traveling

Have Van Will Travel Journal: First a Name & Now Mascots – PLUS a GIVEAWAY!

Posted by Barbara Techel
Have Van Will Travel Journal: First a Name & Now Mascots - PLUS a GIVEAWAY!
Second Chance Van Mascots

9/20/16 UPDATE:  Winners are Marilyn who posted her comment on Facebook and Jean who posted her comment here on the blog post.  Congratulations!  Jean, please contact me with your mailing address so I can mail you one of the birdies! And thank you Marilyn for providing your address – your birdie will go out in the mail this week. Enjoy!

My mom traveled first by boat and then by RV with her late husband, David for many years. She had many adventures and it’s always fun to hear about them. When John and I began our van conversion about two months ago my mom said we’d have to have a mascot that traveled with us. David and my mom had a little monkey that went everywhere with them when they traveled. They even lost him at one time on a trip, but backtracked their route and luckily found him.

I sure hope she does not mind me sharing this story, but I find it so endearing.  David could be a tough cookie on the outside, but we knew better, and he absolutely had the biggest, softest heart when it came to animals. When David passed away almost two years ago, my mom put the monkey in with David in his casket. That touched a place deep in my heart. This trip would be solo and I’m sure my mom didn’t want David to feel alone as he made his way to the other side.

And now our Van Camper or Camper Van (or what John has now dubbed, “The Vamper” to make it easier), also called Second Chance, now has her mascots!  I’m thinking those of you that have followed me for quite some time would have been hoping it would be a dachshund and/or Labrador. While I wouldn’t have minded that, I wanted our mascots to be something that John and I both shared in common. Not that we don’t both love dogs, because we do.

But you might recall in a previous post, I wrote about a song that John and I identify with and have called “our song” since we first began dating when I was 15 1/2 and he was 19.  The song is by Tanya Tucker, Two Sparrows in a Hurricane. Thinking about this, I just knew we had to have two little birdies to accompany us on road trips.

So meet our little feathered traveling mascots – John on the left and me on the right.  I think they are perfect for us and my whole insides fill up with love when I look at them. And as my mom says, John and I are two peas in a pod, and we are two little birdies also that enjoy exploring and taking flight together on many things.

And now for a giveaway!  Our little birdie mascots came in a set of four – and being we only need two, I want to pass on the birdie love! So I’m giving away two of the birds. There will be two winners chosen. So just leave a comment in the comment section of this post or on Facebook as I know many of you catch my posts there and tell me your favorite place you’ve traveled to or would like to travel. Enter by midnight cst Monday, Sept. 19th. I’ll notify winners on Sept. 20th (open to US residents only).

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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

Have Van Will Travel Journal: She Gets a Name

Posted by Barbara Techel

Have Van Will Travel Journal: She Gets a Name

Today the ladder rack went on the van. Instead of housing ladders, it will house two solar panels, A/C unit and remaining portion will be used for storage.

And perhaps it might sound silly to name our van. John certainly chuckled and shook his head last evening when I said I wanted to name our van which will be taking us on future adventures once we have it converted to an RV of sorts.

I recently discovered, (thank you Linda Hoye!) and am reading, a book by Susan Wittig Albert titled Together, Alone. It’s a memoir about how Susan married at mid-life to a man named Bill. They are both writers and work from home – something Susan had been yearning to do for a few years before leaving her job at a University. She was craving space and a place to settle down with more solitude and she found her way to piece of land that Bill had bought years before that they would have a home and name the many beautiful acres Meadow Knoll. I’m just getting to the part where after many years of living and working together, Susan yearns for time alone.

But before they had settled at Meadow Knoll, they lived and traveled in an RV which was named Amazing Grace. Isn’t that beautiful?  I can just imagine the many places they visited seeing many sunsets and the sun-rising, the mountains, the oceans, etc. and how at times, I’ve no doubt, when in the splendor of nature and traversing the country side you can have many moments of Amazing Grace.

So I read a few passages from Together. Alone to John last night while we were sitting around the chiminea- the parts about Amazing Grace and how it came to be. “So that is where you came up with the idea of naming our van,” John chuckled and shook his head again.

