October 29, 2024 • 12 mins
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.
Follow each adventure visually at:
https://www.instagram.com/backroadsodyssey/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Cruisin' down the street.
I wonder where this road wouldlead.
So many possibilities.
Care to share what you think.
Oh, noodle Dolls, what do yousee?
Back Road Odyssey.
(00:21):
Van Life Diaries the greatgathering 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.
Every year, hundreds of vansgather for live music, community
and a general celebration ofvan life, and this event is
(00:44):
called Descend Noodles.
And I went to this event, andso today we thought it'd be fun
to explore this event's history,offer advice if you're
interested, and share generallyour experience as one of the
over 700 vans at this event.
As always, at the end we'lltake listener questions, but
(01:04):
until then, I am drinking thechampagne of beer Miller High
Life to celebrate this greatgathering of vans.
Feel free to join me, alcoholicor not, let's hang out, let's
talk Descend.
All right, let's start at thebeginning.
So Descend as an event startswith 15 Volkswagens that gather
(01:26):
in a sunken volcanic crater inOctober of 2014.
These vans meet to camp, tosocialize, to share, to drink.
This year 2024, when around 750vehicles, all of different
(01:50):
shapes and various sizes, gatherfor live music events, potlucks
and general van life frivolity.
The primary goal was then andis now, I think, to encourage
people to get out and to campand to create positive
connections with those that likedoing that as well, and that,
to me, is maybe the best thingabout this event.
(02:12):
We'll get into what actuallyhappens our experience this year
and whatnot.
But you don't have to have acrazy rig or even a van to
attend.
You don't even have to havecamped before right.
Bring a car owned, rented,whatever set up a tent, enjoy
meeting genuine people, learnabout van life a little bit and
(02:34):
have a good time.
Go camping.
That's what's great about thisevent.
Noodles and I arrive at ourfirst descend this Labor Day
weekend 2024.
The venue had since been movedfrom the outdoorsy town of Bend,
oregon, to Yamhill River,oregon, a short drive west of
Bend.
We check in, drive down a longdirt road and we see cars and
(02:58):
rigs bustling with activity oneither side of us.
At this point we start tosearch for a spot of our own,
but there are clusters of carstucked under trees, in crevices
and corners, generally parkedwherever a parkable spot exists.
So it takes a little bit for us, but I'll say this, like most
(03:21):
night parking situations outsideof this event, finding
locations to park can beambiguous, and when I was going
through all these cars, I startto smile because glancing at all
of these oddly parked vehiclesmade me feel, for the first time
since I started van life twoyears ago, that I wasn't the
only one that dealt with tryingto find, we'll say, precarious
(03:43):
parking spots.
So everyone within sight was inthe same situation.
But after some time we do finda spot between two large bushes,
right next to the main stage,and that's where the following
day's bands, djs, morning yogainstructors, comedians and more
will generally be gathering.
(04:04):
We get the campsite ready.
That takes about 40 minutes andwe start the weekend.
I was anxious about one thingcoming in, and that was bringing
Noodles, my dog, into thislong-term, probably crowded
situation.
But as I'm looking around, myanxiety dissipates entirely.
There may or may not have beenmore dogs than people.
(04:28):
Anywhere we look, couples,families, solo travelers walk
their dogs on leashes Not justto other vans but to the main
stage to listen to music, to thenearby river, throughout the
various shops set up in vansacross the truly kind of vast
collective campsite, and thatreminds me of a quick story.
So dogs are required to be onleashes at this event.
(04:54):
Rightfully, so right.
It'd be absolute chaos ifhundreds of dogs just sprinted
around the campsite.
So one of the first bands wasplaying on the main stage, which
is by our campsite.
It's a small walk, so halfwaythrough I needed something back
at the van.
I think I was looking for achair, it doesn't matter.
But I walk back, I open the vandoor and Noodles bolts out of
(05:19):
the van immediately and rightaway.
Right, not good, she's not onleash, but she has two choices.
She can run to the river, whichis less populated She'd be
easier to catch or run.
She can run directly to thestill ongoing concert.
That's full of people, and Ithink it's clear what choice she
made at this point.
I spent the next 15 minutesrunning around the crowd trying
(05:39):
to catch noodles as the bandplayed, but when she was caught,
eventually, via treats that Ihad acquired, we got a very loud
applause from the audience,which felt nice.
We felt bad, but that made usfeel a little better.
We felt bad, but that made usfeel a little better.
But after this, the next coupledays went by really, really
smoothly and really really well.
(06:01):
We had a great time.
I'd get up to walk in themorning to go to yoga.
I'd meet new people throughoutthe day go see their vans, their
rigs, go see bands, share food,share drinks, meet new puppers.
