[Published: February 14, 2023]

By Kim Ratcliff

The sun melted tangerine into the Arizona sky, signaling it was time to find camp. Six months into a year of solo travel in a blue Chevy Astro van across the U.S., Sarah Gooding, a beam line operations & design engineer at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL), had spent the day mountain biking in Sedona, and was looking forward to a quiet night.

After driving through a campground with picturesque sites along a river, Sarah found all the spots were taken. She circled and scoured the grounds a second time, this time noticing an attractive man with a dog and a white van parked in the corner of the last site. Although the look on his face said keep driving, Sarah was undeterred. A self-described “smiley person,” she rolled down her window and called, “Mind if I share?”  The man welcomed Sarah, a native Australian, to sit by the campfire and introduced her to his dog, Cleo, a sweet pitbull. Dan and Sarah talked all night. 

In the morning, they exchanged information, then said goodbye. Over the next six months, they met up across the U.S., including Flagstaff, for a ski adventure to celebrate Dan’s birthday. Soon, the duo realized they were compatible and decided to join forces.

Sarah and Dan traveled together for the first time in one van for three weeks through Baja, Mexico. That was in 2017. In 2018 they stopped traveling, started their careers, and moved in together. Now happily married, the couple still adventures in a van as often as possible. To share their love of adventure, they even started a van rental business together called VanUp. 

On Valentine's Day, they’re headed to Lake Tahoe for a little snowboarding. And you guessed it; they plan to stay in a van. “You go and you literally don’t spend any money on lodging. We take all our own food, cook in the van, and drink our own beer,” said Sarah.

If you’re looking for a four-wheeled adventure, she recommends van-friendly Lake Tahoe for its National forests that don’t require reservations. Another adventure is California’s national parks – Yosemite, Sequoia, Joshua Tree –  or Big Sur.  “The best part of van life is you don’t have to make plans. Just stock the fridge, strap on your bikes, and go,”  she said.