Big (and small) changes for T & G
About a year and a half ago, in October 2020, I wrote a post bidding a (reluctant) farewell to our Eurovan, followed by a series of posts about our next van, a Winnebago Travato. We had a few great months of local camping, but 2021 proved to be even more of a challenge than 2020 (and that’s saying something!!). The last year included selling our condo and moving back to where we lived previously, closer to my family; trading in our 10-month-old van; and, most significantly, a kidney transplant for G, his second. 2021 was a long, tough year, but it also helped us clarify a lot of big life questions and think about what really mattered to us.
So where are we now?
Just days away from picking up van 3.0, a 2022 Pleasure-Way Tofino.
If you’re familiar with different RVs, you might be scratching your head a little bit. After all, did we really trade in our Winnebago Travato, which had more space, a plumbed bathroom, A/C, and hot water, for a shorter vehicle with no A/C, no hot water, and no bathroom? HELLS YES! And we couldn’t be happier.
But hold up, I’m missing a step—the seven months we spent waiting on delivery of our Storyteller Overland Mode LT.
2022 Storyteller Overland Mode LT (photo from https://www.storytelleroverland.com/mode-lt/)
Let’s back up a bit. This past summer, we sold our condo on the seacoast, made a nice profit (thanks to a bonkers housing market!!), and learned that Storyteller Overland, a company we really liked and have admired from afar, was launching a Mode on a Ford Transit chassis. We loved the vans being made by STO, but up until this point, they were all based on the Mercedes Sprinter—and way out out of our budget anyway. Then came the LT on the Ford Transit.
The Transit-based model, while pricier than the Travato (but less than Sprinter-based models), would provide us with AWD, something we often wished we had. The van was shorter and more compact than the Travato, and it made really efficient use of different configurations (modes) of the inside space. Still, would it be worth $150K+? The profit from selling our condo and the trade-in value of our Travato made the van a little more doable, and our payments would likely decrease from what we had been paying on the Travato, so we took the plunge and placed our deposit.
We anticipated an early winter delivery (pretty much right about now!), and since G was scheduled to have transplant surgery in September (yay!!!!) and we wouldn’t be traveling much, if at all, between surgery and getting the new van, we decided to trade in the Travato in August. What’s a few months without the van, right? We figured not making additional loan payments would save us money, and trading it in earlier than later would maximize our trade-in value. So in late August, we traded in the Travato, and then we patiently waited.
And waited.
Fast forward to December: We learned that our anticipated January/February delivery would come and go, with no delivery date confirmed for our order. While we had resigned ourselves to a summer of tent camping, we were bummed. But, such is life. The chip shortage was causing a mess to so many manufacturers and, as a result, consumers. In late January, when our order looked like it was going to be pushed out well past the summer and fall — and perhaps even into the winter of 2023 — we started discussing other options. G wasn’t totally ready to throw in the towel, but in my mind, I think I already had. The delay meant we’d be facing a pretty hefty pricing increase, which would certainly stretch us far beyond what I felt comfortable with—and I had this nagging feeling that the STO, like the Travato, just wasn’t the right van for us.
Why the switch in the first place? Whatever happened to the Travato?
Here’s the thing, if I’m being completely honest. I didn’t love the Travato, certainly not like I thought I would; I found it intimidating as hell with all of its bells and whistles. Sure, I loved some of the conveniences, but I couldn’t shake the thought that we weren’t really RV people—we were van campers, just a step or two up from being tent campers. But “camping” in the Travato felt a little more removed from everything I loved about adventuring camping in the VW. With the Travato, we were bringing a hotel room out onto the road and into the woods. We had every modern convenience—a bathroom, two sinks, a microwave, heat and A/C. There was even a separate stereo system in the coach part and a TV, neither of which we really wanted or could really even figure out and use easily.
Bottom line: I really just missed the simplicity (and coolness factor) of our 2002 VW Eurovan. Ever since we waved it (and its new owners) goodbye just a few months earlier, I had regretted selling. And poor G never heard the end of it.
When we decided to cancel our order for the STO, we still had our deposit and trade-in balance wrapped up in the dealership. Online, the dealership’s site showed a Tofino, but with this market, who knew if it would still be in stock?? I emailed to check, confirmed it was, and we quickly decided to make the switch. And in about 60 hours, we’ll be picking it up.
2022 Pleasure-Way Tofino (photo from https://pleasureway.com/models/tofino/)
Here’s the thing: sometimes, simpler IS better. And in my next post, I’ll explain all the reasons we’re “downgrading” to the Tofino from the Travato…and couldn’t be happier.