camping

A New Chapter. Our Vamper, “Second Chance,” Gets a Friend.

Turn the page to a new chapter in our lives and here we are. 

We were up early Sunday morning with the birds so we could be on the road by 7:30 a.m. We drove about an hour to check out this used 2017 Forest River 180 R-pod that was for sale. It was hardly used since the owner purchased it new and has only 1,400 miles.

As we were driving down the road I looked over at John. The past few years he has earned some gray hair with it mostly showing at his temples. It endears me to him even more. What a privilege to experience mid-life with him. His biological father died at the age of 36-years old when John was just seven. At times this moves through me in an emotional way and has me feeling blessed to be this far in my journey with John.

A mix of emotions struck me as I looked over at John and said, “Here we are. Just two middle-aged folk up early goin’ to look at a camper! How did we get here so fast?”

John still has six years until retirement, or as we like to call it, a new phase in our lives. But for now we hope to travel to warmer climates in the winter more as his work schedule allows.

So as many of you know a few years ago we began converting one of John’s Chevy work vans to a camper and we took it on a few runs. It served its purpose well. We dubbed it “The Vamper” and also named it “Second Chance.” It represented to us that even though we were hit hard by the fall of the economy in 2008, this was our ticket to do some exploring away from home.  It also allowed us to take our dogs along. 

I’m grateful that we experienced life in this way traveling when we could in our van converted to a camper.

As we thought about longer trips away – more than a week – we didn’t feel the Vamper would be all that comfortable. We aren’t able to stand up in it, it does not have a bathroom (though we have a portable toilet) and it also still needs a kitchen. With John’s full work schedule, it’s been a challenge to finish.

So while we weren’t really looking, it all began with John spotting a camper van for sale in our town. One thing led to another and lots of discussion and here we were driving to look at this R-pod. 

On a side-note, being the sentimental gal that I am as we discussed buying something that would be more comfortable I became emotional. It felt so bittersweet. We had traveled in the van with both our dogs, Kylie and Gidget. Now both gone. It felt like if we got an upgraded van camper that it was like saying goodbye to that part of our life too. Though of course, the memories stay with us always.

As you can see by the photo above, we purchased the R-pod. It is in mint condition and we got a good deal on it. It has a full bathroom, great storage, a kitchen with two-burner stove, convection oven, a nice sized refrigerator, a quaint kitchen table, and queen sized bed.

The bonus is that our Vamper will pull the R-pod. Which means we feel incredibly blessed to travel with that much more storage space! We half-joking also said that the vamper could be like my writing cottage on wheels. Oh, the possibilities!

Sunday evening we celebrated with an adult beverage sitting inside the R-pod right in our driveway. At one point with a grin on his face, John said, “Now, you aren’t going to girly it all up are you?” 

The first trip we hope to take with it is to Arizona the winter of 2020. In the meantime, I’m looking forward to moving things from the vamper into the R-pod and organizing…plus no doubt, a few “girly” touches may just magically appear.  🙂

XO,

Barbara

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Have Van Will Travel: What Living in a Van Taught Me

Have Van Will Travel: What Living in a Van Taught Me

Over two years ago we began converting one of John’s Chevy Cargo work vans into a camper. Though we still need to install the kitchen, it was good to go that we felt it would serve our needs. We lovingly refer to her as our “vamper” and also named her Second Chance

After the 2008 recession we had to make some tough financial decisions, like I know many others did, too. We thought traveling wouldn’t be part of our future…until we discovered a whole world of others converting vans to campers, whether to live in full time, or like us, to travel and explore on a budget!

Recently, we took Second Chance out on her first big excursion! Our plan was to visit South Carolina for six days, then head home through Virginia with a day or two stop in Charlotte, North Carolina. But as our weather here with the unusual snowstorm and cold, in the Carolina’s we encountered everything from flurries, sleet, a severe thunderstorm (which made for one muddy campsite!), followed by the low 80’s for one day to plunging to 34 degrees and crazy wind the following day.

The one day in low 80’s in Columbia, SC

I share with you a few things I learned while living in 84 sqt. ft. with my hubby, John and our ten pound dachshund, Gidget.

Gidget hanging out inside the vamper watching as I get ready in the morning. Always the inspector!

  • I’m going to start with the most important lesson and not leave you in suspense…my most important takeaway was to be open to adapt. Adapting meaning that when circumstances are less than favorable I had a choice to be frustrated, or go with the flow. Hmmm, how interesting that coincides with understanding when one is going through a transitional period in ones life – something part of my mission is about – and one I swear I’m tested on more times than I wish, and especially on our last stop before we headed home. Our last night in Indianapolis, we came to find out they had a record of ten inches of snow the day before, with about four inches still on the ground when we arrived at the campsite.

Making the best of it. Wine helped!

