Galactic Adventures

Hello, Storytellers! Our 'crew' just got back from one of the biggest wholesale shows of the season - maybe you caught a sneak peek of what we're launching in a few months?! (No idea what I’m alluding to? Go take a peek at our Instagram account.) 

Our 2024 event season is approaching a close but we still have a few awesome gatherings on our radar – be sure to review “Upcoming Events” at the bottom of this issue and we’ll hope to see you on the road! 

As always, if you have a story you would like to share or a photo you would like to see featured, please don’t hesitate to reach out — emma.walsmith@storytelleroverland.com. 

STOrientation with David Moorleghem

A Letter from Victoria Jean Buckman

I work at Sunshine State RV, the #1 Class B dealership in the state of Florida, #3 in the US. I was excited when we recently took on the Storyteller line. I am all about your philosophy; in fact, I use it as inspiration in my photography. One of my passions is astrophotography. How fortunate am I that I can blend my work and my hobby? 

One of the most notable vehicles we've sold is the GXV HILT, selling three already since onboarding with Storyteller. I have always wanted to photograph one with the Milky Way rising, but the timing just never worked out. I had made the plan to shoot one of the MODE Vans instead, planning the perfect evening when I knew the Milky Way would be rising over the landscape of the rugged construction where our new store is being built (a few short blocks away). When I learned we'd be able to showcase the GXV NEXT that was arriving at our store, I was thrilled, hoping the timing would work out to use that vehicle instead of a van. And wouldn't you know... the stars all aligned, leading to this incredible image, just like I imagined!

4 Years of GoCamp with The Sally Ride

What is the opposite of being confined to your couch breastfeeding a newborn 20 times a day? Cross country camping road trip of course! As we hunkered down with our newborn in 2017 an epic family adventure took over my postpartum daydreams. It went like this, when our kid turned five, we’d hit the road and do a big loop around the country before our son started school. I shared the wild idea with my husband, Alex, and he was all in. 

Over the next few years, we talked about the dream as if it would really happen, hoping to fake it till we made it. We did a lot of imagining and exploring, but hadn’t exactly worked out many of the details, like: What would our ride and camping situation be? Where would we find it? How would we finance it? Would we do a custom build? Would we DIY a big old school bus? Who could say?

We started by going to a few RV/Campervan expos, and ruled out a teardrop. We toured two custom build campervan factories; the process seemed long and arduous, decision fatigue and wrong choices felt inevitable. We hoped to get away with something fairly small, so we rented a Mercedes Metris outfitted by PeaceVans for a week and took a test run. It was GREAT!!….for a week, probably a little too small for several months. We narrowed down our criteria to a van that rode and slept three people, fit in a normal parking spot, would be comfortable for a longer trip, and was already converted. We scoured van rental sites, Pinterest, and Craigslist and felt like we were not yet close to something that could work. 

Summer 2020, three and a half years down, one point five to go, and no van in sight. Insert Emma and Jason Walsmith stopping through Seattle to visit their family (our Seattle family). Emma’s brother said, “Emma and Jason just found the perfect camper van for your trip, you have to come see it.” After all the looking we’d done I was a bit skeptical, however, once we toured Falkor Van and heard The Walsmith’s take, we knew the Storyteller Classic would be the van to make our road trip dreams a reality. Our van was on order within days. The 2021 Classic Mode arrived three months later, before the supply chain mayhem hit. Serendipitous timing! The van also worked perfectly as our pandemic housing and transportation to visit far away family and friends safely the next few years.

Shortly after our son turned five, April of 2022, we set out on our dream trip: Four months, a loop around the country in our van, The Sally Ride, named after our cat and steady companion who had recently died at age 22. 

Starting in Seattle, we made it all the way down to the Florida keys and up to Acadia National Park. Other favorites were Crater Lake, Joshua Tree, Chaco Canyon, Vermont, The New River Gorge in West Virginia, Kennedy and Johnson Space Centers, Niagara Falls, Charleston, St. Augustine, and Savannah. Visiting many family and friends along the way and checking in with our midwest cohort as we looped back to Seattle was also a highlight. Truly the trip of a lifetime. 

In order for our family to financially justify owning the van before and after our big trip, we knew we’d want to share it with other people. It also felt sad to see The Sally Ride sitting idle looking forlorn in the driveway. As a long time Airbnb host, sharing our van with other campers was an obvious and exciting idea. We started doing some research into which sites would be best and then Emma came through again placing fortune at our doorstep. She shared a reference for a person she’d just met at a van show, Deborah, the founder of GoCamp. 

Deborah took a call right away. GoCamp’s web design and high touch customer service blew us away. It made going it alone on another rv sharing site seem silly. And having now worked with GoCamp for four years, I can say with 100% certainty that going it alone on another site would have been a mistake. When tricky things pop up on rentals, GoCamp has held our hand and helped to find the best solution for us and our renters. 

The dozens of people we’ve met renting out our van through GoCamp have been incredible. Meeting and connecting with travelers from across the country over a love of adventure and vans is a true pleasure. The adventure vibes and energy flowing is palpable. From the first phone call to help the renter plan their trip, to getting the van stocked up for their individual needs, thoroughly orienting them to the van in person and then seeing photos and hearing stories from their trips. Their travels inspire our family’s future adventures, and we get to camp vicariously when we are here at home. 

The planning, stories, camping and adVANtures will carry on indefinitely for us and them! And we’re so there for it all!

Happenings at HQ: Gearing up for Vannonball Run!

Overland Gothic - upping the ante!