Table of contents for Seventeen: February/March 2020 in ROVA

Treat your feet There are certain things in life for which simplicity and quality are best. For outdoorsy types, two of those things are your feet. In winter, when all your tootsies want are warmth and comfort, PEOPLE Socks have you covered (in wool). Made in the USA using the finest merino wool, the socks are comfy and warm, and the brand’s online-only model means they’re not going to blow a hole in your wallet. peoplesocks.com Long day, hot meal What good is braving the cold for your road trip if you can’t whip up something hot at the end of the day? For winter cooking, a liquid-fuel stove is the way to go, because butane and propane canisters tend to underperform in super-cold temperatures. MSR’s WhisperLite liquid-fuel stove has…

“Idon’t remember seeing this on Instagram,” I think, pulling on a second pair of socks while trying not to hit my head on the roof of my car. The effort puts a healthy strain on my abs. The sun is setting behind the tall stone walls of Cottonwood Canyon Road, Utah. It’s October, 7:30 p.m., and the temperature has already dropped 20 degrees in the past two hours—something my New Englander ass still doesn’t quite comprehend. It’s so dry that I don’t trust myself to start a fire. So I bundle up, settle down in the back of my Suzuki, and get ready to wait out the cold desert night. Three years ago, almost to the day, I sat in a warm Brooklyn office, staring at the scenic grid of…

At the time of writing, there are 6,270,889 posts on Instagram with the hashtag ‘vanlife’. In the time it took me to write that last sentence, nine new #vanlife posts were added. That means I’m averaging about one word per 0.6 #vanlife posts. Let that sink in. #vanlife has become a full-blown phenomenon. But how did a movement centered around disconnecting from society and taking life to the outdoors become a digital sensation? How did #vanlife even become a thing? Are #vanlifers sellouts, or are they opening the doors for people to take their lives on the road by showing them the possibilities? Van life stretches back to long before the advent of the hashtag. Some van-life archivists point to the year 1880 as the birth of van life (“van”…

We started our road trip as so many do: with an idea. My parents had recently decided to move from California back to the east coast—more specifically, Maine. I had the adventurous idea to take my dad’s van and some of our belongings to help with the move, and pitched the idea to my parents. They needed to stay in California for a few more months, so they suggested that my friend, my brother and I do the trip. So, in a place called Westlake Village, California, we spent a week trying to set up our dad’s van so that it would be suitable to drive and sleep in for a month, and then we hit the road. Our first stop was Yosemite National Park, a place that my family…

For the outdoor enthusiast, Eufaula is a diamond, shimmering in the sunshine. This was part of the draw for me. When I came to Eufaula from Clarksville, Tennessee, where I’d been staying with a friend over the winter, I was seeking a place where I could build a cabin and live off the grid. I wanted a chance to slow down, to figure out what to do with the rest of my life, and to focus on writing. I had no idea I’d be really figuring out my future by visiting my past. Coming to a small place was a bit frightening at first. I didn’t know how people would be, and I knew that I’d have my work cut out for me. I was as prepared as I could…

“Two days is not enough,” said our innkeeper, Suleyman, for the second time that evening. We were less than 24 hours into our journey and already running behind. Rosy-cheeked with wine and regional pride, Suleyman told us about his native Selçuk, a sleepy town near Ephesus, the UNESCO World Heritage Centre that we would explore the next day. In view of our perch on the rooftop terrace were thousands of years of history: down there, the Temple of Artemis; over the hill, the house of the virgin Mary; and in the starlit distance, Ephesus’s grand library. Down the road was the tomb of St. John the Apostle. And below we saw the 14th-century İsa Bey Mosque foreshadowing an early call to prayer that would pull us from sleep long before…

Love the new font on the cover [ROVA Adventure Sixteen]! But as always, it’s the articles that I love. ‘The Healing Power of Minimalism’ was my favorite from this edition. Keep being awesome! Sallie R Only in ROVA would you find an article comparing landscapes to wine [‘Wine and Wilderness,’ ROVA Adventure Sixteen]. That’s why I keep coming back to this mag! Brandon C I made a couple of new friends on the road this week, because I saw them reading ROVA out front of their trailer and struck up a conversation. Thanks for bringing us road-trippers together! Connie R Anna Elliott’s article was so refreshing to me [‘Home is Where you Left It,’ ROVA Adventure Sixteen]. I often find myself thinking of home while I’m on the road, even…

Sloane The tipping point for me to make the jump and buy my van was when my father was given six months left to live. More than anything, I wanted my dad to see the finished van, but unfortunately he wasn’t around to see me take off on the most beautiful and difficult journey I have ever experienced. The road has been my home now for 10 months, and it’s allowed me all that I need to heal and have an open space to find myself. Instagram: @searchingforsloane Bruce and Kadedra We’ve been van living full time for six months. Van living allows us to follow our passions, without the need to work for someone else full time. Although there are many perks to living on the road, the main…

