October 23, 2023

Oct 9 - Oct 13 : Lone Pine to San Diego

October 23, 2023/ Christian Tuttle

We rolled into Lone Pine, CA, as the day was fading into evening. Dre, our host and old friend from guiding in Glacier National Park (and even older friend of Chelsea’s from her college years), had given us advice bordering on orders to arrive while there was still daylight. The views were not to be missed even if it meant delaying by a day. She certainly wasn’t wrong, and a mandatory detour around the semi-famous Whitney Portal Road took us along the stunning Tuttle Creek Road, an adventurous piece of single lane pavement both smooth and steep, like a roller coaster track, surrounded by fantastic polyps of granite, some oblong and smooth like giant dinosaur eggs. I am incredibly grateful for Dre’s advice and for the roadwork on Whitney Portal - we had reached the point in the trip that I would have been tempted to drive through late evening darkness to get to a known, safe driveway, or pass up a pretty, 20 minute detour for a direct, 3 minute route. The drive was worth it, and I hope we were able to capture even a fraction of that landscape’s majesty.

Dre gave us a tour of our camp spot, their new property, that evening, and we settled in under the stars. The next morning’s light really made the place shine, and we spent hours by the pool editing photos, stretching, writing, planning, and watching Dre’s two retired sled dogs teach her newly adopted dog how to act right. Gracie learned her place in the micro-pack and behaved herself, a welcome change to the anti-social behavior of her younger years. I’m not sure what gets credit for the change: her advancing age, the wisdom of the road, or the light dose of anxiety meds she gets with all her meals while we travel. Whatever it is, it’s working.

We spent a morning “exploding” part of the van, unpacking everything from a few of the compartments and repacking for maximum efficiency. The first aid kit got torn apart, labeled, and put back together. The duffle bag that hold our odds and ends got a similar treatment, as did part of my tool box, and some of the kitchen pantry. That evening we went for a walk with all four dogs leading all three humans through the desert vistas of the Shark Fin Trail and Movie Road. The Sierras put on a show, turning the sky bright pink with the last of the day’s light, and Chelsea’s back tolerated the two miles, barely. The next day she woke up feeling the activity, despite taking a slower pace and staying on top of her steroid regiment. Her back was responding to the drugs, but not as miraculously as we’d hoped.

The rest of the time was spent taking cool dips in a rad, retro, kidney-shaped pool (and feeling very California about it), making final prep lists for our stop in San Diego before the border crossing, cooking dinners, eating out, and generally carrying on like two late-thirties travelers hanging out at their friends’ beautiful property. Many thanks to Dre (and Caleb, but he was off on a work mission for the duration of our stay), a shining star of a host in what was fast becoming a long line of shining stars.

Mount Whitney and its friends greeted us on the drive in.

As far as driveway camping goes, this spot certainly didn’t disappoint!

A tour of the property with Dre and the dogs - walking down to the orchard!

Their orchard and garden basked in the evening light.

Basking in the glow of the sunset by the pool.

Dre and two of her three very good dogs.

A blissful evening in the fading light by the pool.

Exploding the van to reorganize and make a list of any last items we needed to add.

Afternoon cool-down in the kidney-shaped pool.

My walking abilities had progressed to at least not needing walking sticks to get around.

Our second night treated us to some beautiful views during an evening walk.

The backdrop of the Sierras were impressive.

Fen, front and center, finding his place in his new pack.

Dre admiring her new home’s beautiful landscape.

Rock formation that felt reminiscent of a picture I took years ago in Baja of a grey whale popping up from the depths to say hello.

The last of the cotton candy sky over the impressive landscape of the Alabama Hills.

After Lone Pine, we headed south to San Diego, with a quick stop in between to visit some over-landing legends and turn internet friends into real friends. We took a short detour off our route to meet Micheal and Yvonne of Wabi Sabi Overland fame, and see their latest box-on-a-Jeep creation. We had followed each other on the social medias years ago because we were both Pinzgauer owners, making us part of a small club of rational people owning irrational vehicles. Their vehicles and travels had kept us intrigued for years and we had to take the chance to meet them, as who knows when our paths would cross again. They graciously gave us a tour of their new projects, and we left their workshop mouths agape and imaginations spinning.

