The #Vanlife Business Is Booming

The #Vanlife Business Is Booming

Coronavirus is just a distant memory while zipping around in a several-hundred-thousand-dollar custom van on the open road.

Leland Gilmore, with his dogs Oakley and George, near Mount Hood in Oregon. "These are little escape vessels, escape pods,“ said Mr. Gilmore, whose business, Benchmark Vehicles makes custom vans for up to $300,000, van not included.Credit...Andy CochraneJuly 3, 2020, 3:00 a.m. ET

I do not own a car or a house or even a bicycle. Nor am I prone to following Instagram trends. Yet for weeks I have had an obsession: getting rid of all my possessions, breaking the apartment lease, and moving with my dog and my girlfriend into a tricked-out van.

The things I would do in a van! Coronavirus would be just a faint memory in a van on the open road.

As with most strange impulses that feel unique, this quirky-seeming urge is anything but. The #vanlife business is booming.

Dozens of new companies are popping up to rent or sell retrofitted sleeper vans, some now with yearlong wait-lists. Apps are surfacing to help these van dwellers find legal parking. Big R.V. park conglomerates, whose stocks have soared, are starting to eye the new interest and figure out ways to capitalize. And