A Midlife Adventure: How Beth Found The Best Version of Herself on the Road

Life doesn’t always follow the plans we make for it. In fact, most of the time it goes in directions we never could have imagined. About five years ago, Beth Atencio found herself standing at a crossroad. A difficult divorce had turned her world upside down. Her youngest son was about to graduate high school and was ready to start his own life. The house she had once adored no longer felt like home.

Like many new chapters, this one didn't begin with a carefully crafted plan. It began with a simple desire to get outside, explore more, and perhaps live life a little differently.

Beth wanted to spend more time in nature, so she started hiking in the Sierra Nevada mountains near her home in Northern California. One trail led to another. Weekend trips turned into road trips. Eventually she bought her first camper van, planning to use it for exactly what most people do: long weekends, national parks, and the occasional vacation. Living in it full-time wasn't even on her radar.

"I was just doing the weekend warrior thing," she says. "I didn't even know many people who lived full-time in their vans."

Then she took a three-month sabbatical to explore the country and search for a new place to call home. She visited national parks, mountain towns, lakes, and forests. Beth loved so many of the places she traveled. Too many, actually.

"I realized I couldn't have a house in every state," she laughed. And that was the moment everything shifted.

Instead of asking where she wanted to live, she started asking a different question: "What if home came with me?"

Home, Just Smaller

Ask Beth why she chose a Noovo and she probably won't mention batteries, solar, or off-grid capability. She'll tell you about the rounded cabinets and the soft lights, and most of all, the spaciousness. Noovo vans immediately caught her attention—the warmth of the interiors, the European-inspired design, and the colorful finishes that felt less like an RV and more like a space she actually wanted to be in.

"I wanted it to feel really open and airy because I wanted the style and the design to feel like my home."

That feeling has never gone away. Nearly five years later, her Noovo (similar to the current Lite model), still feels exactly like the place she wants to come back to after a day of exploring. Lovingly nicknamed “Birdie,” the van has now taken her to nearly every state, building lifelong friendships along the way. (She’s still looking for a friend in Oklahoma, it’s the only state where she doesn’t know somebody!) National Parks are one of her favorite destinations as well.

Now she has found the perfect home on wheels, and continues to check off all the places she wants to visit.

Learning to Want Less

When Beth first moved into her van, she assumed she'd eventually rent another house. Or at the least, keep her other belongings in a storage unit. Instead, she sold almost everything. Today, if it isn't inside Birdie, she doesn't own it. Everything she needs is inside the van, in a specific place.

"I really simplified my life," she says. "Traveling taught me what I actually use and enjoy."

She laughs remembering the walk-in closet back in California that she once filled with shoes. Now a few pairs feels like more than enough. What surprised her most wasn't how much she gave up, it was how little she missed all of it.

Beth was featured on a Tiny Home Tours with her Noovo, inspiring almost 2 million viewers to live with less. Beth also shares her own adventures on her YouTube channel and works as a Noovo ambassador. She is an amazing example of how to unapologetically say yes to adventure.

The Best Parts Aren't the Places

Of course, after years on the road, Beth has amazing stories. She spends most nights boondocking beside lakes or tucked into forests. She'll happily choose dispersed camping over crowded campgrounds.

But when asked about her favorite memory, she doesn’t talk about epic destinations or elaborately planned trips. She talks about her son.

After he graduated high school, the two of them spent two weeks exploring national parks together. They built campfires, learned photography together, and created memories neither of them expected. Now, years later, he's planning another trip with her, this time in his own Noovo!

Even Beth's parents caught the bug. After borrowing Birdie for a month-long road trip to the Grand Canyon, they bought an RV of their own, and now they caravan together a few times a year.

"It's actually made our relationship stronger," she says.

Sometimes the greatest gift of traveling isn't the places you discover, it's the people you discover them with.

Birdie Is Full of Little Stories

Every full-time traveler has a few things they couldn't imagine living without. For Beth, it's an inflatable paddleboard, a tiny espresso machine, and her daughter’s cat named Apollo, who inadvertently became her travel companion after her daughter moved to Hawaii.

She also keeps a growing collection of tiny treasures gathered from campsites across the country. Painted rocks. Little cat figurines. Handwritten notes from friends. One of her most treasured possessions takes up very little space. It's a quote tucked into the visor above the driver's seat by Robert Louis Stevenson:

To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive.

"It reminds me that life doesn't have to look like everyone else's," she smiles.

And her latest favorite addition: an inflatable couch with a built-in pump. It self-inflates with the push of a button. "I love the couch because I can lay out and read a book, just sit out there, watch the lake, have my coffee," she says. "I actually really love that."

She even sets it up for outdoor movie nights with her boyfriend, making a dreamy little theater in the woods.

More Than a Camper Van

These days, Beth spends much of her time encouraging other women to get outside, travel solo if they want to, and stop waiting for the perfect moment. She doesn't tell everyone to sell their house or move into a van. She simply encourages people to begin.

"I tell a lot of women: don't be afraid to do something, and don't be afraid to do it alone."

Maybe that means a weekend road trip. Maybe it means finally visiting the national park that's been on your list for years. Maybe it means buying the camper van you've been dreaming about.

Or maybe it's simply asking yourself the same question Beth did five years ago: What would life look like if I chose the path that felt right for me instead of the one I thought I was supposed to follow?

Because for Beth, that one question didn't just lead to a camper van, it led to a life she never imagined she could have.