Van Life

Camping at the coast, particularly in the summer, can be a real beast of a mission.  Sure, there are lots of sand dunes, side roads, and secret spots that can be exploited.  The problem is that many of those locations lead to the uncomfortable middle-of-the-night tap on the window.  After enduring our share of those experiences, we decided to pull the trigger and upgrade to a camper van. 

 

There's a bit of a back story with the van that I'll spare you, but we ended up with this sick, high-mileage Toyota Van Wagon.  She's a 1989 and has a sunroof, moonroof, power everything, fog lights, and even an ice maker (currently not operational)....with 275k miles on it.  

We built a bed for her, got some racks, and settled into our dream surf mobile, which we named Wooly.  Not too sure where the name came from.  The van is grey, slightly ridiculous looking, and is in danger of extinction, so let's just call it a shout-out to the wooly mammoth.  We'll see about getting her some tusks.

 

The most amazing thing about Wooly, other than its amazing style and grace, is that we can put both longboards (10ft and 9ft) up top and still fully open the back hatch without issue.  Anyone who has a subaru and rocks longboards knows why this is so glorious.  

 

 

We've had wooly out a half dozen times already and it's an amazing camping vessel!  We have had great sleeps, no hassles, and limitless flexibility.  I will admit that I was a closet skeptic when we were pondering our van purchase but, after spending some time in the thing, I am a whole-hearted supporter of Van LIFE.