The van is (mostly) finished, the house is (mostly) in order and we are (definitely) headed off today on what we are calling our “Six Week Summer Shakedown”. We fully expect that in the process of driving cross country, pushing the van up a few mountains, and down more than a few muddy and rutted roads, there will be some actual shaking down… as in pieces of our van build.
In fact, it has already begun. The door to the sink cupboard broke while we were packing yesterday! I should not have tried to force our ginormous cast iron frying pan into that space but….
Also, the pre-trip oil change became a rear brake and oil change…. which became a rear brake and calipers change… which cost $700. And then there was a stuck parking brake which caused some smoke and a return trip to the mechanic.
No worries! It was easily fixed and we are off and running.
Where to? You ask
We are headed West to my sister’s house in Michigan then onward, across the country to Washington state. We hope to be there in time for my mother’s 81st birthday in the first week of August. This gives us enough time to test and re-think our design before our longer (indefinite) trip in the fall. I am not sure that “trip” is the right word for what we are doing but there it is.
So, we’ve reviewed the ioverlander app and our immediate plan is to try sleeping in a rest area tonight. We have snatched a nap at rest areas plenty of times but this is the first time we’ll intentionally do this.. and be semi comfy. We hope we are semi comfy…
Or we might sleep in a New York State Forest I’ll share how it went in a day or two.
Onward!