Category: 2020

We got in last night.

Our house is fine and the plants are alive, thanks to John’s friend who watered them 🙂

Here’s my “new” view, from my new spot on the couch. It beats the view of the back of the van! That big cycad (the thing that is in a huge pot that looks like a dwarf palm tree) is going back outside soon. It’s not really an indoor plant, but New Mexico winters get pretty cold. It’s on rollers, because yeah, it’s too heavy to move otherwise. And that nice big screen TV is sort of wasted on me. I don’t actually watch TV, although maybe I should learn to like it. But weather permitting, I hope to spend most of this spring & summer in the backyard.

My Japanese maple on the front porch is alive and putting out new little leaves!

And the pear tree we planted in the backyard last fall is alive and blooming!

We planted a bunch of new little trees when we moved in for additional privacy from that house above us. And soon the big white birch will leaf out too.

Hi everyone, we are going to make it home today!

Some of you have expressed curiosity about our van and surprise about how we’re able to make such good time driving across the country. Well, it’s thanks to John and our camper van!

The front of the van has two seats – driver and passenger. Behind the seats is a curtain. Behind that, along the wall behind the driver’s seat, is a bench with a mattress. That’s where I’m sitting, with my back against pillows against a metal rail. I’m riding backwards, directly behind John, back to back.

I wear a seatbelt that John installed. I’m not sure if the seatbelt meets all regulations, but I feel fairly safe back here. In a sudden deceleration, I would just be pushed backwards against the rail between me and the back of John’s seat. The seatbelt is mainly to keep me from rolling off the bench, onto the floor.

Luckily I do not tend to get motion sickness, so I’m fine riding backwards and reading or using my computer. Typically I’d sit in the passenger seat, (and also I’d switch off driving with John), but post-surgery I’m more comfortable on the bench in the back.

At the base of my 6’ long bench, down past my feet, just inside the back door is a toilet. There are curtains that pull across the back windows so the interior of the van is entirely private. There’s also a curtain between the foot of the bed and the toilet, but frankly, we never bother with that one, lol. John also made custom fitting shades for all the front cab windows, which we put up at night. When the shades are up we don’t need to pull the interior curtain between the van and the cab.

Across from the bench and toilet, along the wall behind the passenger seat, there’s a sink, counter, cooler, microwave, and air conditioner. The sink is connected to a big jug of fresh water with a pump, and drains to a big jug for gray water. We also have shelving above, for luggage and dry goods. There’s a nice fan in the roof that vents out, between the two solar panels. The air conditioner also has a fan that vents out a wheel well, and the toilet also has a fan that vents out the wheel well on the other side.  

We use the sink water sparingly, but have no problem going for several days without a refill. The toilet can hold enough effluent for several days without dumping and does so admirably, with little or no odor. We have not had to empty the toilet on this trip, and can wait to do so after we get home.

The toilet is a different design than is typically used for RV’s. It’s more commonly used for off-grid cabins and things. It’s an amazing toilet, I think I’ve blogged about it before. (For more info, google Nature’s Head Compositing Toilet.) Here’s a previous post of mine about the van, and here’s one with a lot of detail about the toilet. (Despite the title, it does not contain pictures of poop, lol.)

The various pumps and fans and coolers and kitchen appliances are all powered by two solar panels on the roof, connected to a bank of batteries under the bench. We have 600 lbs of batteries down there, which equates to a good amount of power. Our internal power system, from the solar panels, has nothing to do with the van’s engine system. The van has a conventional gas-powered engine. It’s just all our interior amenities (microwave, etc.) powered by solar.

The van itself is a 2012 Nissan NV2500 cargo van, the tall version. It is tall enough inside that John and I can both stand up without stooping. This makes it very comfortable, even though the van chassis is only as big as a full-sized pickup. That makes it really easy to drive, including out on forest service roads (which is our preference, of course, not this cross-country shit).

Here is my view from my back-facing seat.

At night we can extend the sleeping bench across the entire floor space, allowing room for John and I both to sleep. I lay with my head behind the driver’s seat – exactly where I sit during the day. John lays with his head behind the passenger seat and his feet angled toward mine, because the sink is where his feet would be if he slept exactly parallel to me. We sleep in a V shape, with our feet together and more space between our heads. It’s plenty of space for us; definitely not a king sized bed, but more than we have in our tent when we’re backpacking.

In the morning, John gets up, folds his half of the bed away, gives me my morning medical shot, gets into the driver’s seat and starts driving. I get up somewhat later, and stumble around trying to accomplish basic personal hygiene and get a bit of breakfast in a moving van.

I’m very lucky it’s been 3 weeks since the surgery. Even one week ago I would not have been able to handle moving around in the van. I just didn’t have the mobility. I couldn’t bend down or twist or use my abdominal muscles at all. I still can’t fully stand up straight or easily reach down to the floor. And I can’t sit upright without being propped up. So I just recline back there while John does all the work.

John listens to books on tape and just drives & drives. He only stops to get gas, and occasionally to eat or use the toilet. We are eating food we have in coolers in the van, and not going to stores or restaurants. Our only physical contact with the outside world is when John touches the gas pumps, or pays freeway tolls. My sister called the van our own private apocalypse capsule.

We bought the van used a couple of years ago, for a very modest amount compared to fancy custom Sprinter vans, which can cost as much as a small house. Our van cost $23,000. The previous owner was living in it rather than traveling, so it didn’t have a ton of mileage.

We are the third owners. The first owners used it for some sort of small business – you know, like a plumber’s van or something like that. I don’t know what kind of business it was. I think it might have been an art gallery. And I don’t know why they bought a brand new van and then sold it fairly soon afterwards. Maybe their company didn’t do well.

The second owner did the majority of the camper conversion. He’s the one who installed the solar panels, bank of batteries, sink and counter, and the main section of the sleeping bench. Then John installed the toilet, the air conditioner, the bench extender and a variety of other improvements including additional shelving & lighting.

We’ll be home soon. And here’s the burning question – how much toilet paper do I have?!? LOL! I don’t know! I don’t remember. I also don’t remember the current state of our dry goods, cold medicines, etc. I’m really hoping I have some more Tylenol sitting around somewhere because that’s what I’m using for surgery pain, and let me tell you, I need it.

Back in January I was humming along, minding my own business, la, la, la, when suddenly my New Year’s resolution colonoscopy led to an abrupt cancer diagnosis and before we knew it, we were flying off to Boston for treatment. This was long before the coronavirus had caught anyone’s attention. I did not think to myself, “Huh, I should stock up on TP before I fly to Boston for cancer surgery.” Nope, never crossed my mind.

Hi, just a quick note to let you all know that I’m feeling a lot better today than yesterday. Life always seems brighter without a stomach ache. My stomach aches are just going to come and go for awhile.  There will be good days and bad days.

We also slept much better last night than the first night, even though last night we had pouring rain, thunder, lightening, and strong winds shaking the parked van. The previous night our parking spot was barely off the freeway and the traffic just bore down on us. I’ll take thunder and lightening over traffic any day.

We are on the third day of driving home (second full day of driving). Yesterday we had rain; today is dry but windy. This afternoon there’s even been a bit of sunshine. John continues to keep plugging along, doing all the driving (typically we’d switch off, but I’m not up for driving yet). We should be home tomorrow.

I’m curious to see our house. It’s been almost 2 months since we left. John has a friend who has checked on it for us a few times, so we’re hoping for the best.

Thanks for the condolences after my sad and sorry post yesterday! We’re going to be ok!