Trip Two Thoughts...

The biggest problem I ran into on this trip was that the second battery went dead. To make matters worse, the second battery went dead right as I was preparing coffee on our first morning out. In my book, really good effortless coffee is one of the perks (heh) of having power in the woods. Even when I don't have a battery and am backpacking I always have the ability to brew a cup every morning. The van failing to make coffee was a pretty serious bummer to say the least. Which brings me to the point - I need a way to monitor battery power. I've said it earlier but now I've paid the price for not having it. It's time to find a gauge and get it setup.

This weekend was my first time boondocking in the van. I added a 5-day cooler for the occasion and am happy to report that there was cold beer for the entire weekend. The cooler worked so well in fact that I'm really considering just removing the fridge entirely and converting the space to storage. I think it'd be far more useful to have a place for batteries, food, and extra water than a barely operational fridge. I'll hold on to the old beast just in case I ever decide to sell my rig but additional storage is at a premium right now.

I also carried along a five gallon jug of water since I haven't cleaned out the van's water tank nor repaired the pump. The jug provided just enough water and did the trick just fine. Having fresh water at the camp was really nice. I usually have a gallon or two but having a full five gallons was a huge difference. Getting that built in water tank back up and running just got more important. Especially if I install a water filter on the tank I think it will make a really big difference.

I'm not sure what to do about the stove. I like the stove in theory but I'm not sure my money isn't better spent just buying a nice Coleman camp stove rather than trying to repair the one that is in there. Propane is nice and all but I'm a little sketched out trying to repair this leak when the tank is covered in rust. Plus with all the horror stories I hear about people having a hard time finding a propane dealer willing to fill those old rusty tanks it might be a lot easier just to go the camp stove route. Plus, then I could cart it outside when the weather is nice and cook away from the van. I often camp in bear country so having a van reek of cooking odors really isn't all that appealing to me.

The heat curtains that I made are awesome. It is amazing how cool they can keep the interior of the van even when the van is in direct sunlight. This is a huge improvement and I highly recommend that everyone out there get on this upgrade. All I did to make mine was to go to Walmart and purchase five car sun shields (they are basically cardboard wrapped in bubble wrap wrapped in tin foil) and a bunch of suction cup hooks. I then cut the shields with scissors to fit each window and then put two to four suction cups through each shield. To mount them I just stick them to the windows and then when I'm ready to head out I throw them on the upper bunk. It takes a little bit of time to install them all but it makes a MASSIVE difference.

The other thing I did was to get a razor blade and some Goo-Gone and removed all of the stickers from the van. After 23 years there were quite a few and it was past time to get rid of them. Plus, several people commented on how angry my "If you aren't outraged then you're not paying attention" bumper sticker was. It really just didn't fit with the rest of the vibe of the van. To change the mood a bit I've ordered a "0 to 60 in... 11 minutes" sticker that should take things down a notch.