Professional Red Bull mountain biker Payson McElveen considers Durango, Colorado his home. But because he competes in races all around the country, and sometimes overseas, he’s comfortable living a fairly nomadic life. In addition to racing bikes, he also runs a podcast, The Adventure Stache, named in honor of his trademark mustache. When he’s not training in Durango, Payson is likely on the road, racing or adventuring. And if he’s on the road, he’s in his van. Micah: How did you decide to give van life a go? Why did it appeal to you? Payson: I grew up driving to races throughout Texas with my mom and dad in our 1987 Volkswagen Westfalia. It was beloved, almost like a pet, until the day it burned to the ground in a…

Cycle touring has been on the rise since the ’70s and ’80s. In the earlier days, bike-packers were perceived as alien and mysterious figures. Now, the sight of someone pedaling on the side of the road, carrying heavy loads in bulky panniers, is becoming increasingly common. Bike-packing is the two-wheeled version of backpacking—that is, traveling across, around, and over a decided destination carrying everything you need—but instead of the types of (usually motorized) transport that backpackers use, the bike-packer relies on a bicycle for transportation. The term bike-packing can be somewhat reductive, since it does not just relate to one type of traveler. Rather, it incorporates a huge spectrum of roamers. Bike-packers can be anyone from the occasional weekend tourer to the nomad who has been living on his bicycle…

On our arrival, Daniel K Inouye Airport—half museum and half outdoor airport—teaches us that Native Hawaiians, Kanaka Maoli, are descendants of Polynesia who settled in Hawaii around 5th century BC. Later, Chinese and Japanese immigrants arrived in the mid 1800s as laborers for sugarcane and pineapple plantations. The assimilation is clearly visible as we walk out of the airport into sunny tropical weather. While other vacationers may see it as exotic or unusual, as a Chinese-American immigrant from New York, I find myself immediately comforted by the familiarity and excited to see all the variations of diversity. Rakan and I are in Oahu for my friend Jess’s destination wedding, after which we’ll head out for some road-tripping on the other islands. The bridal party has arrived early for a bachelorette…

Find your kin at Tiny Fest If you find yourself in San Diego between February 29th and March 1st, go check out Tiny Fest at the Del Mar Fairground. Van lifers and tiny house connoisseurs from all over the country will be gathering to show off their homes on wheels. It’s a great chance to get tips on your rig, and to meet some like-minded Earth-dwellers! www.tinyfest.events For RVers by RVers In those inevitable sticky situations when a campsite has fallen through or we haven’t quite made it as far as we thought we would, we need to find somewhere to sleep, quickly! That’s why apps like RV Parky exist. Crowdsourced from a whole community of RVers, RV Parky gives you great tips on where to park your home—including RV…

“It is of course wonderful when children want to play a long time with sand, but I was concerned…” The line above is from a preschool observation of my oldest daughter, Ariel, a few months before she was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. “So what?” I thought. “She likes sand.” Okay, she likes it a lot. But intense, all-consuming interests were nothing new to me. I’d had them my whole life. Two months later, I received the same diagnosis. My husband, Matt, and our youngest daughter, Adelia, are neurotypical. Our family of four and our two dogs have spent the last year and a half engaged in my current “special interest” of road-tripping. I grew up reading Kerouac’s On the Road and dreaming of doing exactly what Sal Paradise did.…

If you have anything to do with van life or RVing, you’ll know how quickly the community is growing. Countless new Instagram accounts pop up every day, with new travelers taking to the road, keen to share their adventures. Van life events and meetups are more and more common, and networks of like-minded people are being built across the country. A new addition to the van life scene is an event that is being planned for summer 2020, which has a particular goal in mind: promoting van life in the black community. The founders of Black Nomads Meet, vegan activist Kadedra Jones and musician Bruce Edwards Jr., have been living van life for six months, chasing that elusive dream of financial freedom, creative freedom and connection to nature. Now they…

About two hours south of Birmingham in the middle of rural Alabama lies the tiny town of Boykinknown as Gee’s Bend until 1949. Boykin is located in a tight bend of the William “Bill” Dannelly Reservoir, which is part of the Alabama River. This particular bend creates an almost complete circle, which has closed Boykin off to the outside world and has kept its population at around 100. This isolation has allowed the township to maintain its rural roots. As you wind along the narrow, country highways in the area, you may feel like you’ve been transported back in time. Tiny houses appear every so often, and cell phone service disappears. If you want to grab a bite to eat in Boykin, good luck! The one restaurant in town recently…

A few months back, I struck up a conversation on a train with two European tourists who were visiting NYC. They went on about how awestruck they were by the city and how everyone in Europe dreams of visiting New York. New York: the industrialized capital of the world. New York: the endless sea of skyscrapers. New York: the vast array of city lights that twinkle like stars above countless hordes of people. They asked me how big New York is. I responded with a question: “The state or the city?” They seemed confused by this, apparently unaware that the state and city shared a name. I went on to regale them with details of the sprawling mountains, vast bodies of water, and acres of wilderness that populate Upstate New…