The Van and Other Gadgets

Appendix A - The Van and Other Gadgets

My vehicle was a 1997 Volkswagen Eurovan Camper. I bought the van in March of 1997, so I had had it for five months or so before the trip. During my first couple of camping trips in the van, I noticed and fixed a few glitches in the camper, but on this trip, everything performed flawlessly.

Modifications I've made to the van:

Soft foam tape on the front of the upper bunk, a result of hitting my head on the sharp surface too many times.
A big mag-lite flashlight mounted in permanently attached brackets in the front of the van, on the console near the floor between the seats.
A compass on the dashboard
A pair of clinometers (levels designed for a sailboat) mounted on the front and side of the driver's area, to judge how level the van is when I'm choosing a spot to park for the night.
A whisk broom clipped to a hook permanently mounted on the front of the galley.
A GPS antenna (see other gadgets, below) permanently mounted under the false fiberglass roof above the driver's head.
A spice rack inside the upper cabinet, to make better use of the space there.

Here you can see the driver's view of my van, with a couple of the additions I made.

Other gadgets I brought along:

A Garmin GPS 45 Global Positioning System satellite navigation receiver. The GPS tells me exactly where I am, what direction I'm going, how fast, and how long it'll take me to get to my destination. I provided power and antenna connections for the GPS, routed behind the interior panels of the van, coming out on the floor underneath the driver's seat.
A Toshiba Satellite® 225CDS laptop computer. It's a Pentium machine, running Windows 95, with a CD-ROM drive and all the multimedia setup you'd expect. I mostly ran DeLorme's Street Atlas USA on it, a great atlas program, showing all the streets in the US. The GPS and the laptop are connected via a serial cable, so the laptop can continously plot my current position on the street map. This was very useful for navigating. I also used the computer for taking the notes for this journal, e-mailing "postcards" to friends from the road, and processing photos and preparing these web pages once I got back home.
An HP200LX palmtop computer. OK, I don't really need two computers, but the palmtop is so tiny, I brought both, ok? Actually, I used it to back up the data on my laptop, among other things.
A small inverter to generate 120VAC from the van's 12VDC cigarette lighter outlet. This provided power for the laptop computer, mostly, and also occasionally recharged batteries for the palmtop.
A Nikon FM 35mm camera with a 43~86mm f3.5 zoom lens. I bought this camera in 1979. It's old reliable technology, completely manual and mechanical, except the light meter (which is on its third battery since 1979, by the way). This camera and lens took all the photos on the trip.
A Meade ETX 90mm reflecting astronomical telescope. I brought two eyepieces, giving powers of 39X and 125X. This is a small telescope, stowed in a toolbox back in the back of the van.
A tripod, which did double-duty for the telescope and camera.
Levelling blocks for the van. These work like giant lego blocks, allowing me to make whatever kind of ramps I need so that I can have a level bed when there's no level parking spot.
A classical guitar.
Music books, astronomy books, travel guidebooks, and fun reading.
The usual pots, pans, plates, silverware, and wineglasses.
A 12 volt air compressor to inflate the van's tires, along with a toolkit, spare fuses, bulbs, etc.

All of this, plus clothes, coats, food, and a dog, fit very easily into the van. I was able to stow everything behind the back seat or in the cabinets for travel, so the seats and floor of the van were empty when I was on the road.

However, since the van has to function as living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom, and "driving room" (most architects leave that room out), I was constantly rearranging things. For example, every morning began with stripping the sheets of the bed, folding the mattress, and making the bed back into a seat. Before driving, I'd take all the luggage from the front, where I'd placed it the night before, to the back, behind the back seat. And in the evening, I'd have to make sure all the dirty dishes were washed and put away before I would transfer the luggage to the front and make the bed up. It was a constant battle against clutter, requiring a good place for everything.