First Night Impressions

I just woke up from my first night spent in the Vanagon and most certainly learned some things.

- The most important lesson that I learned is to never attempt to figure out how to work a used portable toilet indoors after a few beers. Let's just say that I am now in the market for a new portable toilet. Enough said.

- The carpet MUST go immediately. Carpet and camping are stupid together. Camping is dirty. Camping leaks. Carpet doesn't like dirt or leaks if a person wants to maintain at least the illusion of hygiene. I don't think Bird (my dog) even likes lying on that nasty rug. I was bothered by it before but after spending a night actually using the vehicle I just couldn't stop thinking about how much grime this thing must have seen in its lifetime. Must go immediately.

- I need screens on the windows. The Vanagon is supposed to have removable screens for the skylight and sliding windows but mine doesn't. Camping in the early fall without screens is a little insane, especially in New England. The black flies will kill me and Bird during the night if I don't fix this soon.

- I need a rain fly for the topper. At some point I want to replace the pop up but a new one runs a little over $400. The one I've got can get by but I don't think it will hold up for much longer. The one I have is mildewed, canvass, and has seen better days. The new ones are synthetic and feature a three window design. Since the topper provides most of your outside air, gaining another two windows for a cross breeze would be huge. Back to the rainfly though; if it rains then right now all you can do is zip up the window because there is nothing stopping water from pouring in. That really really sucks in the summer.

- I didn't get enough circulation last night and certainly noticed some condensation in the van when I woke up. The roof was moist to the touch and overall I felt a little sticky. This was because there wasn't anywhere for the moisture from Bird and my breathing to go. My biggest single mistake was to keep the skylight closed. I think that alone would have made a huge difference. The other thing I should have done was to crack all the windows. I didn't do that because of the bugs but I'd rather the bugs that are around here than gross breath condensation.

- Fabric is gross when camping, especially when camping with dogs. I want to recover the rear bench seat anyway and now I'm thinking that I want to go with a vinyl or something that can be wiped off easily. Bird sheds white fur and its a bit gross when its all over the place. He'd still shed if I had vinyl seats but at least I could clean up after him a little more easily. Maybe I could find something a little more eco than vinyl but I certainly want to head in that direction. Oh and if you're thinking that vinyl would be crappy to sleep on then I agree with you. However, with this bed you really want to use a sheet anyway.

- People are sissies. I've seen tons of posts on the Vanagon mailing list about memory foam and other ways to improve the bed. Lots of people think these beds are almost unusable they are so uncomfortable. Maybe its just because I'm used to sleeping in a tent but I thought this bed was completely tolerable. I won't say that I haven't slept on better beds but I was plenty comfortable. Especially if you put a sheet on it to keep the cushions together then you'll wake up nice and refreshed.

- Electricity is amazing. I've got the rig plugged in right now and man is it awesome. I caught a post on the board about different mechanisms for charging the aux battery and it dawned on me that the shore power system was not hooked up to the aux batter at all. So even if I plug in the van I don't get any charge. I'm really glad that I learned that before I spent a night out in the van. I handled the situation by just buying a computer controlled trickle charger from Walmart. Thanks to the list I learned about a secret fridge plug under the sink that I plugged the charger into and then snaked the wires through the cabinet to the battery. That lets me charge whenever there is external power and not have to worry about it when there isn't. So last night I was able to run my laptop, cell phone, three small fans, two florescent lights, an led rope light, an inverter, a battery charger, and this morning I threw in a small coffee maker. Now that is camping! It's pretty amazing to me that I was able to watch a movie before I went to sleep, woke up and made coffee, posted to my blog, and then I'm going to head out for a day of rock climbing completely rested and ready to go. God bless the Vanagon.

- I still haven't tried to mess with the water hookup. I brought 5 gallons with me and don't expect to need more than that. A sink would be cool but only if I was cooking as well. Since my stove doesn't work due to a propane leak I just don't feel the need to use the sink.

- My GPS system SUCKS in practice. I think I'll make that a new post.