Foster Huntington - Van Life: Your Home on the Road

Copyright 2017 by Foster Huntington

Cover design by Amanda Kain

Photo credit by Road for Greta

Cover copyright 2017 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

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Note that there is a contributor list that should be considered an extension of this copyright page.

ISBN 978-0-316-55646-0

E3-20170914-JV-PC

Contributors

Stephanie Jewel Artuso

James Barkman

Cyrus Bay Sutton

Sarah Bergland

Martina Bisaz

Ian Boll

Joanna Boukhabza

Eric Bournot

Marianne Brown

David Browning

Taylor Bucher

Jennifer Callahan

Jace Carmichael

Camille Casado

Sean Collier

Capucine Couty

Callum Creasy

Hayato Doi

Tim Eddy

Lara Edington

Tommy Erst

Tiphaine Euvrard

Hannah Fuller

Mark Galloway

Christine Gilbert

Bill Goddard

Ian Harris

Clifton Hart

Alex Herbig

Jens Hruschka

Garrett Hystek

Brook James

Stijn Jensen

Isaac Johnston

Jonathan Edward Johnston

Gabriela Jones

Daniel Kalinowski

Peter Kappen

Charles M. Kern

Grant Koontz

Greg Laudenslager

Austin LeMoine

Brett Lewis

Jennifer Lorton

Ryan Lovelace

Forrest Mankins

Randy Martin

Megan Matthers

Ben Matthews

Callie McMullin

Mali Mish

Kathleen Morton

Jay Nelson

Amy Nicholson

Ross Nicol

Zachery Nigel

Florian Obsteld

Bec ORourke

Jessica Perez

Mike Pham

John Power

Svend Rands

Frankie Ratford

Road for Greta

Schuyler Robertson

Sergio Garcia Rodriguez

Norm Ruth

Jane Salee

Blakeney Sanford

Joel Schroeder

Mary Schroeder

Sarissa Sevincgil

Ben Shumlin

Casey Siers

Evan Skoczenski

Adam Smith

Logan Smith

Michael Stevens

J. R. Switchgrass

Sean Talkington

Freddy Thomas

Peter Thuli

Beau van der Werf

Rene van Pelt

Julia Vasilevskaya

Dillon Vought

Emma Walker

David Waugh

Grace Wexler

Gunnar Widowski

Thomas Woodson

I would like to thank Al James for editing and compiling the interviews in this book, and Randy Martin for wrangling and editing the hundreds of photo submissions. This book would never have happened without the energy and efforts of the contributors from around the world. Their passion and amazing photos made this book possible. Thanks to my friends and family for being constants in my ever-changing life and for telling me to go for it when I left my life in New York and hit the road.

Foster Huntington is a photographer and filmmaker from Skamania, Washington. In 2011, he left his fashion job in New York City and moved into a camper van. For the next three years he traveled around North America, driving some 120,000 miles, surfing and camping. He began the popular Tumblr account and hashtag van-life.net and self-published a book, Home Is Where You Park It, with photos from his time on the road. He now lives in a treehouse in the Columbia River Gorge in Washington and works on short films and photo projects in his studio.

Volkswagen Westfalia (Cowboy Jackpot), Great Teton, Wyoming; contributed by Christine Gilbert

1986 Volkswagen Vanagon, Ventura, California; contributed by Evan Skoczenski

1976 Volkswagen Westfalia (Sunshine), Kansas; contributed by J.R. Switchgrass

2008 Ford Transit (Rusty), Hawkes Bay, New Zealand; contributed by Jonathan Edward Johnston

1986 Volkswagen Vanagon Wolfsburg Edition (Penelope the Westy), Big Sur, California; contributed by Gunnar Widowski

I hope the photos, stories, and interviews in this book will plant a seed or inspire a trip, or maybe even a bigger lifestyle change of your own. Mark Twain famously said, Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. I agree with this wholeheartedly. My best times have been behind the wheel of a van, looking for a place to park for the night, eager to wake up with the sunrise, and continue on down the road.

FOSTER HUNTINGTON

1984 Volkswagen Transporter Westfalia (Popo),

Yosemite National Park, California

Contributed by Joanna Boukhabza and Eric Bournot

Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada;

Gothic, Colorado;

Baja California, Mexico

Escape from New York: How my first van led to two years on the road, eighty thousand miles on the odometer, and a whole new way of living

Popping off the lid of my burrito bowl, I unsheathed the plastic fork and knife from their plastic covering and mixed the layers of beans, rice, and meat with a deft flip of the wrist. Leaning back in my Aeron chair, I took the first bite. It was by no means up to the standards of a West Coast burrito, but it was still virtually unparalleled compared to the other lunch offerings of midtown Manhattan. Chewing with satisfaction, I minimized my work email, opened up a fresh browser window, and went to thesamba.com, a forum and classified listing for Volkswagen vans.