A few weeks ago while doing a clients hair I brought up my Mobile Salon idea. I talked about the UltraVan we got and how we brought it to the house and were going to start working on it soon. She began to tell me about her brother in-law that restores vintage buses and vans. I thought that was such a random coincidence. She said he was picking her up and would I like to meet him, well yes of course I would!
I met and spoke with Stephan Shay for no longer than ten minutes but immediately felt this was serendipitous encounter. I asked if maybe he could come by to see the UV and let us pick his brain. Fast forward to last week when we began to have some issues with storing the UV at our house. Dan and I were both trying to figure out what our next step would be. Put the engine back in and take it back to an RV storage lot? Try to bribe our neighbors with cash and/or cookies? Although these were both viable options, none of it felt right. I really didn’t want to take one step forward and two steps back. Then I thought it might be a long shot but why not reach out to Stephan to see if he may be able to store the UV. I figured while the engine was being re-built we could get an expert opinion and start laying out a plan for the interior of the UV. When I called Stephan and told him the situation we were having he heard me out and more importantly really helped us out! To our delight he said he had space for the UV and that we could bring it up that weekend. Which was great because at that point we had it parked on the street for longer than 72 hours and were just waiting for parking enforcement to write us a ticket.
So onto the next step of actually getting it to Stephan’s shop, which is about 70 miles away. I had heard that AAA wouldn’t take a vehicle without a motor in it, I’m not sure why, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I called AAA first thing Saturday morning and said my RV broke down. I had to give a detailed description of the UV including that fact that it CANNOT be towed and needed to be loaded on a flatbed and secured by its tires only. The UltraVan is super light, only about 3500 lbs and made primarily with aluminum and fiber glass. A few phone calls and a couple hours later a flatbed pulls up, a 50 ft one to be exact. Why? I wish I knew… The first thing the tow truck driver did was get on his back to look under the vehicle, which clearly has no motor in it. Meanwhile I’m biting my fingernails, hoping and praying we can get this thing out of here. He pops up and says wow, this thing is too cool… WHEW!
I got to steer the UV up this insanely long flatbed as it was being pulled up. The whole time it felt as though I was going to drive the UV right off the side of it. Once we finally got it locked and loaded we hit the road. It was a little nerve racking but mostly awesome getting to see the UV up on that flatbed. I saw so many people slowing down next to it to see just what exactly that big marshmallow vehicle was. As we got a little closer to the shop the roads became narrower and less paved. Once we reached the shop we realized the truck was not going to make it down the driveway and that the UV had to be pushed. I assured everyone that it was really light and if I steer we could make it. Within a few minutes she was parked in her new home. Stephan and his assistant joked the UV is so light that we could’ve just pushed it from Long Beach. Which is pretty accurate.
Having the UltraVan has already brought so much adventure into our lives. I’m sure there will be many more ups and downs but I guess that’s the journey we’re all on.
If you would like to check out Stephan’s work, go to his website – http://www.epochcollective.co/