Christian gleefully exclaimed “Take a picture, this is SO cool!” as Michael opened the hangar doors.

From there, it was south to San Diego, returning to the familiar feeling of being far from home, but only just barely on the doorstep of the next chapter of adventure. Driving from nearly the northern border of the US to the southern border is an adventure in itself, as hopefully these last few posts has shown, but for us it felt once again like a chore ticked off a list. The US is amazing and full of invaluable overland opportunities, and it would take a lifetime to see even half of what this beautiful country has to offer, but if what you want is international adventure travel, then you must realize that you simply can’t get that at home, no matter where home is for you.

We arrived, slightly frazzled by the rush-hour traffic we’d found ourselves in, at the driveway of our friends Ricky and Ashley, in the heart of the San Diego suburbs. We had stayed here both before and after our last Baja trip six years ago! They had graciously put us up as we were panicking and preparing to adventure in Mexico the first time, when we really didn’t know what we were in for, and then once again after the trip when Chelsea was recovering from her back surgery in Ensenada.

We had much less to prepare this time around, as we had learned a thing or two since we were last there. We had a short shopping list, and we needed to make a bunch of copies of paperwork and arrange our documents, so we spent about half of a day doing that. We integrated ourselves into the family dynamic for a few days, gladly being part of the bustling household, a welcome respite from the road. I attempted a repair on my solar panel mount, realized the repair would have required fully removing part of the roof rack system, and instead swapped two little zip ties that I used as a trail fix for one big zip tie. With little holding us back, we did one last load of laundry and got ready to leave.

Our hosts made us a big Saturday morning breakfast for our send-off, complete with homemade thick-cut peppered bacon and fried eggs. On the morning of our departure a partial eclipse waved us goodbye. I can’t tell if I wanted that to be an omen of some sort; I’ve been contemplating how to fit it into the narrative for the past hour. Was it an unusual break of a natural cycle, mimicking our own? Was it a reminder that there are larger forces at play, and that the story of two middle-aged, washed-up adventurers, their old van, and their crazy dog just isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things? Who knows. Who cares. Let’s ride. Vámonos.

Christian helping to install some carseats into Rick’s Scout that he bought in Idaho with our assistance several years ago. June, the walking teddy bear, in the foreground.

A hasty IPhone photo of the partial solar eclipse. We were busy packing/prepping to leave…we couldn’t be bothered to take any other photos.

Our gracious San Diego hosts preparing a delicious breakfast. Their home was such a welcome refuge in the past as it is now. We don’t get many tastes of domestic life wheil were on the road, and our stay there was an absolute treat.

A slightly-too-sunny-for-the-kids selfie with Ashley, Rick, Remington and Loralai.

October 16, 2023

Oct 4 - Oct 9 : Gold Lake Trail, Carson City, and onwards to Lone Pine

October 16, 2023/ Christian Tuttle

We departed Plum Valley campground early-ish the next morning, stopping to let Chelsea take some aerial glamour shots and to try out the “active track” mode on her drone (the last time we tried this, her old drone flew itself directly into a tree). We even did a little search drill on the road out, allowing Gracie to stretch her legs, nose, and brain, looking for Chelsea as she slowly hobbled back to the van, now even more incapacitated and suffering from a totally numb right foot. We were concerned that she had badly pinched a nerve, or possibly suffered another damaged disc in her back, but we did what we could by feeding her ibuprofen and keeping her out of the driver’s seat.

We made highway miles from Plum Valley to Graeagle, California, stopping to resupply and fuel up in small towns along the way. The drive took a couple hours, but Walter performed well and we made it to the Gold Lake 4x4 trailhead by mid-afternoon. The trail was only a mile and a half, and cousin Jay assured me that it wasn’t too technical, with one crux “gatekeeper” section and a bunch of light crawling. Chelsea was concerned with our ability to escape the trail unscathed, as our vehicle is our home, our lifeboat and our safety when we’re on these trips, and she was right to be concerned. The trail probably didn’t push Walter to his limits, but it pushed us to our limits with Walter. Jay and Morgan’s van made the trail look easy, and I picked my way up the rocks behind them, often relying on Morgan’s direction to help me place my wheels exactly where I wanted them. The new tires were great, aired down to 35PSI, and Walter’s low gear and locked center differential kept us from spinning wheels. It took us about an hour, but we made it to the end of the trail, although not without damage: Chelsea, who had been walking part of the trail taking photographs and minding Gracie, was tearful with pain. Her back was not getting better.

