As I write this, we’re just days away from picking up van 3.0, a 2022 Pleasure-Way Tofino. And If you’re familiar with different RV models. you might be scratching your head a little bit. After all, did we really trade in our Winnebago Travato, which had more space, a plumbed bathroom, A/C, and hot water, for a shorter vehicle, with no A/C, no hot water, and no bathroom? HELLS YES! And we couldn’t be happier.

When we decided to make the jump into RV-land, everything seemed to happen very, very quickly. Count us among the throngs gravitating toward RV life during the pandemic. Even after factories shut down for periods and supply chains had been disrupted, sales skyrocketed. In late August, we had decided on a Class B. A week or so later, we put a deposit down on a Winnebago Travato. We put our Eurovan up for sale and watched as its new owners drove her away. And two weeks later, on Halloween, we were driving Tedda home from the dealership.

After two years and so, so many memories, we sold our 2002 VW Eurovan Weekender. While we’re looking forward to picking up the new rig that will mark the beginning of our van adventures 2.0 (stay tuned for more posts and info!), I’ll always miss the van. And so, at the expense of being overly sentimental, we offer this farewell/love letter/thank you card to our van…

And so, on a cold Saturday in January, we found ourselves at the Boston RV and Camping Expo—oohing and ahhing at vans and RVs of all shapes and sizes. Hell, some of the RVs cost nearly as much as our condo—and seem just as big!! I’ve never been in an RV, and while I prefer a future in a small-ish van, G waxes poetically about RVs. I can’t imagine ever driving one of those behemoths, but I try to humor him.

Our van is a teenager. A 17-year-old, to be exact. Soon to be 18. Now, I’m not a parent, but I have taught high school for two decades, so I feel like I know this bunch pretty well. 17. It’s an age that’s wrapped up in contradictions—caught between innocence and its opposite (what is that even called??), adolescence and adulthood, immaturity and maturity. 17 has its sights on the future, on colleges and careers. 17 is almost done with school and authority. And 17 takes every opportunity to let us know that it’s an adult...well, almost. 17 can be going along swimmingly until it decides to assert its independence and rebel. Just for the hell of it. 17 can wow us with just how wise and mature it’s become and then, in the next second, exasperate us and make us wonder, “I thought we were past that.”

And so that’s how we found ourselves, on one cold and drizzly day in November, the proud owners of a 2002 silver VW Eurovan Weekender with about 186,000 miles.

Like a lot of people whose childhood included Scooby Doo and The Partridge Family (and the cool van and bus in each), I lusted over VW vans. I imagined I’d be like Kevin Costner’s character in Field of Dreams, driving a VW Type 2 and listening to “Jessica” by the Allman Brothers as I drove across the country.