Oh this resonates! We had a tiny pop up camper for several years that was great when the kids were young. We outgrew it, though, and had to let it go. Sad day!
Ah, that sounds like an awesome camper - it's sad to see things like that go, but hopefully you have a solid bank of memories from your travels! Any photos of the camper?
We are RV full timers and I understand the letting go part. Ours is in the shop getting a Brazilian bum lift 🤣 (our back frame broke). She is 21 years old. At first we were told to scrap her and get a new one. The hurt I feel was like when my first born left for college.
Then the questions. Why am I so attached to a pile of metal-as you said. The adventure, are we ready to give it all up?
Held up in a hotel for the past month has granted me the time for reflection.
I had to go back to my Motorcoach to water my plants and get some things. As I approached and saw her lifeless, bum in the air, tires thrown everywhere covered in grease. I thought to myself, this is too much.
As I pryed the front door open and stepped inside I was overcome with emotions and began to weep. Even though she is lifeless at the moment I felt the belonging. No, we are not ready to move on. There is still more adventures to be had. This is home.
This is very relatable - thanks for sharing your story here. I don't mind admitting we shed a few tears as we watched ours go. I hope you get your RV back on the road and have many more adventures ahead.
Thank you for this thoughtful piece. I grapple with similar emotions relating to my own vehicle-based travels. I'm not entirely convinced that upgrading to something newer is the best solution though, if that's what you're thinking of doing. Personally, instead of spending extra thousands on an 'upgrade', I would prefer to spend it on synthetic fuel (eg Coryton https://coryton.com/), which has a far lower footprint. An LPG conversion can also massively reduce certain emissions (not carbon), although it's becoming harder to buy in the UK. (Also, every night in a van is a night you're not powering your home, so there's a slight offset there.) A difficult equation though, and not one we can easily calculate our way out of. Your van looks/looked mega :-)
Thanks Theo. We are probably upgrading to something newer, but it will still be far from new - maybe 15 - 20 years old instead of 30! We did look into converting to veg oil and other things, but decided we've had a good run with it so far and wanted to move whilst it still had a good re-sale value. It's all very conflicting though! Hopefully we've done the right thing and more adventures await...
Veg oil is another option. I few years ago I ran an unmodified 2003 Transit for 30,000 miles on up to 50% biodiesel that I was making myself from recycled veg oil. Never had any problems.
Best of luck with the search. I had similar thinking when I parted with my Volkswagen T4 a few years ago. Part of me wished I never did, although it didn't have the cleanest exhaust and that jabbed at my conscience too.
Wishing you many new adventure both in the new van and out.
Thanks Bel!
I sold an teardrop camper last year to get a bigger one. I really miss that little one though.
Oh this resonates! We had a tiny pop up camper for several years that was great when the kids were young. We outgrew it, though, and had to let it go. Sad day!
Ah, that sounds like an awesome camper - it's sad to see things like that go, but hopefully you have a solid bank of memories from your travels! Any photos of the camper?
I'll have to see if I can dig some up...
We are RV full timers and I understand the letting go part. Ours is in the shop getting a Brazilian bum lift 🤣 (our back frame broke). She is 21 years old. At first we were told to scrap her and get a new one. The hurt I feel was like when my first born left for college.
Then the questions. Why am I so attached to a pile of metal-as you said. The adventure, are we ready to give it all up?
Held up in a hotel for the past month has granted me the time for reflection.
I had to go back to my Motorcoach to water my plants and get some things. As I approached and saw her lifeless, bum in the air, tires thrown everywhere covered in grease. I thought to myself, this is too much.
As I pryed the front door open and stepped inside I was overcome with emotions and began to weep. Even though she is lifeless at the moment I felt the belonging. No, we are not ready to move on. There is still more adventures to be had. This is home.
This is very relatable - thanks for sharing your story here. I don't mind admitting we shed a few tears as we watched ours go. I hope you get your RV back on the road and have many more adventures ahead.
Thank you.
Farewell sturdy workhorse, I've been there and know the confliected feelings
Cheers Tim!
Thank you for this thoughtful piece. I grapple with similar emotions relating to my own vehicle-based travels. I'm not entirely convinced that upgrading to something newer is the best solution though, if that's what you're thinking of doing. Personally, instead of spending extra thousands on an 'upgrade', I would prefer to spend it on synthetic fuel (eg Coryton https://coryton.com/), which has a far lower footprint. An LPG conversion can also massively reduce certain emissions (not carbon), although it's becoming harder to buy in the UK. (Also, every night in a van is a night you're not powering your home, so there's a slight offset there.) A difficult equation though, and not one we can easily calculate our way out of. Your van looks/looked mega :-)
Thanks Theo. We are probably upgrading to something newer, but it will still be far from new - maybe 15 - 20 years old instead of 30! We did look into converting to veg oil and other things, but decided we've had a good run with it so far and wanted to move whilst it still had a good re-sale value. It's all very conflicting though! Hopefully we've done the right thing and more adventures await...
Veg oil is another option. I few years ago I ran an unmodified 2003 Transit for 30,000 miles on up to 50% biodiesel that I was making myself from recycled veg oil. Never had any problems.
Best of luck with the search. I had similar thinking when I parted with my Volkswagen T4 a few years ago. Part of me wished I never did, although it didn't have the cleanest exhaust and that jabbed at my conscience too.
The newer vehicles and upgrades are just not like the old beauties. I totally agree