Land Dolphin
At the end of last year, Legs and I decided to spend a few months doing a work for stay at a hiker hostel on the A.T., Woods Hole. When coronavirus hit, we quickly realized the hiker season was shot and we wouldn’t be having the experience we wanted to have; you can’t serve hikers when there are no hikers. So, we started cooking up a plan.
Legs found a Toyota Dolphin for sale in Alabama on Craigs List. It looked like the perfect project, the owner said it ran well and the pictures looked good. Then we spoke to a man who rented a few RV spots on his 4 acre property in Austin, TX. He said there were a few full time RVers that stayed there who worked on other project vehicles on the property. He even said we could bring our chickens with us! It sounded like the perfect place to wait out the quarantine and do a remodel of the Dolphin.
You might be wondering… why the Dolphin? Better gas mileage, reliability, super rad vintage look, all available for a driver with a simple class C license. Ontop of that, Legs and I already knew we could co-habitate in a 4 ft by 7 ft tent. How much space could two people really need? Turns out for us and our pups, a 21 ft Toyota Dolphin is perfect.
We packed up our lives, our dogs, and our chickens into Legs’ Ford Escape and took off for Alabama. With a brief detour to Asheville to visit my family and a 15 hour drive later, we crossed the border. “So babe… what if this thing stinks,” Legs joked somewhat seriously. “Don’t even say that. Its going to be great and we are going to love it!” I exclaimed with intention.
Once at the meeting spot, we pulled up to the RV and inspected it a bit. We quickly realized the vehicle was about as flimsy as the wooden frame it was built on. Yeah, you read that right. With another half dozen things wrong that the advertisement never mentioned and the unreliability of the thing to drive even half way around the block, we passed on the opportunity.
Disappointment in tow, we quickly scrambled to the nearest hotel, exhausted and frustrated. After smuggling our chirping pets into the bathtub, we hit the Austin Craigs List in search of a new home. We weren’t terribly hopeful; Dolphins are hard to come by and in high demand when they do show up online. That’s when we saw the ad for our Dolphin. Armed with a copious amount of hand sanitizer and the handmade face masks our friend from the hiker hostel had made us, we took off again across the country.
After another full day of driving, we arrived at a library parking lot a few hours outside of Austin. We approached our dolphin right as John pulled up in his large truck (because, Texas). With the vague likeness of Leo from That 70s Show, he showed us around the dolphin. I could see him smiling behind his face mask as we told him about our plans, and mentioned the chickens in the back of our car. “Man, I lived in this thing for 6 years travelling full time,” he said. “I was hoping it would go to a couple like you guys. She’s got some adventure left in her.”
Despite the various leaks and blemishes, our 1990 Toyota Dolphin is the perfect new home. It came with a solar set up that can comfortably power enough fans to leave the dogs in the rv while we make quick shopping trips. We are still considering upgrades such as more batteries for the solar set up, a compost toilet, an outdoor shower, and repainting the interior. The real kicker was that this Dolphin was only a couple grand more than the Dolphin we almost purchased in Alabama. And it was 6 years newer!
We were certainly very lucky with our Dolphin shopping, even with the unlucky Alabama detour. Legs and I tell each other every day how fortunate we were to find our home. John had told us there were 2 other people scheduled to look at the Dolphin later that day; a time frame we wouldn’t have beat if we hadn’t driven the entire day to make it there. I’m a skeptic when it comes to fate, but I sure believe in luck.