I felt a little embarrassed at first and that he thought it was silly, especially when I said I thought maybe we could name our van Freedom. He thought it sounded too much like the 60s. By now I was thinking I should just let the idea go.

I got up to go in the house to refresh my drink feeling a bit let down that perhaps this was a stupid idea.When I went back outside and sat down next to John he said, “How about we name the van Second Chance?

“It’s perfect!  I love it,” I said. But more than that I loved that he opened up to what I was trying to convey.

Like many, when the economy did a big nose dive in 2008 we had to make some tough financial decisions. – though they were hard, I don’t regret what we had to do because if felt right for us. But traveling to exotic places was out of the question — well, not that we really want to go to exotic locations as that isn’t really our thing. But to go out West, and a few other states we’ve been wanting to see seemed like perhaps might be very limited.

But discovering we could convert one of John’s work vans into a little place of our own on wheels that could take us on destinations away from home for respites has opened up a new world for us — it has lit a fire within both of us that we are both taking such delight in!

And so it is a second chance to follow dreams we had set aside — that we now look forward to fulfilling – with our van, Second Chance, that will take us there.

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

Thank you for sharing and subscribing to my blog updates.

Have Van Will Travel Journal: The Conversion Begins

Posted by Barbara Techel
Have Van Will Travel Journal: The Conversion Begins
Phase one of van conversion

I’ve shared that John and I are in the process of researching and converting one of his work vans into a vehicle we can more easily travel with. It all started because we wanted to bring our dogs, Kylie and Gidget on vacation this fall. I’m still shaking my head in amazement at how this has opened a whole new world to us – a world of people who travel in this way, taking vans and converting them.

Many of you expressed interest that you wanted to follow our journey with this, so I’m starting what I’m dubbing, “Have Van Will Travel Journal.” As we make steps to convert the van I’ll share with you here.

There is only so much research you can do before you realize you best start implementing some steps or come later this fall we won’t have a van to travel in!

We do have to keep reminding ourselves that this year the van will just be a place for us to sleep one night down to Tennessee and one night back home. When we arrive at our destination we will be staying in a cabin we’ve rented.

But John is a planner and wants to have everything in place so we can easily add as we go along (it’s good to have a planner – I’m not complaining). Today he began pulling out all the shelves and taking down the partition that separates the front from the back. We thought next year we would add swivel seats to give us more room in a sense with a place to sit when not riding.  But we were very excited to discover you don’t have to buy brand new seats, but rather they make brackets to convert the seats already in the van.  So it looks like that will be included in phase one of our conversion.

The van is roughly 84 square feet and phase one will also likely include the following (we still have to price it all out):

  • Solar panels for top of van so we can have electricity even when not hooked up to electrical
  • A/C unit which mounts to the top of the van (a must for this gal here who is in menopause!)
  • Installing electrical plugs so we can plug in at campgrounds
  • Bunk beds that will run horizontal along the back of the van (this will allow for more space)
  • Storage units that will go behind the bunk beds.  Our beds in the back by the double doors that open out. Having the storage units behind the beds will make for easy access for things we need.
  • A small refrigerator
  • Lighting
  • Flooring

I might be missing a thing or two here, so I’ll check with the boss and update you next time.  🙂

Phase two we hope to have in place to travel out west sometime in 2017 and we are looking into adding the following (we will likely stay at campgrounds for this whole trip):

  • A screen tent that will attach to the side of the van. A place where we can stretch our legs, cook, and hang out.
  • Two burner stove/small sink and wee little kitchen area.
  • Some type of small window or two because the van has no windows on the sides.
  • Possibly a compost toilet
  • And as research continues and we learn more, and we will likely meet folks in campgrounds, I’m sure new ideas will come to light!

My job will be to make it feel homey and cozy without making it too girly.  haha!  So steps are taking place now toward this adventure that we really never had on our bucket list, but now something we are both very excited about.

Well, I must run as Prince Charming (my friend Marie calls John this) says all this hard work this morning means we will have to go for a little bite to eat and an adult beverage, which likely also means another van planning session too.  I’m in!

Stay tuned for the next installment of Have Van Will Travel Journal!

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