Big Red Van Adventures

South Lake Tahoe 4th of July

noreply@blogger.com (BigRedVan) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 22:37:00 +0000

The BRV spent the winter hibernating and then spent the spring hibernating some more. So it was long overdue for a trip when we finally got ourselves organized to take off for 4th of July weekend. We didn't actually do much organizing beyond deciding to go to South Lake Tahoe, so by the time we committed to the trip there were no campsites available for reservations. We found some campgrounds that don't take reservations (and amber did some nerdy geocoding to put them all on one map) and we set off mid-day on Friday hoping for the best.

After stopping at a few places with unacceptable options (the only site available is full of snow, the campground has no water, the available site is the size of a parking space and is paved, etc.) we came to Crystal Springs and got this beautiful space with about an acre of land and a big granite cliff for our campsite.

There was really no one anywhere near us, even the sites across the road were far away. The campground has only outhouses but they were cleaner than most plumbing toilets we've seen at campgrounds. And they have water. The only flaw of the campground....no bear lockers. So Amber climbed a tree and we improvised some hanging bags for our food.

The "town" of Woodfords is right nearby, consisting of a church and a general store and a women's center. The center was closed so we can't report on what's in there, but the woman running the general store (to which the center is attached) was very kind and let us use her land line to call our friends and tell them which campground we got. Patronize this store if you're ever in the area!

We got to test out our new coleman stove for the first time Friday night. After 20 minutes with the instructions, I worked out how to get it running and it performed admirably.

On Saturday we set out for a hike and some climbing at Echo Lake.

After about 2 miles (of not very steep climbing) the hiking trail was covered in snow and it got very tough to continue on without crampons. (Yes, this was July 2!)

So we diverted to Tamarack Lake for lunch (which was still frozen!)

After lunch Scott needed more water so we got a demonstration of his water filter

We met back up with Jeremy and Megan who had left a rope up so that I could do a quick climb

Then we headed back to camp where Scott got a roaring fire going while Amber set up her PVC dome and Jeremy cooked dinner (wondering why we'd want a dome made out of PVC pipes? Stay tuned for future posts on this topic)

After dinner there were, of course, smores, created with our new telescoping marshmallow grilling sticks. These things are amazing! They even have a little dial you can turn to rotate for even toasting on all sides.

Sunday we set out for another day of climbing and hiking, along with the rest of the population of the greater Tahoe area. They all got to Fallen Leaf Lake first, and Cascade Lake, and Emerald Bay, and DL Bliss State Park, but we made it to Meeks Bay with 3 parking spots left. And it was a really beautiful drive up the coast of Lake Tahoe once we got past the crazy traffic jam at the boat launch. We took a hike up to a lovely river spot for lunch

After lunch Jeremy discovered a hidden waterfall, henceforth called Jeremy Falls (don't worry, he didn't)

But the best water was at Lake Tahoe itself, at the Meeks Bay beach where we went for a cold swim.

The swim was partly motivated by our lack of shower facilities: the previous day Scott, Megan and Jeremy had tried to sneak in to showers at a neighboring campground and were asked not to come back, while Amber and I made use of our solar shower and discovered that it had sprung a rather serious leak during hibernation season.

After some beer and wine that night Amber was ready to fly home

But Megan and I held out for more smores.

Winter camping in Calistoga

noreply@blogger.com (BigRedVan) — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 05:17:00 +0000

We planned to take the BRV on an epic roadtrip around California the week of Thanksgiving.

Then we realized we had scheduled 200+ miles of driving most days and scaled that back to a trip south along the coast.

Then we realized we didn't really want to be traveling that whole time and scaled that back to a trip to Big Sur the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Then it rained all weekend.

So we decided we should at least take the van out for a night the weekend after Thanksgiving... and so we took a trip to Calistoga.

