Sponsor My Van

Having had the T@B trailer for a couple of months and the completed van for about a month, we finally got to go on our first multi-day trip. We had been planning a trip to Arizona for awhile and originally wanted to visit the northern part of the state. Since it is winter time and the Flagstaff/Grand Canyon area received a lot of snow in the last few months, we decided to play it safe and get down towards the southern portions.

We planned a 10 day trip that started with two nights in San Diego as we met up with some friends who were going to the San Diego Zoo. Each leg of the trip was intended to be between 150 to 250 miles as to minimize the amount of time we’d have to stay in the car each day. It was important at first because we had not taken our 1 year old daughter Ava on very many long trips and so we didn’t know what exactly to expect. We planned a 5 stop road trip starting with San Diego, Julian/Yuma, Tucson/Catalina State Park, Alamo Lake State Park and finally back to California at Joshua Tree National Park/Pioneer Town before we headed home.

We started our trip with packing up half of the house into the van and the T@B since we wanted to make sure we had what we needed. Especially when traveling with a little one. Being that there were only 3 of us and having a van that potentially can seat 11 people, we had plenty of space for all of our gear. What didn’t fit in the van went nicely in the trailer.

Once Friday morning rolled around, we got the rest of our gear together and headed on the road. I was glad we were finally on the road and headed for our vacation and so was Ava.

Driving through Los Angeles and Orange County with such a large rig and during a work day is never a nice experience. It took us a good 3+ hours to make it through to southern Orange County so we decided to make our first stop for a meal break.

Without too many other distractions, we finally made it to our first stop for a couple of nights at a campground just outside of town in San Diego, CA called Sweetwater Reservoir.

The site was very nice with clean facilities and modern hookups. It is pretty much setup primarily for RV’ers but tent campers are welcome as well. It has a horse riding trail around the reservoir, as well as several sites that even have built-in horse corrals.

The first night went pretty well as we brought a ceramic heater with us as opposed to our first overnight trip at El Capitan State Park when we froze our butts off. The heater kept us pretty cozy but it did dry the air up a bit. On our next trip, we will probably find an easy way to humidify the air when the heater is on.

We cooked our first meal at the camp site and also found some local gems of restaurants like this place name Colima’s Mexican Food just down the street from the park.

Here is Ava enjoying our first meal at the camp site.

Here is the delicious breakfast we had a Colima’s Mexican Food in Bonita, CA.

On Saturday we met up with our friends at the San Diego Zoo. Ava has not yet been to a zoo and she had a good time looking at all the animals there. The San Diego Zoo is really big and we did a lot of walking and were still not able to see it all in a day’s time.

Flamingos

Polar Bears

Baby Brown Bears

Panda Bears

After packing up and heading towards Arizona the next morning, we blindly followed the GPS. Apparently the maps are severely outdated and thought I was driving off road for a majority of the time. We missed our opportunity to visit Julian, CA. That was supposed to be a nice stop.

We decided to just charge forward and try to make as much head way as we can since we had a long ways ahead of us. After a quick lunch stop at El Centro, CA, we made it to Yuma with a near empty gas tank.

“Thank god we found some diesel gas!”

Yuma turns out to be anything but exciting. We stopped by the visitor’s center and got some recommendations for places to hang our hats for the night. Here is Ava contemplating whether or not to buy a souvenir t-shirt.

The RV parks turned out to be nothing but an asphalt parking lot behind a trailer park. With little interest in staying the night and Ava seemingly in good spirits, we kept on trucking until we made it almost all the way to Tucson. We checked into a Days Inn on the edge of town since it was too late to get into a camp site and were glad to have a nice bath tub to clean up a bit.

By the way, did I mentioned that we brought our cat Yoda along for the ride too? Here she is after we snuck her into the hotel room in Tucson.

Here is Ava also glad to be in a hotel room.

The very next day we checked into Catalina State Park to the north of Tucson. It is lined with beautiful mountain ranges and various hiking and biking trails.

As in many Arizona cities, Tucson has had a significant amount of urban sprawl in the last 10 years primarily cause by the housing boom. Catalina State Park use to be much further from civilization but now there is actually shopping centers and restaurants within minutes of the camp site. They even have a Pizzeria Uno where we I got my Chicago style deep dish and Ava had her very first hamburger.

While in Tucson, we visited some more wildlife at the Desert Museum and bird watching trails in the State Park.

We had a fun time but we started to notice on the second night at Catalina State Park that Ava’s breathing was labored and had a temperature near 100 degrees. Luckily there was an urgent care just a mile up the road so we decided to stop by to see if there’s anything we can do.

Turns out Ava had gotten a respiratory virus called RSV. She probably got it before we left from someone at day care. It is a common virus that has basically the symptoms of the common cold when contracted by an older child or adult. Small kids like Ava can sometimes develop serious respiratory distress that required hospitalization. Unfortunately for us, Ava needed just that. We first transferred to the emergency room down the street as we waited for a room to open up at Tucson Medical Center.

