I think this started well before the days of lockdown but during that period of only being allowed out for an hour's exercise a day and with no sport on the TV my obsession grew exponentially.
I started on the soft stuff. Canal barges. There is a wealth of content on "The YouTube" about narrowboaters. One or two of them cross over to camper vans. You know how it begins... "Dave (a fictitious person) visits Whitby in his T5". Short videos about how Dave loves Whitby but it's not near a canal.
YouTube hooks you in. Oh this person likes camper vans, let's see if they can handle some more content. So you move onto some proper stuff. Neville does the NC500 and before you know it you are hooked and watching Kinging It rescue abandoned dogs in the markets of Morocco or Travel Beans avoiding avalanches in Austria.
And then the internal nagging begins... "If I had a van I to could be snowed in in Slovenia" or "If I had a van I could visit every pier in Britain" (I once knew someone who actually did that. I guess retirement really affects some people). So you start trawling eBay and Autotrader for ideas. You even find yourself test driving a 50 year old Type 2 VW with steering so vague that you need both sides of the road to get anywhere. You end up watching Liam The Terrible converting a removals van thinking I could do that but would probably end up stuck under a bridge somewhere and need a can opener to get moving again.
So far I've not actually bought a van. I am fairly sure it will happen but until it does I have this imposter feeling. Almost like being part of a community but apart from it.
The other obsession that was definitely down to lockdown was that I started my small business. Designing and creating items that I manufacture in my workshop using laser cutting, engraving and general woodwork.
What I'd like to do is combine the two interests and create some products for the vanlife community. The issue is that I don't really know what they need or want. Is there someone out there who desperately wants something they can't find? Are you are someone with a camper van or know someone with a van that they are converting? Can you give me some ideas of what is missing in your lives that I could look to develop? Let me know and I'll look into it....
Twowoo for now
Pete
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