Calistoga has wine

And Calistoga has art

Calistoga has a really nice park and camp ground

But this year Calistoga does not have heat. It was below freezing at night, and not all that warm during the day. The BRV has a small trickle of heat when it's running, but no heater otherwise and so our fear of freezing led to the latest BRV gear purchase

A portable heater! This thing was very efficient at heating up the van (with a window cracked to supply air...probably unnecessary with all the holes in the van, but we wanted to be extra safe). We only needed to run it for an hour before bed and we were quite toasty through the night. It runs off of propane, a convenient use of the extra canisters we have leftover after the death of our really cheap camp stove since we invested in a fancy new Coleman stove that doesn't use those.

(note, stove stayed in the box for this trip, we had dinner in a toasty warm restaurant)

In addition to testing out the BRV in extreme cold (anything below 50 is extreme to me!) we inadvertently also tested it out in the rain. We were nice and dry in our bed, but there were a few leaks in the corners of the van. Fortunately Amber has everything so well packed up in plastic bins nothing got wet. Maybe some day I'll try to figure out where exactly the water is coming in and repair it. Or maybe we'll just stay home when we know it's going to rain.

Burning Man

noreply@blogger.com (BigRedVan) — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 22:29:00 +0000

The BRV goes to BRC, Black Rock City, that place in the Nevada desert that exists only one week per year during the Burning Man Festival. It was my (Amber) first time going, and I had a blast. Dawn doesn't have much interest in the Burner scene; she spent the week on the beach in Baja Mexico, so I went to Burning Man with a friend who shared the driving duties. The drive form SF to Reno was fast at about 4 hours, but then the 100 mile trek from Reno to Gerlach, and then out to the playa took almost another 4 hours due to traffic and weather delays. It was raining as we arrived at the gates!

I did a small art project: decorating my van to fit the Metropolis theme. I arranged magnets in the shape of the skyline. The white tape you see covering the black magnets is glow-in-the-dark-tape, so it was visible at night too.

The weather was erratic and extreme, just as I was warned, but somehow it didn't really hit me until it happened. From overcast skies and rain on the first day, getting so cold overnight that I woke up freezing, needing more clothes despite being in my mummy sleeping bag, to being sunny and blazingly hot (over 100 degrees) during the day for the rest of the week. I set out with my trusty cruiser bike to explore.

The city, which is really more like a campground since everyone is in tents or RVs (or vans!), is arranged like a horseshoe, with the opening to the north. The open area in the center is reserved for art installations. Here's one that I really like, something about the shape that I find meditative. I remember seeing at the Pre-Compression (pre-burning man) party in San Francisco, so I'm pretty sure it's a Bay Area artist(s).

The above piece looks even better at night, since the pipes surrounding the circle and wings are burning! I suppose they are carrying some flamable liquid that is set on fire. Much of the art involves fire or other illumination, but my camera isn't good enough to take night photos (I tried). In the center of everything is The Man. He's burned on Saturday night.

The only vehicles allowed to drive around the playa (once you park your car at your campsite, it stays there all week) are the Art Cars, a.k.a. Mutant Vehicles because they can't just be a car with a crazy paint job, they have to be mutated beyond recognition as a stock vehicle. The largest ones are double-decker and carry passengers, along with speakers, a DJ, a bartender.

The art installations and art cars are two of the major components of Burning Man art experience; another is the theme camps. A few of the camps are run by the BRC staff, such as Arctica where you can buy ice and Center Camp, where you can buy coffee. Coffee and ice is all you can buy in BRC; all other food, water, and supplies you need must be brought with you.

The theme camp below has the Rainforest theme and had hoses with water pumping through to create a misting spray within the tent. This was a very welcome way for people to cool down during the hot afternoons. I guess that was the most difficult part of the trip for me, dealing with the extreme heat in the middle of the day.

I was surprised to see a lighthouse in the desert. :) Very cool. People are so creative.

It was a great trip and the BRV performed admirable, starting up on the first try after sitting in the hot sun for a week, and carrying all the gear and two bicycles without any problems. Goodbye Black Rock City.... I have a feeling I'll be back again sometime.

