We bought an RV!

And now our name doesn't apply anymore. Just Vantasy is now officially the Tinker Trailer! (And yes, we know Tinker Trailer doesn't quite apply, either, but we like it so *sticks fingers in ears* la la la laaaaaaa.)

Long story short: we were in San Diego visiting family, Awesome Cousin Chad discovered and informed us of an RV show happening that weekend, we went to go check out Sprinter vans. Did you guys know Sprinter vans were surprisingly small? And that RVs are bigger? Yeah, so did we. But actually seeing the difference -- and imagine living in one of those vans, trying to fit more than one person in the hallway at a time, and actually trying to get work done in one -- was startling. Enter beautiful, well-taken-care-of, used RV. Five days later, we picked it up. The next morning, we drove to Idaho for the total eclipse. (I mean, why not. Right?)

"So how's the planning going?"

It's not. It's not going. But that's okay!

Since the last check-in, the following things have happened:

• Mike gave notice at work...
• But then has had to work approximately 90+ hours a week to get all his stuff done, and also go to China.
• Which means I'm working about the same, because I'm trying to prep my team for my being gone.
• Which means we have spent a total of zero minutes planning the trip.
• My parents moved from Bakersfield to San Diego, so we now get to spend a month in San Diego and skip Bakersfield entirely. I consider this a win. (No offense Bakersfield. But, kind of.)
• My bff is planning on moving from Austin to England, which... isn't exactly an easy detour. So again, less time in Texas.
• But we have had zero time to update the itinerary, nor even send nice emails to all of our loved ones politely asking them whether we can park in their driveways and use their bathrooms for a month at a time. This has also led to about a dozen awkward conversations that went like this:

Me, to someone I talk to ALL THE TIME and somehow haven't mentioned the trip to yet: <Fill in the blank such and such thing> won't really matter anymore soon, anyway, because of the trip.

Them: ...

Me: ...You know about the trip, right?

Them: What trip? Are you guys going to be traveling again?

Me: Oh, shoot... yeah! We're going to take a van trip around the country for a year!!

Them: WHAT. Why didn't you tell me??

Me: I'm so sorry! I thought I had!

Them: That's so awesome. When? Where are you going to go?

Me: Uh... well... so... can we stay at your place for a month in February?  Surprise!

Sorry, loved ones. But in our defense, our plan was to write you very nice letters about three months ago politely informing you that we'll be in your hometown and we'd love to spend time with you.

So the plan is, once work settles a little bit, itinerary will be updated, letters will be sent, and van will be procured! 

Pros and Cons of Vans vs RVs

Option 1: Trailer + Truck

Pros:

•  Can leave the trailer behind and have a normal car to drive around town

Cons:

•  Would have to buy a car capable of towing. (My Fiat 500 probably won't be up for the challenge.)
• Would prefer to be able to go back and forth from cab easily, especially since we’ll be working throughout the trip

Option 2: Used Sprinter

Pros:

•  Pretty easy to park
• Pretty incognito to park in residential neighborhoods
• Street cred and general coolness
• Highly customizable
• Small, easy to drive
• Wouldn’t need to worry about hookups, dumping waste, etc
• Relatively cheap

Cons:

•  Bad resale value, probably will lose fair amount of money spent on it
• Might be difficult to resell
• Fair amount of additional cost and time spent to fix it up to our liking, including adding/refining electricity, internet, insulation, heat/AC, toilet, water

Option 3: Tricked Out Sprinter

Pros:

• Don’t have to do much customization; all electrical, insulation, etc already installed and working
• Really good resale value and demand
• Will last for a long time if we want to keep it

Cons:

• Expensive
• Not quite as cool as building it up ourselves
• Might still have to customize for things like ability to comfortably work

Option 4: RV

Pros:

•  A lot of space, comfort, storage
• Shower, flush toilet, running water

Cons:

• Have to figure out where to dump waste
• Opposite of incognito. Might have a hard time finding places to park.
• Hard to park
• Would feel more like Early Retirement than Epic Millennial Adventure Time

At this point, we’ve done all the research we can do online, and feel like the next step is to see all the options in person and get a feel for them. It’s hard to tell how much space we’ll want/need unless and until we can actually see it firsthand. Once we know what size space we want, we’ll need to decide whether we want something cheap to build out, or something already built out but expensive. As of now, our preferences change day to day. Cheaper is obviously better than expensive, but expensive would both be easier to sell (if we want to sell) and last longer (if we want to keep it after). And probably more comfortable, too.