Before leaving Pensacola, Florida, we visited the Naval Air Museum on the Pensacola Naval Base. The Petty Officer sentry at the gate only required to see the driver’s (Jame’s) license. The museum’s parking and entry to the museum are free. In addition, there is a free tour of the museum’s flight line conducted by a retired naval aviator. This is a must-stop, not just for the military-minded but for all Americans. The museum, at the very "cradle of naval aviation" is a living testimony to America’s ability to project its foreign policy anywhere in the world.
Bidding goodbye to a fine American city, we are now heading west, staying on I-10 until we hit the Texas border. Then we plan to go south along the coast.
We entered Alabama on Dec. 15, and the difference in landscape was immediate. There were fields of cotton along the roadway — which had not been in evidence in Florida. We used our GPS to guide us on the state and county roadways. The GPS we have now is a Magellan, which is pretty good with finding our way. We started out with a Tom Tom a few years ago, but since it gave us drastically wrong directions, we switched to a Garmin.
We named it ‘Ms. Direction’, and sometimes ‘misdirection’ depending on the results of our instructions from her, but after a few years her maps were out of date and we wanted something different.
Hence, the Magellan — and when she is on target— she is ‘gellin.’
When she is off, we need more assistance! Our iPhones have MapQuest, and a few other navigational helpers, so if we are lost — we are really lost! (We do use road maps, too.)
We thought this week we would give you, the reader, an idea of how we live in the van and our rather unique lifestyle.
The van is a 1997 Volkswagen with the inside camper by Winnebago. It has a lot of miles on it — 193,000 — but James says it drive like a new car. We are averaging 23 mpg on the highwayand 20 mpg in the cities. James does the driving, while Joan navigates, checking the maps, iPhones and GPS.
She also spends down time knitting to keep busy. The top of the van pops up with canvas sides and zippers to open screens, to increase head room and ventilation, and provide a bunk (never used as such yet) or storage, depending on what we are doing.
We have all the comforts of home, only in a much smaller space.
We will start with the "kitchen." The surface of the stove and sink is stainless steel and easy to keep clean. The gas stove has two burners that work great. A lid covers the burners when we aren’t cooking to provide a small work space. We have a small sink with a cold water faucet. Below the burners is a small refrigerator that doesn’t work as well as we’d like, but runs on electricity, battery, and gas. Beside the fridge, there is a small cupboard for groceries and cooking utensils. (Notice the operative word here is SMALL!)
Next to the cupboards, the back seat stretches across the van. A small couch barely seats two, but it’s cozy. The seat folds down to become part of the bed at night, and during the day we sometimes eat meals there, or just relax. There is a space in back of the couch where we put bedding and duffle bags when we are traveling. At night, when the bed is made, the duffles go up on the top bunk, or in the driver’s seat. The passenger seat is turned around to add to the living area.
Beside the food cupboard is a small cabinet where we keep our morning coffee supplies. We make drip coffee as good as any resturant — or what you can make at home. We use a Jet-Boil with a butane burner to heat the water, then pour it through a funnel made by Melitta with a coffee filter and the coffee in it. The coffee drips directly into a cup and so we have delicious coffee in minutes!
We use the same process when we are camping and backpacking. Under the coffee cabinet we keep cards and small items in a drawer, and a bottom cupboard for our electronics: Notebook computer, DVD player, battery TV, weather radio, and a few other incidentals.
As we previously mentioned, the ‘downstairs’ bed is a narrow 46" wide. It has taken us many experiments to make it comfortable.
Too hard, too soft, it was like the Three Bears’ beds. We have finally hit on the most comfortable system with air mattresses under the foam mattress. The foam mattress is only 2" thick and folds in sections. On this, we use a fleece ‘sack’ Joan made from a set of sheets, and on top of that blankets or sleeping bags depending on the weather.
We put hanging pockets on the wall next to the bed to hold glasses, tissues, etc. We don’t use the "upstairs" bunk for sleeping, since this requires climbing up and down, and it is difficult to make up with the bedding.
There are lots of storage spaces in the van. