Space Mobile

It's been a tiring couple of days! Work, run, build, kids, cook, move. Why did we decide to move all of our bedrooms at this time?! It is exhausting. I remember when we bought our house, thinking, "I will never have to move again." Well, switching bedrooms (us to the master, girls each their own room, office to our old room) was just like moving. We still have the "dump" room as the office where anything weird is residing. But I have to admit, I love how it feels. Very airy and open.

But, back to the CoVan20. I realized that the curved boards for under the mattress were just not going to cut it. A bummer, since they were free. I found some more on marketplace, which fit much better and gave a good solid overlap in the middle to help stabilize it all. I stapled some straps on the boards, and even overlapped the ties which helps really keep the boards in place.

2 sets of overlapping bunkie boards

The sleeping platform & storage bins

My new mattress arrived, and it is so comfy. I am pretty excited that it seems my back won't be entirely ruined after this trip. Also, I was most excited to get my bins, actually. They fit perfectly and make my heart happy. Something about the crisp new plastic smell of potential organization really gets my heart pumping. I think, honestly, we won't have any suitcases or bags. When we do stay in a hotel, we'll be lugging up tupperware bins. That won't look weird, right?

Cozy mattress

The mattress flips back easily to put the seats up

I started the window covers. I used painters plastic to line the windows perfectly, and trace and outline. Then I cut it out about a centimeter bigger onto Reflectix, labeling each window as I went (haha! She thinks ahead). It was a pain for sure, and required bending and twisting to get these big pieces of paper to trace the windows. But thankfully cutting through the Reflectix was easy enough, it is basically bubble wrap with shiny stuff on the outside.

Tediousness

Space mobile

Overall, though, I think it came out pretty amazing. I ran out and need to buy another roll for the front windshield. The plan was to fancy up the shiny sides. I'm going to cover the interior sides with fabric, and the exterior I was thinking of spray painting black. Someone mentioned the lingering smell of spray paint fumes though, and as awesome as that would be while I'm trying to sleep I think I'd rather suffer the ugliness of a 70's antenna vibe. We shall see. The tinted window section doesn't look too bad though?

Layin' Pipe

Next, the frame. Bottom line, measure, cut, size, remeasure, rebuild, and eventually it all came together pretty nicely. I found some free bed slats on marketplace, and tossed an old camp mat on top to give it a whirl. Overall I'm pretty pleased, and there's LOTS of head space when laying down. The seats can be folded up for driving, and we are getting there. A few more tweaks, perhaps some longer bed slats, and waiting for my new mattress in the mail. 17 days until departure.

So here's the thing about PVC pipe. It's some weird shit. And it's strong as hell, pretty easily accessible, and slight bendy. I knew that hardware stores carried in, in basically any thickness. My main tutorial I am following used 1.5" pipe but I figured we could get away with 1.25" pipe. I mean, they are basically legos, with all sorts of different sizes and pieces. But I soon found that corner "fittings" were not easily found past basic T or L shape. A trip to DIY, Lowes and Home Depot definitely left me wanting.

Enter the Internet.

I had to get fittings from Amazon, Ebay, Lowes and Home Depot. The center 5-end piece was the most expensive, at $13 each! I mean, what do people make with these other than bitchin' minivans? I could definitely picture some incredible cosplay creations, and I love a good complicated Halloween set-up (actually, I already have a PVC pipe creation who lives on my house during October. His name is Ichabod, and my dad helped me build him. He's a giant black spider with a yoga-ball butt). He's actually in my yard for our Covid-season advising mask-wearing and hating on narcissists.

My PVC fittings sprinkled in through the mail, and finally I got my last piece this week. I needed to measure INSIDE each pipe to determine what the appropriate measurement should be for the pipes. Most fittings mostly allowed a pipe in 1.25"-1.5", so I wanted to be accurate before I started cutting.

My first test run was the hammock. At this point, I don't think I will suspend it from the doors as there is a lovely armrest that is level on each side of the front of the van. I can snug a frame in there, and no need to have a dangling kid. This was great news, since I wasn't sure that I wanted to mess with the door lining by jamming something into it.

Adapted hammock design

First order of business, what cuts PVC? A quick google search brought up that any ordinary wood blade would do the trick. We have a little jigsaw, and then the bone-cutting miter saw. I figured it would be more dangerous to use the flimsy blade on a jigsaw, wobbling and holding a huge PVC pipe steady, so I brought out the big boy.

In our early days of home-ownership, having watched enough home demo shows and pinned enough DIY projects, we bought a miter saw. In the 5 years since then, its only been taken out of its dusty home in the shed a handful of times. We put in on a glass patio table (limited options, here) and I did the first cut. That sucker is powerful, but I made it through alive. I made my cuts and assembled by rectangle-shape of PVC, then brought it to the van for testing. Definitely off by a couple inches. I shaved some little rounds off the pipes and eventually, got to the right dimensions.

All the fingers

I grabbed the tiny 7 year old and held the frame around her. Plenty of room! On to the next projects.