Carefully experimenting with the Drone’s follow mode.

Walter is a better 4x4 than i am a driver.

Cousin Jay advising on the toughest part of the track. - this was a challenge for us!

We arrived at the campground as the sun was setting, relieved that we had made it through the trail, and trying not to think about the mandatory return trip back down. We had decided to spend two nights at the campground, so we could have one full day without driving, and because it was somehow a free campsite, it would be a full day without expenditures - bonus! We parked, leveled the rigs, I deployed an awning, and got to cooking on a mostly new-to-me kitchen. The menu was tacos by the lakeside.

I slept well, Chelsea didn’t, and the next day was mostly relaxation and light exploration. Dogs played in the lake until they were shivering, Chelsea flew her drone for some more glamour shots of the vans, and the rest of us hiked up to Summit Lake, a thousand feet above the campground. We watched Jeeps and motorcycles pass us by, adventuring up a longer, more advanced four-wheel route, and mostly did a lot of nothing. The lake glassed out and we got the SUP inflated for some paddling, and the stars came out to play over a beautiful campfire.

The next day we struck camp and got moving by 10:30, finishing the trail out in only 45 minutes. Walter handled great again, but had some troubles when I shifted him back into 2WD - the ATF level was fine, but maybe the fluid was too hot. We limped him towards the nearest town, and about halfway there the issues magically went away…so…we’re good? The highway miles from Gold Lake to Carson City were uneventful, and that put us at ease.

First big dinner being cooked on the camp kitchen!

Fetch in the lake was lively but short lived, as the dogs were shivering in no time.

This wasn’t the extent of Chelsea’s abilities, but it was close. Her back was getting worse.

Idyllic camping on the shores of Gold lake.

This is the extent of Chelsea’s abilities, she walked with us up a bit of the Summit Lake trail before turning around.

Summit Lake? Swamp? Bog? It was very pretty.

Little Gold Lake in the foreground, Morgan on the SUP, Gold Lake in the background. Our camp was Between the two.

I couldn’t say no to some near-glass evening paddle boarding.

That’s totally a shooting star or satellite?

It only tooks us 45 minutes to complete the 1.5 miles out Gold Lake trail.

I wish i could have enjoyed the view but i was entirely concentrated on the drive.

Picking our line in the narrow wheelbase Delica.

I can’t tell if Gracie liked any of this.

Family photo as Walter’s transmission cooled down a little.

Despite the van running great, we weren’t completely whole. Chelsea’s back had kept her from doing much of anything during the days, and had kept her from sleeping at night. It was discouragingly reminiscent of our original Baja trip in 2016/17, which ended with back surgery in Ensenada, and that experience was tough on us both individually and as a couple. Wanting to get ahead of the problem, get some answers, or at least get some stronger drugs, we routed out to the nearest urgent care.

I’ve mentioned “travel magic” in the past, or at least it’s a common phrase Chelsea and I use. For us, it’s the nearly magical, incredibly coincidental, dramatically beautiful, surprisingly lucky, and obviously blessed happenstances that make life on the road worthwhile. The only way to experience travel magic is to travel, but travel itself doesn’t guarantee travel magic - it shows up when it shows up. The noon sun was already overhead by the time we re-entered cell service in Graeagle, and I was frantically googling urgent care centers near Carson City, hoping we could find one that would prescribe some heavy duty NSAIDs and maybe some muscle relaxants. Anything open would do, as I knew we would be hitting Carson City as the shadows were getting long, and with a better-than-nothing attitude I chose the closest facility, the ROC urgent care, a branch of the Reno Orthopedic Center. The closest urgent care center was an orthopedic specific facility attached to a full blown orthopedic hospital with a staff of sports medicine doctors and surgical specialists! What luck! What a blessing! What travel magic!