Big Green Van

noreply@blogger.com (BigRedVan) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:56:00 +0000

Spotted in Canadian campground by Heather and Megan (who are clearly moving in the direction of buying a van for themselves and joining the fun).

Tuolumne Meadows

noreply@blogger.com (BigRedVan) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:19:00 +0000

Who knows how to spell Tuolumne Meadows, or for that matter, who would guess that it is pronounced toowallame meadows from seeing that spelling? Perhaps that's why we've never gone there in spite of many visits to Yosemite over the years. But this past weekend we discovered we like Tuolumne Meadows even more than Yosemite Valley for camping and hiking. Thanks to Megan & Jeremy (aka Megalor) and Amy and Joel (aka Joelry?) for inviting us on this fabulous camping trip!

An auspicious beginning to the trip...a new annual national parks pass: the possibilities are endless!

The terrain is different from the valley, more rocks, less plants. Really gorgeous.

On Saturday we did an epic 16 mile hike. We got dropped off at the trail head to Sunrise Camp and then hiked in to the backcountry camp (5 miles, mostly uphill) and then along the JMT (cool people know that stands for the John Muir Trail)

past Cathedral Lakes and then back down to our camp site.

We ran into this guy along the trail.

Amber interrupted this poor dear's private time

She was not very happy about that

We were very impressed with our total miles hiked. This is the longest hike either of us can remember doing, and it was our first day at 9000 ft so we were definitely feeling the altitude.

The scenery on the hike was gorgeous, but it was just as beautiful at the road next to the camp site

After the hike we had a gear adventure. Someone misplaced the hose to the solar shower, leaving a hole in the bottom and no good way to deliver the water. But fortunately we had duck tape:

And Amber went to heroic and comic ends to make it possible for Dawn to take a dripping shower and get some of the pollen off. Picture Amber standing on the bumper of the van, holding up the shower bag with one hand and holding the shower curtain on the rod (running between the two back doors) with the other. In the end we both got rather wet but at least one of us was cleaner after the "shower".

There are bears in Yosemite and both nights we were woken up by people banging pots and shouting "bear". So we had to store everything that smells in the food lockers.

I kept wondering how so many people had pots to bang on at 3am. If I saw a bear at that hour it would be on my way to the toilet and I don't generally take a pot with me to the bathroom. Nonetheless, the wakeups were kind of exciting.

There was the obligatory climber slack line in our camp

And more food than I have ever seen on a camping trip: some cooked over the fire and some over the 3 camp stoves we had (we were very well prepared for a group of 9)

A moment of special pride for me was when I was able to provide a few cooking items that Joel, Mr. camping gear, didn't have: a strainer and a pot holder. There probably wasn't room in the car for these items.

We're still working out the optimal organization for the BRV. On Sunday as we were packing up we switched the direction of the futon so that it faces out when set up as a couch, and tried to better pack things up so they will be easier to find in the future.

We were all nicely packed to leave, got in the van and drove a few feet from our campsite, over a big pothole....and it stalled. And then it wouldn't start again.

We figured out how to open the hood (not as obvious as one might hope), and after some troubleshooting including an attempt to jump it, we got a bunch of people and pushed it up a small hill off the road. And then we called AAA and sat down to wait for a tow. Fortunately Danielle had given us sack lunches, and we had some cold beer still in the cooler. There are much worse places to be stranded.

There's a garage in Yosemite Valley (who knew!) and since there were no tow trucks available to get us out of the park, we agreed to a tow there. After 2 hours the tow truck arrived (it really took him that long just to drive up). He also tried to get the van started, couldn't, and so loaded it up on the truck.

And then we drove back down, another 1.5 hour tour of Yosemite in a tow truck with a very nice driver and comfy seats. This may actually be the best possible place to break down, if you're not in a hurry to go anywhere.

