15 Nov Karma

Surprise! We jumped out of our apartment lease and into a “new” van!

I’ve owned this van for a week now and I still can’t believe it.

We had lined up a really amazing farm to work and live at for the winter, immediately upon moving out of our apartment on Nov 15 (today). The farm was a small homestead dairy and poultry farm, with tons of animals, three cute young kids, and the wide open skies of close-to-Denver Longmont. I had gotten a chance to tour the farm at the end of September and totally loved it! Unfortunately for us, we got a call from that farm just two weeks ago that they were shutting down their volunteer program. We were very shocked and disappointed, feeling a huge stressful scramble now to find somewhere to live, or ask our apartment office to extend our move out another couple weeks. Both of us did not really feel like staying in the apartment longer, so we buckled down the next day and spent 4-6 hours researching and picking out new wwoof listings to contact. We found two that were both on the front range that looked like they could be an ok solution, even if it was just temporary. We contacted them both and had an interview with one of them within a couple days. We were relieved to get an offer to stay with a retired teacher turned farmer down in Walseburg, CO (2.5 hrs from Denver).

We were still encountering an issue of transport – not having our own car. Aaron and I had given up our shared ’98 Blazer when we moved to CO since it didn’t handle altitude or heat well, and we both loved biking enough to commute that way through the city easily 11.5 months out of the year. We lived for 7 years without a car, occasionally renting one for a trip 1-2x a year, or carpooling with friends – or in the instance of Skicarpool.org — making new friends! Never really wanting a car or auto insurance payment, I rarely pined for my own privately own automobile during that time in Denver. But now, I was ready. We began looking at cars, then trucks, then vans… realizing that having something we could build out into a livable (part-time) space would be the most ideal. Having a space to sleep, and bonus — work remotely, inside would mean the ultimate in flexibility while we test out various farms and new potential regions to live.

Like all good problem solvers, we set our parameters: price, functionality, build-out capabie, and most importantly: reliable for 50k miles within the first 1-2 years easy. And with our limited budget — I expected this to be a tall tall order that might take us months of searching. I was ready in the distant future to hand over a big chunk of my savings to buy something with cash. But once we lost our perfect winter Wwoof host, all bets were off and we were gonna put out feelers in all directions.

Last Saturday, November 6th, while listening to a full day of online speakers about starting permaculture homesteads, Aaron and I were once again casually checking various used car websites. After reviewing mostly all cars we’d already seen and vetoed – I randomly upped my search budget by an additional $2k — wanting to see what was out there for a little bit more to help me know something valuable when I saw it for less. I upped the filter, and clicked Search.

And there she was.

A classic, & fully built out with a beautiful wood interior. Priced EXACTLY at the top dollar of my budget cap. I clicked the listing, prepared for the horror story of mechanical history on a vehicle this old. But — no horrors! In fact, the engine was new, the transmission was new, along with a myriad of other mechanical parts had either been replaced or rewired or flushed out. Tires? New. Carborator? New. Fuel pump? New. I read the story this person had put into their listing and just KNEW.

By the time I got to the bottom of the listing I was already inserting my email address into the “Contact Seller” area while I frantically copied the link over to Aaron. “IS THIS REAL?!” I asked in shock and surprise. After looking at so many built-out van listings, we were shocked her asking price was this low, given how competitive the market is right now for the trendy #vanlife.

Let me also preface our excitement by adding: We LOVE classic cars. Both Aaron and I learned to drive in our teen and early 20s in late 80’s / early 90’s vehicles and really wanted to find something of that era, or earlier, in FANTASTIC driving condition. Reasons aside from style: easier to fix, find parts without a computer system. Certain engines / models of those decades were well-known to run into the 200,000 mile mark easily before encountering significant problems.

S0 there she was: a 1975 Ford e-250 Chateau Clubwagon in white and dark green. Mechanically rebuilt, lovingly converted, sadly being sold by someone who was planning on hitting the road full time in that van, just like me. And2 located in Sandy, Utah — only one state away, & doable pickup or meet for a long day trip if necessary. I scrambled some kind of stream-of-consciousness complimentary message to the owner: “Hello! I love your van, gorgeous build out! We’re uh… about to move out of our apartment in a week and would love to move right into your van!” I hit send, and shortly afterwards left to drop my mom off downtown Denver in her car so she wouldn’t have to pay for parking. I showed her the listing of the van in the car and before she even read the description she was asking me if I had contacted the seller and if I needed any financial support to make this van happen, NOW. We both excitedly spent 10 minutes talking it over and as she got out of the car, she reminded me that it would fall into place if it was meant to be. After all, the van’s name was “Karma”.

