Van Base With Fan Base All Adam Harteau and his wife, Emily, wanted to do was take an epic 23,000-mile, 20-country road trip to the southernmost tip of South America and back. Everything that followed - the blog, the corporate sponsorships, the cookbook they're writing, the export business - has been a savvy improvisation. The Harteaus, who live in Los Angeles, are travelers in the sleep-in-your-VW-van hippie tradition. Before their trip, Mr. Harteau, 35, had pursued various entrepreneurial ventures while trying to become a full-time fine artist. Mrs. Harteau, 32, worked in the fashion industry and competed on "Project Runway." Unfulfilled by their jobs and dejected after an opportunity to work on a movie in Nepal fell through, the couple decided to turn their 1990 Volkswagen Vanagon Westfalia camper, which has a propane stove, an electric refrigerator and a foldout bed, into a rolling micro apartment. "We loved the idea of bringing our home with us," Mr. Harteau said. We could live in our van and drive to South America, and it would be awesome. If this was the 1960s and the Harteaus were traveling in a VW van, they might have raised gas money by selling handicrafts or hash oil. In the Internet era, they turned to social media, initiating a Kickstarter campaign. Our Open Road, as the couple called the project, would include a blog with travel photos and videos. And because they were bringing their infant daughter, Colette, it would serve as "a modern family portrait." Kickstarter forbids "fund my life" projects like family vacations. But the couple framed the journey as creative inspiration for Mr. Harteau's art and promised an exhibition of his photography, collages and other artwork upon their return, thereby skirting the rule. Funders embraced their proposal to the tune of more than $16,000, and a year ago the Harteaus set off in their Westfalia. In Mexico, they camped on the beach and surfed the big Pacific swells. In Colombia, they spent a week in a fishing village where the wood-frame houses and boats were painted in vibrant primary colors. In the Sacred Valley of the Incas, in Peru, Mrs. Harteau felt moved to climb onto the VW's roof, strip off her clothes and pose naked. And after a serendipitous encounter with a religious pilgrim, the Harteaus found themselves attending the raucous Catholic festival known as Qoyllur Rit'I, held on a Peruvian glacier. "That's the thrill and beauty and dance of having time on the road," Mrs. Harteau said, sounding like a Kerouac character. Along the way, the couple have relayed their adventures using their blog and Instagram feed. And it turns out that watching someone else take the trip of a lifetime has a certain appeal for the home- or deskbound. Mr. Harteau's color-saturated photos showcase lush Andean hillsides, his daughter embraced by villagers, the organic meals his wife whips up with fresh local ingredients and the Westfalia lit by the glow of a beachside campfire. Snowcapped mountains and rainbows seem to follow the family wherever they go. To accompany the images, Mrs. Harteau writes journal-like entries in a tone that is equal parts National Geographic ("The Otavaleño women are easily recognizable by their gold necklaces"), Carlos Castaneda-esque musings on the transcendence of travel ("We walk, we breath, we listen to the magical pitch of our toddlers laugh") and advertorial ("Adam made this board with the help from our friends at Foam-EZ"). Joni Sternbach, a photographer and professor at the International Center of Photography, is one of the 59,000 traveling vicariously through the Harteaus" Instagram feed. For her, they embody a free-spirited vision of family life. "I raise two kids in New York City, and my travel was fairly limited," she said. They travel around, are able to be creative, have a kid and do all of these things at the same time. I think it's pretty miraculous. Bailey Richardson, community manager for Instagram, spotlights users she finds interesting; she discovered Our Open Road through a group of van travelers. "I thought it was a cool story of these people from L.A., these surfers, who are deciding to raise their kid on the road," Ms. Richardson said. That they are a family makes it especially compelling. The Harteaus initially planned to be gone for a year. But somewhere around Month 4, the couple decided to "slow our roll," as they told their blog readers. They returned to California to take a break last summer and then, earlier this month, flew back to Lima, Peru, where they had stowed their Westfalia, to begin Year 2. Mr. Harteau said: "When we left it was like, we're doing this yearlong trip and I'll make a show. Now it's more like this is our life. He laughed at the notion of living an endless road trip, and added: "Our friends are like, "How did you pull this off?" The Harteaus may, in fact, be the ideal couple to embark on an endless road trip and broadcast it to an audience back home.