HALIFAX -- At a time when most of us have been staying home, one Ontario woman says she had enough of isolation, and decided to pack up her life and hit the road for the East Coast.

“I was living a nice, comfortable life in London, Ontario,” says Emily Inson. “After wasting a year, living alone in quarantine, I decided I’m going to do all the things I’ve always wanted to do.

Refusing to spend another year in isolation, Inson moved out of her comfortable Ontario home, and into a refitted 1977 Ford van to hit the road on an Atlantic adventure.

“I had never been more Eastern than Barrie, Ontario, and I just told myself ‘this is something I am going to do’,” recalls Inson.

She found her dream camper van on Facebook marketplace – only it was in Alberta.

So a few days after ringing in 2021, Inson began her East Coast adventure by flying west to Alberta, and picking up her new home-on-wheels, a fully converted 1977 Ford Econoline van.

Inson says the van has everything she needs for life on the road, including a shower and kitchen.

“Living in it is so freeing,” says Inson. “Obviously I can’t go too far right now, but if I want to go and work on a beach for the afternoon, I can just pick up and know I have everything I need with me. I’m literally just driving my house with me everywhere I go.”

She says the past few months have been a trip of a lifetime, but there’s been a few potholes along the way.

Inson arrived in Cheticamp, N.S. in April, just days before the province’s most recent lockdown.

After completing her 14-day isolation, she started exploring Cape Breton.

“I say this all the time, but it’s like a storybook,” Inson says of Cape Breton. “Every corner you turn is a storybook.”

Due to the province’s travel restrictions, Inson has had to stay in Cape Breton for more than a month, but says when the Cabot Trail is your backyard, there’s plenty to see and do.

"I could think of a million other places that would be worse to be stuck in,” says Inson. “These beautiful beaches, that I thought you had to go to some place like Thailand to see.”

Inson works as a social media manager and runs her own company. While she says she’s been loving the solitude of her adventure, one of her favourite parts is the feedback she gets from sharing her travels online.

“A lot of single women are saying, ‘hey, I want to do this now too, you’ve really inspired me’,” says Inson. “But I also have people from all walks of life that are saying the same thing.

And what’s next in her van life, once lockdown is lifted?

“I’m going to see every inch of Cape Breton, and then I’m going to go back to the mainland,” says Inson. “Stay tuned, because this journey has just begun.”

You can follow Inson’s journey on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.