First Trip with Video Tour

Welcome to WonderVan Adventures! 

I'm Sophie and this blog is about my husband, Dennis, and my adventures in converting a cargo van into a camper van. It will also be about our adventures on the open road when our camper van is ready to go. 

Why the name WonderVan? Well, Dennis worked for Wonderbread for over 30 years and it seemed like a sweet nod to his first career. Dennis now works as a school bus driver for the local school district and I work for a book publisher that specialized in sewing and craft titles. 

What made us want to take on this project? There are lots of reasons we decided to take on this DIY but the whole COVID situation has made us pretty stir crazy. I now work at home, which I'm very grateful about, but it feels like I NEVER leave the house. In many ways, I don't. We have been talking about getting a trailer, a teardrop, a used RV or other mobile "vacay" on wheels for a while and to be honest, I pretty much lost it. I started to stress that we would be talking about this six months from now and still be in the same place...at home.

What are we looking to create? So, after my meltdown about us never going to be able to leave the house again (yup, I can be dramatic), we got very clear about the most important things we wanted. I emphasize we because what works for someone else might not work for us. Having these key points helps us to make decisions going forward on whether something is important and necessary or whether we can let it go. Here's what we know we want:

• Self-contained: Everything we want to have on our trips needs to be in or permanently attached to the vehicle. We towed a very large trailer two years ago and let's just say my daughter has forbid us from getting one. It definitely didn't bring out the best of Dennis and I. I'm pretty sure we would have done better with a smaller trailer, but trailers are not a current option. Our goal is to be able to grab a bag of groceries, a small duffle of clothes and be able to take off with no other setup. I don't want to pack up a kitchen, attach a trailer or load all of our camping gear. I just want to hop in and go! I know how we are. If it takes too long to get ready to go, we won't go at all. 

• Street parking friendly: Not sure that is a real term, but we want to be able to keep it in our driveway, garage or on the street with no issues. That means RVs and large class B's are out of the question in our neighborhood. Unfortunately, we don't have a side yard to store anything. Storing something off site makes it inconvenient to just go and therefore less likely we will use it.

• Good mattress: Once upon a time, Dennis and Sophie went camping and shared a queen-size air mattress. They both slept horribly and have never used the mattress again....The End. It's a short story but it gets to the point: we are not air mattress people. Maybe because we are big folks. Maybe because Dennis tosses at night and bounces Sophie out of the bed. Whatever the reason, they don't work for us. We are pretty picky about mattresses and are excited about creating our ultimate slumber pad.

There are other things we know we want....trailer hitch (for bike rack), backup camera, airflow in the rear, and comfortable front seats.  However, the list above is the no exceptions list and if a decision or choice needs to be made, it needs to stand up to those three things. 

Now you know where we are starting from, let's see where we go next! We don’t completely know what we are doing but we are willing to research and experiment. Rest assured there will be blood, sweat and tears but also combined with laughs and love too. Come join the ride!