When I bought my van, everyone asked me what I would name it. An adventure that includes getting rid of everything you own and moving into 80 sq feet deserves a name, after all. However, I didn’t really have that name locked in until the day I drove it home from the builder for the first time. I decided to call my van Noah. Yes, after the Noah from the Ark. 

See, the "van life" chapter of my life shares a lot of parallels with the story of Noah. If you don’t know that one, the short version is that God decided to restart the world because people had become very bad and corrupt. He tells Noah to build the Ark. Noah is told to take his family and two of every kind of animal on board to save them from a huge flood. The flood lasts for 40 days and nights, wiping out everything else. Flood ends. Noah, his family, and the animals leave the Ark to start life again. A rainbow appears in the sky. All very magical.

The calling happened a little differently for me. I didn’t hear some voice from above telling me to build a ship or collect a bunch of animals. As my plane was taking off for a work trip, I decided I would start looking for my own van. I needed to walk away from this overwhelming feeling that the world was bad and go seek out the good. Just hours later as I landed in Denver, there it was. A perfectly timed Instagram post. Noah in all its beauty - and it was just down the road from my house. I saw it later that week and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Finding home in both the outdoors and this van was a surprise to me. I actually wrote on my dating profiles in my early 20s “I do not camp,” yet here I was spending my savings on a van to take me into the woods with no place to call home. The only thing I was sure of was that nature was the only place my brain felt quiet. After almost 2 years of COVID headlines and lockdowns, I needed a more permanent peace. Something I wouldn’t just seek out on weekends, but make a part of my life. For how long? I wasn’t sure. 

A lot of rain, many rainbows, and three years later I have been able to find that peace in myself. I don’t have to travel to find my wanderlust for the simple joys of life. I don’t need to wander in the woods every day just to hear myself think. That’s why I’ve decided to sell Noah and let someone else go on their big adventure. 

You can read the listing here and whether you’re looking to start over again or simply get away for the weekends, I am praying it’s going to take you exactly where you need to be. Whether you keep the name or not.