After our long journey from Philadelphia, PA, to Chicago, IL, to Estes Park, Colorado we finally pulled our van home into our RV slot on government housing property in Rocky Mountain National Park. Our new home is just a ten min bike ride past gorgeous snow capped mountains into the quaint little town of Estes Park.
Although Tyler wanted to immediately begin climbing every mountain peak in sight I insisted that we take a day or two to settle in and set up our new home. Our original setup of the Vamp had been a bit hurried and things had gotten a bit jostled during the trip, so I wanted to get things properly settled into their appropriate places.
The first thing to be done was to pull out our little collapsible camping table (see above picture) that my mom had picked up from a garage sale. I have never seen one like it before, but it is awesome. Just like the folding camping chairs the base is made of collapsible/folding poles. The table top is composed of a bunch of slats of wood, all hinge connected so as to be able to be rolled up and placed in a bag along with the base. Very space efficient, but also sturdy!
Next came the pole tent. In the picture it is set up on all five poles, but because it gets pretty windy here we ended up instead tying two corners directly to the van to make it more sturdy. The tent makes a huge difference in the “homeyness” of our living situation. It expands our living space and provides shade when it is sunny and protection from the rain when it storms. This is particularly nice since we generally always cook outside on our little two burner propane stove. It also allows the step of the two side doors to function as a kind of “stoop” See picture below 🙂
One of our next top priorities was the hammock!
We brought this hammock back from our recent trip to Nicaragua this past March. Having an outdoor lounging area just a few feet from the van is wonderful. We also strung up a clothesline from the tree to the side mirror of the van. We are quite fortunate that the campsite provides a laundry room, bathroom (with shower!) as well as water and electricity right on site. But the clothesline saves us a few bucks a month and saves a bit of energy for the environment.
We aren’t very fancy with our electricity, as you can see. We simply run an extension cord from the outdoor outlet, in through the window, and down to our electrical strip under the bed. (The underside of the van also provides some storage space to get our shoes out of the way!) We don’t use a whole lot of electricity, (we kept things simple because we were originally planning on buying a solar panel, and hopefully will in the future) just one light (a desk lamp that clamps onto the headboard of the bed) a small fan (also a clamp on), laptops and phone chargers. A few battery powered camping lanterns scattered around outside provide us with outdoor lighting after dark. Or a campfire, campfire light is always the best.
Our only refrigeration is this this small cooler (see below); only $15 at Walmart. It is supposed to keep stuff cold for about 3 days. We bought a bunch of blue ice packs and Tyler brings some of them to work each day and puts them in the break room freezer at his work. Then he brings them home and exchanges more the next day. This way we don’t have to deal with the melty mess of ice or the expense. We do have to keep our fresh food limited though, and we try not to have more perishable kinds of foods in there for more than a day or two. The majority of our food is either canned or dried. We eat lots of rice, beans, and potatoes. Cheap, filling, and long lasting!
I had meant to get this done before we left, but things were crazier than I expected and it just didn’t get done, but I finally got around to making curtains the other day. And the results made a bigger difference than I expected! The van feels so much cozier now and the curtains help block the sun during the day to keep it a bit cooler.
Another major factor in reducing the internal temperature of the van was covering the windshield and front side windows with reflective material.
I bought two of those reflective windshield sunblockers. I bought the cheapest ones I could find, about $3.50 apiece. Most cost closer to $10.00. These were indeed much flimsier than the more expensive ones, but advertised the same amount of sun blockage as the more expensive ones; and I had plans for improving these cheap ones. I purchased some sticky-backed velcro ($2.67) and then cut pieces of this and applied it to the inside of the windshield and the reflective side of the sun blocker. This allows me to attach it directly and securely to the windshield. I took the second one that I had bought and cut it in half and then held one half up to one of the side windows and trimmed it down to size. I then applied the velcro to the edge of the door and the shiny side of the material and voila! Sun blockers for the side doors, too!
One last improvement we made was to mount Tyler’s highly prized fishing pole along the ceiling, saving on valuable space. We bought plastic hooks with adhesive on the back and applied the adhesive side to the wood strip along the ceiling of the van. Three of these now hold the fishing pole up and out of the way. And it looks nice, too.
Well, once I was satisfied with these initial improvements to our Vamp (more will come, trust me), Tyler finally got his wish to climb something. And check out the view from the “hill” (Eagle’s Peak) in our back yard!
Snapshots of a Traveler's Life 