July 19th, 2022
Billings, MT
After just two weeks at home, I set off in the van again to meet my brother and his wife Michelle in Ouray, Colorado. Ouray is a very beautiful place and the setting, with mountains rising in all directions, is gorgeous. We spent three nights together at a local campground and, when not eating out, Michelle cooked up some mighty fine food. I think it is fair to say we drank a bit of wine as well.
June 20th, 2022
Jasper, AB
After being rather skunked by weather in April in Washington and Montana, then not exactly blessed by gorgeous sunshine in May in B.C., I had high hopes for great weather in June in Alberta. Hopes that were not fulfilled. This from the morning I left.
June 4th, 2022
Spokane, WA (via the Okanagan Valley, B.C.)
After being somewhat skunked by weather in April, I pointed the van north in May and headed to B.C. A mere 4.5 hours from home I braved the border crossing into Canada which was remarkably painless. You simply download the ArriveCan app, take photos of your passport and Covid vaccine card, tell them when and where you will arrive, and you’re done. They scan you passport at the border and it brings up the rest on their computer.
April, 2022
Montana and Washington
I have two weeks off work every month and the goal was to get out in the van each month, or at least most months. After a successful trip in March to Colorado and Utah, I was rather skunked in April. I tried a short trip to the Bitterroots south of Missoula, but hardly any campgrounds were open and the weather was iffy. I spent only one night at a technically closed USFS campground before coming home after waking up to snow squalls. A few days later I headed north and found the very nice little town of Republic, WA, and a nearby USFS campground that was, once again, technically closed. Crappy weather again, but at least I got a little time in front of a fire that night before retreating to the warm van and heading home the next morning through more snow.
Republic has what used to be quite common in small towns across the country: a park where camping is allowed. I didn’t want to camp there but was going to stop by the town hall to verify that camping was allowed as posted on freecampsites.net. I didn’t need to. Check out the sign at the park. Not only do they allow camping there, the encourage it. What a cool little mountain town!
Maybe I’ll have better luck in May.
March 29th, 2022
Spokane, WA (via Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho)
For my first trip in the van I decided to head south to Colorado, hoping the weather would be nice enough to see the area around Canon City, Salida, and Buena Vista. The weather did not cooperate.
Continue readingMarch 15th, 2022
Spokane, WA
I have been looking for some kind of 4WD camper vehicle for years. More seriously for the last two, and decided about a year ago on a van conversion. I looked diligently for the last six months, but the pandemic made campervans even more popular, so scarcer and more expensive. Everyone and their uncle are converting vans, but the more reputable companies are booking 18-24 months out for delivery of new conversions.
In my research, I developed fairly specific ideas about what I wanted. Sportmobile has been doing van conversions for decades, but their styling seems rather dated. A favorite was Outside Van out of Portland. They do some sexy conversions, if you have a cool quarter million to plunk down on it. Yes, seriously.
I finally found something very close to my ideal in a used 2018 Sprinter converted in 2019. The sellers called her Stormy Vaniels, and so shall I.
November 4th, 2020
Ft. Bliss, Texas
I am now back in the United States, quarantining at Ft. Bliss, TX, for fourteen days on my way home to Spokane. So I definitely cannot be blamed for what’s shown in this video back at Soto Cano in Honduras today.
I guess they got a bit of rain.