We parked Walter in the shade, opened the vents for Gracie, and got Chelsea into an exam room. She was whisked away for X-rays immediately, all included in the basic exam price, and after a thorough physical she had a prescription for a steroid treatment and some muscle relaxers. We were concerned that the pharmacy wouldn’t be able to fill her prescriptions before we had to leave Nevada, but the nice doctor explained to us we were in a real city now, not in the rural mountains of Idaho, and that our pills would probably be ready before we even got to the Walmart down the street. She was right. Travel magic!

With the sun setting on Carson City, we pulled into my Uncle’s property, where the rest of the gang had already arrived and started dinner preparations. It was a real relief to be in safe parking spot, even though we had been in safe parking spots the whole way down so far - security (or the nearly tangible illusion of security) is never really taken for granted while traveling, at least not in our van. My Uncle Grant, the ever gracious host, offered us the full use of his ranch, including a king size bed in a guest room for Chelsea. We had been worried that the cramped sleeping quarters of the van had exacerbated her back, so she spent two nights sprawled out on her own. We did laundry, got caught up on blog postings, visited Lake Tahoe, visited the infamous Genoa Bar and Saloon, and prepared to head southward on roads we had not yet traveled. Chelsea’s back made some progress towards normalcy, but not much.

The next day we packed up for Lone Pine. We triple checked the house, double checked the van, and still managed to leave one of Gracie’s favorite discs behind. With the road stretching on in front of us, we informed Dre, our next gracious host, of our imminent arrival in Lone Pine, CA. We were hopping from host to host through some of California’s most beautiful terrain, it felt like we were just road tripping, not overlanding. We had barely had a chance to use our kitchen, so we stopped at the beautiful Mono Lake rest stop for a too-short walk and a lunch of bagged salad and tuna. Finally feeling like we were getting into the tempo of the trip, we loaded back up and made miles to the foot of Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the lower 48.

A trip to Baja wouldn’t be complete without an Xray of CHelsea’s back. Stay tuned for some future MRI images too!

Beach Life at the dog beach at Lake Tahoe.

Cousins and cousin dogs on the beach at Lake Tahoe.

Taking a break at a dog park where we met some folks that recognized us and the minivan from the Gold Lake 4x4 trail.

Dinner at Uncle Grant’s table at Rattlesnake Ranch.

Road lunch numero uno! Canned tuna and a bagged salad, delicious, light, and cheap.

Mono lake, last vistied by a traveling tuttles vehicle (Campbulance!) in 2014

Photos don’t do it jusTice - The drive up Tuttle Creek to our next driveway camp spot at the base of Mount Whitney.

October 09, 2023

On The Road : Planning, Preparation & “Final” Projects

October 09, 2023/ Christian Tuttle

We arrived in La Pine on Saturday night and were welcomed into the open arms of The Cousins at their beautiful adventure basecamp. La Pine was a long day of driving from home, but an easy and soft landing for a first night on the road. Chelsea’s back had been firing up again, causing some pain, so sleeping inside on a large bed was a welcome start to the adventure.

We’d planned to launch from their house and start adventuring south with Jay and Morgan alongside us for the first few days. Jay had some great ideas for camp spots to explore and trails to drive, so we busted out the maps, digital and analog both, and got to planning a route down through central Oregon, California, and Nevada. He had planned our route southward to help us make miles - we were surrounded by opportunity for adventure, so why not choose the route that also helped us with our schedule?

We arrived late Saturday night, and Jay’s wife Morgan had a craft fair to attend as a vendor on Sunday, and then a day of real-person-work on Monday, so that bought us two days to get caught up and get things done. We spent one day at the craft fair wandering around Bend, looking at all the amenities that just aren’t offered in rural Idaho, and the next day finalizing our van preparations for the trip. I thought it would be best to do a fresh oil change, and I had a sneaking suspicion I could use new tires, so we ventured back out into the city to run some errands.

