I’m sitting in the Dallas airport and OMG I miss my van! If there’s anyone out there who’s actually reading these post, you my recall that I’ve been toying with (and trying out) a few other forms of transportation. Wanting to get to Big Bend National Park (in southern Texas) from northern NH, I’d decided that flying was the faster and easier option… but as I sit in the insanity of the Dallas airport, I’ve gotta say - I miss my van! (And yes, I’m regretting that decision. )
While it’s true that flying is faster. In fact, I’ll be in Midland, Texas, picking up a rental minivan and on my way to Big Bend National Park by 4PM today. But wow, are airports stressful!
Rushing to catch my 6am flight, I missed breakfast and no food was served on the 3.5 hour flight to Dallas. Did I want Coke? No, I did not. Packed in like sausages, shoulder -to-shoulder, 36 rows deep, on this morning’s 737, my anxiety level was flying high even before we took off. Don’t even ask about the passenger density on Sky Bridge shuttle which moves you between gates in Dallas. And yes, I am pretty sure I’m the only one in the entire state of Texas wearing a mask.
Now sitting at the gate for my connecting flight, I am once again shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers. Cellphone blaring videos and multilingual conversations surround me. Yep...you guessed it, I miss my van.
Bob Wells so brilliantly states: “We trade comfort for freedom”. But is this freedom? At the moment, it seems that’s a tough question to answer.
While air travel does, in fact, give you the freedom to be anywhere at any time, there is striking loss of personal freedom - at least temporarily along the way. Flight times, connections, delays, crowds, food choices, personal space are suddenly beyond our control. To get through TSA check points, we sacrifice our shoes, empty or pockets, and stand in ridiculous poses. We submit to revealing photos. We allow our toothpaste to be confiscated. And truth be told, I’ve never seen a bathroom in an RV or van smaller than what I experienced on the plane this morning.
Van travel, on the other hand, provides a safe haven for your personal space. Honestly, after 6 years of predominantly van travel, I’m shocked by my need for (or expectation of ) personal space, and how much anxiety I’m experiencing being in small crowded spaces post-covid. There are literally people coughing and sneezing everywhere around me - and even masked, I’m uncomfortable. No one coughs on you (unless you let them) in a van. Instead, the van provides a safe and consistent space - a protected space, even in the craziest of traffic jams.
Van’s also provide food and coffee at all times - your food - the food you like, the food that doesn’t make you sick. (Drinking Coke rather than coffee at 6am, for example, would NOT happen in my van).
I’m also shocked by how bothered I am to be trapped in the airport - unable to access fresh air. After driving for hours, I often open the windows or stop for a quick walk just to get outside in the van. Sitting at the Dallas airport with a nearly 5 hour layover, however, there is no such option. (Unless of course, I want to subject myself to TSA again - and just FYI - I do not.)
So will driving with all the comforts of home outweigh the speed of air travel in the future? Perhaps. But if the question is one of freedom… I’m not 100% sure that the van doesn’t actually win… I suppose there are pros and cons to both modes of transportation, but I highly suspect the last hour of this layover will be spent searching RV Trader for a new van!
That said, I am curious to see if I will once again sing the praises of air travel once I’m released from the Midland airport and happily driving down the rural roads of southern Texas. As it stands now, with a sleeping barefoot Chinese woman snoring at my side, I’m thinking I will not.. Perhaps once you've been bitten by the vanlife bug, there is no going back...
But I’ve also learned to never say never.
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