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BAEO Is a Beautiful, Off-Grid Mobile Home With a Second Floor and a Balcony

The reasons for opting for a nomadic lifestyle vary depending on who you ask about them. This family has chosen to live on the road to make memories, and allow their two children the chance to grow up open to adventures and a lifestyle that is the opposite of “normal.”
BAEO is a fully off-grid mobile home for a family of four and their three dogs, packed with toys 21 photos
Photo: The Briles
BAEO is a fully off-grid mobile home for a family of four and their three dogs, packed with toysBAEO is a fully off-grid mobile home for a family of four and their three dogs, packed with toysBAEO is a fully off-grid mobile home for a family of four and their three dogs, packed with toysBAEO is a fully off-grid mobile home for a family of four and their three dogs, packed with toysBAEO is a fully off-grid mobile home for a family of four and their three dogs, packed with toysBAEO is a fully off-grid mobile home for a family of four and their three dogs, packed with toysBAEO is a fully off-grid mobile home for a family of four and their three dogs, packed with toysBAEO is a fully off-grid mobile home for a family of four and their three dogs, packed with toysBAEO is a fully off-grid mobile home for a family of four and their three dogs, packed with toysBAEO is a fully off-grid mobile home for a family of four and their three dogs, packed with toysBAEO is a fully off-grid mobile home for a family of four and their three dogs, packed with toysBAEO is a fully off-grid mobile home for a family of four and their three dogs, packed with toysBAEO is a fully off-grid mobile home for a family of four and their three dogs, packed with toysBAEO is a fully off-grid mobile home for a family of four and their three dogs, packed with toysBAEO is a fully off-grid mobile home for a family of four and their three dogs, packed with toysBAEO is a fully off-grid mobile home for a family of four and their three dogs, packed with toysBAEO is a fully off-grid mobile home for a family of four and their three dogs, packed with toysBAEO is a fully off-grid mobile home for a family of four and their three dogs, packed with toysBAEO is a fully off-grid mobile home for a family of four and their three dogs, packed with toysBAEO is a fully off-grid mobile home for a family of four and their three dogs, packed with toys
Normalcy past a certain age usually means buying a house, settling down and starting a family. It’s the age-old white picket fence dream, but it’s becoming increasingly inaccessible to most people, due to a variety of reasons. This couple, Blake and Aleja, had actually attained it when they decided it was not what they wanted in life.

Blake calls their transition from that dream to a nomadic life “deathbed decisions,” because it was one prompted by thinking of the things they’d change on their deathbed, looking back on their life. When they made it, in 2021, they already owned a 4,000 square-foot (372 square-meter) house in Dallas, Texas, had their boy Everest and three large dogs, and were holding corporate jobs.

Like in many #vanlife stories these days, Blake and Aleja decided to give it all up by selling and downsize, to move into a bus permanently. This was no converted van or even a smaller bus adapted to their needs: the vehicle of choice, which they still have today but has since been adapted to welcome daughter Olaya, is a Class A motorhome. As one, it offers almost 400 square feet (37.2 square meters) of living space, two slide-outs, a vast garage, a balcony and, in its original layout, sleeping for seven people. Today, it can host up to 10 guests (and the three dogs), if they don’t mind cuddling.

BAEO is a fully off\-grid mobile home for a family of four and their three dogs, packed with toys
Photo: The Briles
The Briles, as Blake and Aleja go by on social media, call their mobile home BAEO, which includes the initials of all four family members (it was initially just BAE). They set off in September 2021 on what turned out to be more of a trial run, since they retired the motorhome in January 2022, so baby Olaya could be born. After nearly five months in storage, Blake and Aleja did some upgrades on the motorhome, and are back now to living in it full time.

BAEO is a 60-foot (18.3-meter) 2017 Thor Outlaw 37RB, which sits on a Ford F-53 bus chassis with a Ford Triton V10 engine. It offers incredible amounts of space both for living and storage, but Blake and Aleja have turned it into an off-grid motorhome, with help of solar panels on the roof, generators, six lithium-ion batteries, two 3,000W inverters, 30-gallon (113.5-liter) propane tank, and 100-gallon (378.5-liter) fresh water tank.

The interior has also been modified for family life, which at the moment includes a toddler and a six-month-old. Over the driver’s cab is a drop-down double guest bed, while the seats can swivel to be integrated into the living room. The co-pilot seat has a fold-away table that means it can be used as an office, even when traveling. There’s a dinette with an extendable table that can sleep two more people at night, and a full kitchen with all the appliances and storage and prep space you’d need for the varied needs of an entire family.

The bathroom is on both sides, with the toilet and the shower separated, but can be closed off from the rest of the space and turned into a single room. Everest, the couple’s oldest, sleeps in a loft “upstairs,” on the second floor of the motorhome, while Olaya has her own space now, in the second slide-out that used to hold the master bed.

BAEO is a fully off\-grid mobile home for a family of four and their three dogs, packed with toys
Photo: The Briles
The master bed was moved at the rear of the bus, where there was a secondary living room once. Blake added petrol heating to the space and used the fold-down couch that originally came with the motorhome to create a comfortable queen-sized bed.

The best part about this space, and BAEO, is that it opens directly to the outside, to a platform that can either be used as a balcony or lowered as a ramp. It’s also the space where they hold their adult toys, like the quad they call Pepita and two fat-tire e-bikes. On the couple’s first trip, they would also tow a Jeep with them, which they used to move around cities and crowded areas, but it seems they have ditched it since.

Blake and Aleja had help in their transition, especially from their families, who pitched in for everything from packing up to hauling stuff into permanent storage. They also had the financial means to start on this journey, because they sold the house that was in their name. But they did all the work needed on BAEO on their own and they try their best to present a realistic picture of nomadic life, even one with all the creature comforts as theirs is.

BAEO is a fully off\-grid mobile home for a family of four and their three dogs, packed with toys
Photo: The Briles
That last part is what sets them apart from other vanlifers, i.e. their willingness to admit that it is sometimes hard or seemingly impossible, that it can suck, and that it comes with many stressful moments. But they choose to focus only on the positive, and that makes it all worth it.



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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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