Exotic vehicles, exotic owners: KC is a vanlife destination this week. Here’s why

A peaceful getaway with ready access to fishing, swimming and boating on Smithville Lake, Camp Branch tends to attract Midwestern families tugging fifth wheel campers and traveling retirees who pull up in Class A motor homes.

This week, though, the vibe at this sleepy Northland campsite has shifted.

On the grounds, you’ll find painted school buses with interiors that resemble fully furnished cabins, muscular Mercedes Sprinter vans that look like they could blow through a brick wall, and vintage 1980s camper vans outfitted with solar panels and artisanal countertops and thousand-dollar compost toilets.

The exotic vehicles have exotic owners. They are mostly young, with big, enlightened eyes; they favor athleisure garments; and they have significant audiences on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. They are #vanlife creators, documentarians of their own nomadic lifestyles, and they have come to Kansas City from all across the country for the filming of season two of “Gutted,” a reality TV show where teams compete to renovate a van, an RV and a school bus over five days.

“We’re big believers in working with creators and influencers,” said Wesley Elder, the host of “Gutted” and one of the founders of Blankspace Social, the platform on which it will air. “So in addition to casting 15 creators for the show, we also decided to have a little festival along with the filming of the show and invited about 75 creators and influencers to come out. Some of these people have more than a million followers on TikTok and YouTube.”

Elder and his crew of about 30 started filming on Tuesday and will wrap on Sunday. “Gutted” is essentially a creativity competition, akin to “Chopped.” Each team of seven is given the same materials — lumber, countertops, plumbing, electrical systems, insulation — with which to build out their assigned vehicle: an old school bus (a “skoolie,” in nomad slang), a 2006 Mercedes Sprinter Van, and a 1985 Toyota Sun Raider RV. By week’s end, these empty and mostly unremarkable shells will be kitted out with solar systems, showers, and other surprises aimed at pleasing the show’s three judges.

For the most part, these are not the hard-luck loners that populate the Oscar-winning film “Nomadland,” many of whom lost homes and jobs and roam the country out of necessity.

The contestants here are a mix of professionals who charge clients six figures for van build-outs and do-it-yourselfers who inhabit the wandering life 24/7. Among the latter camp is Jessica Rambo (@the.painted.buffalo on Instagram), a Marine Corps veteran who has been on the road for four years with her kids, three dogs, a cat and two leopard geckos. Her 40-foot-long skoolie broke down in Alaska last month, but with the help of a kindly local mechanic and a lot of engine work, she made it to Kansas City just in time for the show.

“Bus life — there’s something a little addicting about it,” Rambo said. “You learn a lot about yourself. A lot of nomads have storage units or homes to go back to. For us, everything we own is inside our 300-square-foot school bus.”

Mobile living comes more naturally to some than others. Rambo’s teammate, a woman in her early 20s named Billie Webb, is sufficiently short and petite that she sleeps full-time not in a van or a bus but a Mazda sedan. She’s about to move into a Tesla, which she’s paying for with the money she earns as a TikTok creator (650,000 followers at @billiewebbb). Modifying a Tesla for nomadic living is “not common,” Webb said. “I think I’m probably going to be the first to document that process and put it online.”

With no mountains, no oceans, iffy weather and little in the way of majestic views, Kansas City (and the Midwest generally) isn’t much of a destination for the nomadic set. The cultural conservatism associated with the region doesn’t help.

“People out west, and increasingly around New England, are way more open to alternative lifestyles like this,” said Travis Wild, who works on van conversions and is affiliated with Vanlife Diaries, an early online hub of the movement. “The Midwest — and I’m originally from Kalamazoo — is still one of the places where the people are like, ‘I don’t know about that.’ So it’s neat to have this thing in Kansas City, to show it to new people, different people.”

The reason “Gutted” is filming in the Kansas City area is pretty simple. The production company behind it is based in Grandview, as is Blankspace, which Elder described as a social platform that monetizes through brand partnerships rather than advertisements and algorithms. “Gutted” is being funded by partnerships with a handful of vanlife-adjacent brands, including Anker (which makes solar power banks), Battle Born Batteries (lithium ion batteries) and Aventon (e-bikes).

Elder said they’re aiming for the show to debut in March, and they’re already planning for Season 3.

“Our first season, we were reaching out to everybody, like, ‘Have you built a van? Great, you’re in,’” Elder said. “For this season, we had 100 submissions. So we went from begging people to having creators lining up, wanting to come. And that’s part of why we wanted to do the festival, to get these communities — van life, RV, bus, whatever rig you choose to live in — to unite and congregate together for a week.”

And though social media is the root of many of the relationships (and income) in the nomadic community, not everybody is big on TikTok and YouTube. Dave Leventhal, a contestant on the RV team, works for Stolp Solutions, a van conversion firm in San Diego.

“The only people I influence,” Leventhal said, “are my two kids.”