Tuesday, April 11, 2017

New Adventuremobile

If you've been around my little corner of the InterWebs for any decent amount of time then you probably know that the hubby and I love our adventures. We love being active, exploring in the great outdoors.

For Thanksgiving 2016 we went to Yosemite. If you didn't see the post with
#AllThePictures, you should check it out HERE.

The original game plan was to do "Van Life" (where we would rent out the condo we own for a year or so and live in a van that we built out while traveling the country) from the summer of 2017 until the summer of 2018. When the hubby took a new job this past fall, we knew that would delay our exploration for a hot minute. We thought he would be in the new role for at least a year or two (if not more), so we figured we'd put the van dreams on hold temporarily.

Currently we "built out" the back the of hubby's 1998 Ford Ranger to have a
platform to sleep on and storage underneath. It isn't anything too crazy but it
has worked for our get-aways thus far. This shot is from our Big Sur adventure,
which you can read about HERE if you didn't last year. 

Well, if you read my post a couple weeks back, the position that the hubby took in November didn't work out (unfortunately there was a BIG discrepancy between what the recruiter told Ryan the position would be and who the recruiter told the company Ryan was...), so since has gone full-time freelance. He's trying to decide if freelance is his jam or if he should get back into the corporate world, but in the meantime we figured as long as we have an Internet connection we can do a little adventuring (well, whatever we can do in the cheap that is ;)).

Source

As you {hopefully} know, this past weekend was my third #Ragnar4Rett (where I run Ragnar SoCal with #TeamSparkle, trying to raise as much funding and awareness for Rett Syndrome). In between runs I got a call from the hubby...
"Are you running?"
"Nope. I've got another hour or so till I run again. We're in the van driving to the next transition."
"Good, I sort of have an emergency."
"Uh oh, what's up?" (Of course my mind goes to worse case scenario... We are currently without health insurance so I'm thinking he broke his leg rock climbing or something.)
"I found a van and it's a great deal but I don't think it'll be around when you get done with Ragnar. I went with JD to see it and it's awesome."
"Do you have any pictures?"
"Well, no."
"What about from the listing?"
"No. I called on a whim because it was near the house. We just got back and I think we need to pop on it now. Even if you don't like it I think we could flip it for a profit, but I gotta grab it soon."
"Um, well, this isn't quite how I was expecting my Ragnar to go or exactly my idea of an emergency, but if you guys have checked it out and think it's good then I guess you should go for it."
And that, folks, is how I ended up coming home from my #Ragnar4Rett adventure on Saturday afternoon to a new adventuremobile in our parking spot...

It's a 1995 Volkswagen EuroVan Camper. The gentleman who owned it unfortunately passed away and his sisters (who were in town from New York taking care of his affairs) wanted to sell it before they left on Wednesday. He used it as his "festival van". Yup, he was HUGE into the Grateful Dead and would travel around to different music festivals in the van.


The inside is still stock and actually in pretty great condition. There is a cook top, sink, fridge, two pop out tables, the front seats swivel around to face backwards, the bottom couch/ seat turns into a bed, a faucet in the back that can be used as a shower, lots of little cabinets for storage, a bed up in the pop-top and an awning that comes out of the side.


When I was picturing our next adventuremobile I was thinking we'd be customizing it to our specifications (building out a Dodge Promaster from the ground up), so the current state of the van is a little too gray and dull for my liking. With that said, we are thinking of changing the color of the pop-top (it has to be replaced anyway), potentially reupholstering the seats and adding some vinyl wrap on the cupboard surfaces - but that's all cosmetic stuff making it more "us".

The hubby has to go to the DMV and get it registered (there's a little more paperwork than normal since we bought it from the sister's of the deceased owner) and to the mechanic to give it a once over, but it seems like we might be hitting the road in a week or so on our maiden voyage!

Source

I'll be sure to post updates once we start doing any (like adding solar energy or pops of color in the decorations) but thought I'd let the cat out of the bag on what happened this weekend (on top of the whole running an ultra relay race).

What is your next adventure?

8 comments:

Unknown said...

SO exciting Carlee! This is my dream, kids and all. Enjoy making memories and truly living life.

Sarah Welch said...

That's freaking AWESOME Carlee!!!

Kmurphy_21 said...

That's amazing! Great example of seizing the day and taking advantage of opportunities. Congratulations on the big step toward your adventure goals!

Scarabocchio Girl said...

It's great! In summer I work in a campsite since 8 years now, and I see many many of them! They are small enough to fit all the kind of parking, you can drive them almost everywhere and they don't loose a lot of their value during the years. In Europe they are very requested, so I think you've made a good deal, and I can't wait to see how you will customize it!

Samantha Schroeder said...

Hey Carlee. You and Ryan should check out TC Teardrops in Wausau, WI. I think you may think they are pretty neat adventure mobiles. My boyfriend works for them and we are getting on next month for adventures. That van is awesome by the way.

Unknown said...

That's pretty cool! I'd love to be able to take a cross country trip like that!! How fun!

Shay WLBM said...

That is so very cool!

Chelsea @ Chelsea Be Healthy said...

That's amazing!!! I've been so interested in doing that for so long! We flip houses but have been looking into doing such a thing with RVs/vans! You guys will have a blast!