On the road!
Boy, do we really love our little camper van! Since Whitworth shuts down Good Friday to Monday over Easter weekend, and I don’t teach on Tuesdays or Thursdays, it offered the perfect opportunity for a spring getaway. So we loaded up the van and headed to Oregon.
Today’s drive was a short one, just past the southern state border. We stopped in beautiful Walla Walla for a bit, and then set up camp for one night. The van’s set up is super easy - just pull in, plug in electric, hose in water, hose out sewer, set up camp chairs, select the WiFi network, maybe turn on a little music. THIS is camping!
Traveling with just Josie is also a treat. She can roam around the van when she gets antsy, though mostly she would prefer to ride in the front seat instead of me. Everyone loves her and wants to stop and talk to her on the street. And it’s WAY easier to tie up one dog while we sit outside vs two constantly getting tangled up and/or enticing each other to bark at ferocious tiny dogs at other campsites.
Tonight we are having breaded chicken with sweet chili sauce over rice for dinner, followed by a DVD in our cozy queen sized bed. My side even gets a Thermarest mattress topper, my one “non-negotiable”.
Tomorrow we will head into central Oregon to investigate some geological sites and to find some fossils and maybe a stone or two for our rock collection.
A photo of the beautiful Palouse prairie.
The daytime interior.
We purchased a little storage rack that attaches to our hitch to carry a large Rubbermaid with the various infrastructure and tool-related items so they don’t have to be stuffed behind the rear bench seat. We purchased a few locking ratchet straps to keep it secure. No problems driving, though it does add another few feet of length. The only real downside is that you have to take it off the hitch when you want to open the back doors, which I love to do because the camper has an awesome built-in full pull-down screen in the back. Such great cross-breezes! To be fair, removing it and reinstalling it takes only a few minutes, totally worth it.
