In all honesty I have been thinking about how I would design my next step van for many years. When I was 19 I moved to California and bought my first step van. Rent was high in the bay area and living in a van was a great way for me to save money. The money I saved by not paying rent allowed me to travel to Hawaii, Japan, Thailand, and Myanmar.
When I was living in California I met a fun loving and energetic old hippie named Rumple. He had been living the mobile lifestyle in vans, buses, and boats for most of his life. He shared his enthusiasm and was very supportive of my creativity while I was putting my van together.
My first step van was an older one with a steel body and a 6 cylinder gas engine. It did not have dual rear wheels and though it did have standing head room it was not a high top. The van was called the Gray Whale as it sort of looked like a giant gray whale. The previous owner had a mural of whales and “Gray Whale Company” written on it, so I too called it the Gray Whale. And like Jonah, I lived in the belly of a great whale. But unlike Jonah I didn’t have much to say to the people about repentance at the time as my life was filled with riotous living.
The most exciting design feature of that van was the rock castle I built to separate the drivers compartment from the back of the van. I made it with real rocks gathered from a river and some leftover paving stone. I treasure the memory of that time because of the freedom I felt. There were no limits imposed on my creativity. My friend Rumple encouraged me to stretch the boundaries of normal and practical with my artistic ideas. The rock castle symbolized that. It was fun, totally bizarre, and completely impractical. It added a ton of weight to the van as well as stress to the engine and chassis. But it was a sight to behold! While I was working on it at the beach one day in San Francisco a guy told me I should take it to Burning Man. I remembered Rumple telling me about burning man too, so I went. Words can not describe all that I experienced there. But I will say, they were having a parade one day and I gave a ride to an entire marching band in the back of my van, tuba and everything. Seeing all the art cars and mutant vehicles there was unlike anything I had ever seen before!
Eventually, the steep roads in San Fransisco and weight of the rock castle caused the engine to blow in that tired old van. But the memories have never left me.
For years I have dreamed of a newer aluminum boxed step van with dual wheels that could handle more weight. One with a higher roof that could better accommodate a loft for a bed. And it occurred to me that if I carved the castle wall out of foam it would be both lighter and add some insulation…
The seed of a dearly held old dream has now sprouted and broken through to the surface.
