The pandemic pushed more Americans to try out van life
But the viral travel fad isn’t as carefree as Instagram makes it out to be
IN 2019 LUCY JACOBSON and her colleagues at Rossmönster Vans flew to San Francisco carrying “suitcases full of cash”. They were on their way to purchase five retro Volkswagen vans made in the 1980s in order to drive them back to Longmont, Colorado and turn them into custom adventure-mobiles. The road trip home took them to Las Vegas (“to let our freak flag fly”), through Utah’s canyons and over the Rockies. It was the kind of expedition increasing numbers of Americans are hankering for.
This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Vanity projects”
United States June 5th 2021
- Liberals and crime spikes
- The January 6th commission and the two main weaknesses of America’s democracy
- Congress is set to make a down-payment on innovation in America
- The pandemic pushed more Americans to try out van life
- Horseracing, the sport of kings, needs more punters and fewer drugs
- Hispanic Americans are most vulnerable to covid-19
- Fewer Americans are going hungry
- Who owns the national pastime?
More from United States
An alternative theory to explain America’s murder spike in 2020
What if it wasn’t about policing?
Donald Trump’s defining decade
Will America’s president overcome the 1970s, or just refight its battles?
Donald Trump revives ideas of a Star Wars-like missile shield
He wants a swarm of missile-toting satellites to take out incoming threats
America’s foreign aid pause puts lives at risk
Donald Trump sought disruption. He hurt America first.
Donald Trump goes to war with his employees
The president wants to shrink and remake the civil service