Noodles made so many friendsand it was fantastic and the
whole thing ended with an 80sthemed dance party, which was
(06:23):
just so fun.
Like I said, I had a great time.
Noodles loved to sit outsidethe van and greet passing people
, greet passing dogs.
So she had a good time.
But I will say this again andagain and again the one reason
anyone you, your friends shouldconsider going to Descend next
(06:44):
year or just in general, van ornot, is simply the people that
you meet there.
No one is there with an ego oran agenda there with an ego or
an agenda.
It's just simply people whoenjoy camping, who enjoy good
food, drinks, music and goodcompany.
(07:04):
As somebody who lives in a van,it was nice to bond over
similar struggles, share storieson the road.
But if you're considering vanlife, or even if you're just
interested in talking to peoplewho camp a lot, who have vans,
they're crazy welcoming, it'sgreat, it's a great place to
start.
Either way, before we get intothis week's listener questions.
I'll share some common questionsasked on the Descend site so
(07:27):
you don't have to look it up.
Is Descend open to all vehicles?
Yeah, pretty much.
Whatever you can conceivablycamp in is allowed, which
includes, I'll say, rental carsif you're looking into flying in
for the weekend.
What should I bring?
Stay hydrated, that's thebiggest thing.
(07:51):
Most things aren't providedright, except a large line of
porta potties, which wasfantastic.
I'd also bring layers, goodfood, 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 haveto collect it yourself.
So plan for that, have fun.
Feel free to reach out to mebackroadodysseypod at gmailcom
(08:17):
with more Descend questions orgeneral questions.
I'll post a link to the Descendwebsite in the show notes if
you're curious.
And with that said, let'sanswer some listener questions.
Is there anything you left outof the Mount St Helens episode?
Yeah, yeah, it'd be impossiblenot to.
(08:37):
It's such a big topic.
But you know, strangely enough,for one single episode, this
took the longest for me toresearch and to write, mainly
because I wanted to make surethat I told the story right.
I wanted to make sure that Idid justice to Johnston,
especially the volcanologist whosaved a lot of people's lives.
(08:58):
So, in terms of what I feltneeded to be explored, what I
got from going to Mount StHelens I think I told everything
that I wanted to.
But there's plenty, plenty ofother stories surrounding Helens
that I had to cut out or didn'tfeel contributed to the story
Stories of a photographer whodied in the explosion, photos
(09:21):
that he captured, how his camerawas found, but that's a really
harrowing story.
There's stories of campersfleeing these descending lahars
coming down from the mountain.
Maybe my favorite story wasJimmy Carter was the president
at the time and as he was goingtowards the blast zone after the
eruption happened, there's areport of him looking out his
(09:44):
plane window seeing just choppeddown trees, devastation
everywhere, and he said to havesaid my God, look at that
devastation.
And whoever was with him at thetime leaned over and said we're
not to the mountain yet, that'sjust a logging operation.
So yeah, makes you think what'sthe most frustrating errand you
(10:04):
have to run in van lifeFrustrating errand?
Generally, going to the bathroom, taking showers is a more
complicated process when you'rein a van, but if I had to single
out something that's not sooften, something you don't have
(10:25):
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 alaundromat, waiting there for
hours, that can be frustrating.
It's a good time to get workdone, but, yeah, definitely
(10:47):
frustrating errand.
Where are you headed to?
Next Great question I'm goingto loop through the Arkansas,
alabama, georgia area.
I've not explored any of thoseareas as much as I would have
liked to, so I'm very, very,very excited for that.
How do you have enough storagespace in your van?
That's a great question.
(11:07):
Over time, honestly, you justlearn what you need and what you
don't need.
So at first it was very hard.
I wanted to bring all thesethings and you know what?
40% of what I brought I didn'tuse.
I didn't touch once.
So yeah, it's just experience.
You learn what you need and youyou minimalize everything and
(11:34):
then storage becomes, you know,not as necessary as you thought
it might have been.
Halloween is coming up.
Will noodles be?
Will noodles have a costume?
Honestly, I've been thinkinglong and hard about this and
hopefully I would love for herto be like a ramen soup, like a
noodles can or something, but Ihaven't gotten deep enough into
the planning of it.
But that's on the top of mymind, I assure you, and one of
(11:57):
my first priorities it's Noahhere.
Thank you for listening to thisweek's van life diaries.
Thank you for listening toBackroad Odyssey in general,
really, talking to youpersonally, I appreciate your
time.
Like I said, if you have anymore questions about Descend, um
, if you're curious at all tolearn more about it or go to it,
backroadodysseypod at gmailcom.
(12:19):
Happy to have a conversation.
And, speaking of Halloween, Ifeel like next week might, may
or may not, I don't know have aspooky theme to it.
