In order for us to travel across the country and take our bikes with us, we needed a form of transport. We tossed around the idea of buying a travel trailer and a truck, but the price of gas, plus our desire to keep things simple ruled that out. Since we camped last summer out of our very very small Honda Civic, we knew that travel over a long distance in that vehicle was not an option either. We finally decided that the car for us would be a minivan. I have never owned one and the very thought of going from our nice, fast, cheap to drive Honda to a giant, cumbersome and gas guzzling minivan did not excite. However, practically speaking, it would give us the most options while still being slightly more affordable than a truck when we are home as we want to keep it to one vehicle only (I know, we are weird that way).

So, before leaving for our last trip (biking in Mexico and Cuba), we sold the Honda to our son-in-law, thus forcing ourselves to commit to the van upon our return in March. I had done my research and we were planning to check out a used Kia Sorrento and compare it to a new Dodge Caravan. Those two vehicles ticked the most boxes from the reading I had done. We needed a vehicle that would be comfortable to drive, inexpensive to purchase, reliable and most importantly, give us storage space as the plan is to live out of the van as much as possible when we are on the road.

With all that in mind, on a cold March day (we came back too soon!!!), we took a bus out to the Richmond Auto Mall and walked into the Dodge dealer. There, sitting in the showroom, was a brand new Caravan – the base model from 2017. We looked at the stow-and-go seating and were in love. Sorry, Kia, but the ability to take out all the seats and have all that extra storage, plus the fact that we were able to get a really good deal on a brand new car sold us. Now, I’m sure if you are a car person, you are yelling at the screen, telling us that we should have stuck to the plan and checked out other vehicles. But you know, we just aren’t wired that way. We HATE the whole shopping for a car thing and don’t enjoy any part of the bartering. We just wanted what we wanted, and once we found it, we didn’t need to do any more looking. Also, we really liked being able to put all our gear into our van and head back to Vancouver Island as planned.

Once we arrived back “home” (home being our condo rental in Nanaimo which is great – furnished completely and in a nice location), we were able to head up to Jim’s brother’s house to get our blue tubs and bring them back. The ease of doing this, plus the comfort in the ride, made me feel slightly less sad about losing the quick fast little car (I still miss the cornering!).

So, where do we go from here? First, we purchased a flip-flop bed from The Foam Shop in Duncan. It is the perfect size to fit into the van for sleeping, and with the addition of a memory foam topper, is very comfortable to sleep on. Jim is working on plans to build a frame for the bed to sit on which will fold up so that we still have use of the inside on rainy days. I am working on inside covers for the windows that we can put in place when we are sleeping or if we leave the bikes in the van to go out on a hike for a few hours. Over the coming weeks, we will complete these projects and then assess what else we need to add and where to make our van fully functional as a camping van – our very own “hippy van” – only in stealth mode! No paisley flowers on this baby! In our upcoming posts, we will detail the work we have completed and the process (messy as it may be).