It's Time for Another Adventure!

It's been almost three years since our family traveled to Europe six weeks. When I think about how much has changed in the those three years it's incredible to me. We've moved houses (again!), transitioned to both Joe and I working full time in our own business (we flip houses and help others do the same!), and the kids are attending school instead of homeschooling. A lot of big life changes - all of which have made it a little more difficult to take big trips. We have done lots of smaller trips here and there, of course, but have decided that it's definitely time to start gearing up for another epic adventure!

This time the Yatzecks are going abroad within our own country and taking a trip out west. Three of my brothers are currently living in Seattle, and one of them is married and recently had their first baby, so that's motivated us to go out and visit. Our family has visited Seattle before, but it was six years ago, before Katy (our youngest) was born, and our other three kids were only 7, 4, and 1 - so they don't remember that much about the trip. The last time we went, we flew to Seattle and spent the whole time in the Seattle area. It was a great trip, but this time we have bigger ambitions and want to see more places. We knew we wanted to see Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, and lots more, so over the last several months we have been planning a ROAD TRIP!!!

Initially we considered using an RV or travel trailer, but ultimately decided that wasn't the best fit for our family. For one, they are very expensive, and the gas mileage is terrible. Additionally, we plan on doing lots of traveling all over the country, and wanted the flexibility of being able to drive a more normal sized vehicle into all the cities and parking spots. We didn't want the hassle of a super-long and extra-tall vehicle, nor the hassle of towing something. Just like on our European trip, we wanted to embrace the idea of being minimalist and flexible. So naturally that led us to the idea of a camper van!

We spent a lot of time researching all sorts of different camper van conversions, deciding what kind of van we wanted, and shopping around. On June 28 we pulled the trigger and purchased this beauty:

It's a 2010 Chevy Express 15-Passenger Van

It has four rows of bench seats. Our plan is to remove the back two rows and build a platform and put a mattress on top where Joe and I can sleep. Underneath the platform will be storage for all of our stuff. This leaves two rows of bench seats up towards the front, each with three seatbelts, so even with the back two benches removed the van will still have seating for eight passengers. This is essential so that our four kids can each sit on one end of the benches and have plenty of room to spread out during our travels. Hopefully this cuts down on the bickering ("Mom, she's TOUCHING me!!!")

There's lots of camper van conversion stories out there on the internet, including people who live full time in their vans. We aren't planning anything that elaborate - and definitely aren't planning on living in the van. Our goal is to use the van to take LOTS of road trips, and rig it up so that we can all sleep in the van if we need to. Obviously it will be a little cozy to have six people sleeping in a van, and honestly, a lot of the time we will be camping and the kids can sleep in tents, or we will be visiting others and some of us can sleep in their house, or we will occasionally splurge and get a hotel. But the idea is to make our trips more affordable by cutting down on lodging expenses, while not requiring Joe and I to sleep on the ground or have elaborate camp site set up/take down routines.

"Boondocking" is a term I learned of recently. It's basically camping, but not in a designated campground or campsite, and with no hookups for water or power. It's often used to describe "stealth" camping, where you are sleeping in your vehicle in a location where that's typically not done. For example, we might be driving in the evening and decide it's time to pull over and sleep for the night. Instead of having to worry about finding/reserving a campsite or hotel room, we could pull over just about anywhere we felt safe, sleep in the van for free, and then wake up and head back out on the road when we are ready. Freedom and Flexibility!

We definitely don't want to be boondocking every single night of our road trip, but being willing to suck it up and sleep in the van gives us lots more options of what we can do and where we can go. It also will save us quite a lot of money on lodging. We still plan on utilizing hotels and campgrounds occasionally, but it will be a big savings to not have to do so every night.

Looking at our summer calendar, we were able to block out a little over three weeks to drive out to Seattle and back. At first it sounded like it would be plenty of time, but it turns out that Wisconsin to Seattle is a HUGE distance and there are SO MANY amazing things to see along the way that it was difficult to fit it all in. Over the past couple of weeks we've plotted out this route and I can't wait to start on our adventure.

We did do a test run in our van over the 4th of July weekend and drove it out to Joe's parent's cabin overlooking the Mississippi River - about a 3.5 hour trip one way.

Sunset over the Mississippi from the Cabin Deck

I'm glad we did, because we learned some valuable things and I think that knowledge will help us better plan out what we want to include in our van on our big road trip. It's less than three weeks away and we have a lot to do to get our van road ready. I decided to revive the blog early to chronicle our preparations (something I wish I would have done before our Europe trip!). Here are the big goals:

• Build a platform in the back with a mattress on top. We are planning on using our existing Queen size 12" memory foam mattresss. It will need to be cut down slightly to fit, but we wanted to upgrade to a King size anyway so we don't mind using it in the van. Joe thinks we have enough scrap/leftover wood around, so we won't need to spend any money on this part of the conversion.
• Rig up hammocks of some sort so that all the kids can sleep in the van while boondocking. I've seen lots of ideas for this online, but we need to pick out which setup we want, buy the materials, and build it. Shouldn't be terribly expensive.
• Rig up curtains/window coverings and screens of some kind. On our test trip we realized how stuffy it could get inside the van, but didn't want to sleep with the windows open because of bugs. I'm sure we can install some kind of window screens to get some air flow. We also want some privacy curtains.
• Power. We aren't planning on doing anything complex like running appliances or installing solar panels - again, we aren't living off grid, we are just vacationing in this vehicle. But we do need to be able to charge our laptops so we can work while on the road, and charge up our cell phones and the kids' tablets. Probably also a fan - we had a battery operated one on our test trip, but it makes sense to get one that plugs in or is rechargeable. 
• Storage/Organization. Our test run was very last minute - we bought the van and took it on the trip just six days later, so we pretty much just threw everything into the van and left. It worked, but it was a little chaotic. I definitely want to be much more mindful of every item we choose to bring on our big road trip, and everything needs a "home" where it can be put away and stored.

So that's what's coming up on the blog over the next month or so - enjoy!