We're Buying a Van

It's hard to know where to start a story like this, so maybe we just start today, right now, at 8 p.m. on February 15, 2021. Jenna and I just got back from looking at a camper van affectionately named Pegasus.

Pegasus is a 1999 Econoline 350 with 131,410 miles and two previous owners who maintained her (I'm told that Pegasus is a gal, though I have some moral concerns about gendering possessions as feminine, but that's another issue for another day) in A+ condition. We, Jenna and I, are going to spend this summer driving Peg around and exploring the USofA. 

To backtrack a little, we've had wanderlust for a decade or so. We taught ESL in Italy and traveled all around the continent. When we moved back to the States we started going on multiple big trips per year - sometimes to other countries, sometimes not. COVID really put a damper on our big-trip plans, obviously, so we started dreaming. A lot. 

Starting when the calendar flipped to 2021 we really started to get it in our head that we might spend a summer on the road. But how? I wanted to get to places like Yellowstone or Glacier National Park, but the combination of social distancing, early-booked hotels, and schedule uncertainty weighed on us. If we got a drivable RV we'd be limited to places without vehicle-length restrictions. If we got a towable RV/camper we'd be limited to places with sturdy roads. If we tried to live out of our Ford Escape we'd just be...limited. There is no perfect solution.

We put in our notices at work. We sold our house. We scoured the internet for the best options among drivable, towable, or even just a combination of using the Escape + tent + AirBnBs - this last one was the most promising. But then we called Devo, a friend who has been in a van for 7 months, and she helped us realize a few things. 

• The people she has traveled with that had trailers have been unable to go the same places as her 
• Trailers mean you can't easily stop at every scenic overlook
• Trailers fall apart really often (we knew this one)
• Anything that you regularly hook up to water/electric needs to be in a real campground with water/electric 
• Trailers and RVs are conspicuous if you decide to sleep in a parking lot en route to some other places
• RVs - even the small ones - are enormous
• This experience isn't about the comforts of an RV/trailer, it's about being outside as much as possible and enjoying the world around us

Reinvigorated, we dove into the van search. Dev had bought an empty van and put a bed and whatnot in it. We're not handy, and though these steps are probably not that difficult, we lack some confidence. Empty vans need to be insulated, or need to be deep-cleaned and then tiled, or need to be sided, or need to be re-built. Pre-converted vans are expensive. This was our dilemma.

RVtrader, Craigslist, AutoTrader - we had multiple tabs open and refreshing every couple of hours to see what might come up. We planned to go look at a van from a dealership on Saturday, but after seeing it Friday night, it was gone by 9 a.m. It was frustrating. The ones we liked the most were in Texas, Florida, or were $53,000. 

But then Pegasus came along.

There is currently a stark disagreement about who found this van first and showed the other, but here's the nitty gritty. 

• Relatively low mileage on a very high mileage friendly engine
• Impeccably maintained
• Has a queen sized bed that converts to a couch and neither is wildly uncomfortable
• Includes a 2-burner cooktop
• Has a bigger sink than almost any RV we've ever seen (including much larger ones)
• Has a lofted space above the bed for additional gear storage
• Drives like a dream
• Has back doors and windows that open to whatever scenery we've decided to sleep near
• About a million other things

It's just...right. 

So we're about to buy it. 

We haven't committed yet, but we've said "we want it" to the current owner. And I would like to tell you about that current owner now.

Terry is wonderful. If I had to guess, she's in her 50s. She was a whitewater rafting guide for a while, having lived in Seattle, San Francisco, and Ohio. She is very...earthy, I guess? She strikes me as the type to believe in an energy rather than a deity, and I mean that in a very good way. She babied this vehicle. She cries a lot, but mostly about good things. She keeps Pegasus stored indoors over winter because Peg has never seen road salt. She is a massage therapist (or something similar) so body energy and universal energy are definitely a meaningful part of her existence. She is just wonderful. I think she's done with Peg due to some health-concerns, but I didn't feel like it was my place to confirm that.

After spending 40 minutes on the phone with Terry this afternoon, we were able to find a time to go see Pegasus together, and ohhhh my goodness is that vehicle exactly what we want. The high ground clearance means we don't have to worry about awful roads in parks and national forests. The new marine battery means we can run a water pump and fridge for a couple of days if we need it. The size means we can hide in plain sight for a night of sleep. The knobs work. The dials work. The lights work - except for 1, and there was a replacement bulb waiting to be put in.

So after a 90 minute visit with this definitely-no-longer-a-stranger, we are sold. We're buying a van. We will likely make it official tomorrow, but we are buying a van. We're ecstatic. It will cost us probably $5,000 more than an empty van that we self-convert, but that self-convert will have been stressful and only included a portion of what we will have in Pegasus. 

We're buying a van.