Long before van life was a hashtag, my dad knew that travelling by van was the easiest and most affordable way to travel with his family. He bought the van pictured below and introduced us to Van Life before #VANLIFE!
There are hundreds of pictures of the beautiful places we travelled to in the van, but not very many showing the inside of the van. If only Instagram was around back then, we would have made more of an effort to show it off!
I can tell you that he built bench seats along the back with a table that could drop down to make the bed. There was blue shaggy carpeting all around on the walls for insulation. My mom sewed all the cushions and the curtains. It was very very cozy!! Here we are being silly in our pj’s.
Van Life before #VANLIFE
I have so many wonderful memories of travelling across Canada and United States with my family in the van!
There were even a couple of trips after I met Alex.
The man behind the big blue camping van – My dad.
Teddy
Update: After dad saw this article, he brought out this old road atlas and proceeded with stories about everywhere we visited, where we camped, and advice on what we shouldn’t miss when we pass the same way. He has it all marked up with the roads we travelled on. Here are the pictures:
British Columbia and Alberta
Saskatchewan and Manitoba
Ontario
Quebec
Atlantic Provinces
Montana
Wisconsin
North and South Dakotas
Minnesota
Michigan
We have a renewed interest in the work my dad did all those years ago because we’re just about to order a van of our own! We’ve decided on a Ford Transit cargo van, and quite excited to begin a build of our own. Stay tuned for more on that!
Yours Truly …. Yula
