, since it is aboard this vehicle fitted out – and insulated to face freezing temperatures well below zero – that they intend to criss-cross Quebec from end to end, before setting off to attack the rest from Canada and the United States to Mexico.

“Our ultimate goal is to get to Tulum,” says Yvon Milliard.

Last fall, they traveled the Gaspé Peninsula for a month. Their secret, says Louise Petit, is to drive an hour a day – an hour and a half at most. Just to take the time to see everything, to stop, to walk, to explore.

Because both of them enjoy being outdoors. To travel in fashion slow travel. “We love the outdoors a lot: walking, snowshoeing, birdwatching, etc.,” says Louise Petit.

At the end of May, they will set sail for Newfoundland, their next big destination. Then it will be the Yukon.

“I can’t wait to go to Newfoundland to see the icebergs, the whales jumping in the ocean,” rejoices Louise Petit.

Thanks to Dechinta, she tells how she was able to see unforgettable aurora borealis in Gaspésie. Or even have lunch on the banks of the river, facing the spectacle of seabirds diving into the water. His window is his “beautiful television on the river”.

A favorite

Since they love the Quebec winter “too much” to leave it, Yvon Milliard and Louise Petit found everything they were looking for in this vehicle. And the wait for it was worth it.

For nearly 16 years, the couple owned a sailboat. So cramped spaces, they know. Then they wanted to “move on”. In 2019, they are renting a van mercedes. “We loved it, but what we didn’t like was that it was too long,” notes Yvon Milliard.

During the winter of 2020, they rent a small chalet in a park from the Société des Établissements de Plein Air du Québec (SEPAQ) and love the experience of being surrounded by nature. Louise Petit launched the idea of ​​“doing all the SEPAQs” when retirement was approaching. They are starting to look for cabins for the summer, but we are already in the middle of a pandemic and everything is complete.

This is where Yvon Milliard begins to take a look at vans. The crush is immediate; they realize that is exactly what they need.

They go to Van Life Mtl, who tells them that there is a two-year wait to get a vehicle… But luck smiles on them: they find the last used vehicle in the country (a truck sold by Purolator) — without knowing that Van Life Mtl was also trying to get their hands on it. The LaSalle company leaves them the vehicle with the agreement to convert it.

In October 2021, they are finally ready to spend their first winter traveling aboard Dechinta.

“All summer, we were waiting for our transformation, but we lived our vanlife, says Louise Petit. We had just put cushions on the floor to sleep, we had our cooler, a big jug of water, our cassette toilet that we had asked Van Life Mtl, who had put windows for us. So we were able to enjoy our summer with a van empty. We loved it and we said to ourselves: oh, my God, when it’s going to be transformed, for sure we’re going to love it even more because we’re going to have all the conveniences. »

In addition, they are fully equipped to be independent, strong lessons learned on their sailboat. Batteries, chargers, solar panels… Last winter, before retiring, they left every weekend to get to grips with the vehicle in all temperatures.

“We learned what happened when it was -18°C or -30°C, only to realize that at some point, even if it’s very well insulated, you need a little heating supplement,” says Yvon Milliard.

“After our travels, one of my sisters asked me if there was something I had missed. I stopped talking, I thought; I was looking for: what could I have missed? I had everything,” says Louise Petit.