Some tidbits of how I came into possession of the Mantis Overland: For years I have looked askance at #vanlifers and friends who have given up on traditional camping for trailers or RVs. I’m a longtime minimalist who wouldn’t even bring a pillow on an RV trip (camping is for the tough guy!), But the pandemic has forced me to rethink my asceticism. My sons are too young to be vaccinated and we wanted to avoid unnecessary exposure to strangers. With the Mantis, we were able to cook all of our own meals, set up camp quickly and easily, and have a home base once we arrived in Vermont. We would be camping on the lake property that my mother-in-law Cassandra owns, a small orchard with an outdoor kitchen and a dilapidated barn but currently no house. If we wanted to make the roughly 2,000 mile trip from Colorado to Vermont – and we did – camping was no longer an end in itself, but the only possible way for us to travel this summer.