Today the ladder rack went on the van. Instead of housing ladders, it will house two solar panels, A/C unit and remaining portion will be used for storage.

And perhaps it might sound silly to name our van. John certainly chuckled and shook his head last evening when I said I wanted to name our van which will be taking us on future adventures once we have it converted to an RV of sorts.

I recently discovered, (thank you Linda Hoye!) and am reading, a book by Susan Wittig Albert titled Together, Alone. It’s a memoir about how Susan married at mid-life to a man named Bill. They are both writers and work from home – something Susan had been yearning to do for a few years before leaving her job at a University. She was craving space and a place to settle down with more solitude and she found her way to piece of land that Bill had bought years before that they would have a home and name the many beautiful acres Meadow Knoll. I’m just getting to the part where after many years of living and working together, Susan yearns for time alone.

But before they had settled at Meadow Knoll, they lived and traveled in an RV which was named Amazing Grace. Isn’t that beautiful?  I can just imagine the many places they visited seeing many sunsets and the sun-rising, the mountains, the oceans, etc. and how at times, I’ve no doubt, when in the splendor of nature and traversing the country side you can have many moments of Amazing Grace.

So I read a few passages from Together. Alone to John last night while we were sitting around the chiminea- the parts about Amazing Grace and how it came to be. “So that is where you came up with the idea of naming our van,” John chuckled and shook his head again.

I felt a little embarrassed at first and that he thought it was silly, especially when I said I thought maybe we could name our van Freedom. He thought it sounded too much like the 60s. By now I was thinking I should just let the idea go.

I got up to go in the house to refresh my drink feeling a bit let down that perhaps this was a stupid idea.When I went back outside and sat down next to John he said, “How about we name the van Second Chance?

“It’s perfect!  I love it,” I said. But more than that I loved that he opened up to what I was trying to convey.

Like many, when the economy did a big nose dive in 2008 we had to make some tough financial decisions. – though they were hard, I don’t regret what we had to do because if felt right for us. But traveling to exotic places was out of the question — well, not that we really want to go to exotic locations as that isn’t really our thing. But to go out West, and a few other states we’ve been wanting to see seemed like perhaps might be very limited.

But discovering we could convert one of John’s work vans into a little place of our own on wheels that could take us on destinations away from home for respites has opened up a new world for us — it has lit a fire within both of us that we are both taking such delight in!

And so it is a second chance to follow dreams we had set aside — that we now look forward to fulfilling – with our van, Second Chance, that will take us there.

Past posts for Have Van Will Travel Journal

The Adventure Has Begun. New Home on Wheels. Who’d of Thunk?

The Conversion Begins

Inspector Approves of Phase One Conversion

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