Last summer, I sold my 2002 Sprinter camper to my cousin. It was not a vehicle I ever anticipated selling, but when I was not sure if I was going to continue living in the United States, was spending six months of the year out of the country, and was experiencing more and more little issues arising due to its age, I made the decision that it was time. Like selling my first house in Portland, this ended up being another reminder that some decisions can weigh heavily on you without being the wrong decision. I don’t regret selling it, but I do miss owning it and using it. If that makes any sense.

I have never been attached to “stuff,” and I have always done my best mental recalibration deep inside nature. This may be why the van camping lifestyle is such a perfect fit for me. For the period that I am away, I only live with what I need (which turns out to be very little) and can easily reside within nature, enjoying the solitude, the hiking, the sounds, the smells, the simplicity, and the natural pace of things. It suits me very well.

During the spring, when I realized that I would certainly be returning to the US for the summer, it hit me that I wouldn’t have my Sprinter to camp in. It would be the first summer in probably eight years. My first thought was that I would obviously have to rent one to get my summer camping fix in.

This was the context for one day in early May when my dad sent me a text message in Norway with a listing for a 2005 Sprinter that looked identical to my previous one. It was even converted by the same Canadian company. I assumed that he was just sharing with me how much they were going for these days. What I did not realize is that the intent of his message was to relay that he was considering buying it! In a sad turn of events for my dad, he was considering buying the same camper that he had previously sold (to me), but for twice the price. You see, in that time, Sprinters have become increasingly popular. But for him, it was worth it. He had mistakenly thought that he wanted something bigger until he experienced a few iterations of something bigger.

So, now there is a 2005 version of our previous Sprinter parked out front. It is a bit odd to be inside. It feels like a sibling of my previous one, probably because it is. There have been a few improvements made over the three years that separate the models, but aside from those and a different floor and cabinet color, it is a dead ringer.

This weekend was spent busily getting it ready for camping, and later this week I plan to take it on the family’s maiden voyage. When thinking about where to go, I got caught in my usual mindset, lost in faraway places: Montana, Oregon, or Washington. Then one morning on a walk, it hit me that I am now living back in Colorado, a state I have yet to camp in aside from the Flat Tops near my childhood home. Imagine that, after eighteen years growing up here! We generally went to Utah. Moab, Canyonlands, and Lake Powell are so close yet so foreign. I then recalled all the Norwegians that I have met who have never been to Lofoten or explored Northern Norway, which I consider to be the wildest and most beautiful part of Norway! I have found myself baffled by the fact that I have seen more of Norway than every Norwegian I have met. Now I could see that I am cut from the same cloth. Surely, many tourists to Colorado have experienced more of Colorado than I have. It’s a curious thing how we think we have to go far to get away and reset, even when we live in a world where others flock to do just that.

So that settled it. It is time to explore Colorado in a camper van.