The Adventurevan...how we will survive living on the road for 7+ weeks

When I tell people we’re traveling across the country and back, living off peanut butter & honey sandwiches and sleeping in the van, I really should explain that we’ll also be staying many nights with friends across the country and spending more than just one or two nights in hotels so that we can do laundry…so really, it’s not quite as impressive as it sounds.

But, for a good portion of our trip, we will be sleeping in the back of my 2011 Dodge Grand Caravan, which we've lovingly named The Adventurevan. At first, I had planned to do the inflatable mattress thing, but after wasting a considerable amount of time some well spent time on Pinterest, I went an entirely different route. 

I built an expandable platform bed for the back of the van using mostly leftover materials from another project. It was a pretty simple and straightforward build once I figured out the plan. The bed is basically two pieces - one is stationary and one slides in and out of the stationary frame. When pushed together, the pieces fill most of the back of the van - leaving room for our "dresser" and a few boxes of supplies (see the pic toward the end of the post). When we get to our daily destination, the center row of the seats in the caravan fold into the floor (thank goodness for Stow-and-Go) and the bed slides apart to fill the space the seats previously occupied. 

The back of the van emptied and ready to be loaded

The bed installed and in its "traveling" state (middle row of seats is folded into the floor)

Bed in its expanded form...ready for bedding

Close up shot of the dowel rod I installed to prevent the bed from over-expanding

(live and learn, right?) 😉

The bedding - our sleeper sofa mattress, a cooling gel memory foam mattress topper, 500 count sateen sheets and a down comforter (so no, we're not exactly "roughing it") - are stacked and then folded into a bedroll on top...meaning that I simply pull the release string on the Canadian jam/arbor knot and the bedroll unfolds and the bed is made up and ready to get in.

Bed already made and ready for us after a long day of exploring and adventuring

Bedroll tied with arbor knot to keep it rolled up

The bed height is about 16 inches…just high enough to accommodate the plastic totes I had planned to use for our gear/equipment/food/etc. and just low enough to ensure that I can sit on the bed without hitting my head on the ceiling of the van. 

Look at all that storage space!!!

When it's just me and the kids, the three of us will sleep on the bed together. When Ryan joins in the fun, it'll be the two of us and Camden on the "big bed" and Alison will have her own space in the front seats. She has a bed that fits in the seats across the two front seats so she'll sleep with her head on the mattress on the passenger seat side and her feet down by the steering wheel. She actually prefers that space to the big bed...I think it affords her a little "introvert space" amidst all this "family togetherness." 😜 When Ryan's mom pops in for some fun and exploration at the Grand Canyon, we'll be in hotels and when my mom comes for the Tetons and Yellowstone, we'll be doing a mixture of van camping and historic western motels.

I also used Reflectix cut to size to make covers/inserts for the windows in order to achieve privacy and regulate the temperature inside the van. I don't have a picture of those for display, but you can see them "in action" on the right side of this pic of one of our trial runs when the girl and I went on a Virginia Creeper adventure.

Speaking of temperature…for most of the “hot nights” as we start out (Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas) we are staying with friends so I wasn’t too worried about the temperature in relation to sleeping in the heat. For most of our nights on the journey home (northern Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, etc.) the overnight lows are in the upper 40s and lower 50s so we should be great in those locations. But there are a couple of nights that we will be van camping where the overnight average low is upper 60s - mostly New Mexico, Arizona, Southern Utah and Nevada. No, that’s not exactly “Dallas hot”, but it’s still pretty warm for sleeping in a van where body heat will up those temps a few degrees.

To alleviate this issue, I also built an “air conditioner” for just under $40 that runs off a solar powered battery pack with a USB connection. The unit is actually a basic 5 gallon bucket I picked up at Lowe’s for under $4, a syrofoam liner I got online from Home Depot for $6, a few coupling PVC pieces I grabbed for $.85 each and a 9” USB fan I found on Amazon for $22 (we already owned the solar battery pack). It’s pretty simple…holes were cut in the sides of the buckets using a 2¼” hole saw (thanks again for recusing me in the tool department, Uncle Jimmy!) and the coupling pieces get inserted in the holes. I’ll fill the Styrofoam bucket with ice and then place the lid on the bucket. There’s a hole in the lid to accommodate the fan - it blows down onto the ice and the cool air, coming off the ice, is blown out the holes/pvc pieces on the sides. The battery unit will run for about 10-12 hours if fully charged…but really, we just need it to cool things off as we are going to sleep…once we’re asleep and as the temps continue to drop overnight, I think we’ll be okay.

(I don't have a pic of this in action, but if you do a quick Google Search for a 5 gallon bucket air conditioner, there's no shortage of pictures and tutorials on how to build one.)

One other neat thing we have for the trip are these door coverings I found on Amazon - no building required, but they are great for giving us a way to get some air flow through the car while keeping out the bugs and giving us a way to see out without having to remove the Reflectix insert or opening the door. They also have a part that extends out a little so they work well in the rain too. 

The last cool thing I have for the van was actually a gift from some of my girlfriends in Texas. It’s called a Slim Shady (and yes, every time I say it I say it just like the line in “My Name Is” because if not, that would be missing a real opportunity…wiki wiki slimshady) and it’s a window-shade style awning that only takes 6 inches of bar space and provides 42 square feet of sun and rain protection. It was super easy to attach, it’s super easy to pitch and is pretty much the mostest awesomest thing ever. 

When it was time to load up, we used a drawer system for our clothes and toiletries. After a couple of test runs in April and May, I realized digging through duffel bags several times a day every day was going to get old really quick so we use this for those items and then the boxes (pictured on the right) are used for food, camping supplies, cooking supplies, dirty laundry, gifts/souvenirs, etc. We do have a cooler, but it's mostly for bottled water and transporting the ice for the air conditioner if we have to buy it earlier in the day because there aren't stores near where we're camping.

I think we are all set. We leave the comforts of friend's homes this morning and head west to Carlsbad Caverns...so it's about to get real up in here. I'll let you know if we're still speaking to one another in a couple of days when we get to Roswell and are back in the land of WiFi. Be on the lookout for Camden's update on our time in Mississippi and The Big D. Adventure onward!!!