Van Camping, Episode 1, Part 1

As a follow-up to the March 17th posting about "Easing into that Bold New Phase" of life, here is a brief rundown of our 11-day "shakedown run" of our "High-Top Conversion van".  All in all, things went pretty well.  

There were some nit-picky little issues, e.g., the windshield washer doesn't work, the right rear door cannot be unlocked, except from the inside (pulling the knob up), the left rear door requires a pair of pliers to open, and we lost a small iPod.  And it was too cold to be sleeping in a van without a secondary heating system (suitable for camping).  [Don't know why the concept of an electric blanket didn't dawn on us.]

Proposed Plan A (westward I-20 as far as Vicksburg National Battlefield Park) was chosen to avoid the likelihood of cold weather in Pennsylvania and Maryland.  Because of the late-Winter Texas storm, I was uncertain as to the timing of the Texas Bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis) blooming season, thus the foray into western Louisiana or East Texas was postponed.  

For those familiar with the "Vicksburg Loess" outcrops on I-20 and nearby in the western part of Vicksburg, the park exposures don't really do justice to the importance and the vertical and horizontal extent of the loess. 

The National Park Service provides this link and this link to partially explain the complexity of this geologic feature and the roles it played in the Siege of Vicksburg.  "Loess" has also been used to describe the rich soils of the Great Plains.  [The park office seemed to be closed because of the pandemic and I wasn't able to pick up any related books and pamphlets.

Wooster Geologists blog provides this additional link for the loess "role" in the Siege of Vicksburg.  (The loess photos (Figures 1 and 2) were taken behind a motel in 2015.)

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

With the Texas Bluebonnet season missed, another nature photo consideration was the tiny green flowers of "Spanish Moss", though we didn't see any Spanish Moss around Vicksburg.  We did see some sporadic Spanish Moss occurrences in Louisiana as we headed towards our next stop, the Crater of Diamonds in Murfreesboro.  Due to recent rains, those roadsides looked "iffy" and there were no good paved places to pull off.  

As Vicksburg was the only planned stop, the remaining stops were sort of "spur of the moment".  

Unexpected was the significant cold snap, featuring freeze warnings for Memphis and surrounding regions.  As the prep-time for the van was limited, we hadn't found a suitable plug-in or battery-powered heater, thus the nights we spent in sub-40 degree temps were unpleasant.  We stayed two nights in a Hope, AR motel.   

All in all, we are satisfied with the van, though because of family elder-care responsibilities, we are not sure about when we can go out again.

We can use this time to gradually improve and prepare the van should future opportunities arise.