We got to the mechanic just 45 minutes before they close for the night, unloaded the van and pushed it up to the garage door. The mechanic agreed to look at it right away in the hopes that he could fix it and save us from being stranded in Yosemite Valley for the night. And so he turned the key....and it started. He spent about 30 minutes trying to find anything wrong with it but couldn't. A few theories include altitude issues messing up the fuel to oxygen mixture, a failing ignition, and a flooded engine.

To make up for the difficulties getting out of Tuolumne Meadows, the BRV drove very nicely all the way back to San Francisco, and we got home around 10pm.

Unfortunately the adventure of the day didn't stop there, because our bathroom at home is being remodeled and so we have no shower

and we were pretty dirty by then. At 10pm on a Sunday there weren't a lot of showering options. We went to 24 hour fitness where Amber has a membership and Dawn had to convince the guy at the desk to allow her in (they don't do day passes after 9pm). Fortunately he was sympathetic to the camping dirt sob story.

love bug

noreply@blogger.com (BigRedVan) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 17:13:00 +0000

The BRV made another friend. A classic VW bug.

Today we're off on another BRV adventure: Yosemite!

RV Camping in Saratoga

noreply@blogger.com (BigRedVan) — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 22:51:00 +0000

An invitation to an anniversary/birthday party inspired our weekend trip to this underrated county park just an hour away from San Francisco (nope, not the Saratoga in New York that Amber says is famous for horse racing). Sanborn County Park is just a few miles from Castle Rock State Park, but much less crowded. It has some really nice walk in camp sites and some RV spots that are, well, kinda close together like a parking lot.

But fortunately the RV camping is not popular and we enjoyed a relatively secluded weekend in this park. There is only one hiking loop in the park, but it's an awesome climb, and it connects up with skyline trail so we were able to hike to Castle Rock (about 10 miles round trip)

In addition to lovely hiking and camping, Sanborn County Park has Shakespeare! Shady Shakespeare is the actual name and they were performing Much Ado About Nothing Saturday night. This was part of the anniversary/birthday party plan, and it was really well done: live band, much singing and silliness, very entertaining.

There were also plenty of deer in the park.

Oh and something we didn't find in the park: Dawn's allergies! We forgot to replenish the kleenex supply in the BRV, generally a disaster for Dawn. But this was a two tissue weekend. Saturday morning: "Is this what normal people feel like when they camp?" Wow. Maybe August is a good month for plant allergies. Gonna test this out further in Yosemite in a few weeks.

A number of enhancements were made to the BRV for this trip. First, there's the shower tent

This structure is not only functional but also provides entertainment to everyone in the park: "that looks a little small to sleep in", "did you take that rocket ship to the moon?" A pretty nice set up except that the shower hangs so low you have to sit down to let gravity deliver the water. This park also has really nice showers for 50 cents so we didn't need to use the shower tent, Amber just tried it out for fun.

We finally got around to getting the spare tire out of the inside of the van, and mounting it on the back.

A tablecloth really makes for a much nicer cooking and dining experience (as does a nice bottle of Calistoga wine).

We also got magnetic bug screens for the windows, which are a really great way to keep the bugs out without the mess of tape we used last time. This led Amber to experiment with magnets on everything else in the van. Now we have ceiling lights attached with magnets, magnets on our clock, magnets on the flashlights, magnets on the window covers.... some of these work ok, some not so well. I'm still waiting to be hit in the head by a falling light.

And speaking of lights, Amber also got a mood light for the BRV: red, green, blue changing colored lights on the ceiling and walls - think party/disco lights.

Back on the topic of windows, there was a little problem with the driver's side window: it fell into the door and wouldn't come out. Dawn tried valiantly to fix it with a spatula (the only tool we had that was small enough to fit inside the window hole), but to no avail.

Fortunately Amber had installed lockboxes in the BRV so everything of value was safe.

On Sunday on our way home we stopped to visit some friends and Paul taught us how to take our door panel off to put the window back up. It still needs a new part to make it go up and down properly but at least it's not sitting on the streets of SF with an open window just asking people to come inside and help themselves to our stuff and/or have a little nap on the bed.

