Why I started traveling – by Happy Nomad Girl

[creature]

YOU HAVE MY VAN!!!!!

Wasn't she Beautifull??

such a beast... 1974...

 

[Matt Derrick]

damn dude, that's crazy. i just rode in her van not too long ago. i was really surprised how spacious that vehicle is.

 

[creature]

yeah.. the Xplorers are laid out really well, & pretty damn heavy duty.. the old tank tech mentality..
i'd still have her, but i decided to try a veggie vehicle (pickings are just too slim, so that part of the rig is removed) & a shorty bus..
the current van is still on the road, & may continue to be the primary escape vehicle.. i see older Xplorers for sale, now & then, & i'm thinking of going back to one.. we'll see how any movement towards the sailing potentials work out..
the camper vans are typically 19' & 9", just enough to stay under the 20' oversize limit, so they carry no RV / length restrictions..
one thing that's tough, though i never tried any other wheels on her, were the 16.5 inch tires.. hard to find, at times..
i think it was around 78 (?) that they started using rubber grommets all the way around on the windows..
after 30 years, my shitter & furnace still worked.. amazing..

picked her up in 2004 & did something like 30,000 miles in her..

expensive as all fuck.. 10-11 mpg, hence the toss at the veg oil gig..

i said goodbye to her in 2011, after she had been flooded in outdoor storage, down in florida..

i lived in her up & down the west coast, fresno, yosimite, missisippi, fucking hackensack nj & down in manhattan, not far from the brooklyn bridge....

if the water hadn't gotten up into the engine, i suspect as dented & depaneled & cranky as she had become, she would have just kept going...

in any case, there's still a few out there.. i just need to decide if i'm going to get another 10 mpg beast, or go the route of a motorcycle or smaller van..
20 mpg really is about the bottom line for any hard core mileage, because the fuel is what burns up most of the work money..

anyways.. she was sweet.. always a good sleep, durable, i could take her just about any place.. what would be nice, though, would be finding one with a 6 cylinder engine & scoping out the mpg on it.. i could take being underpowered (the 8 cylinder 440 was a fucking monster).

good luck.. hope yers lives a long, good, loving, solid life...

 

[Anagor]

These moments, the good and the bad, are going to test you, define you, turn you into a butterfly. Not the outfit you wore to the club last night, not the bachelor’s degree you don’t use, not even the twelve fucking zeroes at the end of your bank account. In the end, it’s going to be you in your death-bed, wondering, did I give it my all? Did I have a good fucking time?

[...]

I travel because it’s who I am. I live for the moment, a life with no regrets. I don’t have a job, a brand new sedan, a graduation cap on my parents wall, or a place to call home, but fuck all that shit. I have discovered true happiness and all which is needed for that is a good pair of shoes.

I don't know how often I read your post by now. Must have been more then 10 times. And the only flaw of this forum software here is that I can't give you a "Like", "Epic" and "Useful" every time I read it.
So true what you say. Very inspiring.

 

[RebeccaFaythe]

Gah. Oh my goodness. As if I wasn't wanderlusting hard enough already. I am now desperately wanting to get up and go, tonight - if only, ah!

 

[Deleted member 15688]

“I've always wanted to get as far as possible from the place where I was born. Far both geographically and spiritually. To leave it behind ... I feel that life is very short and the world is there to see and one should know as much about it as possible. One belongs to the whole world, not just one part of it.”
- Paul Bowles

 

[Nepptune]

Absolutely love your story. Thank you for the inspiration.

 

[Minky]

Good read!

 

[beersalt]

You're a badass. Thank you.