I wanted a professional opinion on my tires, so I called around to find a shop that had our size in stock in a decent A/T model and headed over for an inspection. At the local Les Schwab, the consensus was that our tires had great tread life, but were nearly seven years old, and the full size spare didn’t match the other four tires. The shop had four of the five tires I needed, so we went ahead and got Walter some new shoes, and then headed back to another Les Schwab to mount a fifth tire as a full size spare.

After installing the new rubber, we swung by the local auto parts store, curious to see if they had the correct oil and filter for our van. We use pretty standard oil, a 15w40 Rotella product, but the oil filter is often a special order, at least in McCall, as it usually cross-lists as a light tractor oil filter rather than an automotive part. I told myself that if the La Pine Napa had the part, then I would do the oil change, and as luck would have it I was laying in the rain making an oily mess of myself a mere 30 minutes later. Thankfully, Jay held an umbrella over me and kept Chelsea company as she created and installed some DIY blackout curtains for the cab of the van.

Spending a day in downtown Bend. Morgan’s booth held some amazing colorful macrame creations, which you can find here.

Enjoying corndog crumbles at the street fair.

Gracie gets way more comfortable than us!

New blackout curtains, a on-the-road DIY project.

Blackout curtains for the cab of the van,.

Didn’t have a filter wrench, so I tried to use my belt. That Idea failed immediately, so we went out and bought a proper wrench.

Dogs napping in blissful comfort with inspirational off road youtube playing in the background.

After two days of urbanity, we were hungry for the road and for adventure and for sleeping outside. We packed up the van with provisions, confirmed our route, and set off into the unknown, driving some roads we had driven before, and thankfully some that we hadn’t. The van was handling great with new rubber, Chelsea was really excited to drive, and I was happy to sit in the passenger seat, feeding her snacks and managing the stream of podcasts. We made miles easily and ended up in northern California for our first night of camping.

Our camping options were plentiful on the route that we drove, and The Cousins chose Plum Valley campground just outside Davis Creek, CA. It’s a big designated campground with casually defined sites, remarkably clean pit toilets, and a gurgling creek - pure perfection! We had a great night there, with the exception of some mild food poisoning endured by myself and courtesy of some questionable macaroni and egg salad. Whoops!

We are still very new to the van at this point, still figuring out our work flow at camp.

An otherwise empty Plum Valley Campground.

Plum Valley Campground in the fading evening light.

October 02, 2023

September 2023: Welding, cleaning, packing, and leaving.

October 02, 2023/ Christian Tuttle

Disclaimer from Chelsea: The photos in the last few posts (and this one) have been less than stellar (read: embarrassingly bad) because documenting our lead-up to leaving has been an afterthought during an otherwise INCREDIBLY stressful time. Please excuse the poor quality photos…I promise they’ll improve soon.

The airbags were slowly losing the fight, as I mashed, folded and squished them into submission. At first, I was suspicious of the quality and strength of the polyurethane material, but after beating the snot out of the bags during install, I became more confident that they would stand up to the abuses of the road. To install the airbags without completely removing the springs, we had to jack up the van, place a jack stand under the control arm, remove a tire, and drop the van as much as we dared. This allowed us to expand the coil, and barely wrestle the bags into place. With a bunch of grunting, pushing, and prodding, we managed to get them in.

As I showed off my handiwork to Chelsea, she spotted a broken weld on the axle mount. I was crawling around in front of the axle, broken welds out of view, just staring back at Chelsea, shaking my head. There was no way we had a broken weld, we had barely done anything with the van, there was no way, but lo-and-behold, she was right. The break didn’t look new, so I have no idea how long we had been driving on it, but it definitely needed fixing. I was absolutely beside myself, and in my anxiety-spiral I got worried that the trip was over. I sent a quick text to my friend, Wayne the Welder, who I already had a standing appointment with the next morning to finish the roof rack, and tried to tell myself it would be ok. We’ve been looking forward to this trip for years, and to have it possibly ripped from our grasp before it even started was almost too much to handle.

