Today Sig and I took delivery of a 24’ steel grey, Mercedes Sprinter van in Austin, Texas, a long way from home. We ordered it a couple of months ago after endless nights of fretting and more fretting and finally giving up saying, “Why the hellnot?”

We spot it on the lot right away. It is the only steel grey among a herd of white. And it really is something.

We climb around in it for a while, and then go in and get about the business of finalizing things, like the size of the refrigerator, the arrangement of the cabinets, the color of the carpet, the soul of the toilet.

Paul, the absolute conversion coordinator, talks about toilets: the cassette and the porta-potty. The cassette toilet is a stable, predictable fixture that makes people feel at home while the porta-potty is flexible and encourages diversity and spontaneity. The two are the same size, style and general demeanor. But water is pumped to the cassette toilet and hauled to the other.

We finally choose the porta-potty! Imaginary confetti dumps from the ceiling, we all gaze up and smile at the positive consequence of our choice.

I don’t much remember anything after that.