Van life origins and Ruby
September 7th, 2017 - Ruby in front of Champlain Mountain. Acadia National Park in beautiful Maine
Until 2017 I had never owned a van, never even thought of buying one. My experience now is that most people are very positive, encouraging, or even jealous when I explain what I am doing. I have to admit that even ‘2015 Adam’ would have called current Adam insane! I told close friends about my plan to move into a camper or a van and start traveling, but I did not tell many others. I was sure I was going to be ridiculed. It felt like a secret I needed to hide. I think I was still trying to process what I was considering doing.
My first experience with someone asking me about attempting ‘van life’ was at the fourth of July party I go to every year. My friend’s dad called me over to where he was sitting and told me that his son had told him about what I was going to do. OH NO, Here it comes. Maybe it would be belittling, maybe warnings, maybe even a ‘what are you? INSANE?’ What I got though? He told me that I would see and experience more than I could imagine! This secret that I had been carrying around suddenly felt lighter. It was a huge relief. I thought everyone would treat me like Ralphie in “A Christmas Story” asking for a Red Ryder B.B. Gun for Christmas. ‘You’ll shoot your eye out!’
I’ll mention here that I do understand the risks involved with van life, but when I weigh that against regret - It’s a no-brainer.
First came Ruby.
This was where Ruby sat for a month as I went into construction mode.
I saw this maroon van sitting on the side of the road while out running on the Westside Overland Trail in Mayville, NY. $350 and the transmission needed replaced. Deal! The previous owner let me know that his whole family was excited that someone was taking the van to give it new life as opposed to it sending it to a junkyard. He had taken his family on many trips in this van and it was almost part of the family. He told me his kids had named her Ruby. I’m not quite sure this color reminds me that there’s no place like home, but I’ll go with the flow. Ruby it is!
I got to work right away. I had one month until the family camping trip and I had other adventures on deck for the summer. I have always been a procrastinator so I have plenty of experience working under tight deadlines. I would literally walk out of work at 5:30 AM and be asleep by 6 so I could wake up and spend every second getting this van built. I think I have trouble giving myself credit for how handy I am sometimes, but I do have some pretty good fabrication skills. I work best with only vague plans and mostly in my head. Thats how this vamper came together. I spent most every night bugging my friends at work with the project and getting their input on what direction I should head. I can’t think of any specifics on the many things in this build that were their ideas, but there’s a good chance Ruby wouldn’t have been a success without them.
Ruby in Allegany State Park on her Maiden Voyage.
I spent a week in Allegany working out any bugs before I hit the road heading to Kentucky to watch the the Great American Eclipse at a UFO festival… I think I’ll call this the stopping point as that trip deserves its own short write-up. For an old rusty van with a bum transmission and grass growing up around her ankles she turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. After spending the summer with her I went right out and bought her bigger sister, Ruby Tue. I also had the fight the fight the urge to just quit my job almost every night. Not that I hated my job, which I didn’t, but I had a small taste of freedom and now my appetite was roaring for more