It's all Volkswagen's fault! Really, it is!

It’s been a couple of weeks since my enigmatic Facebook post from Fresno, California about quality of life decisions and I figure it’s about time to explain what’s up since Ann and I are moving forward with our new project.Our trip down to Fresno was the result of a lot of different things that Ann and I have been discussing a bit more than a year that cover a lot of different issues.  It’s difficult to know where to start, so I might as well start at the beginning.

It’s all Volkswagen’s fault!

A bit over 10 years ago Ann and I bought a Volkswagen Eurovan Westfalia.  The Westfalia was the van that had the pop-top, but hadn’t really been converted into a camper.  Ours was silver like this one.

Behind the front seats were two rear-facing seats (one with a fridge in it) and a forward facing bench seat.  It was a great vehicle to haul the guys around in when they visited, and we would use it go go camping.  There was a bed up top, and the rear seat could fold down into another bed.  It wasn’t the camper, so it didn’t have stove in it, but it had plenty of room to haul our camping gear.  It had some quality control issues, thankfully all handled under warranty, but due to circumstances I don’t feel like reliving, we got rid of it for the Honda Element we now drive.  

I go back to our Eurovan days because, given the number and types of trips Ann and I have been taking, we’ve been thinking about what the perfect vehicle would be to keep it up.  In a lot of ways, the Eurovan would have been it.  But they were discontinued long ago and, around here, they still cost an arm and a leg even in a very used state.  Even so, Ann started looking to see what was out there and, lo and behold, Volkswagen makes a camper van based on the latest European platform called the California!

They’ve improved the roof-lifting mechanism a bit and added an awning and, most importantly, made it a camper.

Ann and I had found the perfect vehicle.  Or so we thought.  Sure, it’s available in Europe.  Available with two different diesel and two different gas engines.  But VW has no intention of releasing it in the US market.  When pressed by multiple people (to include e-mails  to VW USA from us) the response has been that they do not believe there is a market for this type of vehicle in the USA.  What?  It’s called the California for Christ’s sake, what do you mean the country you get the name of the vehicle from doesn’t have the market to support the car.  

We tried waiting and sure enough, nothing has changed.  

So it really is Volkswagen’s fault!  If the California would have been available here, Ann and I would own one by now.  But Volkswagen pushed us away and made us start looking elsewhere.  

Then we found Mercedes!  Call it the California’s rich uncle, but the Mercedes Metris Marco Polo seemed just the thing.

Again, a multi-purpose vehicle that was more than adequate as a camper and with an interior stove, sink and fridge to boot!  Diesel engines to provide power for towing if needed, and with great fuel efficiency for driving around town.  What wasn’t there to like?

Alas, our hearts were shattered.  Despite the fact that Mercedes shipped one over here to woo automotive journalists as part of Mercedes’ campaign to introduce the Metris to the US market, they were firm that the Marco Polo was not coming to the US market (at least any time soon), but they suspected that US RV conversion companies would meet any US needs for a similar product.  That whole idea when down the drain when Mercedes announced that the Metris was available in the US only with a 4 cylinder gasoline engine.  It remains purely a commercial vehicle.

So Ann and I began to look elsewhere.  We immediately latched upon Airstreams.  Knowing from the preparation for our Yellowstone trip (where we had looked into trailers), the Element was never going to be a tow vehicle, the trailer consideration always had two components - one often driving the other.  The first was what did we want for our living conditions, the second was what were we willing to drive to tow it.  There was a lot of back and forth, discussions with one of Ann’s co-worker’s friends who has just bought a small Airstream, and had wished they’d bought a larger one by the end of the summer, and - much like the California and Marco Polo - waiting to see what might be coming down the pike that would finally make us feel like we had the right solution.  We even swung by the Airstream dealer in Portland when Kit and Devon were out, to hear a horror story about a Land Rover losing its back end to a 25-foot airstream (both of which had factored into thinking by that point).  

Somewhat relatedly (well, definitely relatedly), Ann and I had been talking about my professional career and my lack thereof regarding international development.  I joke that my mantra has become, “I’m number 2!” but that’s not quite right.  The reality is that over the past couple of years I’d been selected for positions, only for them to fall through due to money (I will only take so much of a pay cut to live in a place where I may get malaria and not be able to drink the water), came in number 2 twice, and made the final cut of interviewees three times.  It’s not like I’ve been unemployed this whole time though.  I’ve been doing legal consulting as a contract attorney for a couple of attorneys here in Oregon (and recently picked up a project for a third), which has paid me well and given me the flexibility to take the trips with Ann.  So Ann and I have been talking for just over a year, about alternatives.  Maybe if I can’t get a job overseas, we can move overseas anyway and telecommute (I could do 90 % of my work for Oregon attorneys overseas with a good internet connection), or maybe we could live off the road, moving from area to area living out of an Airstream as we photograph places we want to photograph.  Long story short, it seems that while most countries love having retirees live there, they don’t much like working-aged people making prolonged stays even if they are telecommuting elsewhere; and our Utah trip gave us a dose of reality about internet speeds at RV parks.  We’d talked that I’d give myself some time - maybe up to a year, to decide if I wanted to keep applying for overseas positions and, if needed, just commit to staying here, doing what I’m doing, and touring with Ann.  Well, late November a position came up in Malawi and, after an interview and some further discussions, I decided I really didn’t want to join an underfunded project I thought could not succeed.  While not convinced that I didn’t want an overseas position, I realized that I have a very good life here and I’m not willing to sacrifice that quality of life for a worse one.

