Up the Road, Vol. 1
I bought a van at auction
Years ago, I was affected by a personal tragedy, Traveler. In retrospect, the timing lined up with my coming 38th birthday, and I decided that life was too short to spend selling pool liners for a crooked company. So while I grieved, I stopped working. I did nothing. I let the universe speak to me because I was too depressed to speak to myself.
So with only my severance checks, I sat in my childhood home, and for the first time in 18 years, I stopped working. I wasn’t laid off and didn’t do any gig work to get by between lulls; I just sat and thought.
After all that time, I watched some movies and television on our Roku that I’d meant to catch up on. I hooked up our Playstation 3. The game inside the drive was Mass Effect 2, and I finally created a Shepard and went through the campaign. When I beat it, I tried to put a new game in, but the disc drive didn’t work, so I retired it.
I then bought a ticket to Pennhurst Asylum, a ghost hunt I always wanted to go on, but we never had the money. I finally got to go. I learned a lot that night, but really I learned about spirituality and my desire to get close to it.
And I picked up my old copy of Haunted Places: The National Directory by Dennis William Hauck, cross-referenced it with Weird NJ, and set about my first legend-tripping road trip through New England. On that road trip, I drove a 2004 Ford Taurus, Whitey Ford, through New England. I slept in Airbnb rooms all over the area.
And while those Airbnb rooms were fun, they had to be carefully coordinated with my arrival times.
I rented a red Ford Fiesta, the Desert Rose, when I trekked through Nevada and California last fall. She kept me safe and never quit on me, even as I drove it up to the Devil’s Hole in Pahrump, but it was a very cramped sleeping arrangement. I ended up back in Airbnb rooms and camping on a mountain anyway. Camping on the mountain was really cool but also impractical and kind of dangerous.
And when I traversed New Mexico last winter, I chose a Toyota Prius as they’re an under-appreciated tank with a hatchback and rear seats that fold flat. It did the trick in regards to sleeping in the back. However, the Prius didn’t have a lot of headroom, and I’d often wake up by bumping my head on the rear windshield.
So I needed something for sleep in the back that had enough power and room to stay in the back. I needed it to be affordable while at the same time not a clunker.
Traveler, say hello to the H.M.S. Antelope. This will be my new mobile base of command. A 2005 Chrysler Town and Country with a 3.3 Liter V6 under the hood. According to a relative, this van has the most durable and reliable engine ever produced.
It’s time I did some camping, and I’ll be updating with all the places I go and my adventures.
But first, I have to clean it. Consider these stories my van life chronicles, and we’ll start with maintenance in the following story.
Until again,
Safe Travels.
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Until again,
Vic