I had doodled, calculated, and tried to account for all the measurements I would have to make my perfect sleeping platform, but honestly I just had to cut, bring to van, then recut to get the correct size. It wasn't too bad, once I got the initial pieces remeasured, but my favorite part of course was assembly. It is coming along nicely!

Need longer slats, methinks

For a rough draft? Not too shabby

PVC pipes and things

The first order of business is building the campervan, right? I mean, its a minivan, so things are pretty much already built for space and comfort. I started to measure and pin different designs. I found I had 2 options for travel for my 2006 Toyota Sienna.

1) I could simply lay the mattress on the floor of the minivan, and remove the inner row. The back row folds flat into the van, leaving a perfectly level surface to throw a mat on. The pros? This was super easy, and the seats would be a snap every night. The cons? This would essentially mean most of our things would have to be stored in the middle area of the van. They would need netted-down or something to be safe in case of a sudden break check. Plus, the kids would be sitting WAY BACK away from me, and possibly miss much of the scenery.

2) I could leave in the middle row, and lay the back seats flat into the floor. Then, I would have to build a sleeping platform so our bed could extend across the platform, and the middle row folded flat. The platform has to be 18" high to match the height of the folded middle row. Pros: the under area of the sleeping platform meant glorious storage space, and the kids would be close to me to see the action. Cons? I have to build the damn thing. But that's less of a con, then a very fun challenge.

BEHOLD:



So, the first sketches of The Daisy Dodger came to light. I started measuring, calculating, shopping for weird shaped PVC pipes, mattresses, and curtain options. Stay tuned!

GOALS: 

First inklings

I first started getting an inkling of this blog a month ago. Being stuck in Los Angeles while the world paused, I was dying to break out of town. Trip after trip had been canceled, and I just couldn't tell my daughters about one more event that they would not be attending. This, also, would be the appropriate time to check my privilege, as I know that there are far worse things than having a few vacations planned. But, at this moment and time, this is what was most on my mind.

Now, I'm a nurse. I know full well the hazards of any type of travel during a pandemic. In my arrogance, I also consider myself a notch above most people at keeping deadly germs out of my mouth & face. Until you've had the joy of keeping a gloved C-Diff hand way from your face, you probably won't agree, but I digress. Germs bad, cleanliness good, and my mental health was tanking. My kids' mental health was shot, and the dismal end to the school year brought no joy to their world. My husband was becoming creature-like and hadn't seen daylight in a spell.

I discovered through a nurse at my work that Zion National Park would be opening soon, and that campgrounds were beginning to open. I started to consider the technicalities of leaving town with my husband, two daughters, and myself.

So a few concerns came up.
1. Safety
2. Bathrooms
3. Food

Safety:
It would be a 7 hour drive, and camping would mean sharing bathroom facilities with others. Not ideal. I started to search more, and found a fair amount of steeply discounted resorts, cabins, and AirBnB options. This sounded much safer, as I could mask up & go wipe down surfaces before my family entered. This would also mean we could bring frozen food and we could cook meals ourselves, further limiting exposure.

Bathrooms:
I had read about these little devices that essentially allows females to pee while standing up. More research, and I discovered FUDs; Female Urination Device. Oooh the snappy names that exist! PeeBuddy, GoGirl, SheWee, TinkleBelle! In a pinch, if restrooms on the road were closed, we could essentially whip-it-out a la man-style and go on the side of the road. Of course, it would need daughter approval first. My enthusiastic 9 year old tried it out back, while my somewhat more contained 7 year old opted for the shower. Success! And while it might not solve any #2 problems on the road, I felt safer having a FUD in our arsenal.

Food:
The drive was 7+ hours, which we planned to do in one day. I filled extra bags of ice from our fridge up over the week leading up to our trip, so we had nearly enough to fill the cooler. I packed some frozen meals (spaghetti sauce, turkey burgers, mac n cheese) and filled the cooler full of enough food for 3 days. I also made sure our rental had the means to cook things and store food. A fridge, microwave and hotplate meant that we could stay in even more. I knew that we would be ordering out as well, and a quick search of restaurants close to my rental showed nearly all of them doing takeout. So at the very least, we would not starve.

That said, after all the planning and concerns, our trip went off relatively uneventfully. We did discover that enough rest areas were open that we didn't have to bust out the FUD, and we definitely ate more fast food than I would have preferred (mostly due to pure exhaustion after barely moving the past 2 months, and vacation-me is incredibly energetic and go-go-go).

BUT. It also set my next plan in motion. A road trip with my girls. Since it looks like travel will be nil, our summer camps will be canceled and I sure as hell don't want to get on a plane any time soon, it is time to get creative. Disappointment after disappointment has been their life the past couple months. Our trip to Zion invigorated me, and we all sorely needed it.

I don't see this virus disappearing any time soon. In all honesty? I can't imagine life returning anywhere close to its former glory for at least the next year or two. I am not willing to give up travel for 2 years. I am aware (more than most) of the devastation of this virus, but I'm also going to find a way to live my life, look forward to travel and trips, and protect my family. Stay tuned...