His car is his castle: Geo Metro becomes cross-country sojourner’s abode
Did you ever just want to pack up and go? I’m not talking about a weekend in San Antonio. Anyone can do that. No, I’m talking about ripping up your life by the roots, stuffing into the back of your car, and hauling ass clear across the country to see what’s there for you? I did it in the summer of 1997 when I moved from Portland, OR, to Seabrook…and like Zach Crain, I also did it in a Geo Metro. (Sadly, my automotive history is somewhat checkered. I’ve also owned TWO Yugos, one purchased new off the lot. I know; what the HELL was I thinking? You don’t want to know.) For me, it was five days and about 3000 miles with my cat and half my worldly belongings. (And what does it say about a person when you can fit half you belongings into a Geo Metro?). I showed up in Houston with just a bit over $300 to my name (the sum total of my personal wealth) and no job. Things seem to have worked out reasonably well for me since.
One of the things that people don’t realize about Metros is that there is surprising amount of room in the vehicle’s interior, probably because the Metro doesn’t come with much of anything. Crain has managed to turn his Metro into the 21st-century equivalent of a conversion van…except I have no idea where he’s going to find room for a rotating bed….
Leave it to a guy from Pennsylvania to make Austin a little weirder.
In another tale of a twenty-something headed west to make his fortune in sun-drenched Southern California, Zach Crain, a slight, blond-haired former bartender and baker who looks like he’s eaten little other than pasta and Kraft Parmesan cheese for a long time, arrived in Austin on Sunday in his itty-bitty 1995 Geo Metro.
He’s converted the car into a kind of 21st Century Volkswagen bus and named it “the abode.” With green indoor-outdoor carpeting affixed to the outside of the frame (it looks a little like Astroturf), a longhorn hood ornament, a turquoise interior (he gave it a coat of house paint) and a plush leopard print bed sprawled out where the front passenger seat and back seats used to be, the Abode is something of a rolling bachelor pad.
He’s going to California, because, he says laughing, “um, well, yeah.” Translation: It’s there, it’s sunny, and I’m 21.
“I don’t have any plans, man,” he said Monday. “I go day by day.”
The car’s outfitted with everything a 21-year-old could want: Velcro curtains for a little privacy; a small plug-in grill he calls “The George”; a coffee maker and a fridge that’s just big enough for a bottle of tomato sauce, some cheese and a couple of chicken patties; and, not least, an original Nintendo console and a half-dozen games to play. He’s even built a trunk beneath the bed and some extra shelving for storage, also pointed turquoise.
Here’s to Crain finds whatever it is he’s hoping to find in California. If nothing else, he’ll always have some stories to tell….