A less successful purchase was the shade canopy, which has instructions (inside the packaging) explaining that you need 3 adults to set it up. Fortunately 2 really smart adults can set it up....but one really small wind can blow it down. Poor design even when lashed to the BRV. Returning that.

In addition to the window assist, Paul and Mira came to the rescue and provided a much sturdier shade structure for Amber's use at Burning Man.

Thanks and a happy anniversary and happy birthdays go out to Lis and Miko, friends from college who are still just as much fun as they were 20 years ago [eek].

-Dawn

White Van with Bed

noreply@blogger.com (BigRedVan) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:50:00 +0000

Saw this one parked on the streets of SF. Interesting minimalist design - there's just a bed in the back and some curtains between the bed and the seats.

-Dawn

BRV in the 70s

noreply@blogger.com (BigRedVan) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 22:49:00 +0000

Wow. Today my dad sent me these pictures. I had no idea I was re-living my childhood with the BRV. How could Amber have known when she bought it?

We need this carpeting in the BRV! And the curtains. For that matter, we need the bunny seat cover too. I'm hiring my dad as our new interior decorator. Clearly I did not inherit his talents. This does, however, explain my strong affinity for the color orange.

My father explains the layout of the interior to accommodate a family of 4: "The adult beds were on the floor. Perpendicular to the floor bed were two cots that stretched across the width, hanging about 32” above the floor. Two children fit nicely on the 4 foot long cots."

We also learn from this picture that I was pretty darn cute as a kid.

-Dawn

Honda Element conversion - a mini-BRV?

noreply@blogger.com (BigRedVan) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 20:36:00 +0000

The Honda Element camper conversion is a very cool concept. I'm sure it gets better gas mileage than the BRV, and is easier to park, but it doesn't have nearly as much space, and climbing through the sun roof to get into the bed seems tricky, especially when getting out of bed in the middle of the night...

-Dawn

Folsom lake camping trip

noreply@blogger.com (BigRedVan) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 18:26:00 +0000

We took the BRV out on its first multi-day trip. We decided on Folsom lake mainly because by the time we looked for campsites this was the only state park with one available Memorial Day weekend within reasonable driving distance. Turns out there was a good reason for this: the campground was lovely, but it was on the far side of the lake, and pretty darn inaccessible from the south/west - basically an extra hour drive around the lake and up over the American river from where we thought we would be staying.

I never knew there was this enormous lake just a few miles north of Sacramento. I've only heard of one thing in the town of Folsom: a prison. And guess where that prison is situated....right on Folsom lake (the south side so we never saw it).

On this trip we learned a lot of useful things:
1. The BRV gets bad gas mileage
2. The BRV can accelerate up hill (unlike our car which requires a running start to get up a long hill, and is decelerating the whole way up)
3. The BRV can hold it's own speed in traffic, none of that lame driving in the right lane with the campers for us!

We can easily keep up with this man on a horse!

4. It is possible to be totally self-contained for 3 days in the BRV*
5. Dawn is good at food planning, Amber is good at BRV packing and organizing
6. The driver's door on the BRV will swing open at inopportune times (like while speeding down the freeway) if it's not closed just right.
7. Our van camping packing skills still need some fine tuning

(*especially if you have a brother come bring you a bag of ice on day 2.)

On that last point, after our big shopping trip we had a lot of potentially useful gear for the BRV, and this was our first chance to test it out:

Mosquito netting - We duck taped this over the windows to allow for ventilation without bugs - this worked pretty well, but we have a vision for a better solution that will be more re-usable (stay tuned).

Camp stove - bought the cheapest version but it worked really well and I cooked several two pot meals including a chicken stew with tons of veggies. It turns out, if you cut up all your veggies in advance and measure out all the ingredients, cooking really is just as easy as it looks on all those cooking shows.

