A Hectic Week

Thanks to the late arrival of our van, we've crammed a couple weeks worth of stuff into just a few days.  So this is our attempt to provide an update of what we may have overlooked in recent posts.

First off, Thursday was Alea’s final day of work, which is commemorated in the photo below, showing her about to begin her last ride to work:

Off to work - for the last time!

As stated in the previous post, we were able to cram MOST of our possessions into the storage unit that we had rented in June.  I think this picture says it all.  We even stuffed the refrigerator with a couple of small boxes of stuff that wouldn't otherwise fit:

A tight squeeze.

The back of the van is now fully outfitted.  The drawer pedestal is bolted to the floor by three lag bolts.  I had to cut a small notch in the lower left corner of the pedestal to get it to fit into the opening, which also necessitated trimming a piece off the bottom right drawer.  Even with it squeezed in that tight, the front passenger seat is a bit cramped.  It works well enough for Alea, but there aren't many positions for me where one knee isn't brushing against the dash.  Fortunately, there is plenty of legroom topside:

Front dash leg room.

The next most important storage consideration in the cargo box was securing our bikes.  That has worked out exceptionally well, by simply affixing a piece of 1x4 to the back of the drawer pedestal.  Near the top of that we've attached a 2" Velcro strap to hold one side of the handlebar, positioned so that it works with either bike (since our handlebars are not the same height).  I built a simple wheel cradle out of wood and attached it to the floor (since the wheels are the same diameter, it works for both bikes).  The result is that one bike can be stowed as solidly as a rock.  When we need to carry an additional bike (or two), it can be secured by simply lashing it to the first bike.

The rest of the cargo box is outfitted with several small details.  There are some velcro fasteners on the upper rear interior quarter panel for securing our spare bike tires.  Within that, I've placed some hooks for a half dozen of my caps.  On the opposite wall we adapted an over-the-door shoe organizer to store three pairs of shoes each, and it is set up in such a way that we can store extra jackets behind it.  We've got a cargo organizer on the back of the front seats for all of Lana's things - dog bowls, leashes, harnesses, balls, etc.  We've got ratchet straps for two of the D-ring cargo tie downs - one to secure the generator, and the other for our 3 gallon Igloo water cooler.  We also have two short clotheslines just below the ceiling in the rear of the van, to air out our towels and the occasional hand washed bike clothes.  A handful of other minor details keep our other gear lashed down in case of an accident or need for a sudden evasive maneuver.

Lately, we seem to have hit a small patch of misfortunes.  On Friday night Lana hurled herself into one of the screen doors of our camper, causing a rip that I sewed up on Saturday.  So now we have a matching set, as there was a similar mishap on the opposite side last year.  ;-)

On our return home from Hell's Canyon a huge rock hit our windshield, resulting in ding with 1” long radiating cracks (somehow I managed to sleep through this event, but I've been in sleep deficit lately).  We are scheduled to have Safelite see if they can repair it, which they will do on Thursday in Tacoma (they think that it likely can be fixed, provided that it doesn’t expand beyond the size of a dollar bill).  If it has to be replaced, it will be expensive, as it has a Quickclear defroster built into it.  This was an option that was not on our special order configuration - thus it is something that we didn’t want, but could end up paying for twice.  Hopefully that will be the end of any lingering bad mojo on the van. Leaving homeowner limbo and becoming full time campers should help in that regard.

After only four days...

On Monday we take the van back to Corwin Ford to have some cosmetic problems with the rear bumper corrected, and on Monday afternoon we need to return to Wrap World Ink for some tweaks to our graphics.  

We're currently experiencing a state of being somewhere between home ownership and camping, but it is slowly starting to feel more like camping every day and we're slowly starting to get back into that routine. It helps that we've emptied all the drawers, cupboards and closets in the house, forcing us to make the final decisions of what goes in the van or camper, what gets donated and what gets tossed. We are still anticipating that we'll leave town some time on Tuesday.