While we have had our van for over a year, we have mainly used it for long drives across the US. It’s great for this, as being able to stop, make lunch, make some coffee, and take off again is really nice. Also, if one is really tired, laying down in the back while the other drives is an option.
We just returned from our first experience at RV parks. On the chance we might not like it, we limited the stay to 4 nights. The first two were at Grand Marais, MN, and the second two were down the road at Schafer MN (Lamb’s resort).
Grand Marais was our idea of an ideal location. Close enough to town that we could walk or bike in whenever we wanted, but also right on Lake Superior. It was just a few steps to the beach. [We would really like any other locations that fit into the “close enough to town” description.] We will definitely be returning.
Logistics:
Both locations were full hookups. Since both locations had very nice rest rooms, we could easily have skipped the sewer hookup. It was interesting to see the difference in arrangements—at one stop water, electric, and sewer were really close to each other. At the second stop, water and electric were on one side while sewer was about 25 ft on the other side! Since we have a van, it would have been easy enough to just pull out and orient ourselves to the sewer cap, but the need never came up.
Since we have great water from our well, I filled our 28 gal tank before we left. After 4 nights we came home with about 1/3 left.
Our van is a rear bath model with beds on both sides. I made a simple bridge between the mattresses so that we can have just under a queen size bed. We made it up at night and took it down in the morning.
We did almost all of our cooking in the van. It’s amazing what you can do with an induction cooktop, microwave, and a small but high quality toaster oven. A mini Keurig keeps the caffeine flowing. 4 days of food does take some planning as we have one of the smaller refrigerators.
Observations:
We kept a notebook of things to order/fix when we returned. First on the list was a set of simple “Lego” style leveling blocks. No need to be perfect, but better would help. Others on the list were rigging up a clothesline when needing to dry a towel or two, add a few towel hooks in the bath area, and tweaking the flip up sink to direct residual water to the drain in the back of the unit (already did this with a piece of flexible silicone and a little tape—works perfect and does not show)
You might as well get used to a little smoke. Seems like a part of almost everyone’s trip is to build a fire in a fire pit.
So we rate this as a success and are planning our next trip. In late Jan we will be renting a VRBO for a couple weeks. We are planning on going early, spending a couple nights at a RV park to dewinterize, and then, after the rental, spend 4-5 extra nights to both extend the trip and to winterize before going home. [Regarding winterizing on the road, I found a ideal little unit—have you seen the Floe air compressor? It’s a small box that you can mount in the van, and is easily plumbed into the water line to blow the lines when desired. While I have 3 air compressors at home, I do not want to carry any of them with me in a Class B]
And, on one day when it was not windy, not raining, and the sun was right, we even used the awning
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Thanks to the forum for answering questions that helped make this possible.
A few pics:
First overnight experience! (rookie notes)
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