Until then, be good to eachother.
Where to next?
Backroad Odyssey.
Cruisin' down the street.
I wonder where this road wouldlead.
So many possibilities.
Care to share what you think.
Oh, noodle Dolls, what do yousee?
Back Road Odyssey.
(00:21):
Van Life Diaries the greatgathering 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.
Every year, hundreds of vansgather for live music, community
and a general celebration ofvan life, and this event is
(00:44):
called Descend Noodles.
And I went to this event, andso today we thought it'd be fun
to explore this event's history,offer advice if you're
interested, and share generallyour experience as one of the
over 700 vans at this event.
As always, at the end we'lltake listener questions, but
(01:04):
until then, I am drinking thechampagne of beer Miller High
Life to celebrate this greatgathering of vans.
Feel free to join me, alcoholicor not, let's hang out, let's
talk Descend.
All right, let's start at thebeginning.
So Descend as an event startswith 15 Volkswagens that gather
(01:26):
in a sunken volcanic crater inOctober of 2014.
These vans meet to camp, tosocialize, to share, to drink.
This year 2024, when around 750vehicles, all of different
(01:50):
shapes and various sizes, gatherfor live music events, potlucks
and general van life frivolity.
The primary goal was then andis now, I think, to encourage
people to get out and to campand to create positive
connections with those that likedoing that as well, and that,
to me, is maybe the best thingabout this event.
(02:12):
We'll get into what actuallyhappens our experience this year
and whatnot.
But you don't have to have acrazy rig or even a van to
attend.
You don't even have to havecamped before right.
Bring a car owned, rented,whatever set up a tent, enjoy
meeting genuine people, learnabout van life a little bit and
(02:34):
have a good time.
Go camping.
That's what's great about thisevent.
Noodles and I arrive at ourfirst descend this Labor Day
weekend 2024.
The venue had since been movedfrom the outdoorsy town of Bend,
oregon, to Yamhill River,oregon, a short drive west of
Bend.
We check in, drive down a longdirt road and we see cars and
(02:58):
rigs bustling with activity oneither side of us.
At this point we start tosearch for a spot of our own,
but there are clusters of carstucked under trees, in crevices
and corners, generally parkedwherever a parkable spot exists.
So it takes a little bit for us, but I'll say this, like most
(03:21):
night parking situations outsideof this event, finding
locations to park can beambiguous, and when I was going
through all these cars, I startto smile because glancing at all
of these oddly parked vehiclesmade me feel, for the first time
since I started van life twoyears ago, that I wasn't the
only one that dealt with tryingto find, we'll say, precarious
(03:43):
parking spots.
So everyone within sight was inthe same situation.
But after some time we do finda spot between two large bushes,
right next to the main stage,and that's where the following
day's bands, djs, morning yogainstructors, comedians and more
will generally be gathering.
(04:04):
We get the campsite ready.
That takes about 40 minutes andwe start the weekend.
I was anxious about one thingcoming in, and that was bringing
Noodles, my dog, into thislong-term, probably crowded
situation.
But as I'm looking around, myanxiety dissipates entirely.
There may or may not have beenmore dogs than people.
(04:28):
Anywhere we look, couples,families, solo travelers walk
their dogs on leashes Not justto other vans but to the main
stage to listen to music, to thenearby river, throughout the
various shops set up in vansacross the truly kind of vast
collective campsite, and thatreminds me of a quick story.
So dogs are required to be onleashes at this event.
(04:54):
Rightfully, so right.
It'd be absolute chaos ifhundreds of dogs just sprinted
around the campsite.
So one of the first bands wasplaying on the main stage, which
is by our campsite.
It's a small walk, so halfwaythrough I needed something back
at the van.
I think I was looking for achair, it doesn't matter.
But I walk back, I open the vandoor and Noodles bolts out of
(05:19):
the van immediately and rightaway.
Right, not good, she's not onleash, but she has two choices.
She can run to the river, whichis less populated She'd be
easier to catch or run.
She can run directly to thestill ongoing concert.
That's full of people, and Ithink it's clear what choice she
made at this point.
I spent the next 15 minutesrunning around the crowd trying
(05:39):
to catch noodles as the bandplayed, but when she was caught,
eventually, via treats that Ihad acquired, we got a very loud
applause from the audience,which felt nice.
We felt bad, but that made usfeel a little better.
We felt bad, but that made usfeel a little better.
But after this, the next coupledays went by really, really
smoothly and really really well.
(06:01):
We had a great time.
I'd get up to walk in themorning to go to yoga.
I'd meet new people throughoutthe day go see their vans, their
rigs, go see bands, share food,share drinks, meet new puppers.
Noodles made so many friendsand it was fantastic and the
whole thing ended with an 80sthemed dance party, which was
(06:23):
just so fun.
