Home sweet camper van: We’ve found our backup travel plan

On to the next phase of our travels: we’ve bought a van! It’s a 2011 Chevy Express 2500 – aka a white stalker van – and we’re going to convert it into a camper van. Once COVID restrictions relax and provincial borders open, we’ll travel across Canada to visit our three kids.

Just as for everyone else, COVID has thrown a wrench in our plans. We don’t expect we’ll be able to resume traveling internationally until January 2021. Meanwhile, the travel bug is making us antsy.

After thinking through our options (not that there were many), we settled on a camper van, for several reasons:

• We’ve always loved camping, but our backs are getting a bit old for long tenting trips.
• Having a small camper van outfitted with a bed, fridge, toilet, water filter, stove, solar shower, solar panels and an extra battery will let us travel with minimal contact with others. We’ll be relatively self-sufficient and independent – needing just gas, groceries and water. We won’t even need campgrounds, since there are many places you can park legally overnight, including Crown land, Walmart parking lots, some municipal parks, visitor centres, picnic areas and truck stops. An app called iOverlander helps you find those spots.
• We should be able to sell the van for at least as much money as we’ll put into it.
• Even if provincial borders don’t open, there’s plenty of Ontario to explore.
• We miss our kids.

We haven’t seen our son, Tom, for 18 months, since he lives in Kelowna, B.C. We saw our daughter Liz at Christmas – nearly six months ago. She lives in Toronto. And it’s been a year since we saw our daughter Rachel, who has been in New Zealand and Nova Scotia and will soon move to Canmore, Alberta for work (fingers crossed). We do admire our kids’ comfort with leaving home to live elsewhere (where did they learn that?), but it doesn’t mean we don’t miss them.

We put our plan into action by scouring the online ads for a used van that would meet our needs and our budget. After we found it, it took two weeks to complete the sale, given COVID’s impact on business operations and Service Ontario’s service. I quickly learned this project would be a lesson in patience.

It’s also a lesson in project management, which I love! This called for lists – an abundance of lists! I have spreadsheets, a budget, scale drawings of potential layouts, and prioritized shopping lists. Bill worked on the solar and electrical plans. We registered for Amazon Prime and got to work helping the economy recover.

Once we got our van home, we removed all the wooden shelves the previous owner had installed. (It was a kitchen renovation company van.) I am re-familiarizing myself with the smooth operation of a cordless screwdriver, so I don’t strip the screws or the drill bits.

Then we took some detailed measurements and compared them against our plans for where to place the bed, the kitchen, a storage cabinet behind the driver’s seat and an overhead cabinet. We tested Bill’s bike to see if there’s any hope of carrying both bikes inside rather than on the roof or on a bike rack. It’ll be tight!

When we sold our house last year and got rid of most of our possessions, we kept all our camping equipment. However, we’ll need materials for building the van interior as well as some new pieces of equipment. The Coleman stove we had received as a wedding gift in 1986 was finally put to rest last summer after a good long life, so we bought a new propane version, plus an 11-pound propane tank.

All has not gone smoothly, though. Our preferred insulation was discontinued at Rona, despite being listed as in-stock on the website. However, the good folks there ordered some from the manufacturer for us. Insulation is the first step in the camper van conversion, so that has meant another delay.

We’ve spent countless hours researching and reading online reviews to decide on the key components to buy. But once we began ordering, we discovered that many are out of stock in Canada: the battery power supply, the toilet, the fridge, the ventilation fan. Discouragement hovered. The search continues.

However, we continue to support Canada Post and other couriers, getting deliveries every few days: a memory foam mattress that folds into a couch, electric wire and switches, a 12-volt fan, blackout curtains, water filter, gas hose adapter and more.

We spent a long time debating whether to place our bed cross-wise or length-wise, and we finally opted for cross-wise since it allows more efficient use of space. Bill is six-foot-one, and our mattress is six feet long. I’m worried he will end up sleeping diagonally and infringe upon my space, forcing me to cling to the edge, like sleeping on a shelf. He assures me he won’t. Not that I don’t like infringing, but not for sleeping. We’ll see. Apparently, you’re not allowed to chop off your husband’s feet so he fits into a camper van.

The prospect of travelling during these weird COVID times does come with worries. Will provincial borders will ever open up? Will museums, campgrounds and other attractions open soon? Will we be welcome in other provinces with our Ontario licence plates? We do not intend to travel unless it’s clearly safe. I comfort myself with the thought that there’s a heck of a lot of Ontario to explore.

Travelling while minimizing interaction with people is far from ideal. Indeed, it undermines one of the key benefits of travel – getting to know and appreciate other cultures. However, we do have to learn new ways to reach that goal while travelling in this brave new world.

We vacillate between the worries and our excitement.

Many people name their camper vans. It may be too kitschy, but what the heck? The first name that came to mind was Vincent, as in “See that Vincent Van Go!” But Rachel rolled her eyes – I could feel it over the phone – and said that wasn’t original. I Googled it and, sure enough, she’s right. Liz said we could call it Vincent only if we lopped off the left side mirror. She suggested Vandalf the White, since the Lord of the Rings wizard went on a long journey – just like we’d like to do. Bill favours that name, and it’s clever, but I’m not a Lord of the Rings fan.

We need help to decide on the name! Tell us in the comments below: do you prefer Vincent or Vandalf? Or do you have another brilliant suggestion?

Good news! Rona just called and our insulation is in. The camper van conversion work begins…