Sprinting Forward

Sprinting Forward

Every family needs dynamic tension I suppose. I am proud to be a part of a family that likes to speak its own mind and is never short on opinions. And those opinions are not restricted to politics or the goings on around the community and world. They also extend into what we are all doing all on our own. No one is a bigger target than me and here is why I feel confident in that statement. There are family members who are very sensitive souls and we all recognize that piling on them for anything they choose to do is ill-advised. These are the same family members that only venture out of their prescribed lane once in a while. They relish their predictability and pretty much try to keep their heads down whenever possible. Generally, when these more timid souls get up a head of steam to do something noteworthy, we like to encourage them rather than heap criticism on their efforts. On the other end of the spectrum are those who are big and strong and very self-assured and generally want to run with the big dogs in the family. Unfortunately, many of these members have a thinner skin than the playground generally accommodates. The old expression is that if you can’t run with the big dogs, you should stay on the porch is operative with these folks. They want to run, but if any big dog looks sideways at them their tail goes between their legs and they are heading for the porch. It is incumbent on everyone to be as or more wary of these dogs as they are of the sensitive souls. For very different reasons and despite their appearances at any moment, care must be taken with them to keep the peace.

I don’t think anyone in my family would debate whether I am one of the big dogs and that I am always leading the charge on any number of controversial fronts, barreling forward with my head down and most would say, throwing caution to the wind. Naturally, I take some exception with the recklessness factor, but ultimately would not disagree that I seem to enjoy being out there over my skis, pushing the edge of whatever envelope we are examining. I have always thought that if I ever wrote an autobiography (some would suggest that is what I do every day with this blog), I would title it something like “Walking Point” since I always seem to be both leading the way and taking fire every step of the way. I may be over-romanticizing my approach to life, but that is pretty close to how I see my path. I also note that I often wonder why exactly I feel the need to walk point instead of going with the flow, but I am just like that kid at the head of the platoon in Vietnam that cannot explain why he does it but knows that its simply what he does. My point in this description is that I take lots of fire from my family for almost everything I do. They do not seem worried about offending me and they do not seem worried that I will go tilt and unleash the Kraken over some criticism, whether justified or unjustified.

With that stage set (at least from my perspective), I am out there once again with an idea that appeals to me. Unlike many of my ideas that come to me and get acted on immediately, this idea has been percolating in me for some time. In fact, I wrote a story about it way back about a year ago. The subject was the new trend (new to me anyway) of converting Mercedes Sprinter vans into luxury touring and camping vehicles, sort of mini-RV’s. We have been converting vans into living space for traveling kids since the Hippie VW micro-bus days of the 60’s (and maybe some would say the Woodies of the 50’s). But if vans were for kids and Class A monster RV’s were for retirees wanting to “hit the road”, these new Sprinter Van conversions were for “young retirees” and mid-life families looking for ways to do more eco-touring and perhaps glamping. I had been harboring a hankering for exploring my RV interests that lingered from my youth envying the kids in the campers riding in the above-cab windowed bed (naturally without seatbelts). My two mid-life RV rentals were nothing short of disasters with bad memories of National-Lampoon campgrounds with way too much Americana for my taste. But those problems had certainly been solved in the last twenty-five years, right? Therein lies my conundrum. Some say it is great fun and some still think its a terrible joke. There is little middle ground here.

So I swing from getting reengaged in the discovery process of Sprinter vans and then I get pulled back when I share those thoughts with family and friends. They all line up either extremely bullish or seriously judgmental. If there were ever a two-steps-forward, two-steps-back situation, this seems to be it for me. Recently, I have been taking three-steps-forward and two-steps-back. That has started to qualify as slow progress. I have largely focused on figuring out what configuration of Sprinter van I am most likely to find most value-packed for our collective use. I say collective because I think of this possible purchase as something for the use by my whole family. I somehow sense that renting villas to allow us all to gather in one foreign locale or other may be far less prevalent in the future. I still feel the urge to help enable my family, as I choose to define it, to get more out of life by affording them a better ability to vacation and collect good memories. I doubt many would disagree that the generations that come after my Baby Boomer cohort will have a harder time equaling the lifestyle we have enjoyed. This means that if I can help with a Sprinter van, it is a good use of money in my book.

Well, a week from now, Kim and I are taking our maiden voyage for three days in a rented 2018 Sprinter Coachmen 24T van that will allow us to go visit her sister Sharon and her husband Woo, who have been struggling with the hospitalization and recovery of a broken hip from a bad nighttime fall. It’s a good cause to make this trip and its a good solution in the age of COVID to visit with a self-contained living accommodation, a mobile tiny-house if you will. It is also an important trial run for anyone considering a major purchase like a Sprinter van. I have nothing against toys, but this is only one small step short of the ultimate toy like a plane or island (neither of which I would ever do….even though I try never to say never unless referring to never saying never). The bonus information content of this trial run is that the owners (recently divorced) are looking to sell and if we really like this unit and this configuration, we could make this leap for approximately 60% of the cost of a new version of this toy. I have no qualms about buying a used toy (I just did that with a motorcycle and am very pleased) because I know that if we love Sprintering, there is always a new one out there to be bought. Therefore, we are preparing for sprinting forward in this voyage to one outcome or another next week and let the family comments fall where they may.