The Adventure Begins the Cali Way

(Co) Captain’s Log…

The adventure started as all adventures do, as an idea. I was lying in my room talking with Nick, pondering what to do after I graduated college, and since I only had a month or so left of classes, it was probably time to start considering it. He said, “You should travel across the country." It quickly and happily became a “we” scheme and everyday we schemed bigger. First we considered taking trains or Greyhound buses, but the rates were too high and it would put us under time constraints and pre-determined routes. This seemed to be the antithesis of the grand plan itself. Then we considered taking one of our cars, but they were already breaking down on us and my little Saturn doesn’t even have a heater. Also, I think the thought of sitting two feet from each other for two months straight crossed our minds and seemed a bit daunting. At this point we were already a few weeks into looking up sights and routes and saving money. I bought a huge map of the US at the university bookstore and we were making more lists than we could keep track of. But we still had no sure means of transportation. Then Nick had another great idea, what if we looked for an RV on Craigslist. So we began looking and each one I saw I thought it was the one, but Nick, as the practical voice of reason, kept me from buying the first one we saw. I was just too excited. We must have looked at hundreds of RVs and motor homes over the next couple weeks; each one seemed to need too much work or was out of our price range, which wasn’t a very wide range.

Then one day in early January he showed me an ad for a 1977 Dodge Sportsman

online located in Redondo Beach. He reread the ad as I read it, and said “Yeah I have a good feeling about this, I think it’s the one.” We called and scrambled to collect as much cash as possible and meet up with the owner the n

ext day. He was a young Australian guy named Adam who came into the country and bought it only a month before with plans to take it through Mexico on a surf trip with his buddy. After fixing what needed to be fixed a

nd installing an amazing stereo system, his travel buddy broke his shoulder snowboarding and pulled out of the trip, leaving him unable to fund it solo. So he decided to sell and was nice enough to show us all he knew about the RV even before we said we wanted to buy it. Needless to say he had limited knowledge of it but showed us that at least the gas did work. The RV had a full kitchen with sink, stove, oven, fridge, and freezer; full bathroom including shower, sink, and toilet; an almost queen-size bed, a table and a couch that also fold into beds; heat, air, hot water, gas. It smelled like my grandma’s house, if it was filled with thirty year-old dust

and the carpet and the curtains

were orange shag, the upholstery and wallpaper also faded orange patterns, and the mirrors had the classic 1970s gold veins. We loved it. After a quick and nervous trip around the block we nodded, offered him cash, and as the sun set we signed the title papers at our new table in our new RV. Adam told us that he had been calling her “Betty”, after the lady he had bought it from, who was also the original owner. It suited her. So Nick drove down PCH toward home to avoid the freeway and possibly destroying our brand new home while I followed in his truck. It must have taken almost two hours to go the 30 miles but we got her to Huntington Beach in one piece but as Nick reversed to settle her into a parking space a few blocks away from my apartment, the last of the brake fluid escaped from the leaking master cylinder and the brakes gave out, causing Betty to run her rear end into a chain link fence and leaving Nick looking very shocked. She luckily had no serious damage. So we left her there for the night and resigned that she was still a great idea.

So this all began as a spark between two adventurous people falling in love, and, only about three months later, we think we might need just one month more until we can ship out. Our family and friends were nothing but enthusiastic and supportive of the idea, but maybe thought it was just that, an idea. That is until we started posting pictures of our new 20-foot long baby. I don’t think we even realized how serious we were about this and how important it was for us until Betty came home with us. The idea grew and grew, until it became a plan. And now this plan is going to be the adventure of our lives.

- Carlyfornia 1/18/2010