Van Life before #VanLife (encore): Revisiting a classic USA road trip

“I will never have another vagabonding journey that compares to that first one — even though I have since traveled to far more exotic parts of the world — in part because there’s something special about embarking on a long-term trip for the first time.” –Rolf Potts

In this encore episode of Deviate, Rolf and his old friend Jeff Nienaber talk about their 8-month van trip across North America back in 1994, how they prepared for it, and how it differed from current-day #VanLife excursions (5:30); how they exercised on the road, and how the conditions and travel-hacks of van journeys were different for two young men in 1994 (23:30); the route they took through North America, what happened along the way, and how they kept daily journals recounting events (36:00); the experience riding with cops in Houston, celebrating Mardi Gras in New Orleans, volunteering at a church in Mississippi, meeting girls in Florida, and seeing New York for the first time (51:00); the experience of staying at a Trappist monastery in Massachusetts for one week (1:14:30); visiting National Parks in the American South, Northeast, and West, and memorable books read along the way (1:28:00); and why the trip was life-changing (1:42:00).

Van trip preparation and planning links:

• Digital nomadism (travel lifestyle)
• #VanLife (travel lifestyle)
• Composting toilet
• Blue Highways, by William Least Heat-Moon (1982 book)
• On the Road, by Jack Kerouac (1957 book)
• Travels With Charley, by John Steinbeck (1962 book)
• Vanagon (Volkswagen van)
• Volkswagen Westfalia (camper van)
• Trangia (alcohol-burning camp-stove)
• A (literal) photo album from my 1994 van vagabonding trip (blog post)

Links regarding early months of the 1994 trip:

• 924 Gilman Street (Berkeley punk club)
• Northridge earthquake (1994 earthquake)
• “The Mystical High Church of Luck” (Salon essay about Las Vegas)
• Lollapalooza (music festival)
• O. J. Simpson murder case (1994 media incident)
• USCGC Northwind (Coast Guard icebreaker)
• Bourbon Street (historic street in New Orleans)
• The Geto Boys, by Rolf Potts (2016 book)
• Fifth Ward (Houston neighborhood)
• Cops (TV show)
• Canton (town in Mississippi)
• In His Steps (Mississippi Christian outreach ministry)
• Waffle House (southern restaurant chain)
• Savannah State (historically black university)
• Debbie Does Dallas (1978 pornographic film)
• Tompkins Square (New York park)

Trappist monastery experience links:

• St. Joseph’s Abbey (Massachusetts monastery)
• Trappists (order of Catholic monks)
• Thomas Merton (Trappist monk and writer)
• Memento Mori (existential expression)
• Chant (1994 Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos album)
• Compline (end-of-day church service)

Links regarding the final months of the 1994 trip:

• Ocala National Forest (protected area in Florida)
• Shenandoah National Park (Virginia wilderness area)
• Mount Washington (tallest mountain the northeast U.S.)
• Arches National Park (Utah wilderness area)
• Fisher Towers (photogenic cliffs near Moab, Utah)
• Desert Solitaire, by Edward Abbey (1968 book)
• Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman (1855 poetry collection)
• The Razor’s Edge, by W. Somerset Maugham (1944 book)
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M Pirsig (1974 book)
• Uinta National Forest (protected area in Utah)
• Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming wilderness area)
• Glacier National Park (Montana wilderness area)
• Pike National Forest (protected area in Colorado)

The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber.

Note: We don’t host a “comments” section, but we’re happy to hear your questions and insights via email, at deviate@rolfpotts.com.