Friday, November 7, 2025

Making My Dreams Into Reality? What A Concept!

 


Long before I bought my motor home I had contemplated purchasing a van and turning it into a campervan.  I follow a handful of vanlifers on Youtube and I really enjoy their content as they travel about and go on their adventures.  I have watched them build out their vans, rebuild their builds as their needs changed, repair their vans and go through the various ups and downs as they navigate this lifestyle and it has always intrigued me.  I really wanted to do it too.

 


As time went on I eventually changed those ideas and bought the motor home with the idea that we’d use it for camping while I still had kiddos at home and then I’d use it to live in the first few years I was retired and do some traveling.  At one point I was even ready to sell the house and load the motor home, but I was still battling some health challenges at the time.  For those that are new to this blog I had a series of mild heart attacks, a stay in the hospital, a trip to Minnesota and two weeks at the Mayo Clinic and then a battle to find a good cardiologist who would work with me to get my medication straightened out, all of which caused me to retire a year earlier than I had originally planned.  My, how our plans can change.  In a blink!

 


Now however, I am onto a future plan with no particular timeline and plenty of time to make my final plans and decisions.  As my BFF and I have been hashing things out and coming up with ideas one of the topics that popped up about two months or so ago was my very early ideas about building my own campervan and traveling in it.  As we were talking he said my face lit up, I was animated and passionate about the discussion and had a jillion ideas of what I would do, how I would do it and where I would go.  It was so fun to talk about it.  My BFF then told me that he thinks I should do it because if I don’t I may someday look back and really regret that I never did.  I think he is right.  Truth be told, I know he is.

 


I’ve been allowing myself to start thinking about this idea, this dream of mine.  I’m going to sell my motor home, my beloved Laverne, because regardless of what I end up doing she doesn’t fit into my plans anymore.  So if any of you want or know someone who might want a sweet little motor home that sleeps up to six people (four would be more comfortable) and has a lot of new stuff including tires (even the spare) and a nice heavy duty cargo rack (brand new, still in the box), at a really fair price, then email me.  She would make a really sweet weekend adventure mobile or a tiny home on wheels.

 

My new camp stove works very well

In the past few months I’ve been looking online at vans.  I’ve been making plans again.  I’m making lists.  I’m drawing pictures.  I’m looking at maps and travel guides.  I’m looking at the stuff I already have and re-evaluating it.  Could this work?  Could that work?  I’m coming up with a plan.  I’m getting excited.  And, oddly enough, what has given me the confidence to jump back into this idea, this long abandoned dream of mine, was the Subaru.

 

So does the new coffeemaker! 😍

Working on the Subaru really reinvigorated my inner “gear head” as one of my friends likes to say.  It gave me that boost of confidence that I didn’t know I needed to tell me I can still do stuff.  Stuff I really love to do.  It brought me back to a place where I used to be before all of the medical crap hit me in 2021.  It restored my faith in me as a physically strong and mentally capable human being and in my abilities.  The Subaru project gave me back…  my sense of self.

 


Will I do it?  Will I buy a van, build it out and hit the road to travel and see all of the places I’ve ever wanted to?  I don’t want to look back with regrets.  I don’t want my dreams to just be dreams.  It is definitely an idea that is in the running, that’s for sure.  I guess we will just have to wait and see... but, I wouldn’t be too surprised if I end up doing this.

 

8 comments:

  1. I think you should go for it. My husband went through his first very difficult cancer treatment for MDS in 2020. It was very hard. But he was cured by an allo transplant. The following year, we decided to buy the RV of our dreams, a 16-foot Rubicon Coleman. We had always had a tent trailer, but we wanted a bathroom, so we could camp with hook-ups. We took so many trips, and I have wonderful memories. But then last year came a second very bad incurable cancer diagnosis of peritoneal mesothelioma, and no, he had never been exposed as far as we know. Our last trip out was in June 2024 to Tahoe, our favorite place. Then in September, he started chemo, and it was brutal. By the spring of this year we knew that there was nothing more to be done. I will sell the trailer next year and do plan on buying a van too. I still want to go out and do the one thing that we loved so much. The deciding factor for us buying the RV was when we said to each other, If not now, when? That made all he difference in the world.

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    1. I am so sorry to hear about your husband. He was so right. If not now, when? I think we tend to put things off. I hope you get your van. XX

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  2. I have followed many van lifers and it is great watching them and following their travels. But I am a creature of comfort. I still have a daughter at home and need to work FT.

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  3. Oh, so exciting!!! The van sounds like it will be a great fit for you, and I can't wait to hear if this dream comes true. It's so good to see how your plans and dreams change a bit over time to coincide with your circumstances. Being flexible is a great trait :-)

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    1. I am blessed to have so many opportunities to do things. Now to get busy and do some of these things.

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  4. This was exactly what my late hubby wanted to do. He drew up plans to convert a van - spent well over a year on it, until I finally said, just buy the RV. I wasn't on board with his plan to travel 9 months out of the year but I was willing to compromise. Five years of scorpions, rattlesnakes, cactus, and coyotes at our property and not having a septic system solidified my love of Not Camping. Neither was endless driving. The last time he drove the RV was right before he died and he could barely keep his eyes on the road. Scary times. We hadn't even made the first payment on the 85K loan and I listed it on consignment immediately. I think if you are up for it, go for it. I didn't want Hubby to have regret and you shouldn't either!

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    1. I'd hate to look back and have regrets about this one.

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