Today I am feeling hopeful. With the vaccine beginning to be shared, it feels like the beginning of the end. It is a sunny day and relatively warm, but I am dreaming of the weather next summer. And in fact, I have already booked our first camp site for next June, up at Lake Superior, in Cook County. I can’t wait to look at the lake in the morning from the campsite, while we have our coffee and cook breakfast in the open air.

This was our kitchen setup toward the end of the season this fall. All our dry food such as cereal, potatoes, onions, and rice are stored in the Chuckbox, a brilliant Craigslist find. I can’t speak highly enough of having an organized cooking station like a Chuckbox to make packing and transporting meals as simple as possible.

As you can tell, the design theme is farmhouse chic/cabin, with the apple baskets and fun moose curtains. Both items are also practical, with the former being for storage and the latter for privacy. I have all my personal care items hanging from the curtain rod, and a water cube hangs from the hatchback so I can brush my teeth and wash my face if Penny is napping inside the camper.

The van and the Scamp look nice together. A 16-foot-long Scamp is 7 feet 10 inches tall, while the Astrovan is 6 feet 4 inches tall, with the cargo carrier making them roughly equal in height. The color of the Astrovan, which is technically called “Light Pewter Metal,” is hard to match. I always think of pewter as having a grey tint, but in this case, the van also has brown undertones. As I add or change items, I typically look for gray, white, black or brown, with red for smaller things, like towels.

In practical terms, the Scamp’s unloaded weight is 2000 pounds, and the Astrovan can tow up to 5400 pounds. We don’t get great gas milage fully loaded, especially when we are carrying water. My husband Ryan says, “I’ve been watching gas milage on the way to and from work, and towing nothing it gets just over 13. I think in the mountains in Colorado, we were making about 10 to 11 mpg. ” (Ryan points out that since we are already getting crap gas milage, we may as well upgrade to a full size van.)

Previously with the Bethany Camper, we had a 2001 Volvo. I think the Bethany only weighed about 500 pounds. Ryan could pick it up from the front and move it by hand because it was so light. With the low weight of the trailer, we were often able to get 25 mpg in the Volvo.

We drove the Volvo and Bethany across South Dakota and into Yellowstone. It was very comfortable for long rides, kind of like riding on a couch, because it had plushy, soft springs. When I rode in the Volvo, I didn’t get carsick. Ryan says this was because the Volvo had, “fully independent, rear, double wishbone suspension, with larger sway bars, and was also very heavy.” 

Overall it was a comfortable set up, and really gave us all we needed. We got water from the wells at the campsites and even liked the tastes of different water at the time. Now with the Pandemic, I can’t imagine getting water from a shared well! The Scamp setup wins just for being able to carry our own with us everywhere we go.

We were also limited on space in the back of the Volvo, but, again, this wasn’t a problem because we set up hand washing and personal care on the tongue of the Bethany. We used a 5 gallon jug and it was fine. As you can see below, the hatchback of the Bethany protected us from the rain. With a side table for food prep, we were always happy campers.

On the inside, the Astrovan has space to better manage long car rides with an infant or toddler. When we stop, she can move around on the floor, and we can also have books, snacks and diapers within reach. I can shuffle awkwardly to the back while we are driving if she needs a check in—which is actually terrifying and I cannot recommend to anyone in good conscience. I always have accident imagery shooting alarmingly through my head when I fumble with the seatbelt. Nonetheless, I still move to meet her needs and we don’t have to do as many stops.

I will close out this blog with a photo of a view that I hope to see in six months time: Penny riding on Ryan’s shoulders, walking along the beach of Lake Superior, in the sunshine.