Bringing the Van Home

Since the van was in Oregon, I had to drive there to pick it up! It was about 13 hours from Denver so I knew I didn’t want to do 26 hours of driving alone so my friend Alex joined me!

It was a crazy few days of logistics: I loaded my 4Runner with everything I needed from the ski house (clothes, food, etc.), drove to storage unit in Denver to drop off all of the stuff in my 4Runner, met the guy who was buying my 4Runner at the Enterprise car rental, sold him my car, walked over and picked up a rental car, drove back to the storage unit to load up the rental car with the things I needed for the van, and then drove to Fort Collins to pick up Alex.

In the midst of all this, a massive snowstorm was brewing and due to hit Colorado and Wyoming directly in our path of travel so we decided to get on the road 12 hours early in an attempt to beat the storm - and we made it! We made it west of the storm on Wednesday night, drove to our intended overnight AirBnB in Boise, ID on Thursday, and met the previous owners of the van on Friday morning. In order to pay for the van, I took out the entire payment for the van in cash from Chase which was a federal case (not sure if they had enough funds, had to call other Chase branch to have more funds delivered, 4 step identity verification) but I eventually walked out with a Chase teller bag full of the most cash I’ve ever seen at one time in my life.

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After doing a test drive of the van, getting a tour of how to work everything (solar panels, inverter, water pump, heater, swivel chair, bike rack, shore power, etc.) and handing over the cash we were on our way! The people we bought it from were kindred outdoor spirits and got me even more excited and sure that van life was the right path for me. They also mentioned how great it was having a dog in the van….stay tuned on that front.

The previous owners took a picture of me in the new van (they built out the van by hand so it had become their baby, and they were now passing it off to the next adventurer) and wrote me a lovely card wishing me well. I cried, of course: what a great welcome into van life.

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My Very First Day in the Van