Alex Mercer 
There is a particular kind of excitement that comes with hitching a used popup camper to your vehicle for the first time. Maybe you found a deal on Craigslist, or perhaps you are dusting off a camper that has been sitting in a driveway for two or three years. Either way, the moment you crank … Read more
There’s a moment when the ferry pulls away from Mackinaw City and the engine noise fades into the wind off Lake Huron — that’s when it hits you. No cars. No traffic lights. No honking. Just water, limestone bluffs, and the distant clip-clop of horses on a dirt road. I’ve traveled to a lot of … Read more
When my team and I loaded up the SUV for a two-week camping circuit through Utah and Arizona last spring, I had a duffel bag full of power banks, a tangle of charging cables, and a nagging feeling it wasn’t going to be enough. Three days in, somewhere between Capitol Reef and a dirt road … Read more
There’s a particular kind of misery that comes with standing on a street corner in a foreign city while your umbrella turns itself inside out. I know this feeling intimately. Over the past two years, my team and I have chased monsoon seasons across Southeast Asia, sprinted through sudden downpours in Lisbon, and gotten caught … Read more
When you’re building a campervan electrical system, the connections between your battery cables and terminals are the lifeline of everything that powers your off-grid life. A loose lug, a exposed copper terminal, or a vibration-loosened connection can leave you stranded miles from the nearest cell signal — or worse, start a fire in the vehicle … Read more
There’s a moment when you’re driving across the Verrazano Bridge onto Assateague Island when the world shifts. The strip malls vanish. The traffic noise fades. And suddenly it’s just you, a narrow ribbon of asphalt, and salt marsh stretching to the horizon. Then a wild horse walks across the road like it owns the place … Read more
There’s a particular moment every traveler knows. You walk into your hotel room after fourteen hours of transit, drop your bag, scan the walls, and count the outlets. Two. Maybe three if you’re lucky, and one of them is behind the nightstand in a gap so narrow you’d need a child’s hand to reach it. … Read more
There’s a particular moment on the Multnomah Falls viewpoint bridge when the mist hits your face and the 620-foot cascade drowns out every other sound. I’ve stood there in July, shoulder-to-shoulder with two hundred strangers all jostling for the same selfie angle. But last September, I had it to myself for nearly ten minutes. Just … Read more
There’s a moment on Minnesota’s Highway 61 — somewhere past Two Harbors, when the birch trees thin out and the lake opens up on your left like an inland sea — where you stop checking your phone. Not because you lost signal (though you will). Because there’s nothing on a screen that competes with 31,000 … Read more
When you’re building out a campervan, the big decisions get all the attention. Which fridge? What battery bank? How much insulation? But it’s the small, thoughtful upgrades — the ones nobody sees — that end up changing how the van actually feels to live in. And few things are more satisfying than repurposing a factory … Read more