Pans - whoops, forgot I had already bought a camping fry pan so I bought another one at the grocery store, and now we have two. But it's van camping, we have room for two!

Camping shower - We were staying at a state park specifically because they have showers (important to wash off all the pollen every day), but this place had only 2 showers for the entire campground, and 5pm is peak shower time. After a 12 mile hike, we saw the hour long line and decided it was a good time to try out the camping shower. It's really just a black bag with a hose on the end that employs gravity to deliver the shower. Unfortunately we weren't quite ready to use said shower - we didn't have anywhere to hang it, we hadn't worked out the shower curtain situation yet, and we hadn't left it out in the sun to heat. I have a vision of hooking a curtain across the back doors of the BRV and putting the shower up on top of the van....but first we need to get the back doors fixed so they will open. So this time we improvised, and for a squatting down, partially exposed showering experience, it worked reasonably well (no pictures available - this isn't that kind of a blog).

Cooler - OK I know everyone uses these, but I don't think I've ever owned a real cooler. Just those cheap ones that don't really work for more than a few hours. I put veggies and chicken and other stuff in our cooler with a bag of ice, and after a really hot Saturday I started to get worried that the food would go bad before cooking Sunday night. But it was a 25 minute drive (each way) to the nearest store. Fortunately we had already planned some hiking with my brother so we got him to bring an extra bag of ice. But when I went to add the fresh ice to the cooler I noticed the ice in there was still totally frozen. It's like a miracle! The extra ice did not go to waste: we had a bottle of white wine that was nicely chilled for dinner Sunday night.

Big plastic water container - the kind that collapse when they are empty and have a spout so you can fill them with water and then have running water at your camp site. Amber wonders why her family never had such an amazing convenience.

Curtains behind the drivers seats - a brilliant idea from Amber that not only blocks out the light from all the windows in the front but also makes the back of the van seem more homey.

Kitchen island - ok we didn't actually get this for the camping trip, we just got lucky and found one we wanted near Sacramento on craigslist and used this trip as an opportunity to pick it up. So our campsite was much classier than all the other ones (even the RV ones didn't have a kitchen island)!

Bed-in-a-bag - this is the cheapest way to get new sheets and a blanket. In this case you get what you pay for. I think the sheets have a thread count of 10, and the very poofy comforter was just thick enough for sleeping on warm nights.

Radio - The BRV does not have a radio so Amber got us a portable one that has an ipod dock, and she tied it to the dash so that we have a pretty good radio right where it should be. The BRV runs a little loud on the freeway, but so does the Tracker so we're used to blasting the radio to hear over the car noise.

Note the fancy kleenex dispenser now built in to the BRV dash as well!

Butane lighter - another miracle tool that I've never owned. No more messing around with matches!

Firewood - yep, this stuff really works. And buying it before you get to the campground is a great strategy we plan to employ in the future.

Camp chairs - I've always been jealous of friends who bring the comfy camp chairs, and now that we've got a big van there's space for us to cart along the campsite comfort.

Rain/bug tent - You know the big square contraptions that people put up over their picnic tables at campsites to keep out the rain and bugs? Well we seem to have purchased only the netting part of that. We're not sure if that was because I had a vision of using it to keep bugs out of the BRV (which clearly won't work) or because Amber wanted the whole thing but we didn't notice you have to buy the poles and top part separately. Either way, it was useless.

Marshmallows - 2 bags, a small accident of duplication, but you never can have too many marshmallows when camping, especially when you've got chocolate and grahams and firewood and a butane lighter.

What we didn't bring but should have:
- swimsuits - yep, we were camping on a lake and this didn't occur to us
- bowls - plates can't be used for everything
- mugs - 1 isn't enough for 2 people
- pillows - bed-in-a-bag doesn't include pillows, just the pillowcases
- quarters - showers at parks only take quarters, fortunately same brother who brought the ice also brought some quarters

The BRV also made some friends on this trip:

The BRV's little brother, owned by my little brother

This guy pulled up next to us on the freeway to ask the year of our van!

