there’s so much content out there about #vanlife.
a simple cursory google search of vanlife gives you an amalgamation of intensely similar results, ranging from the “10 WORST THINGS ABOUT VANLIFE” and articles about “My Weekend of Vanlife” to the more instructional “How to Build a Van” and even some publications about what cool stops campsites to stop at… which ultimately leaves you a bit disillusioned with the actual experience of this lifestyle. That’s why writing about Marvan isn’t going to be about #vanlife
Travels with Marvan is really more of a classic journey story. A clear reference to Travels With Charley, the John Steinbeck classic. This story could also be a love story, the kind where the main character is trying desperately to fall in love with her own life the whole time but she doesn’t really know it, ala Wild and Eat, Pray, Love.
Ultimately, I’ll tag my content with #vanlife, but I don’t know if it really fits the genre of the life that I’m living right now. There’s too much realness, too much feeling and grit and I want to write about those things instead of tell you lists about what you can expect your first time on the road because believe me, I’m not an authority. I stay with friends/family for weeks at a time and rarely camp on BLM land. I have absolutely zero active van friends, and zero van community.
I’ve never made a YouTube video.
So now that we’ve passed the #vanlife disclaimer, here’s the formal introduction: Marvan is a 2019 Dodge Promaster that happens to also be my primary residence. I have a home address, but it’s not my home. It was my home at one point in time, and my parents and dog live there, but Marvan is my actual home. Someday I’ll tell you the origin story of the name — but for now you can guess if it’s a Marvin the Martian reference or the sad robot from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Marvan and I have traveled together since June of 2020 when everything was going to shit, and in reality I planned to get my ass in a van when my actual life went to shit in January of 2020.
That’s right, the journey begins in tragedy.
I don’t know if I’ll talk about that since it’s a background mess to the foreground adventure, but rest assured that I will tell you about it when it Feels Appropriate, which it maybe never will. The point is, I was searching for the grand meaning. And probably a bit of escape. And the pivotal moment in which it was decided that I Am Doing This is when my aunt asked me, “What’s the plan?” and I said, “I think I’m going to live in a van and travel to all 50 states.”
It’s just nice to know that I can speak things into being just by simply saying them out loud.
