Winter camping in Calistoga

We planned to take the BRV on an epic roadtrip around California the week of Thanksgiving.


Then we realized we had scheduled 200+ miles of driving most days and scaled that back to a trip south along the coast.


Then we realized we didn't really want to be traveling that whole time and scaled that back to a trip to Big Sur the weekend before Thanksgiving.


Then it rained all weekend.


So we decided we should at least take the van out for a night the weekend after Thanksgiving... and so we took a trip to Calistoga.

Calistoga has wine


And Calistoga has art


Calistoga has a really nice park and camp ground


But this year Calistoga does not have heat. It was below freezing at night, and not all that warm during the day. The BRV has a small trickle of heat when it's running, but no heater otherwise and so our fear of freezing led to the latest BRV gear purchase

A portable heater! This thing was very efficient at heating up the van (with a window cracked to supply air...probably unnecessary with all the holes in the van, but we wanted to be extra safe). We only needed to run it for an hour before bed and we were quite toasty through the night. It runs off of propane, a convenient use of the extra canisters we have leftover after the death of our really cheap camp stove since we invested in a fancy new Coleman stove that doesn't use those.


(note, stove stayed in the box for this trip, we had dinner in a toasty warm restaurant)

In addition to testing out the BRV in extreme cold (anything below 50 is extreme to me!) we inadvertently also tested it out in the rain. We were nice and dry in our bed, but there were a few leaks in the corners of the van. Fortunately Amber has everything so well packed up in plastic bins nothing got wet. Maybe some day I'll try to figure out where exactly the water is coming in and repair it. Or maybe we'll just stay home when we know it's going to rain.

Burning Man

The BRV goes to BRC, Black Rock City, that place in the Nevada desert that exists only one week per year during the Burning Man Festival. It was my (Amber) first time going, and I had a blast. Dawn doesn't have much interest in the Burner scene; she spent the week on the beach in Baja Mexico, so I went to Burning Man with a friend who shared the driving duties. The drive form SF to Reno was fast at about 4 hours, but then the 100 mile trek from Reno to Gerlach, and then out to the playa took almost another 4 hours due to traffic and weather delays. It was raining as we arrived at the gates!



I did a small art project: decorating my van to fit the Metropolis theme. I arranged magnets in the shape of the skyline. The white tape you see covering the black magnets is glow-in-the-dark-tape, so it was visible at night too.



The weather was erratic and extreme, just as I was warned, but somehow it didn't really hit me until it happened. From overcast skies and rain on the first day, getting so cold overnight that I woke up freezing, needing more clothes despite being in my mummy sleeping bag, to being sunny and blazingly hot (over 100 degrees) during the day for the rest of the week. I set out with my trusty cruiser bike to explore.



The city, which is really more like a campground since everyone is in tents or RVs (or vans!), is arranged like a horseshoe, with the opening to the north. The open area in the center is reserved for art installations. Here's one that I really like, something about the shape that I find meditative. I remember seeing at the Pre-Compression (pre-burning man) party in San Francisco, so I'm pretty sure it's a Bay Area artist(s).



The above piece looks even better at night, since the pipes surrounding the circle and wings are burning! I suppose they are carrying some flamable liquid that is set on fire. Much of the art involves fire or other illumination, but my camera isn't good enough to take night photos (I tried). In the center of everything is The Man. He's burned on Saturday night.



The only vehicles allowed to drive around the playa (once you park your car at your campsite, it stays there all week) are the Art Cars, a.k.a. Mutant Vehicles because they can't just be a car with a crazy paint job, they have to be mutated beyond recognition as a stock vehicle. The largest ones are double-decker and carry passengers, along with speakers, a DJ, a bartender.



The art installations and art cars are two of the major components of Burning Man art experience; another is the theme camps. A few of the camps are run by the BRC staff, such as Arctica where you can buy ice and Center Camp, where you can buy coffee. Coffee and ice is all you can buy in BRC; all other food, water, and supplies you need must be brought with you.



The theme camp below has the Rainforest theme and had hoses with water pumping through to create a misting spray within the tent. This was a very welcome way for people to cool down during the hot afternoons. I guess that was the most difficult part of the trip for me, dealing with the extreme heat in the middle of the day.



I was surprised to see a lighthouse in the desert. :) Very cool. People are so creative.



It was a great trip and the BRV performed admirable, starting up on the first try after sitting in the hot sun for a week, and carrying all the gear and two bicycles without any problems. Goodbye Black Rock City.... I have a feeling I'll be back again sometime.