Like I said, I had a great time.
Noodles loved to sit outsidethe van and greet passing people
, greet passing dogs.
So she had a good time.
But I will say this again andagain and again the one reason
anyone you, your friends shouldconsider going to Descend next
(06:44):
year or just in general, van ornot, is simply the people that
you meet there.
No one is there with an ego oran agenda there with an ego or
an agenda.
It's just simply people whoenjoy camping, who enjoy good
food, drinks, music and goodcompany.
(07:04):
As somebody who lives in a van,it was nice to bond over
similar struggles, share storieson the road.
But if you're considering vanlife, or even if you're just
interested in talking to peoplewho camp a lot, who have vans,
they're crazy welcoming, it'sgreat, it's a great place to
start.
Either way, before we get intothis week's listener questions.
I'll share some common questionsasked on the Descend site so
(07:27):
you don't have to look it up.
Is Descend open to all vehicles?
Yeah, pretty much.
Whatever you can conceivablycamp in is allowed, which
includes, I'll say, rental carsif you're looking into flying in
for the weekend.
What should I bring?
Stay hydrated, that's thebiggest thing.
(07:51):
Most things aren't providedright, except a large line of
porta potties, which wasfantastic.
I'd also bring layers, goodfood, 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 haveto collect it yourself.
So plan for that, have fun.
Feel free to reach out to mebackroadodysseypod at gmailcom
(08:17):
with more Descend questions orgeneral questions.
I'll post a link to the Descendwebsite in the show notes if
you're curious.
And with that said, let'sanswer some listener questions.
Is there anything you left outof the Mount St Helens episode?
Yeah, yeah, it'd be impossiblenot to.
(08:37):
It's such a big topic.
But you know, strangely enough,for one single episode, this
took the longest for me toresearch and to write, mainly
because I wanted to make surethat I told the story right.
I wanted to make sure that Idid justice to Johnston,
especially the volcanologist whosaved a lot of people's lives.
(08:58):
So, in terms of what I feltneeded to be explored, what I
got from going to Mount StHelens I think I told everything
that I wanted to.
But there's plenty, plenty ofother stories surrounding Helens
that I had to cut out or didn'tfeel contributed to the story
Stories of a photographer whodied in the explosion, photos
(09:21):
that he captured, how his camerawas found, but that's a really
harrowing story.
There's stories of campersfleeing these descending lahars
coming down from the mountain.
Maybe my favorite story wasJimmy Carter was the president
at the time and as he was goingtowards the blast zone after the
eruption happened, there's areport of him looking out his
(09:44):
plane window seeing just choppeddown trees, devastation
everywhere, and he said to havesaid my God, look at that
devastation.
And whoever was with him at thetime leaned over and said we're
not to the mountain yet, that'sjust a logging operation.
So yeah, makes you think what'sthe most frustrating errand you
(10:04):
have to run in van lifeFrustrating errand?
Generally, going to the bathroom, taking showers is a more
complicated process when you'rein a van, but if I had to single
out something that's not sooften, something you don't have
(10:25):
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 alaundromat, waiting there for
hours, that can be frustrating.
It's a good time to get workdone, but, yeah, definitely
(10:47):
frustrating errand.
Where are you headed to?
Next Great question I'm goingto loop through the Arkansas,
alabama, georgia area.
I've not explored any of thoseareas as much as I would have
liked to, so I'm very, very,very excited for that.
How do you have enough storagespace in your van?
That's a great question.
(11:07):
Over time, honestly, you justlearn what you need and what you
don't need.
So at first it was very hard.
I wanted to bring all thesethings and you know what?
40% of what I brought I didn'tuse.
I didn't touch once.
So yeah, it's just experience.
You learn what you need and youyou minimalize everything and
(11:34):
then storage becomes, you know,not as necessary as you thought
it might have been.
Halloween is coming up.
Will noodles be?
Will noodles have a costume?
Honestly, I've been thinkinglong and hard about this and
hopefully I would love for herto be like a ramen soup, like a
noodles can or something, but Ihaven't gotten deep enough into
the planning of it.
But that's on the top of mymind, I assure you, and one of
(11:57):
my first priorities it's Noahhere.
Thank you for listening to thisweek's van life diaries.
Thank you for listening toBackroad Odyssey in general,
really, talking to youpersonally, I appreciate your
time.
Like I said, if you have anymore questions about Descend, um
, if you're curious at all tolearn more about it or go to it,
backroadodysseypod at gmailcom.
(12:19):
Happy to have a conversation.
And, speaking of Halloween, Ifeel like next week might, may
or may not, I don't know have aspooky theme to it.
Until then, be good to eachother.
Where to next?
Backroad Odyssey.
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