Skip the whining at the beginning; the rest is a love letter
Hey, where is everybody?
No one's posting, no one's commenting, and, if my stat counter doesn't lie, practically no one's reading.
No, I take that back: Jo is posting; Jo is indefatigable. And Kate is posting, and is Kate chopped liver? No! And Suzanne is not only posting but also being so incredibly productive that I feel guilty and slothful just reading about it.
But I'm a big hypocrite, because I wasn't even online all weekend. I was off the grid, on the road, out there on the edge of theprairie continent, riding around and camping out in Twinkie!
Yep, we took the Vanagon out for a test-drive. RW's been driving her to work for weeks now, but we hadn't really used Twinkie for her intended purpose, that is, as a home-away-from-home. We thought we'd better try camping close to home, for one night, just to make sure everything works.
And boy, does it work. Mermaid Girl kept saying "It's like we get to take our house on a trip with us!" And that truly is how it feels. On the way home we missed the ferry and had to wait around for about an hour before the next one came, and it was cold and rainy out, but it didn't feel like we were stuck in the car, because we were in our van. We could move around, sit on the floor, change clothes, get something to eat. And this afternoon, when RW took Mermaid Girl to a playground we'd happened on, I lay down in the back and took a nap, all comfy.
You know what my favorite part is? The fridge. I mean, it's nice to have a stove, and the pop-top bed is very cool and also surprisingly comfortable, but a fridge! In the car! That is just the best. We put Mermaid Girl's milk in it, so we didn't have the usual worry about running out and her having a meltdown from lack of protein; we put hot dogs in it and had them for dinner; we put cheese and turkey slices and all kinds of stuff in it, and whenever we wanted, we had food. Not bits of car-food snacks, but real food. And we could cook it whenever we wanted, too.
RW has the van all stocked now, with dishes and cutlery and bedding and all kinds of things. At any moment, we could say "let's go on a trip!" and pull together a few clothes, and just...go. None of the running around packing and forgetting things that is our usual routine before any trip longer then a few hours; instead, it will be insta-vacation, even in the dead of winter (it doesn't get too cold here, and just boiling water or making popcorn on the stove heats up the whole van amazingly quickly).
Some things we discovered we'd like to have in the van:
*Ketchup and mustard (Hot dogs are not so good without them)
*A deck of cards
*The spare copy of Rise Up Singing (you can tell RW and I were meant for each other because we each had a copy already when we got together).
*A little clock in the back, so I can tell what time it is when I wake up in the gray morning light having to pee
*Extra AA batteries
It was a little cramped last night, when I was trying to make dinner and Mermaid Girl was giddy and wild and I was worried about her getting too close to the stove. And there was the waking-up-in-the-wee-hours-and-not-wanting-to-open-the-door-lest-I-wake-the-whole-family problem. But overall, Twinkie is practically perfect.
All three of us are in love. With our car. We must really be Americans, after all.
No one's posting, no one's commenting, and, if my stat counter doesn't lie, practically no one's reading.
No, I take that back: Jo is posting; Jo is indefatigable. And Kate is posting, and is Kate chopped liver? No! And Suzanne is not only posting but also being so incredibly productive that I feel guilty and slothful just reading about it.
But I'm a big hypocrite, because I wasn't even online all weekend. I was off the grid, on the road, out there on the edge of the
Yep, we took the Vanagon out for a test-drive. RW's been driving her to work for weeks now, but we hadn't really used Twinkie for her intended purpose, that is, as a home-away-from-home. We thought we'd better try camping close to home, for one night, just to make sure everything works.
And boy, does it work. Mermaid Girl kept saying "It's like we get to take our house on a trip with us!" And that truly is how it feels. On the way home we missed the ferry and had to wait around for about an hour before the next one came, and it was cold and rainy out, but it didn't feel like we were stuck in the car, because we were in our van. We could move around, sit on the floor, change clothes, get something to eat. And this afternoon, when RW took Mermaid Girl to a playground we'd happened on, I lay down in the back and took a nap, all comfy.