The next morning Wayne and I surveyed the damage further, and we both came to the same conclusion that the crack had probably been there for a long while and that the axle hadn’t moved out of line. The van had been driving like a dream, with no crabbing or lane drift, so we decided to weld it back in place as it stood. I wrapped the newly installed airbag in fiberglass mat, Wayne readied his tools, and in no time the cracks were cleaned up and welded shut. I am pretty confident that we found a problem early and addressed it before it got any worse, but I will definitely be nervously keeping an eye on that axle mount forever.

While at the shop, Wayne also completed fabrication of the last of this season’s metal projects: a fairing (wind deflector) for the solar panel. The van had long since lost most of its aerodynamic qualities to roof storage, but the drag and road noise created by the solar panel was just too much. We folded some cardboard around the panel, traced our desired shape onto a spare sheet of aluminum, and fired up the plasma cutter. A can of black spray paint and a handful of rivets later, we had a much quieter ride and Walter had a snazzy new mohawk.

Cracked welds found by Chelsea, nine days before departure!

Wayne the wleder doing what he does best.

Repaired and repainted and ready for the road.

Top-down shot of our roof storage solutions.

As the days slipped away, and late summer quickly turned into early fall, our list of things to get done seemed to only get longer and longer. Gracie had to go to the vet to get documentation and updated vaccines, which was incredibly lucky as our veterinarian informed us that the US border had recently gotten a lot tighter on canines returning to the US - if we hadn’t had a vet visit when we did, there was a chance we would have been stuck in Mexico until July!

We had some big projects to get crossed off the list, in addition to entirely moving out of the house. We finally installed some snow cleats on the roof to stop ice creeping off the eaves, I rebuilt some of the plumbing for our sump pump, and caulked a bunch of gaps around doors and windows that had been bugging us for years. Projects finally done (or done enough), we moved everything out of the house, stored all the good stuff, and tossed the rest. The house is small, the van is smaller, and we had to remind ourselves that if we were going to get away from it all, we couldn’t bring it all with us.

In between getting everything done, Chelsea kept shooting for the paper, documenting the big events in the community until the very end. She couldn’t say no to the photojournalist inside her, and we both agreed that the community deserved to have their story told, even if that meant Chelsea would be on the sidelines of the high school’s homecoming football game the night before our departure, a mere 12 hours left on our game clock before we had planned to roll out of the driveway.

On departure day some cold rain moved in, as if the valley was finally letting go of its grasp on summer now that we didn’t need it anymore. We did a final clean on the house, finished our packing, and got ready to take off. Chelsea put her drone in the sky for a few goodbye aerial shots of the property, we gassed up Walter with the last of our local fuel discounts, and headed off into the sunset, hoping we didn’t forget anything, and telling ourselves that it didn’t really matter if we had because we were finally on the road again.

fixing the sump pump is becoming a pre-trip tradition.

installing snow cleats on the roof so our tenant won’t have to manage creeping ice flows.

Boxing, bagging, tossing and cleaning for days.

We began to smile while packing becasue the end was in sight.

12ish hours until departure and chelsea is STILL working! She couldn’t say no to shooting the high school homecoming football game.

packing, sorting, and packing some more - everything has its place.

The rain had moved in but we had moved out. Summer was over and it was time to roll.

All the important things packed away: passports, clothes, Dog, Etc.

Fueling up for the first leg of the journey, a cool seven hour drive into the night.

Moody skies leading into Oregon, but we were running away from the storm.

We don’t let Gracie drive yet so she just naps instead.

September 25, 2023

Summer 2023: Walter the Warthog Build 2.0 & Trip Prep

September 25, 2023/ Christian Tuttle

Our spring adventure to Oregon taught us that while we had the right idea for our Delica build, we still had a long way to go to reach a final version of a camper. The first order of business was finalizing our electrical systems, which mostly meant doubling the battery capacity to 200AH, and moving the whole system under the refrigerator. We ended up purchasing a new Dometic CFX3 35 to replace our failing 10-year-old Whynter, and its smaller capacity and sleek form factor allowed us to increase the size of the storage under the fridge. In that space I shoehorned our two batteries, a 30A DC-DC charge controller, a bunch of ANL fuses, a fuse block, and a few bus bars.

