Humans of St. Norbert:

“After the initial quarantine and lockdown [in the spring], I really just wanted to get outdoors and figure out a way to do that. So once things started to clear up and after school was done, a friend and I went camping every single weekend, four days a week. It was something where we could spread out and we weren’t even going to camp grounds. We were doing more backcountry stuff like that so we really weren't around people which was nice. After doing that, and having the opportunity to work virtually for the college, I kind of wanted to make this something that I could continue doing and got me thinking about how I could do it next summer. So the hunt [for an RV] began during the beginning of the fall semester and I found a 1984 Toyota Dolphin. I found it in Oshkosh sitting in this guy’s yard and I was like, ‘Huh, that’s exactly what we’ve been looking for.’ We had it in the back of our minds, but we went back to look at it and the owner said it didn't run. We made him an offer of $800 and he took it. We ended up buying a $20 carburetor part and put it in and it started perfectly. I bought it with only 20,000 miles on it, which is kind of unheard of for that old of a vehicle. It was a crazy deal!

“There definitely was a lot of work that needed to be done on the inside. It’s been completely gutted, which is a fun experience for me to be able to learn how to do some of these things and expand my knowledge. I had planned to have the renovation done by the end of May to take off in June, but then I kind of started looking. I’m a huge skier and they were doing all these discounted passes because of COVID where you could go and make reservations for these resorts with a limited number of people. That was kind of a no-brainer for me. So my boyfriend and I will actually be taking the RV out west, mainly in Utah for 18 days in January, living in that and going skiing. [The RV is] not going to be completely done the way I want it, but it will be solid and ready to go for the ski trip.

“The goal is to just drive straight through until we get to Colorado. From there we are going to ski three days at resorts and then head to Utah. What I am drawn to the most about the trip is that I'll get to ski everyday, but then I get to come home to the home that I built and still wake up to those views. That’s the biggest draw for me is that you can kind of put it anywhere.” – Brianne DeLain ’23