Hathi GX: The Adventure Begins!

On May 5, 2025, Jon and I got to step foot in our new home for the first time — a massive step after five months of waiting, navigating the administrative slog of RV financing, and trying to envision our new space by watching every van tour of the Winnebago Ekko (which the Teton is built on) that we could find.

From the outside, the Teton was our dream come true. The rich green wrap with its topography and tree line design hinted at the thrill of adventure, while Owl’s suspension and off-road upgrades promised to take us there. And the inside, despite the deviations from what we had planned for Hathi Jr., was complete and ready to go (and significantly roomier than a regular Sprinter)! We were too excited to see the compromises as deterrents; they were opportunities for improvement and personalization that we were eager to take on, right after our first foray into vanlife.

Take a look inside and hear about some of our planned changes in our van tour video on YouTube!

The First GXcapade

Our first trip with the Teton was from Phoenix to Flagstaff for Overland Expo West. We were so happy to get out into nature, and drive somewhere other than suburban streets, grocery parking lots, and the ever-unpleasant I-10 where people love to pass on the right and somehow the journey always includes a portion of driving directly into the sun.

We were stoked to try everything out in our new rig — the kitchen, the convertible bathroom, the beds, and the heater and air conditioning, all the comforts of modern living in the middle of a forest! And most importantly, we were excited to see how Celeste would do on her first trip.

Every night for the first two weeks we had the van, we took Celeste down to sit with her for 10-30 minutes to get her used to the space. It wasn’t the most pleasant endeavor as the Phoenix heat was already on the rise, especially inside a vehicle that had been sitting uncovered in a parking lot all day. So it was hot, and the air conditioner was loud, and poor Celeste spent most of the time wide-eyed and seeking out corners to tuck herself into.

But despite the questionable start, Celeste took to actual travel surprisingly well! We learned that she loves seeing trees, sniffing the fresh air, and that she is mostly agreeable to new situations, as long as we’re with her and she can follow her regular meal and bedtime routine.

Bumps in the Road

We left our weekend at Overland Expo on a real high note, inspired by the talks and classes we attended at the event and by the new friends we made at camp who shared stories and learnings from their time on the road. We were feeling confident that our decision to move into the Teton and travel full-time was a good one for our little family, Celeste included.

This inspiration carried us through the next six weeks of nonstop preparation. We began making modifications to the Teton’s interior based on discoveries from our first trip. We listed Hathi Jr. for sale. We sold and gave away all our plants and furniture, and whatever other items one accumulates when they have the space to do so. We began route planning and moving our things into the van.

Transitioning from typical apartment living to van life is not something that works perfectly right away. Despite whittling down our possessions to what we thought was a minimal amount, we quickly found out that what looks like not a lot in an apartment sure fits differently in a van.

Moving is always stressful, and this time was no exception. Jon and I pulled two all-nighters in a row getting everything packed, the apartment cleaned, and trying to solve the nightmare puzzle of fitting everything into our new, much smaller, home. It would have been stressful enough just being as exhausted as we were, but we also had the fun constraints of working in the dark and making as little noise as possible, since it was after midnight on the evening of the second-all nighter and we had to respect the apartment building’s quiet hours. We had also found, and oh-so carefully packed and repacked, these “fantastic” storage bins that fit perfectly in the rear storage of the Teton… perfectly, that is, when they were empty. Once loaded, they expanded just enough to no longer fit and we had to chuck them in the coach and figure something else out the next day.

We were grateful we were still the proud owners of two vans! Hathi Jr. was coming with us on the first leg of the journey, since we hadn’t yet found an interested buyer and we had some personal effects to move into storage while we travel (souvenirs, dishes from my Grammy, and other such precious items we can’t yet bear to part with). Fortunately there was some room among the prized possessions and the parts we hadn’t gotten to installing in the first van and would be sold with it, so we were able to defer some of the packing until after we left the apartment we were supposed to have already vacated.

8am the morning following the day our apartment lease ended, Jon and I drove two precariously packed Sprinters very carefully to his folks’ house, where we collapsed on the couch from the exhaustion of the previous two nights. Once it got dark and “cooled down” enough to be outside, we unloaded and repacked everything into some semblance of sanity, and tried to get a good night’s sleep for a long drive the next day.

You can’t go off-road without hitting some bumps, and overcoming them is all part of the adventure. Next stop, California!