The Van is back.

The good news is the van is back. The bad news is it cost a grand more than expected to fix the front end. Steering and stopping are required, though.

I still have more to do on the Project, but I can load it, and go to the Rendezvous in the morning.

All this stuff has to fit back in. And the other pair of roof racks have to be installed.
After the Rendezvous, I'll figure out the other stuff. I have the flooring already, but still have to find out how water gets in. And rebuild the emergency repair fund.

That time of the decade.

I looked down and found this little guy sitting on my knee.  Sue says they're the 17 year variety.  Last time I was where an outbreak of cicadas, I was going for the first time to the same event I'm heading for this week.
The first time I met up with cicadas, I was building a book case for my new to me house in Berkeley Springs WV.  On the porch with my belt sander, I could call them to me.  Apparently, they thought my belt sander was a big beautiful cicada of the attractive gender.
That same year, I read that some enterprising young hoodlum brandished a deadly cicada in a convenience store robbery.
I've never had one come sit on my lap like a cat before.

Getting Ready to go AdVANturing.

If it is lovely to spend the winter in a relatively warm place, catching up with oneself, it is also lovely to be able to go adventuring - and time traveling. For this, I want something smaller than the motorhome. Smaller than the Escaper, even - and it has to carry the 18th Century stuff too.
My van has done this duty for years now, and well. But this year, I want to be able to camp in the van between events, and take it to the woods too.... Some mods are in order.
First, empty the van.

I have a full camp - I don't need anything else to be able to camp with the stuff that lives in the van already. I just need to rearrange it, and maybe weed some of it out.
Also, the carpet on the floor has been wet and is atrocious. The next order of business, then, is to remove that and the bench seat.



They didn't want to come out; they'd been there since 1989, after all.
I recruited help. Help with power tools.

That done, the carpet came out.

Except for the bits under the door trim.

I'm still working on that. And deciding what to replace this - heat shielding? - stuff with, if anything.

In the Dodge van I used to have, I put a remnant carpet in it, with no other special anything, and it was fine.
Then my work came to a screeching halt. The steering on this van has always been a little strange, and with it empty I figured it was the best time to put it in the shop and have that fixed. So now my stuff's in the yard under tarps and my van is in the shop waiting for the ordered king pins to show up.
Meanwhile I have floor stuff to put in and roof racks to put on. I ordered a second pair of roof racks to match the ones I have, so that even my short wall-tent poles will go on the roof.
The plan is to load everything that will only be used AT Rendezvous in the front section, with a rug under them for slide-ability, with tent camp in front of them at the side door. In the back will be the road camp, my rolling bedroom/kitchen/loo. I have wood-floor looking rubber-like foam tiles for that part, and they have already arrived.
I was going to put that throughout the van, until I realized that the stuff in the front part will be sitting there squishing them year round, plus they might be hard to slide stuff across. I also realized that this is definitely the stuff I want in the motor home, to replace the ancient carpet. Who thought carpet should be in vehicles anyway??? Bad idea!

Round Tuits

I've been wanting to put this towel bar here for a while and got it done today.  Having no counter space, it will be nice to have a convenient place for a few lids.

Rainy day, van is waiting for parts, with all my rendezvous gear tarped in the yard.  This is the first time I have blogged from the tablet, so here goes....

Fitting Stuff In

The Escaper motorhome, which I was moving into when I started this blog, has finally found a new home. As a result, I now have a kayak. I've been wanting one for a very long time - and I don't have to insure, store, or register this vehicle with DMV. I did, however, have to take it with me from Lynchburg to Ruckersville. I'm glad it was not a long trip.

I've been meaning to post this picture for a while. It's just a way to keep things put in the fridge while going down the road.

There Are Always Maintenance Tasks

A home, whether it's sticks and bricks or a motor home, always comes with a bottomless to-do list. Last week in South Carolina, the items that rose to the top of the list were the ramp for my scooter rack and the windshield wiper blades.
When I last loaded the scooter, the slightly broken support wood became totally broken support wood. It was good that I was able to recruit an extra pair of hands to get the scoot loaded, and I knew I could not take it off the rack again without fixing the ramp.
The blades were totally shot, with several inches of flopping rubber at each end. We were getting lots of rain. Besides, inspection time was coming.

Fortunately for me, my friend Thom was willing to help me with these things. He's really good at stuff, and has a shop I think of as Tool Heaven.
He completely rebuilt my ramp.

Changing the blades was more of a challenge. Advance Auto had blades the right length but it turned out they were too narrow. Thom disassembled them and combined them with the old blades. Yay Thom! Thank you.

Little Green Frogs Like My Motorhome.

Last week I drove up to Virginia from my South Carolina daughter's place. I stopped at the Kangaroo truck stop for gas and sleep. (It's the first easy gas stop I come to after bypassing all the expensive North Carolina stations.) I got my gas, then parked for the night. As I turned the ignition off, I saw movement to the left and looked: a little green frog was scooting across my side mirror!

Actually, there were two of them. After I'd taken pictures of them, I relocated them to the grassy field behind the truck stop, where I hope they will go do what frogs do and not be run over by 18-wheelers.


So I got to the Home Driveway on Thursday and parked. I settled in, did 2 days worth of cleaning, working, visiting, what-not, and last night I was sitting in my comfy nest which is the passenger seat turned to face the living room - and saw yet another little green frog on my window! Since I'm parked someplace safe and green, I'm sure he will figure it out and disembark on his own - I haven't seen him this morning.

I don't know whether they came up from Georgia with me, or got on board in South Carolina, or whether they came on at my North Carolina friend's house - but they're Virginia frogs now.