Making some changes after my trip

I knew that my first real solo camping trip would help me iron out any changes I might need to make in the van and/or my equipment.

I’ve started making those changes.

I went over to Verizon and switched to them from T-Mobile. I have to pay more, but T-Mobile sucks. Seriously! During my trip I hardly ever had a cell signal and couldn’t get data most of the time. Unless I was on an interstate or in a bigger town, nothing, which wasn’t good since I was out in the middle of nowhere most of the time. I know Verizon is supposed to have the best coverage, so I’m going to give it a try. Let’s hope it’s better. It couldn’t be worse.

I decided to go ahead and  drill into the plastic sidewalls in my van to hang curtains. The way I had them hanging before worked, but I think I can make it better. Yesterday I drilled some pilot holes and screwed in some eye screws. They seem to be pretty secure, but I might put a little dab of epoxy on the screws, just to reinforce them.

I just came home from the lumber yard. The cot worked well for me, but Alan wants to go with me occasionally, and I learned on this trip that taking a tent for him to sleep in isn’t going to be the best option. So I’m going to build a platform for the van. I already have a twin mattress I can use, and combined with my tri-fold mattresss (and a topper I bought for it), I’ll just have to do a bit of trimming and I’ll have a bed between a full and a queen. When I’m solo, it’ll be luxurious. With Alan, well… it’ll be tighter than any bed we’re used to sleeping on together, and I’ll have to deal with Alan’s snoring (at home we sleep in different rooms on opposite sides of the house). But it will only be for short periods of time, so I think we’ll survive. I’m building the platform high enough that I can slide all my plastic bins under it. I’ll have a lot more storage than I did before.

So let’s hope I made all my measurements correctly. I’m going to start putting it together as soon as I finish the curtains. 

The other thing I did for the van was to take it to a muffler shop in my little town. The muffler dude was awesome! The van has had an annoying rattle since we bought it, and it drove me crazy on my trip. The check engine light came on, too, and was indicating that something was wrong with the catalytic converters. So I figured at least one of them was bad, and I was expecting a huge repair bill. Dan, the awesome muffler dude, had to spend some time finding the rattle because it doesn’t happen until the van is warmed up. In the meantime, he checked all the cats (all were fine) and the O2 sensors (also fine). The rattle? Turns out that when the exhaust got hot and expanded, a hanger rubbed against the hitch. That was it! Dan trimmed the hanger, and now all I have is blessed silence when I’m driving. And he didn’t charge me a cent. I’m so incredibly happy. I’m enjoying driving my van again.

My son also removed the running boards for me. One of them was already crooked, and I banged up the other one pretty good at a tricky campsite at Lake Pend Oreille.. They were hard to get off, but I’m so glad we did it. The insides were completely rusted and falling apart. Tons of tiny little pieces. The van looks so much better.

We only have one more thing to do and that’s to repair the speaker in the passenger door. My son is pretty sure it just needs new insulation. It’s a pain to take the door apart, but he just did that on his Toyota, so he knows what he’s doing. 

I’ll post pictures when I get the interior changes made.