Thanks Lifey for the perspective. I'm just getting into couchsurfing and will begin contacting members. I had not heard of this until last month. I put a post up there which no one has responded to; my concern is that though there seem to be lots of members, most of them have not "checked in" for a long time, like a year or more. So I wonder about the actual availability and how much I could rely on this outside of big cities.

I have seen some vans on craigslist for under $5,000. I recently was given the idea of leasing which has some distinct advantages--but given that I have seen it mentioned on this or any other post, I wonder if there is something I'm missing here. For instance, it would cost less than $1K to lease a 2016 Honda CR-V. That car is just large enough to sleep in, at least some of the time, while having better mileage than a larger car.

I found out my car is worth about $2K to a dealer, maybe more with private sell. I am open to getting a vehicle which could be my regular vehicle after the trip, but I know that wouldn't be a mini-van.

I am doing a lot of researching now, but I can't tell by your last line if you think this trip is possible. I believe it is, but I do need to figure out what I'm doing on the transportation side. Thanks again for the links, I am checking them out.