Finally a room opened up and we checked into a room at their pediatric wing of the hospital. Being a viral infection, there is pretty much nothing we can do but to keep her on oxygen to help with her respiratory distress and give her periodic breathing treatments. The room only had enough room for one family member to sleep but it did have its own bathroom and shower.

This became our camping trip stop for the next 8 days. Our trip was extended for another 4 days past the original plan as we waited for Ava to get better. I slept in the T@B with our cat Yoda while my wife and Ava stayed in the hospital room.

Here is Yoda making a brief visit through the window.

As appetizing as hospital food was, I was tasked with bringing lunch and dinner to the room for the 8 days we were there. I got to know that part of Tucson fairly well with my daily hunting and gathering missions.

Teriyaki chicken. (At least the hospital claims that it is.)

One of the better places I ate at was a place just down the street called Philly’s Finest. They make great Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches amongst other things there. I am not from Philly, PA but I thought this place is what I would imagine as being authentic cheese steak sandwiches.

Even a little chocolate chip cookie as dessert.

We finally were discharged Wednesday morning and couldn’t wait to go home after 8 days at the hospital. Although Tucson was over 500 miles away, we decided to just drive straight through to try to make it home in one day.

Here is Ava nearly 2 lbs lighter from losing her appetite during her illness. This is pretty much the last cactus before the California border.

Ava is back to her happy self again as we stopped in Palm Desert for a dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

An assortment of appetizers was what was on the menu at the Cheesecake Factory.

Finally, we got back in the van and headed back on the last leg of our trip home. It had been a long couple of weeks but we can’t wait to get back on the road again for our next trip.

Here is what a quick comparison photo of the rig looks like

Before Conversion.

After conversion

Got the van back from El Kapitan Vans a couple of weeks ago. They did an awesome job on it. Here they are putting some final touches on the van before I took her home.

They ran into a couple of snags and have a few hours of delay getting the van done. Particularly regarding the rear speakers that they were suppose to mount for me. They had offered to do that free of charge so I didn’t make a big deal out of having to wait. We went and grabbed lunch with some friends while they finished up the job.

Here is the other side with the windows

Here is the van parked on the street in a San Pedro neighborhood

I did run into a small issue with one of the seat belt assemblies. The seat belt kept retracting and did not want to extend. That made it pretty hard for it to function properly. The good folks at El Kapitan were on vacation until January 7th but once they got back, they promptly responded to my problem and is sending a replacement in the mail.

Here is the defective part

I don’t have any more photos  yet of the interior but as soon as I do, I will put them up. The conversion gave me seating for 7 as well as rear air conditioning and much better visibility while driving the van. Especially when it comes to backing it up and parking. They were able to upholster the new seats to match the existing from seats in the front which looks great at no extra charge. I opted to keep the rubber floors as oppose to getting carpet since the rubber padded floors are much easier to clean. It is much easier to drive on the freeway now as well since the old cargo setup had no insulation and was quite noisy at highway speeds.

All in all the conversion at El Kapitan was a great experience and I would recommend them highly.

This is a local biodiesel station near my house. They sell B5 from the pumps which is 5% biodiesel and 95% petro diesel. It apparently still makes a significant difference in the carbon output of the engine and I will be filling up my next tank here and see how things go with the Duramax in the van.

Back in November 30th I drove to Arizona with my friend Jeremy to pick up the T@B Trailer. I didn’t bring my camera but I did remember to snap a couple of pics with my camera phone. Here’s a quick recount of the trip.

When we got to Phoenix, we decided to go to Scottsdale since Jeremy was familiar with this area. We found a Restaurant Bar Jeremy has been to called Sugar Daddy’s and got ourselves some burgers and beers.

Couple of Guinesses is good for your health

We had a few drinks at this bar that was pretty deserted. Jeremy claims to have been there when you can not even walk through the room. Sugar Daddy’s is a pretty big place with multiple rooms, stage and gigantic outdoor patio. By the end of the night we basically had this place to ourselves. I guess Scottsdale is not a place to by on a Thursday night in the winter.

We got out of there and got back to where the van was parked with a couple more beers we bought through the gas station cashier’s window. We set up the laptop and crashed in the back of the cargo van instead of getting a room at the Holiday Inn parking lot we were at since it was already late and we didn’t want to spend the extra money. After all, We had this huge cargo van with all this space in the back. It was probably more roomy than most studio apartments in Manhattan or Tokyo but we still were pretty much roughing it without running water and bathrooms.

We got up the next day and headed to Sun City to pick up the T@B. Set up was a zip and after we transfer the cash and title at the bank, we were off on our way back to California. At this point it had been raining for quite awhile. It hasn’t rained this much in the West Coast for probably over a year and it was interesting driving a new vehicle while towing a trailer for this first time in it. We drove through on storm and caught up to another on the way back and in no time we were closing in on the California border.

