“This has been more than a journey to get a new motorhome.This has been a journey into my shadow of heart, a test of trust and a remembrance of connection and global community. A pilgrimage around the medicine wheel, into the source of my fears and doubt, an overview of where I’ve come from all that I’ve done and been to lead me to this spot, square in the middle of my destined path. I am home. I am here. I am awake.”
[Excerpt from a journal entry in April of 2015]
So how did this all start? Where did this odd little VW Motorhome come from? Fasten your seatbelts (pun intended) This is a long, but interesting story…
Once upon a time, in early 2015 a woman name Sarah Rose (pictured above) who owned a 1979 VW westfalia for over ten years decided, as she was heading into her 30’s, that it was time to grow up and trade in her little orange van for something more “practical”. Being the diehard Volkswagen lover that she was, she quickly fell in love with the style of the Karmann Gipsy style VW motorhome that was found predominantly in Europe although it quickly became apparent that these were a little out of her geographical and financial reach. She toyed around with many crazy ideas of turning her current Westfalia into a motorhome, but thankfully a few wise friends talked her out of that..
Until one day a friend sent her an ad for a 1980 Vanagon that had been converted into a Gipsy style motorhome for sale, in Utah. This was literally the first one that she had ever heard of being for sale in North America, but Utah? Yeah, no problem, thats only thousands of km’s away. She actually considered it an option, but at that point the thought of selling her sexy 70’s style van for a boxy 80’s version was not something she considered a good aesthetic investment. Come on, we all have our vanities right? Plus, she really had no money anyhow. But time continued to pass and the idea of owning a vw motorhome was looking more appealing by the day as she really wanted to combine the current broken down motorhome that she lived in, and the small working van that she drove around in, into one thing. A working, moving motorhome she could live in. Super practical right? She thought so. Around this time, her 79′ was showing signs of age and wear and tear and it didn’t matter how much money she shoved into it, it kept wanting more. I think it was the day when she casually opened the sliding door and it fell off in her hand that she decided… Fuck this, the van has spoken, its time to move on.
The next day she decided to experiment and just see what would happen if she emailed the guy in Utah and proposed a vehicle switch; My Westy for your Gipsy. Whats the worst he could say.. No?
Yes. He said yes. What? She was really not expecting that. And to be honest secretly she didn’t really want him to say yes because she had a really ridiculous emotional attachment to her van. But.. he said yes. So…
Road trip?
[to be continued]
travelingtransition 