Tour Stop #0, Van Kitchen

Here's the van set up as a kitchen/dining room. You can see the stove with its stainless steel splatter shield unfolded. To the left of the stove is the sink.

Both the driver's and passenger's seats are shown swivelled, which is kind of rare in practice. The driver's seat won't swivel any farther than it is in this picture, and the galley gets in the way a bit. Also, the parking brake interferes with the swivelling; you've got to release the brake as you turn the seat around. I understand the 1999 and newer vans have a "safety feature" which prevents the driver's seat from swiveling inward, making it even harder to turn the seat around. Unless I've got a few guests, I'll just keep the driver's seat facing forward. The passenger's seat is easy and practical to swivel, however.

The two tables will slide forward or backwards to taste. I like to set the tables up like this, with room for the cook to stand between them. Four people can eat while sitting like this. But there's not much table space for food preparation, serving, and eating with four people. There's also not much room for two cooks, unless one sits in a seat and chops things while the other one tends the stove. But the nice thing about a tiny kitchen is that the person in the middle always has everything within arm's reach.

Obviously, this photo was staged, since there's no food and little mess. I took it with the top popped open, putting the camera on the back part of the upper bunk, above the rear bench seat. Yes, I used a wide-angle lens (24mm).

And here's another angle, from the front looking to the rear of the van. (taken on a different day, so the setup isn't precisely identical).

Now let's continue the tour, to see what stuff I keep more-or-less permanently stashed in the cabinets.