Big Green Van

Spotted in Canadian campground by Heather and Megan (who are clearly moving in the direction of buying a van for themselves and joining the fun).

Tuolumne Meadows

Who knows how to spell Tuolumne Meadows, or for that matter, who would guess that it is pronounced toowallame meadows from seeing that spelling? Perhaps that's why we've never gone there in spite of many visits to Yosemite over the years. But this past weekend we discovered we like Tuolumne Meadows even more than Yosemite Valley for camping and hiking. Thanks to Megan & Jeremy (aka Megalor) and Amy and Joel (aka Joelry?) for inviting us on this fabulous camping trip!

An auspicious beginning to the trip...a new annual national parks pass: the possibilities are endless!

The terrain is different from the valley, more rocks, less plants. Really gorgeous.


On Saturday we did an epic 16 mile hike. We got dropped off at the trail head to Sunrise Camp and then hiked in to the backcountry camp (5 miles, mostly uphill) and then along the JMT (cool people know that stands for the John Muir Trail)



past Cathedral Lakes and then back down to our camp site.

We ran into this guy along the trail.


Amber interrupted this poor dear's private time



She was not very happy about that


We were very impressed with our total miles hiked. This is the longest hike either of us can remember doing, and it was our first day at 9000 ft so we were definitely feeling the altitude.


The scenery on the hike was gorgeous, but it was just as beautiful at the road next to the camp site


After the hike we had a gear adventure. Someone misplaced the hose to the solar shower, leaving a hole in the bottom and no good way to deliver the water. But fortunately we had duck tape:

And Amber went to heroic and comic ends to make it possible for Dawn to take a dripping shower and get some of the pollen off. Picture Amber standing on the bumper of the van, holding up the shower bag with one hand and holding the shower curtain on the rod (running between the two back doors) with the other. In the end we both got rather wet but at least one of us was cleaner after the "shower".

There are bears in Yosemite and both nights we were woken up by people banging pots and shouting "bear". So we had to store everything that smells in the food lockers.

I kept wondering how so many people had pots to bang on at 3am. If I saw a bear at that hour it would be on my way to the toilet and I don't generally take a pot with me to the bathroom. Nonetheless, the wakeups were kind of exciting.

There was the obligatory climber slack line in our camp


And more food than I have ever seen on a camping trip: some cooked over the fire and some over the 3 camp stoves we had (we were very well prepared for a group of 9)


A moment of special pride for me was when I was able to provide a few cooking items that Joel, Mr. camping gear, didn't have: a strainer and a pot holder. There probably wasn't room in the car for these items.


We're still working out the optimal organization for the BRV. On Sunday as we were packing up we switched the direction of the futon so that it faces out when set up as a couch, and tried to better pack things up so they will be easier to find in the future.


We were all nicely packed to leave, got in the van and drove a few feet from our campsite, over a big pothole....and it stalled. And then it wouldn't start again.



We figured out how to open the hood (not as obvious as one might hope), and after some troubleshooting including an attempt to jump it, we got a bunch of people and pushed it up a small hill off the road. And then we called AAA and sat down to wait for a tow. Fortunately Danielle had given us sack lunches, and we had some cold beer still in the cooler. There are much worse places to be stranded.


There's a garage in Yosemite Valley (who knew!) and since there were no tow trucks available to get us out of the park, we agreed to a tow there. After 2 hours the tow truck arrived (it really took him that long just to drive up). He also tried to get the van started, couldn't, and so loaded it up on the truck.


And then we drove back down, another 1.5 hour tour of Yosemite in a tow truck with a very nice driver and comfy seats. This may actually be the best possible place to break down, if you're not in a hurry to go anywhere.

We got to the mechanic just 45 minutes before they close for the night, unloaded the van and pushed it up to the garage door. The mechanic agreed to look at it right away in the hopes that he could fix it and save us from being stranded in Yosemite Valley for the night. And so he turned the key....and it started. He spent about 30 minutes trying to find anything wrong with it but couldn't. A few theories include altitude issues messing up the fuel to oxygen mixture, a failing ignition, and a flooded engine.

To make up for the difficulties getting out of Tuolumne Meadows, the BRV drove very nicely all the way back to San Francisco, and we got home around 10pm.

Unfortunately the adventure of the day didn't stop there, because our bathroom at home is being remodeled and so we have no shower



and we were pretty dirty by then. At 10pm on a Sunday there weren't a lot of showering options. We went to 24 hour fitness where Amber has a membership and Dawn had to convince the guy at the desk to allow her in (they don't do day passes after 9pm). Fortunately he was sympathetic to the camping dirt sob story.

love bug

The BRV made another friend. A classic VW bug.



