A Season of Reinvention: Camp Cordray Evolves, Part One

You are not going to believe this!

It’s Sunday morning, 4:39 a.m. Libby needed a wee-wee walk about an hour ago, and once I was up, I was up. We went to bed early because we just couldn’t resist the pull of crisp, white sheets, snuggly cotton blanket,in our climate-controlled comfort white noise paradise, so why not get a bit of extra shut-eye? This is a luxury harder to come by out in the wild and wooly world of a life lived mostly outdoors, when we are rolling free.

One of Dan’s junior high classmates mentioned that our living and travel arrangements were a topic of discussion at their recent monthly gathering. Many said they dreamed of the lifestyle, but she said that personally, she would need to stay at the Holiday Inn, which was her kind of camping. We have heard that so often, and in the silent, cool, blissful moments when we cocoon here in Memphis, we lay dreaming of what is next for Camp Cordray. We have watched and shared between us hundreds of van build-out walk-through videos and have gleaned a few handy tips from others, fueling our discussions about what WE want in our next rolling home.

Some really talented folks out there, from their personal vision, have created their own version of the perfect teeny home-castle, as we have in years past. As the current vandwelling era evolves, we see more Promasters, Ford Transits, and Mercedes models, the familiar rectangular shoebox-stood-on-its-side shape, tall and narrow, with extended length or height variations. From this plain vanilla base (most are white), every manner of floor plan and storage arrangement is represented. Murphy bed? Hammocks for two? Beds that lift and separate like a well-fitting brassiere, others more bench-like that double and triple as seating areas and storage below. With square footage somewhere in the 60’s, the real estate is limited. Priorities clarify when the living space is condensed.

For us, the comfiest possible bed is paramount. A fully outfitted kitchen is next, both the indoor and outdoor varieties. Refrigerator, stove, and sink with running water is standard, as is a cassette style port-o-let. We will always be solar powered and boondock-ready. We will always extend our living space into the outdoors with awnings and enclosed spaces created from well-placed and anchored tarps. We will always choose a design that will allow us to do everything we need to do in the van with the doors closed, no matter where we are.

After those qualifications are satisfied, the decor and amenities are being considered. There will always be the white, stainless steel, and empty cabinet crowd, but that ain’t us. We LIVE in our van and use every inch of storage space to its best advantage. We are more wood than laminate, comfort over appearance, form follows function kind of people. We have covered nearly every square inch of our current van with maps, stickers, postcards, photographs, drink coasters, patches, magnets, tin signs, part of Dan’s firefighter turn-out gear, and bits and bobs of memorabilia to create a wall and ceiling tattooed mural effect that we have loved but probably won’t recreate in our new van. Our touristy phase begat much ephemera, including the waist high (mostly kidding) stack of postcards never sent, some of which became cheap framed decor at the desert oasis tin can cabin. We have threatened to cut the high-top roof off and use it as decor in the hot tub room of our mansion, but we aren’t ready for a mansion so it will soon be filed under memories.

When asked the best method of planning a build-out, we always say take your empty van and go camp for a weekend with just enough gear and essentials to get you by, and a notebook to sketch and write and dream. You have to sit in it to GET it, to hear what it wants and to know what you want it to be. The priorities float, the pipedreams sink, and you are left with a clear mental blueprint. Even with that, there will be trial and error, adapt and overcome, both before you leave and along the way. Fluidity is crucial as experience is gained. You learn much by sitting in it, and more by living in it.

With that in mind, I have spent some time sitting in it, the one we have, anyway. Sitting in it with my coffee and notebook, thinking on these things. Even after all of the videos I have watched, I could not improve upon the general floor plan that we already have. It has been just right for us. Adapted to a more modern van, more available floor space has us considering a very small shower/toilet stall and a larger bed. An oven/stove combo instead of just a stove may happen. We love our Dan-made kitchen combo so wanting an oven would alter our idea of reusing it in our new van. The Pergo flooring Dan installed has held up so well that we will install the same in the new van, we are sure of that.

It is likely that we will be adding windows and a vent fan, but the new one may come with those. Hard to say for sure. Heat and a/c changes and different storage options with more specification and less excess of belongings visible are goals. Dan and I each had our own customized van when we met. He was building out Erik when I came to visit (and never left), so we ended up doing a great deal of that job together. Dan had already built the bed for he and Layla, so it has always been a bit small for all four of us. Other than that, we feel like we did a fabulous job with our first tandem van build.

If you have been following along, you know that we have been pretty much everywhere, man. Erik Van Home eased into Dan's life, and then our life, with 149,000 original miles. The King of the Road now clocks in at over 304,000 glorious miles. We are eternally grateful for every single mile.

With all of that being said, I will admit that the bit above has been written and sitting on go since the first leaf fell this season. There is but a handful of leaves on the trees on this day-before-the-night-before-Christmas morn.

Originally titled “Van Dreaming: It’s Fall, Y’all!”, this post lounged beside a vast array of half-written posts, most about family visits, weekend trips, and of course, art, writing, and all of that good stuff. I was working to catch up but had an issue resizing pictures that drove me crazy and shut me down. I couldn't find answers through the help desk or web, so I walked away and turned my attention elsewhere. Instead, I created walls full of art, and piles of art to save for portfolio or to ship hither and yon. I shipped some hither, others yon. I have had my own arty-party, which has saved me, but those are stories for another day.

I worked on my book early in the season and then fell flat as family and friends stopped by and our forays out of town became more frequent. I will at this point make no excuses for my absence and at the very least give you a peek at the news you have been waiting for.

The Cordrays will not be buying a van.

Worry not, our traveling days are not over, so keep that seat belt securely buckled if you are riding shotgun, ol’ pal. We have purchased exactly half of our new chariot and are searching for the perfect vehicle to pull it. PULL it, you say?

Yes, pull it. The Cordrays are aging and have decided that they need a bit more comfort. We looked at vans, but decided on amd have purchased a deeeee-luxe rolling tin can travel trailer home. Living between a stationary tin can in Quartzsite and a van and trailer combo out on the road has been perfect for us, but the times they are a changin’. When we leave Memphis, we will be RVers, not vandwellers.

The culmination of our efforts is upon us, although freedom on the open road is still a point in distance. Merrily we roll along, right where we are, waiting once again for waterfowl alignment (ducks in a row) and a launch date. We have been told that a contract renewal is possible in February. If we stayed another round, we would have more in savings and perhaps the chance at purchase of a little spot of land, somewhere out there.

So here I will leave you hanging, dear reader, to entice you to venture on to Part Two of this series of posts about our new home on wheels. Y’all still got those seatbelts on? Wait until you see THIS!

With a wink and a promise,

Brenda Cordray

The Desert Rose