Once the majority of the wiring was in place, we began work on a set of shelves for vertical storage, or, the “clothing tower.” Its a three tiered shelf/cabinet piece that will hold most of our day-to-day needs, with toiletries and first aid on top, clothing in the center behind a wall of bungees, and a various soft and hard goods in the bottom “stuff storage” area - a cubby blocked from view by the mattress and bedding.

We installed a mostly custom nine gallon water tank. Tank Depot offered an off-the-shelf size that fit nearly perfectly in one of our storage bays, so we installed that and plumbed a pressure sensitive water pump to a marine grade hose spigot at the back of the van. That will allow us to get clean water while we are cooking and attach a hose to the spigot now and then. In addition to the nine gallon tank, we are packing a Scepter water jug and two Swiss Army surplus water bladders; this will allow us to carry 24 gallons of clean water if we’re planning an extended stay on a beach somewhere, and the water bladders double as solar showers if we have an excess of water.

Contemplating solar panel placement - we didn’t have much space to work with And THE ROAD NOISE ABOVE 60MPH WAS TOO SIGNIFICANT TO IGNORE.

I’M TIGHTENING SCREWS TO DRY FIT THE CHARGE CONTROLLER, NOT COYLY HIDING A SURPRISE.

WIRES, WIRES, EVERYWHERE. WE GOT REALLY GOOD AT CRIMPING AND HEAT SHRINKING WIRES.

WIRING CONTINUING IN A MOSTLY COMPLETE VAN INTERIOR.

OUR NINE GALLON WATER TANK FITS PERFECTLY AND KEEPS THE WEIGHT BETWEEN THE AXLES.

THE WHOLE FAMILY TESTING OUT THE CAMPER.

With the interior mostly wrapped up, we set our sights on the exterior. We had tackled installing a roof rack and a ladder in the early spring, so next came attaching a 175W solar panel from Renogy, a Maxxair fan in the roof, and a custom roof rack for propane, Rotopax fuel tanks, and Maxtrax traction boards.

The solar panel was tricky - we had installed it once before the Rendezvan event in Oregon but we noticed it was creating a lot of road noise, and taking up the lion’s share of rooftop real estate. Chelsea had the great idea of moving the panel forward and sloping it down, creating a mohawk of power on Walter’s forehead. We had a friend graciously donate a roof rack solution that fit great, and that let us install the panel in its final position.

After moving the solar panel, we had room to install our Maxxair fan, although the position of the fan was mostly chosen for us by the nice engineers at Mitsubishi. We wanted the fan near the head of the bed, which is the tail of the van, and we identified roughly 17 inches of clear roof between two structural body ribs on our LWB Delica L400. We could feel the body ribs by pressing on the roof and noting the firm areas, but we didn’t trust that method to exactly locate the ribs, at least not to within the 1/2 inch, so we started by cutting a small 4x4 hole in the headliner to feel around, and boy, are we glad we did.

We ended up realizing that we had maybe 15 1/2 inches of clear sheet metal between the body ribs, which is certainly enough to fit a 14 inch fan, but it didn’t allow for much wiggle room. We were dead set on not cutting a body support, even if it meant moving from our gold standard Maxxair fan to a smaller, lower volume fan, because the Delica is unibody design, meaning there is no large frame that the body sits upon - the van body is the structural support of the vehicle. We proceeded carefully, cuttting larger and larger hole in the headliner until we were happy with our placement of the fan, then we popped four pilot holes up into the van roof. Pilot holes in place, we checked measurements on the exterior of the van, enlarged the holes, and cut out the 14x14 inch square with a metal blade on our trusty jig saw, purchased back when were just two kids converting and living in a school bus selling Christmas trees.

Next we built the kitchen, a 48 inch slide out drawer that uses an interference fit instead of modern drawer slides. We eschewed drawers slides partially because we didn’t want to sacrifice 1 1/2 inches of lateral space, partially because a van-build mentor of ours (@putacamperinit on the Instagram) didn’t have a slide product that she loved, and mostly becasue we had great success with interference fit slides when we built out Littlefoot the Pinzgauer. I’m really not doing the kitchen build justice; it loomed large in our minds and our hearts for weeks, if not months, and building a cabinet when you’re not a cabinet maker is infuriating. In the end, we decided it’s not just good, its good enough.

