The dinner was absolutely amazing, as was getting to see the smiles on everyone's faces as we all gathered together to eat, drink, and laugh. We played game after game of Nerts and Cards Against Humanity, then precariously wobbled our way off to bed to sleep off the mountains of turkey and dressing.
We stayed toasty warm in the van that night, with 1 full 1lb canister of propane lasting us about 7.5 hours. We ran the heater on high for about 15 minutes, and on low (with a window cracked and the smaller fan running) for the rest of the night while we slept.
At night it has been fairly cold, 39 degrees last night and 45 tonight. As we head south it will get warmer, but for now we are using our entire insulation set up. We have a custom sleeping area that makes it much more bearable to be out in cold weather. The stock bench seats in the van fold down to form standard camper bed, which is the width of the van body. As both Dave and I are 6' tall, it was a little too cramped. We added 4 short legs that can screw in to the bottom of the removable table top, which now serves as an extender to the bed. We also made a foam pad that raises the surface up to that of the cushions. The crowning glory is a 3” thick memory foam pad that covers the entire bed surface. It rolls up in to a pretty compact package and is worth every inch of space. We purchased a Trekker brand sleeping bag from Cabela's for a blanket. It's rated to 0 degrees Farenheit (which in reality makes it good for about 30 degrees). It is rectangular and unzips to queen size blanket that sheds dog hair and keeps us toasty warm! It's an awesome system. When we get to warmer climates, we will just use the flat top sheet as a cover, and stow the sleeping bag.
In addition to using the bed to keep warm, we also have the Reflectix window coverings to hold heat and block light inside the van body. To separate the cabin from the living area of the van, Dave came up with a clever solution. He cut a space blanket to fit the gap, lined the edges with duct tape, and added at 1” foam roll at the bottom. When in use, the roll weights it down and keeps the dividing sheet taught. When not in use, we roll it up and fasten it with hair ties and hooks so it is completely out of the way. It does a great job of preventing heat loss as well as keeping the windows nice and dark from the outside!
We drove down the coast, first on 1-5 South, and then Highway 101 South. We stopped in Astoria at the Bumblebee Tuna museum and watched a dock worker feed sea lions off the pier. They were huge! Tonight we are boondocking just North of Cannon Beach, OR. A ways out of the last town, we saw a road split off the highway into the pines, and we pulled off. It turned out to be an old abandoned construction site, with piles of unused asphalt, nearly invisible from the road. We settled in, had some spicy clam chowder, and got ready for night number 2!
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