It all started the first week of August in 2016, on our way home from work on the 5:13 train, express from Penn Station to Babylon. We sat together and chatted, talked about our previous weekend events. Justina, fresh from a family camping trip and myself, tired of having to be away from my son Vice to fulfill work commitments. We talked about how we knew each of us were destined to be entrepreneurs and how one day our ultimate career goals were to own our own businesses. We continued to toss back and forth ideas; one idea better than the next. Finally it hit us, a full restored vintage camper turned boutique. Hitch LI was officially born.
Dating back to our earliest high school memories, for a total of sixteen years of friendship. Justina and I were involved in the same after school activities; we both love a good laugh, and of course pushing the fashion limits to the max. Picture this, circa 2002, a full on island hunt for purple tights to complete Justina's ensemble for tomorrows outfit. If you can understand the necessity of perfectly completing an outfit at a moment’s notice, you've met a friend for lifetime. We will have to dig out some photos for you to fully understand. We wore head to toe Abercrombie; A|X with huge neon plaid shorts, suspenders, distressed denim, designer t-shirts with rips, the first to ever wear UGG boots, and always a designer bag. Our love for fashion went on to our college years. I attended LIM College and convinced Justina to transfer in for the start of our junior year. I transferred out to FIT, leaving Justina at LIM. Probably our biggest fight, until recently when I bought the camper without showing Justina. Trust me, the opportunity was too good to pass up and I knew she couldn't be mad at me for long.
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After obsessively searching online, I stumbled upon a 1964 Shasta in Medford, NY. I took a ride out on Sunday afternoon with my dad, Vice, and our mechanic to check out HITCH. The conditions of the location were definitely less than ideal and that's putting it lightly. I had the craziest thoughts go through my head. The super sketchy location looked like a possible crime scene for the next victim of the craigslist killer. I kept calm. I knew this is what we wanted. This was our dream. Looking back on it, it was a good thing Justina didn't come. She would have been screaming at me to "turn this f**king car around."
When I laid eyes on Hitch, I immediately fell in love!!! It was exactly what I had envisioned so I knew it was time to play hard ball. I got the price down 60% of asking, plus delivery!! That is how you bargain!! I (well mostly my dad) wanted to make sure the bearing worked, so if the seller could deliver it all the way to my house from a half an hour away, we were in good shape. The seller also kept on asking about my son. He kept saying he must have my wife's eyes since they are a beautiful blue and mine are brown. I usually would've have been quick to comeback with a "no, he has my husband’s eyes" and really catch him off guard, but the fear of the unknown area in the middle shanty town, helped me to keep my mouth shut and Justina became my wife!
The previous owner and I made arrangements for delivery on Monday the 8th to deliver the camper at 7pm. Let me say that again - 7pm! No show. I started to fill Justina in on how my meeting went with the seller and how I told him that she was my wife. We had a couple of good laughs and before you know, it was 7:30pm. Still no camper. Now we get nervous again and another murder mystery played out. It's really a scam to rob us. I called around 8pm to check his ETA. He just left. Now the nerves calmed down. We check the clock again, it’s 8:30, still no show. I call again, twice. He doesn't pick up. Now we are now in full on panic mode. There are even talks of buying a shot gun! (Joking, of course). We talk about how it's now only a matter of time before he actually shows up, but not to deliver the camper, but to come and rob and kill for the money. 9:00pm comes around and Justina is getting ready to leave but decided to give the guy one more call. He picks up and tells us his location. We have no idea where that is, but we still continue to wait. At 9:30, we see the headlights of the van with the camper trailing behind. Full on celebration commences. We run out of the house, Justina screaming "Oh honey!! This my dream campa!!" in an Peg Bundy kind of accent that I've never heard her do before, to really help enforce the story of new nuptials.
One emotional seller and all his great camping stories, paired with a few glasses of Roscoto wine later, we finally signed over the registration on a folding table from my garage in complete darkness of the night.
We cannot wait to give this '64 Shasta life again. Welcome HITCH LI!!!!