After the traumas of cutting a hole in or roof and fitting a square drawer into an un-square cabinet, we headed over our friend’s shed for some fabrication. Having Wayne make our dreams dreams come true is fast becoming a requisite step in every one of our long range adventures - he modified the ladder rack on Batsquatch the F-350, introduced us to the shop that sold us a roof top tent, and modified our TW200s to be able to carry everything we could ever want and a dog. His expertise was employed on this trip in a handful of ways, but mostly to create a bespoke roof “tray” that sits on our roof rack and allows for secure attachments of 8 gallons of diesel (upping our range from 476 miles to just under 600 miles), as well as a spot for our Maxtrax traction boards and our five gallon propane tank.

A few more fun things came in the mail as we buttoned up the exterior: we got a custom awning wall from the great sewists over at Bear Paw Wilderness Designs and a set of suspension helper air bags from Airlift. Our awning is from Ironman4x4 and its a great piece of camp equipment. It folds out in seconds and it folds up in seconds, offers a huge amount of sun and rain protection, and can freestand for convenience or deploy legs and guy lines for stability. Ironman offers an awning wall addition for the product, which attaches to existing velcro on the awning, but it was too big and bulky for our needs. We wanted a low weight, low volume awning wall solution that could span two sections of our awning while tying in to anchors on the vehicle or the awning legs, and Bear Paw Wilderness Designs did a great job making our dreams come true. It’s our privacy wall, and it works great.

As mentioned above, we also got a set of Airlift suspension helper airbags. The last photo in the following series is a picture of me beginning the install of this integral piece of kit. I want you to notice the innocent smile plastered across my face in that photo, because that was the last smile I made before Chelsea sweetly said, “Hey babe, I think these welds are broken.”

CUTTING SMALL HOLES INCASE WE HAVE TO SCRAP THE LOCATION OF THE FAN.

WE SOAKED THE OEM INSULATION WITH WATER BEFORE CUTTING A HOLE IN THE ROOF IN CASE THERE WERE ANY SPARKS.

USING LAP SEALANT TO WATERPROOF THE MAXXAIR FAN

PULLING A RADIATOR TO INSTALL A NEW, HUGE, TRIPLE CORE UNIT. MORE COOLING, MORE SAFETY.

WAYNE AND I FIGURING OUT HOW WE WERE GOING TO FIT TEN PUNDS INTO A FIVE PoUND BAG.

OUR PRIVACY WALL FROM BEAR PAW DESIGNS. IT VELCROS UP, ATTACHES TO THE AWNINGS LEGS and MOVEs TO SPAN ANY PART two parts OF THE AWNING.

JACKINNG UP THE VAN FOR WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN AN EASY INSTALL OF SOME AIR BAGS.

SMILING RIGHT BEFORE I FOUND THE CRACKED WELDS.

I know I left us on a bit of a cliffhanger, broken welds and all, but I’ve got to point out that there was a sideshow going on while we were finishing our build. In between all the buildout and the van prep we had to find time for some not-insignificant home improvement projects. We had built our house with our own two hands four years prior, and a few of the more intimidating projects kept getting put off. We hadn’t tiled the backsplash or the shower surround, there was essentially no trim on any of the interior doors, and the exterior needed to be caulked and get a fresh coat of paint. We had been perfectly content living without the finishing touches on the house, but now with a renter moving in we knew we had to do the responsible thing and finish the projects.

The projects ballooned in time - we had hoped to get all the tiling done in five days but it took the better part of two weeks, meaning we didn’t have a kitchen or a shower for most of September. (Don’t worry, we set up an outdoor shower for the interim.) The exterior paint took two days instead of one. Trim projects had to be put off because other projects had to be completed first. It all just snowballed, and it eventually didn’t feel like trip prep. The days were sliding away, and despite me calling out “THIS IS OVERLANDING” every once in a while as we tiled or grouted or painted, life didn’t feel like an adventure anymore. We had to keep reminding ourselves that there was a light at the end of the tunnel, and that we were, in fact, at our best when we are escaping.