Mercedes Sprinter Van

I bought my first Sprinter van in 2005.

I was selling Texture Clothing at the Bellingham Farmers Market every Saturday and the Ballard Farmers Market every Sunday. It was a lot of work and as my business grew, it was becoming more and more obvious that my li’l Geo Metro just wasn’t going to work…and neither would borrowing my Dad’s SUV every weekend just to vend. I had heard about these vans and thought I would give it a try. I immediately felt comfortable driving it and it was such a bonus that I could hit the road, to vend at out of town events and I could just sleep in it!

Flash forward many years later, and a different Sprinter, and you will see a story unfold. I was introduced to Colin Wright’s work about 10 years ago. He would live in a country for 3 months and then he would let his blog readers vote and decide which country he would move to next. I found him to be an interesting character and I enjoyed his different, and positive perspective on so many facets of life. I read his blog, and his books. I even got to meet him in person in a small cafe in Reykjavik, Iceland. He introduced me to the idea of doing a ‘lifestyle experiment’. The premise being that one could try something new, and possibly a bit absurd, for a short while. This way a person could struggle with an out-of-comfort-zone thing but also know that the end was near if there was something really uncomfortable about the experience.

Over the years I have embarked on many lifestyle experiments, and my latest one started last September, in 2020. I am calling this chapter ‘full nomad’. It means that I don’t rent a house or apartment. I sleep in the Sprinter Van and or in Airbnbs. I have a factory in Bellingham, WA and at the back of it, is a room that has many uses. One of those uses is to store my full bottles of shampoo and big box of qtips. Other than that, I am kind of “chunking” my life. There are segments when I do a lot of factory & production work and then there are segments where I focus on administrative & marketing (basically computer tasks), and then there are selling events. I am describing myself as a digital nomad, however I still need to touch base in Bellingham to get my textile fix!

I will post more photos as I go and record my adventures here. It would be helpful to know what questions you have about my life. Write in the comments below and tell me what you would like to hear about!

Thanks for reading, friend.

Here I am in the driver’s seat of my Mercedes Sprinter Van!