So, last week we bought another VW Eurovan. From 2009 until 2016, we owned a 2001 VW Eurovan Westphalia Weekender, and we loved it. I loved it. LOVED IT. We went camping and climbing in it all the time. It enabled us to live the dream. But we couldn’t keep it then for various reasons. Here is the eulogy I wrote about it. Grab a Kleenex.
Last Wednesday we drove home in a white 1995 VW Eurovan Winebago Camper. It has a lot of miles on it– a whole lotta– mostly by one owner who lived out on the West Coast. This thing is in amazing shape, something I hope people will say about us as we become older and older climbers. But yes, we are insane. We feel a little cuckoo, a little wild, but we have our well-thought-out reasons why we purchased this vehicle, and it isn’t just the shower on the back.
Someone asked me last week, “Did you feel the same excitement buying this Eurovan as you did your last one?” My answer, was suprisingly (or not), no. No, the excitement is not the same. The first time, there was this open ended sense of adventure and possibility. And there was the excitement of the whole family, kids included. Kid excitement is uncontainable and very contagious, and Brian and I couldn’t help but have more of a child-like excitement with the Weekender. This time, we are purchasing the camper van for us two, just Brian and Jen, in hopes that we will fulfill our own dreams for this next phase in our life. Us without little kids is bound to be less excited about life in general. Another friend of ours called this phase “#brian&jen2.0.” The next phase has been named but not yet tested. We don’t know #brian&jen2.0, and we hope we are the people who should own this van. This van is the symbol of a certain kind of life, a kind of life we want to live, and we want to see if we can live. So we are not quite as excited this time around, there is too much of a question mark, too much the possibility that we aren’t who we think we are, ready to set off– so slowly, now– on climbing trips at the drop of a hat.
I know, I’m overthinking this, burdening it with too much meaning. So, how about we just start with finding the joy in it, and may the testing begin!
