The van just turned 32! Fifteen years on-the road…

Golden Gate Park became too crowded for camping, so I bought a truck and became a vanDweller. The first time I pulled this stunt I was in a sedan with a cat named Cosmo. No animals this time. I bought a small set of those Tibetan prayer flags and strung’em across the far side where they blow in the wind spreading good fortune.

The van I wound up with was an ’89 Ford Aerostar extended cargo-van. The salesman at the used truck lot showed me a few, but when I didn’t seem interested he took me to the back of the lot, and under a tarp was this keeper. When I first saw it, I knew this van was my Rocinante and that’s what I named it. “I’ll take it,” I said excitedly.