-Dawn

BRV's cousin found at MOMA

noreply@blogger.com (BigRedVan) — Fri, 21 May 2010 21:29:00 +0000

On display at the MOMA in NYC this month is this piece called Collective Subconscious, by Yin Xiuzhen.

The BRV has a Chinese cousin!

The viewer is invited to go inside the vehicle. It's a bit minimalist for our taste, in terms of utility for camping, but very spacious! Pretty sure it's not road tested.

-Dawn

Outfitting Our Campervan

noreply@blogger.com (BigRedVan) — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 19:47:00 +0000

Today Dawn and I had our first ever "shopping date" were we went to Wal-Mart, Target, and Sports Authority to get gear for the BRV. I'd already installed mats for the floor (that rubber interlocking gym flooring) and put the futon inside the back of the van, but otherwise I'd held off on buying any more camping or vehicle accessories until we took a trip and learned what we needed.

For example, on our maiden voyage last month, we were a bit cold during the night and realized, "We need a comforter or thicker blankets!" or "We need curtains so people can't see inside our van when we're changing." This is incremental/iterative development as applied to campervans.

Here's some of the stuff we purchased today:

window shades/coverings
cargo bar and curtains
cup holders
ice chest/cooler
two burner camp stove
cooking & eating utensils
water jug
table cloth
camp chairs
canopy w/netting
flashlight & lantern
comforter & bedding
travel alarm clock
solar shower
towels
plastic storage bin
steering wheel lock

Our next trip is planned for Memorial Day Weekend, when we'll have a chance to try out all these new toys.

-Amber

Maiden Voyage

noreply@blogger.com (BigRedVan) — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 17:18:00 +0000

This weekend was the first trip in our BRV. We decided to go someplace close, and chose Half Moon Bay State Beach. It's right on the ocean, a very scenic spot on the Northern California coast. It was funny driving into the campground in our van, seeking all the humungous RVs around. I guess our van isn't that big when compared to the Class A motorhomes. But no matter, it has a big heart! Here's it is, you can see the weather was a bit overcast.

As expected, we discovered a few things we're forgotten or wished we'd brought along, most notable firewood. We planned to buy it at the campground, but they were sold out, and we were reduced to the imitation duraflame log from the local supermarket. The log refused to catch, despited us going through half a pack of matches trying to light it. The strong winds coming off the ocean didn't make things easier. The guy at the campsite next to ours apparently saw our woes, and came over to offer us kindling. How nice! With the extra small pieces of wood, our fire got going nicely, and Dawn roasted some marshmallows which is one of her favorite parts of camping. I just like watching the fire.

So with a little help from a friendly neighbor, our initial adventure was a success. We had a nice hike along the coast before dark, dinner at Sam's Chowder House during sunset, and a campfire at night. The full-size futon handled two adults comfortably, despite being the cheapest model I could find, and when compared to being in sleeping bags on the hard ground, it was luxury. The next morning, there was no tent to break down, we could just get dressed and drive away....

-Dawn

Big Red Van is Born

noreply@blogger.com (BigRedVan) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:41:00 +0000

Our Big Red Van (affectionately dubbed BRV by my wife Dawn) was actually born long ago, in 1979, when Led Zeppelin was at on top of the music charts. But today is when the BRV started it's new life with us, and this blog is going to chronicle our adventures.

How did this whole BRV thing come about? Dawn had been dreaming about buying a small Class B RV/campervan, since she enjoys camping but has trouble staying in tents because of her severe allergies to grass and plans. I liked the idea of having a self-contained vehicle/bed for road trips and weekend getaways, but each time I looked at them I was in sticker shock, as even used ones cost tens of thousands of dollars. I thought, "Why not just buy a big used cargo van and put a futon in the back?" That would be way cheaper and much hipper. And so I did, and presented my creation to Dawn for her birthday. She was very excited, as you can see below.

-Amber