Half a block away, 20 seconds later, my phone rings – and it’s a Utah number. I immediately know to answer this particular unknown call.
“Hello?”
“Is this Sarah? I’m calling about the van!”
… We exchanged quick details about why she was selling (to move instead into her boyfriend’s equally awesome built out truck, and sadly deciding to sell the van she spent the last year working on for herself) and why I was buying (to road trip around, stay at various farms and decide where to maybe buy land someday). She told me she had it listed for a few days on local UT websites, had a few people come check it out but none of the buyers felt right, or seemed interested in loving the van. She said my message immediately struck a chord and she had a really good feeling about me as a buyer, given we had a really similar situation across state lines. We quickly worked out a timeline: When could we do a video call, when & where could we possible meet up to see it and exchange for a sale. She mentioned she was going to a concert that night, so we agreed to do the video call that afternoon, after I finished my last minute packing-related-errands I had set out to finish that day. I told her we were also going to a concert the next evening, so the soonest we could head towards Utah was Monday. We both hung up excited and motivated to move the information necessary along, as quickly as possible.

While on my errand trip, I thought about how we were both seeing concerts back to back, and instantly looked up the tour schedule for the band we were seeing — of course, Dr Dog. They were in Salt Lake that evening, and I texted her “You’re not seeing Dr Dog tonight are you?” … You bet they were! Another good omen…

The rest of the day was a blur. Between Aaron researching about the model of the car, looking for known issues, reading about the model’s history and reliability — he couldn’t find anything to cause for concern with that particular model. The series was in production for 17 years, meaning parts would be plentiful. He even found this great clip of the same van used in the late 70’s Chuck Norris movie, Breaker Breaker.

By the time I got home, Aaron had sent off initial questions to our seller, Amber, and gotten all positive responses. We set up the video call and reviewed the very detailed and intricate mechanical and construction history of the van. Amber’s dad is a mechanic, and they worked on it obsessively over the last year. We were thoroughly impressed. We left the call agreeing to all sleep on it and decide in the morning if we wanted to go through with a meet up on Monday in Green River, UT.

The next morning we talked it over again, sent off another text question to Amber and got another positive response. We’d been looking for red flags now for almost 24 hours and had yet to find a single one. I had never read a car listing where I knew through and through – I wanted it, and trusted it. Amber let us know that she woke up to a flurry of messages overnight and had a couple people lined up to look at it, ready to buy for asking price if we weren’t interested. She also assured us that if we were in, she was ALL IN and ready to commit to our meet up the next day. Aaron and I barely hesitiated – replying within 10 minutes that we wanted the van.

The rest of Sunday we spent prepping to road trip 5.5 hours the next day, followed by driving to and from Boulder that night to see Dr Dog for the last time. We were up at 7a and on the road by 9a, cashier’s check in hand for $1k less than the asking price, with the rest in cash, in case we found something off or wrong that we wanted to barter with. The drive was uneventful and we made it early to the designated meeting spot. We talked over our game plan, reviewed the last minute things to check out with our own eyes – primarily how much rust was present on the underbody – and once again reassured each other we could walk away if anything felt off or not right, no questions asked.

Finally – they pulled into the lot, Karma leading the way. The meet and greet went smoothly, and I sat myself down in the driver’s seat promptly for our test drive. We tore down the dirt frontage road, both Aaron and myself taking a turn seeing what the van could do. Everything just felt right – smooth, powerful, safe.

The rest went off without a hitch. By 5:30p last Monday Nov 7th, I was handing over that money and the proud owner of my very first automobile. We hustled back towards Colorado – anxious to be parked and also exhausted from the very long, hyper-active days we’d just lived through. We had a van! A temporary home! A backup place to live! A way to get around the country and see our family, friends, and hopefully some amazing sights along the way. That night we parked at the Colorado Welcome rest stop in Fruita, CO – and I slept through the night for the first time in over a week.

… Now here we are, a week later. Moved out, and successfully on our way to San Diego to dogsit — another last minute change of plans that came to fruition within the last week of chaos! Karma the Van went through a ‘test drive’ from her home in Utah to ours in Denver of 700-800 miles in a little over 24 hours, and we’re cruising through Arizona now, clocking in at 660 miles in the last 24 hours to start our trip out west.