Our Family of Vans — for now

Our Outside Van Sprinter has given us seven years of great adventures. The van has traveled to 47 states and 6 Canadian Provinces. It has been our home in all seasons and over some very difficult terrain.

We have been welcomed to camp on Native Lands in January (in deep snow and single digit temperatures), escaped brutal heat and smoke in the Southwest, and explored from Southern California to the top of Newfoundland, the Pacific Northwest to Florida. All together, it has been a great run with our Sprinter van.

So, with much gratitude and love for the years we have enjoyed with our Sprinter, we have moved on to a new van, a Ford Transit van upfitted by Vandoit outside of Kansas City in Missouri. The Vandoit vans are quite unique, consisting of lots of modular, movable components on the inside. (Vandoit calls them the “Swiss Army Knife of Campervans”) Think of the inside as a big erector set, with an exoskeleton of extruded aluminum framing where you can hang almost anything, from a bed to cabinets to electical and water accessories. Interesting features of our van build include all wheel drive and an upgraded suspension, a lithium battery power system with A/C and solar, lots of exterior lighting, and a giant moveable “tray” in the back that can support 800 pounds of bikes and other gear.

The good news is that our Sprinter has been taken over by our son Casey, who is about to head out for more adventures with his new dog Nilla Bean. We had a changing of the guard of our vans in November at a KOA campground outside of Kansas City in the rain: Casey off to Denver, we off to Michigan. At the moment Casey is planning to keep the Sprinter van for a bit, travel, and then sell. Early reports are that his dog Nilla loves traveling in the van.

Our inaugural trip in December 2023 took us through Paducah, KY; Little Rock, AR; and Amarillo, TX, to Denver and a wonderful family holiday gathering. To avoid blizzard conditions in the Plains, we also came back to Michigan through the South. The van gave us a smooth ride and warm, comfortable overnight stays along our route.