What do you consider to be your place of work? 

Our place of work is wherever we have WIFI or Hotspot connectivity.  I guess we’d be called ‘digital nomads.’

Tell me about your van. What do you call it? 

Our van is a 1987 Volkswagen Westfalia Vanagon GL ironically named ‘The Blitzkrieg’ since it is neither fast nor fierce as its namesake suggests. We also call it ‘The Blitz’ for short or, if we’re feeling particularly soulless that day, “The Van”.

When and how did you get it?

After months of searching, Peter bought it on eBay (sight unseen) from a seller in Nebraska. It was delivered via truck a few weeks later to Mississippi and made its maiden voyage in June 2006. Peter’s first car became his daily driver and they have been inseparable ever since.

What other vehicles did you consider and what made you ultimately pull the trigger on the one you bought? 

When Peter bought the van, he wasn’t looking for an adventure or ‘van life’ vehicle. He bought it because he became enamored with it and had always loved the ‘cool’ factor of VW vans as a kid. At the time it was also somewhat practical because it made it easier to drive up to Chicago and visit Shruthi. One of the other serious contenders in his search was the exact opposite of Vanagon: a 1965 Mini Cooper, which he almost bought. Unfortunately (or fortunately) it wasn’t very practical, and I’m sure living out of one of those would be a little….cramped? Apart from that, he considered a Honda Element for a period of time but ultimately chose the Vanagon because he thought it was badass.

Have you made any upgrades or changes to it? 

Man, we could make this a really long list. Before we left on our travels, we did a lot of regular maintenance and upgrades, including a Vanistan 2.2 Liter Waterboxer Engine, rebuilt transmission, roof rack, awning, etc.. Since then, we’ve also put in a torque biasing differential, lift springs, Fox shocks, bigger tires, solar panels, and GoWesty Bumpers with the swing-away tire carrier. Most of our upgrades have been off-road related and not too much has been modified on the interior of the van.

What is your favorite part about living/working out of your van? 

Our favorite part about living/working in the van is flexibility to work whenever and wherever we want while seeing lots of new places. We especially love flexibility to be able to go off-grid for a few days because we can set our own hours. Time to explore without being tied to a desk is ideal. It’s really refreshing to be somewhere new all the time.

What is your least favorite part about it? 

It’s not always the most comfortable place to work. Our van doesn’t have air conditioning so if we’re somewhere hot, it can get pretty miserable. Sometimes it can be very hard to concentrate on getting work done if we’re working from somewhere especially beautiful. For example, when we worked from the Yosemite Valley, it was very difficult to stay focused on work and not be dreaming about hiking Half Dome all day. If we don’t tie ourselves down for a few days consistently, it’s hard to get quality work done because we don’t have as much time to deep-dive into what we’re working on.