BL told the cops they didn't have money for a hotel and he said, paraphrasing, "no we don't have much money". He told the cops that. That is why he got a free hotel room.
If they didn't even sleep in the van when it was raining (per Gabby's video of her holding the tent walls up during a storm) then there isn't much reason to think they ever slept in the van, especially since it didn't have what looked like a full size bed. Maybe the cushion folded out but we don't know that and I never saw it that way.
My understanding of "van life" is that it's a lifestyle and goes on longer than 3-4 months. They were planning on ending their trip, according to reports here on WS, and after that we have no idea, but they were not making a life out of van living, at least not this trip. It was for Instagram and Tik Tok. It was a story they wanted to monetize. They weren't making money off that yet either because Gabby had just barely started her website. I think this trip was their trial run but it had an end date so it wasn't really even van life, it was van trip.
Lot of people speculated they argued at one time or another about money and I think they did too. It might have been the source of their biggest arguments, like it is with a lot of couples. Then BL probably killed her, stole her money and her van and the trip ended so it never was successful "van life". It was a big disaster.
MOO
FTR, the video of her in the tent when it was raining was in the afternoon. I have a tent outside that my son hangs out in the daytime. That doesn't mean he doesn't sleep inside the house. But like I said, it doesn't matter if they sleep in a tent or not, they are doing their version of vanlife.
I don't know why you have such a strong definition of what vanlife is and is not. I have seen the vanlife tag go with people who are barely one step above homeless and never go anywhere except to the next parking space, to people who take weekend and extended trips, but still have a home they live in most of the time, to people who travel extensively for a 1/2 the year and then come back to live/park in a friend/family members driveway for the other half while they work a job to rebuild their bank account, up to people who live in $100,000 vans and live year round traveling.
The intent for them was to buy a van and convert it to match the lifestyle. Which they did. They left sometime in early June and I believe went thru the Appalachians and camped and then traveled to NY for a family event on June 17th and then left NY on July 2nd. I don't know where they stayed while in NY. It keeps being said they planned to end their trip in Portland or someplace up there, but thats not an end. They don't live there. They would need to return home or travel on, and there have been plenty indications they planned to continue. SB gave that as the reason why BL returned home to empty the storage building. Other reports have said they then planned to move down the coast into California. I personally think they hoped for a longterm vanlife and this first leg was a sort of shakedown cruise to work out the kinks before making grander plans.
And I am not convinced that BL saying they don't have money for a motel meant they were broke. I think, for reasons I can't state due to WS policy, is that BL is very literal in his understanding of verbal communications. They may have plenty of money socked away and have it budgeted to last for months, and GP may often remind him that they don't have money for this or that because the budget doesn't allow for it. (we have no idea who paid for the plane flight and the motel room GP stayed in for 5 days. It could have been them or it could have been BL's parents) . So when LE asked about money for a room, he paused and though a moment, maybe going over the budget, and said no. It isn't conclusive either way, so neither one of us know how much money they had.
They were eating in restaurants, which started this chain of posts between us
, so they probably had money for it. They were traveling across country in a van and living outside of a residence full time. Thats good enough to get the vanlife tag if they want it. Their is no government or corporate agency handing out permissions to use it.
