Humble Beginnings, A Van Story

Published as G. Lev Baumel

A FEW YEARS AGO, I RENTED A SPRINTER VAN and took my then seven-year-old daughter on a ten-day road trip around California. As I drove the van, the largest vehicle I had ever driven, toward our first stop in Joshua Tree, I tried to remember all that I might have forgotten to bring with me. Calling myself an inexperienced camper was an understatement: once in college, a couple of times with my partners who grew up camping. I was well outside my comfort zone. However, I wanted to give my daughter the experienced as well as prove to myself that I could do it.