“Home is behind, the world ahead.” We’ve chosen a van name!

“I will give you a name,” he said to it, “and I shall call you… Vandalf Eddie Van MoonVance Nirvana.” But Vandalf for short.

Thanks to everyone who sent us suggestions for our camper van – nearing completion! There were so many excellent choices that it took us a while to contemplate all their implications. We began our name quest with “Vincent,” as in “See that Vincent Van Go!” as well as “Vandalf the White,” which I dismissed immediately because I’m not a fan of Lord of the Rings.

Other suggestions put forward included: Evangeline, Nirvana, Vance, Kathryn and Bill’s excellent AdVANture, Vanessa, Vanna, Jack (Kerouac), GaliVANting, Vantastic, WASP, Moondance, Vanadu, Vandemic, Tripper, Morrison, and Eddie. We carefully considered each one, and I did some research to find out more background.

We loved the music references: Eddie Van Halen, Van Morrison and his song “Moondance,” and of course Nirvana. Bill has played music from all of them in his various bands and he calls me his “Brown-Eyed Girl” (also a Van Morrison song). Vandemic is cleverly appropriate to these COVID times and quite a few people lobbied for Vance. Vanadu turned out to be not just a play on the legendary Xanadu palace of Kubla Khan and the actual mansion in the movie “Citizen Kane” but also a whimsical art house and car named Vanadu made from historical objects, antiques and scraps of out-and-out junk.

But much to my surprise, and Bill’s, I kept gravitating towards Vandalf because I love all the quotations about travel and journeys and exploration and quests that have come from Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

“Home is behind, the world ahead, and there are many paths to tread.” This line comes from the first of the LOTR trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring, in a song-poem called “A Walking Song.” Gandalf – that wise wizard – also says it in the movie “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.” All of this I gleaned from Wikipedia and other websites, since I have never successfully stayed awake for the movies or read any of the books, except for The Hobbit way back in high school.

“According to Don D. Elgin, A Walking Song is ‘a song about the roads that go ever on until they return at last to the familiar things they have always known.’” That reflects the name of my travel blog – The long road home – as well as one of the basic reasons that Bill and I love to travel. Exploring and learning about other places and cultures helps you learn what’s special about home.

Setting off on a journey, as we plan to do in our van once we’ve finished converting it into a camper, is always exciting but can also be “a dangerous business” as Bilbo Baggins warned Frodo. And certainly travelling during a pandemic comes with perils that few could have foreseen. We’ve added masks, Lysol wipes and a huge bottle of Purell to our usual packing list, but we also have a plan for self-sufficiency in case we find ourselves in a place or time when we must self-isolate for 14 days.  

Gandalf the white wizard is a force for good, who protects the travellers on their journey. He’s old but still powerful and vital. All this describes our van as well – it’s a 2011 vehicle with a V-8 engine but it still works well. While we’re camping in Alberta and British Columbia, Vandalf will protect us from grizzly bears and our backs from sleeping on the cold ground.  

We hope to learn as much about Canada and ourselves as the hobbits did after completing their quest: learning to overcome obstacles and strange creatures, function in unfamiliar or threatening situations, suffer through bad weather, avoid death, and push beyond our comfort zone. Physical journeys are usually metaphors for character development and personal growth, and what travellers learn can also be used to the betterment of their community once they return. We welcome all that, although perhaps not the goblins, orcs or Smaug the dragon.

“He [Bilbo] declines heroism and chooses instead to live a relatively quiet life when he returns home, but it is a life enriched by the self-knowledge he achieves on his journey,” according to a Cliff Notes essay about The Hobbit.

We’re still working on the self-knowledge, although I know that our travels since September 2019 have taught us patience, resourcefulness, faith in the kindness of strangers, how to truly relax, and the knowledge that things have a way of working out. We’ve also learned that life can simply surprise you. As with the rest of the world, COVID pitched a curve ball at us, so we’re going to explore our own country instead of others. For now.

But wherever we go, we will be together, safe and sound in Vandalf.

“Go where you must go, and hope!” said Gandalf.