‘Van life’ YouTubers Chris Pochiba and Sara Aho travel America, use Chattanooga as home base

Simply call them what you will: influencers digital nomads YouTubers.

Chris Pochiba and Sara Aho — acknowledged as simply just “Chris and Sara” to their countless numbers of social media followers — are residing their ideal lives in the cozy confines of a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van.

What begun as a a person-12 months journey to see America for the Chattanooga-centered husband-and-wife crew has turned into a way of life. Considering the fact that getting and customizing their initial van in 2018, the two have frequented all 50 states and amassed extra than 110,000 social media followers, who cannot get more than enough of their “van daily life” and travel videos.

Their well-liked YouTube channel, populated with titles these kinds of as “Hiking Maui’s Finest Path” and “Just one Working day in Austin, Texas,” is booming, say the self-explained “greatest friends and enterprise companions.” A video tour of their initial Sprinter van — they now are on to van No. 2 — has amassed 5.2 million sights.

In the course of a 2020 pause in their travels due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the pair determined to obtain a household in Chattanooga (Sara’s hometown) which has become their home foundation. They are on the street for months at a time then arrive property to recharge in St. Elmo. Most recently, they purchased one particular-way plane tickets to Mexico Town just to scratch an itch for international vacation.

Chris, 34, owns a graphic arts and web style and design business, when Sara, 30, who formerly labored for a Florida-based mostly nonprofit, is now selling and monetizing their vacation posts. They have shaped business partnerships with these kinds of organizations as Sony, Disney and B&H Photo. Place cities occasionally recruit them to pay a visit to and article movies.

Not too long ago, Chris and Sara sat down at a picnic table in Coolidge Park with Chatter Journal for a extensive-ranging interview about their lives and travels. Down below is a condensed and edited model of the discussion.

Chatter: Communicate about your couplehood. You satisfied in 2014, correct?

Sara: Yes, we have been biking from Seattle to New York for a nonprofit. There were about 18 of us, and it took us about eight months. We commenced “chatting” about week two.

Chris (laughing): She just could not resist the spandex.

Sara (smiling): We began dating, and we ended up prolonged-length for a yr. I was ending up school at the College of Georgia. We had a 12 months relationship in the same city, Raleigh, [North Carolina]. Then, we moved to Seattle and acquired married.

Chatter: So, when you began touring in your van in 2018, you have been type of in the vanguard of the “van existence” movement, correct?

Sara: We connect with ourselves “digital nomads.” I guess it is really the the phrase persons are employing now (for persons who can do the job remotely). “Van existence” is a sophisticated niche. There are persons who do it out of necessity, and persons who do it as weekend warriors. Then, there are people today like us who are operating pros on the highway. When we very first started out out, we were being one of the several (van daily life couples) on the East Coast. Now, I’d say in Chattanooga on your own there’s at minimum a dozen of us, it’s possible two dozen.

Chris: We bought our (1st) van in May possibly 2018. We began living in it full-time in October 2018. We did not know what COVID was heading to do so we acquired a house listed here in Chattanooga as perfectly (in 2020).

Sara: I grew up below. I was homeschooled. We were being here most of previous year (2020). This calendar year, I might say we are right here about half the time.

Chatter: How did your YouTube channel get begun?

Sara: It started out as 1 small YouTube video, a tour of our van and it finished up going viral.

Chris: Persons had been so fascinated. It had two iMacs (in the van), a comprehensive function setup. We would open up the sliding doorways at campgrounds and men and women would glimpse in, and be like, “What is going on in there?”

Chatter: What is your social media footprint now?

Sara: Collectively we are at about 110,000 (followers) on Instagram and YouTube. YouTube is over 90,000 now. We are about 18,000 on Instagram.

Chris: When you get to 100,000 YouTube gives you a plaque. If we had under no circumstances uploaded our (1st) video and continued the whole YouTube matter, we would not have had the experiences we experienced so considerably. We’ve gotten to satisfy incredible people.

Sara: We are far more social on the highway. When we arrive to Chattanooga, we rest. We have all these buddies in all unique parts of the region. It is so exciting. We seriously do really like it. We have visited a lot of places simply because people today have achieved out and resonated with our tale. I’m really introverted, but it truly is definitely pleasurable. Carrying out this is so different from what I believed I would be carrying out.

Chris: We’ll get messages all the time, and men and women are like, “You’ve got inspired us to get our personal van.”

Chatter: How did news coverage of the Gabby Petito/Brian Laundrie deaths affect the way people today look at the “van lifestyle” phenomenon?

Sara: It can be drawn a ton of focus to the mental health and fitness side of it. A van is just a software to get from put to place. Living in this kind of a smaller place is not automatically healthful. We try to be honest and say, “Hey, it can be not always straightforward.”

Chris: It can be romanticized on the internet. You glimpse at a picture of an individual someplace remarkable and you are like, “Wow, I want to do that, much too.” But if you truly do that, you happen to be trapped in a small house with somebody else.

Sara: When we 1st acquired in our van, yet another couple who were more mature than us, and who had accomplished the entire van factor years back, explained the most effective factor they did for their relationship was to get sound-cancelling headphones. Outside of that, we choose time to ourselves and go for runs. We slumber, take in and cook in the van, but any time probable we are outside the house the van.

Chatter: When you start a new tour, do you have an itinerary or just go with the circulation?

Sara: We have a tough outline. Sometimes we prepare by gatherings, or we know we want to do a single unique matter. Past summer months we knew we had been likely to Seattle and required to travel the sunny way home by way of California and the Southwest.

Chatter: Is there nearly anything you’ve uncovered about dwelling in a van that would be excellent for many others to know?

Chris: A single, it fees far more than what you assume. We have university learners reach out and say they are heading to reside in their van and go to higher education. We are like, “No you might be not. It really is not likely to perform.”