So that’s where we were in early December.  Ann and I were bantering around our then-latest topic of discussion, which was could we live with a pickup truck or big vehicle (think Suburban or Expedition) that could tow a bigger Airstream (our “base camp”) and still take us into more remote areas (even to camp if needed), when one of us asked, “What about a Sportsmobile?”  I’m not sure who said it but given who the bright one is around here, it was probably Ann.  A few years ago one of Ann’s colleagues told us about Sportsmobile and how a lot of photographers have them.  Sportsmobile owns the patent for the original VW van pop-top (the one that lifts up as a square, not at an angle) and they have been converting different vans since the 1960’s.  Their claim to fame is that they do four-wheel drive vehicles as well as two-wheel drive.  A long while ago (when we were thinking the California), we had dismissed them as way too expensive, but it had dawned on us that compared to an Airstream plus a tow vehicle, they couldn’t be that expensive.  So we started looking at Sportsmobiles.  We really liked what we saw.  Off-road capable, custom built so you can get exactly what you want (within limits) and comparatively the same cost on-road-only RVs, they became the topic of our conversations.

Our thinking started shifting a bit.  We went from thinking about long-term stays to what would we use the most?  Something that met 80% of our needs very well, and could do for another 10-15% of our needs, and just accept that it wouldn’t be ideal for the prolonged vacation.  We realized that if we had something we could simply hop into and head out for a weekend, that it would probably get a lot more usage than an Airstream would.  Plus we could drive to wherever we could get to, pop the top and camp there for the night, and walk out to photograph.  The more we thought about it, the more it made sense.  

Ann then contacted Sportsmobile with a couple of questions.  They responded promptly and we found out that if we were interested, we could send in a deposit to reserve our place in their production line for November 2016.  Yes, you read it right, they have an 11-month wait for vehicles.  And they produce about 300 vehicles a year.  We sent our money in while still trying to figure out what we actually wanted.  After a couple of e-mails, we booked a trip down there to discuss what our build would look like.

We originally thought we wanted one of their Mercedes Sprinter conversions, but as we thought through things, we started considering a Ford van conversion.  They’ve got a newer version that hasn’t started production yet, but will by late this year.  The Ford is, to say the least, a 4X4 monster that can go anywhere a vehicle can possibly go.  The Mercedes has a Mercedes installed 4x4 system that is a definite step down.  But would it be enough.  We decided to focus our planning on what it was we wanted from the vehicle, what layout we wanted and what we wanted to use it for, and to answer the Ford vs. Mercedes question once we were in Fresno.

The verdict?  Mercedes.  After explaining to Jonathan our thoughts, intended usage and unanswered questions, and taking a tour of their facilities (which we got to see a lot of different vehicles and floor plans), our decision was made when Jonathan explained that, while the Ford could go places the Sprinter can’t, he’d never go to any of those places alone (Ann and I plan on doing our tips alone).  So it’s a Mercedes conversion.  

We’ll be getting the regular body (short) with a low roof and the penthouse pop-top.  That means we can go pretty much anywhere we want to and park, if necessary, in a regular parking place.  It’s going to look a lot like this:

We won’t have some of the accessories that are shown on this one, but will have others.  Here’s another of their promo shots where you can see the pop-top:

Ann took a couple of photographs of this same vehicle in their showroom.  (As an aside, you should see in-person the silver Ford Classic that’s on the Sportsmobile website - it’s gorgeous!)

We’ve decided on an interior layout that Jonathan loved (well, based on his comment to his father as we were leaving the facility).  It will have a small toilet area, a cooking area, an eating area and a rear storage space for our photo gear and storage for longer trips.  While we’ll be able to hook up to typical RV park electrical and water hook-ups, we’ll be able to be self-sufficient with everything running off of diesel and/or solar panels.  As we’ve been doing our research, we realize that there are a lot of great roads to explore in the country (which we found during our last trip to the Painted Hills, and most recently during our Utah trip), and we’ve decided that we want to go exploring.  That means being able to get yourself out of trouble so the rear of our vehicle will have not only a full-sized spare, but will also have a box to store recovery gear.

We’ve configured an order for a Mercedes sprinter.  When it gets delivered in July or so, we’ll need to make our very real down-payment.  We’ll probably make another trip down there to confirm all the final details before they start the build - probably in late September or October.  Pick-up should be some time in February 2017.  It’s going to be long, hard wait!

So Ann and I are going to become RV owners!  I’ve stopped actively looking for overseas jobs.  And we plan on exploring as much of the US and Canada that we can.  Not bad news following a long silence.

Oh yeah, and it’s all Volkswagen’s fault!