Here we are at the last stop out of Arizona while towing the T@B back home. The van got the job done effortlessly.

Another quick bathroom stop at a McDonald’s shortly after entering California.

Dinner break at Jack In the Box.

After towing the T@B for nearly 500 miles I got pretty good at maneuvering in tight quarters. With the van and the trailer, I was moving along with nearly 35 feet worth of vehicles. We got back into town early Friday evening and had covered over 1,000 miles in 36 hours.

The van did well with towing the trailer and the weight was pretty much unnoticeable behind the hitch. With the trailer and the conversion close to being done in the van, we are getting close to hitting the road and seeing what this country has to offer.

Finally the van is at the shop as I speak (write?) getting its transformation. I brought it in last Friday before a weekend trip that was originally planned for the mountains but ended up in the desert. That’s a long story for another day. The van should be done by Friday of next week at the latest and I can’t wait to pick it up and see how it looks. I have been thinking about what to do for the electronics I wanted to have in the vehicle. GPS, music player, DVD player and anything else I might add in the future. With a bluetooth stereo I recently installed 2 weeks ago, it would be nice for it to interface with it all. What I decided is to install a laptop stand so I can use a standard computer for it all.

Ram Mount is the company that makes various mounting platforms for all kinds of electronics. I ordered the kit that is designed for the GMC Savana van with 2 articulating joints and adjustable height. It seems very sturdy and well made and installs directly to the base of the front seat with no drilling. I will install it myself next weekend when I get the van back and report to you how the process went and hopefully have photos for it.

Last weekend I picked up the T@B trailer from Phoenix with a friend of mine . We made the trip there and back to Phoenix from Ventura in 36 hours. That’s about a 1,000-mile trip and it was much easier than I thought. The very next day the family and I took it out for a quick overnight camping trip at El Capitan State Beach just north of Santa Barbara.

Since the van wasn’t ready yet we had to take out the other family car. It did okay towing the trailer but it definitely consumed a significant amount of gas at speeds higher than 60 mph. It almost seemed like I could see the gauge dip as I drove along the freeway.

We hadn’t figured out how everything works yet and the campsite did not have any hook ups. We slept without any heating and it got pretty cold at night. Overall, it was pretty good and the campsite was practically empty because it is the weekend after Thanksgiving.

The next step now is to get everything tuned and to figure out what we will need for future trips. I brought the van into the conversion shop last weekend and it will be done the Friday before Christmas. Can’t wait. I will be posting some more photos of our complete setup once it is ready.

Next Saturday I will be bringing the van into El Kapitan Conversion Vans in Westminster, CA for the interior conversion. I will be getting what they call the Sport Low Top conversion which will give me windows all around as mocked up in the previous post as well as full seating for 7, fold out bed and rear air conditioning unit. They were great by letting me squeeze in before the end of the year so it should be done before Christmas. I am taking the pre-converted van out to Sun City, AZ this Thursday and Friday with my friend Jeremy who will be the copilot for the trip. He has a couple of buddies there that will let us crash for the night. Friday morning we are picking up the T@B Trailer from an older couple in the area to tow it home to Ventura, CA.

The T@B Trailer we are picking up this Friday in Sun City, AZ (Near Phoenix)

Meanwhile I have some ideas about how to sell sponsorships for the vehicles. Some features will be added to this site to facilitate that so stay tuned. We will also be putting out a couple of episodes of the audio and video podcast for the trip.

I bought the van that’s going o be the chassis for the conversion this week. It’s a GMC Savana 2500 Extended Wheelbase van with the Duramax 6600 diesel engine. It is one of only two 2007 model year left in southern California that has the diesel engine. I got a great deal on it since its going to be 2008 in just a few more weeks. The plan now is to get the van to the conversion shop in Westminster in Orange county for the conversion. Here is a little animation of the exterior transformation the van will undergo initially. This is just a little mockup. The final windows will probably look a bit different.

This past weekend we went to checkout El Kapitan Van conversions in Westminster, CA and a T@B trailer dealership in Fontana, CA. We are a couple of steps closer to hitting the road. We decided one the floor plan and color we want for the T@B but unfortunately they had just sold one that fit exactly what we were looking for just two days before. They are going to do some looking around to find us another one and hopefully we will be able to go by again the weekend after thanksgiving to pick it up.

The van conversion shop also gave us some quotes on what the costs will be and I think I will be buying the van chassis this week if all goes well. One of the main things I want to make sure is the safety of passengers in after market installed seats. There seems to be some controversy about the compromise conversion vans have made for the sake of comfort to forgo safety. I think the safest way to go is to install factory seats and belts.

We are slowly making our way to the first road trip we have tentatively planned for January 2008. We are planning on traveling through northern Arizona to see Flagstaff, Sedona and Grand Canyon. It will probably be snowing so we hope the trailer furnace will work well enough to keep us cozy.