You know what my favorite part is? The fridge. I mean, it's nice to have a stove, and the pop-top bed is very cool and also surprisingly comfortable, but a fridge! In the car! That is just the best. We put Mermaid Girl's milk in it, so we didn't have the usual worry about running out and her having a meltdown from lack of protein; we put hot dogs in it and had them for dinner; we put cheese and turkey slices and all kinds of stuff in it, and whenever we wanted, we had food. Not bits of car-food snacks, but real food. And we could cook it whenever we wanted, too.
RW has the van all stocked now, with dishes and cutlery and bedding and all kinds of things. At any moment, we could say "let's go on a trip!" and pull together a few clothes, and just...go. None of the running around packing and forgetting things that is our usual routine before any trip longer then a few hours; instead, it will be insta-vacation, even in the dead of winter (it doesn't get too cold here, and just boiling water or making popcorn on the stove heats up the whole van amazingly quickly).
Some things we discovered we'd like to have in the van:
*Ketchup and mustard (Hot dogs are not so good without them)
*A deck of cards
*The spare copy of Rise Up Singing (you can tell RW and I were meant for each other because we each had a copy already when we got together).
*A little clock in the back, so I can tell what time it is when I wake up in the gray morning light having to pee
*Extra AA batteries
It was a little cramped last night, when I was trying to make dinner and Mermaid Girl was giddy and wild and I was worried about her getting too close to the stove. And there was the waking-up-in-the-wee-hours-and-not-wanting-to-open-the-door-lest-I-wake-the-whole-family problem. But overall, Twinkie is practically perfect.
All three of us are in love. With our car. We must really be Americans, after all.
posted by elswhere | 7:53 PM
11 Comments:
Is it one of those silver bullet things? Man oh man that'd be cool. Also very cool to just park and sleep. Neat.
hmmm...this is weird...i posted a long comment on your other commenting thing this morning...and it does show up if you click on "comments"...and you can read it....even though it appears looking on your blog as though there are no comments. so bizarre.
Good times in the van. Excellent excellent. Fun family bonding. Good good. A suggestion for something to keep in the van: dominos. And I'm not talking pizza. Dominos is (are?) an excellent family game. :)
We're here. We're really here. Reading your every word!
rereading every word, in fact.
Aww, you guys, I feel so loved. *blushes*
Robyn, which post did you comment on? I can't see it.
And, Jilbur, it gets even better-- RW reminds me that the very first edition of that book was called "Winds of the People." Truly! I remember it from college. Heehee... winds of the people...did you see "A Mighty Wind"?
Hello! I just stopped by to say "hi" b/c you mentioned Zoom on Genuine's blog about childhood favorite TV shows, and OMG...did you do the arm thing that Bernadette did in the opening? I so did the arm thing.
Write Zoom, Box three-five-oh, Boston mass....
I so did the arm thing!!! I loved the arm thing. That's right, it was Bernadette.
I still do the arm thing sometimes to impress children. Most of them have never seen anything like it.
cut and pasted from your other commenting thing:
******************************
wow...i'm so inspired by your vanagon camping! i have to admit that i'm not much of a camper...but i've had this fantasy for YEARS of renting one and driving all over New Mexico in one (cuz i think you can rent one in Albuquerque). i think it looks like the perfect thing! so glad to hear that you love it!
also..."rise up singing" looks like the perfect songbook for ME! looks like it's filled with all of those songs i sang at jew camp in the mid-70s in Mississippi (i know...weird place for jewish kids!). when Harris was born...the only songs i knew were my camp songs..and i'd forgotten most of the words...so, i ordered a UAHC camp songbook...but it was only filled with the hebrew songs...which was good enough for me! so..that's what i sang to Harris during those first few weeks when he and i were just getting to know each other!
i'm definately going to buy that songbook...we have another wee one on the way!
Oh-two-one-three-four....
The vanagon sounds fantastic, I am jealous. I wish a big truck would hit one of our cars. The one which is actually worth something, not my pickup with the 240,000 miles and the big patch that my brother primed but never got around to painting before we had to head back to Colorado.
Oh-two-one-three-four....
The vanagon sounds fantastic, I am jealous. I wish a big truck would hit one of our cars. The one which is actually worth something, not my pickup with the 240,000 miles and the big patch that my brother primed but never got around to painting before we had to head back to Colorado.
This is Angela, sorry, I hit publish too soon.
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