  • ​Being in a “hotel” that is on wheels meant being able to adapt quite nicely and travel to a warmer climate, which we did when we had chilly weather in the Carolina’s, even though it meant we had to backtrack and to a different state to visit was not planned. But we had set the intention that this was going to be an adventure – and that it was!

In Madison, GA outside historic home, Rose Cottage. Hugging Crape Myrtle tree over 150 years old!

  • The blessing of not so favorable weather in the Carolina’s landed us in Georgia. Here we fell in love with the quaint historic towns of Greensboro and Madison. Not to mention the KOA campground we stayed in on Lake Oconee. It was gorgeous! While I’m not a big shopper, we discovered some eclectic, artsy and unique shops. I came home with some lovely treasures that make me smile when I look at them because of the memories I now have from our trip.

And this…made the backtracking so worth it. Sunset on Lake Oconee.

  • I realized even more what a wonderful man I’m married to. I swear John’s patience has gotten better over the years, while mine lacks more than I care to admit at times (I blame it on hormones!). But I soon came to realize how thoughtful John was about my morning routine. Without saying a word, he just adjusted to allow me space in our teeny tiny temporary home. I had more than one heart swoon for his tenderness of attention during our time away.

My Prince Charming having fun by a waterfall in Madison, GA (and he was okay with me snapping and sharing this shot!)

  • I overcame my fear of tinkling outside! Being in my mid-50s, my bladder not what it used to be, plus one campsite where the bathroom was far, far away, I learned quickly the value of having a porta-potty along. My once shy kidney was more than relieved (no pun intended!) to have this option even if it meant tinkling out behind the vamper. Well…as long as it was very, very dark. In other cases, John lovingly placed one said commode inside the vamper, closed the doors, and allowed me my privacy (worthy of another heart swoon!).
  • Lastly, but most special, we were able to pay tribute to our dear, sweet Kylie, who as you may remember, we laid to rest the day after Thanksgiving 2017. We planned to scatter part of her ashes in Tennessee as that is where we brought her home from over twelve years ago. Traveling by van meant we could follow our intuition and find just the right place that called to us to scatter her ashes. And that we did. The backdrop to where we released her? The Great Smoky Mountains.

Great Smoky Mountains

Looking forward more adventures ahead!

XO,

Barbara

Other Blog Posts About Our Van Conversion

The Adventure Has Begun. New Home on Wheels. Who’d of Thunk?

The Conversion Begins

Inspector Approves of Phase One Conversion

She Gets a Name

First a Name and Now Mascots

Cozy Comfort

Flooring is In (video)

Cutting it Close

Slow and Steady Wins the Race (video)

I Married a Creative Genius

Cicadas, Vango Airbeam Tent, and Excitement Building

Have Van Will Travel: Cicadas, Vango Airbeam Tent & Excitement Building

Have Van Will Travel: Cicadas, Airbeam Tent & Excitement Building

Our Vango Airbeam Kela III tent arrived last week and today was the day for the practice run to set it up. The Airbeam technology is slick as you don’t have any poles involved.

It is also a driveaway awning which means when we want to take our van away from camp we just detach a portion of the tent and away we go – while the tent stands on its own.  In the photo above this is actually the backside, which will attach to the side of our van.

Of course we thought we didn’t need to read the directions and just go ahead and put the tent up – no problem. Wrong. I can never understand reading directions anyways. But what we should have done FIRST was to watch a how-to video on pitching it.

But alas, this is why they call it a practice run, right?  And we could have saved ourselves a lot of work had we watched the video first. But now we know that next time, when at camp, it will go much smoother.

And the good news is we made it through without any big argument…and a cicada that decided to crawl up my leg. eeeks!  I guess it thought I was a tree and was hanging out on my “limb.” haha!  🙂  And a baby frog hopped into the tent also as we were setting up.  

All this in our front lawn!  Perhaps it is getting us ready for when we are out in the “big woods.” 

The excitement is building and last night we decided we will venture out on a short jaunt the week following Labor Day. The Vamper won’t be done with a kitchen, but a stove/oven is on order which we will use in the tent. And by venturing out we can then get a feel as to how we will move about in our van and how to plan for the kitchen area inside.

Today, John is building his bed, which will run the length of the van, while my bed, which is already built, runs horizontally over the wheel base. He is amazingly creative with space too, which makes me a happy camper. John showed me a space where there will be two extra drawers that weren’t in the plan as of last week. Woo hoo!

So the tent is rolled back up and actually made it back into into the carry bag without too much trouble, sweat or tears…and I’m happy to say I did it all by myself.

Past posts for Have Van Will Travel Journal

The Adventure Has Begun. New Home on Wheels. Who’d of Thunk?

The Conversion Begins

Inspector Approves of Phase One Conversion

She Gets a Name

First a Name and Now Mascots

Cozy Comfort

Flooring is In (video)

Cutting it Close

Slow and Steady Wins the Race (video)

I Married a Creative Genius

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