Age is a Chronological Number

Allow me to ramble about road trips at a certain age.

Every spring and summer I’m faced with the same travel planning problems. Figuring out how to get out of the suburbs. For me, it isn’t as easy as jumping on the 405. When you drive a Vanagon things get complicated. I should be able to go where I want to, when I want to. Right? The Vanagon has a stove, sleeping area, etc. The truth is I have to think about things like weather and routes and hills and… a list of things before I leave the city.

In Southern California May weather can be good and bad. My wife and I and the dogs took a trip to Moab, Utah in May a few years ago. It was decent weather until we reached southern Utah. It was sweltering there. The dogs were totally uncomfortable. The factory A/C in the Vanagon wasn’t working and all I could do was roll down the windows. I hate complaining, but it sucked.

Just Do It

Get in and drive like there’s no tomorrow!

On a trip to British Columbia years back, I thought I had accounted for everything too. Again, the damn heat. It was July and our trip started out by heading to Placerville, California, where it was well above 100 degrees ambient.

I rolled down the windows and cranked up the dual fans on that trip. It worked okay with the vent window at my face, and a fan blowing out back. But I have dogs, and they have fur.

It’s really challenging to cool down a boxy Vanagon interior when it’s 100 plus degrees outside. Anyway, I drove to Hensley Lake and that’s where we cooled off on the trip to Placerville. Once in Placerville, the south fork of the American River was an incredible sight. But driving in heat without A/C was terrible. Thankfully, sitting next to the river made the difference. I was actually enjoying it and so were the dogs.

It’s no fair to dogs to drive in the heat, in a Vanagon.

I’m free to take off my shirt and cruise along. They can’t. They Pant, Pant, Pant with those dog tongues sticking out. I can’t do that again to them. But it’s difficult to determine if the weather is going to cooperate. And, getting older isn’t fun when you’re in an old van. I can’t tolerate things like when I was 20.

Ah, the good old days being 20 again.

What’s weird is my mid-life crisis included buying a classic 1986 Vanagon. I didn’t factor in that the Vanagon had zero modern conveniences like a decent A/C system.

I bought it because it radiated fond memories, like surfing along the West Coast and living a full day just bumming around. When I was 20 I didn’t miss an A/C system. But now I do.

Age is a chronological number they say. I keep telling myself that. If you are fit and healthy, age is irrelevant. Your biological age may suggest something different if you are in good physical shape, you can keep on truckin’ until you can’t. I believe it’s true.

But now I complain about little things like heat, cold and the inconvenience of it all. Yet, for a few precious seconds I do feel younger than my age driving the van. But if I were honest I doubt those memories when I was 20 were really that good anyway. I’m certain they were NOT.

If I were truthful I would say things that happened when I was 20 were hit and miss. Those memories were likely embellished memories.

Sure I’d surf all day, but I was always broke. It was great when the waves were perfect. But the waves weren’t always perfect. I’d drive for miles to find the right swell. Then, only to fight for each ride because of the crowds in the water. It was far from perfect. LOL, it was like owning a Vanagon.

So as I prepare for another adventure today in the Vanagon I must keep that in mind. It is what it is, as they say. Nothing is or was perfect. There’s no way to prepare.

And age has no bearing.

I should just be happy that I’m fortunate enough to drive something as unpredictable as a Vanagon. Forget about the heat, the steep mountain passes and the slowness of the flat-four engine.

I need to embrace the good and remember that if every adventure in my van was perfect, I’d probably not recall a moment of it.

I do remember the repair shops though, on some of those trips from the past, and the good people that helped us get on the way. Like it was yesterday. Not that I’d want to relive it.

Stuff happens when you’re any age. I guess as I get older I just have to roll down the windows and smell the roses. Or, sink another few thousand in the Vanagon and get the A/C fixed.