Today we're off on another BRV adventure: Yosemite!

RV Camping in Saratoga

An invitation to an anniversary/birthday party inspired our weekend trip to this underrated county park just an hour away from San Francisco (nope, not the Saratoga in New York that Amber says is famous for horse racing). Sanborn County Park is just a few miles from Castle Rock State Park, but much less crowded. It has some really nice walk in camp sites and some RV spots that are, well, kinda close together like a parking lot.


But fortunately the RV camping is not popular and we enjoyed a relatively secluded weekend in this park. There is only one hiking loop in the park, but it's an awesome climb, and it connects up with skyline trail so we were able to hike to Castle Rock (about 10 miles round trip)






In addition to lovely hiking and camping, Sanborn County Park has Shakespeare! Shady Shakespeare is the actual name and they were performing Much Ado About Nothing Saturday night. This was part of the anniversary/birthday party plan, and it was really well done: live band, much singing and silliness, very entertaining.


There were also plenty of deer in the park.


Oh and something we didn't find in the park: Dawn's allergies! We forgot to replenish the kleenex supply in the BRV, generally a disaster for Dawn. But this was a two tissue weekend. Saturday morning: "Is this what normal people feel like when they camp?" Wow. Maybe August is a good month for plant allergies. Gonna test this out further in Yosemite in a few weeks.

A number of enhancements were made to the BRV for this trip. First, there's the shower tent



This structure is not only functional but also provides entertainment to everyone in the park: "that looks a little small to sleep in", "did you take that rocket ship to the moon?" A pretty nice set up except that the shower hangs so low you have to sit down to let gravity deliver the water. This park also has really nice showers for 50 cents so we didn't need to use the shower tent, Amber just tried it out for fun.


We finally got around to getting the spare tire out of the inside of the van, and mounting it on the back.




A tablecloth really makes for a much nicer cooking and dining experience (as does a nice bottle of Calistoga wine).

We also got magnetic bug screens for the windows, which are a really great way to keep the bugs out without the mess of tape we used last time. This led Amber to experiment with magnets on everything else in the van. Now we have ceiling lights attached with magnets, magnets on our clock, magnets on the flashlights, magnets on the window covers.... some of these work ok, some not so well. I'm still waiting to be hit in the head by a falling light.

And speaking of lights, Amber also got a mood light for the BRV: red, green, blue changing colored lights on the ceiling and walls - think party/disco lights.

Back on the topic of windows, there was a little problem with the driver's side window: it fell into the door and wouldn't come out. Dawn tried valiantly to fix it with a spatula (the only tool we had that was small enough to fit inside the window hole), but to no avail.

Fortunately Amber had installed lockboxes in the BRV so everything of value was safe.

On Sunday on our way home we stopped to visit some friends and Paul taught us how to take our door panel off to put the window back up. It still needs a new part to make it go up and down properly but at least it's not sitting on the streets of SF with an open window just asking people to come inside and help themselves to our stuff and/or have a little nap on the bed.

A less successful purchase was the shade canopy, which has instructions (inside the packaging) explaining that you need 3 adults to set it up. Fortunately 2 really smart adults can set it up....but one really small wind can blow it down. Poor design even when lashed to the BRV. Returning that.



In addition to the window assist, Paul and Mira came to the rescue and provided a much sturdier shade structure for Amber's use at Burning Man.


Thanks and a happy anniversary and happy birthdays go out to Lis and Miko, friends from college who are still just as much fun as they were 20 years ago [eek].


-Dawn

White Van with Bed

Saw this one parked on the streets of SF. Interesting minimalist design - there's just a bed in the back and some curtains between the bed and the seats.

-Dawn

BRV in the 70s

Wow. Today my dad sent me these pictures. I had no idea I was re-living my childhood with the BRV. How could Amber have known when she bought it?



We need this carpeting in the BRV! And the curtains. For that matter, we need the bunny seat cover too. I'm hiring my dad as our new interior decorator. Clearly I did not inherit his talents. This does, however, explain my strong affinity for the color orange.


My father explains the layout of the interior to accommodate a family of 4: "The adult beds were on the floor. Perpendicular to the floor bed were two cots that stretched across the width, hanging about 32” above the floor. Two children fit nicely on the 4 foot long cots."

We also learn from this picture that I was pretty darn cute as a kid.

-Dawn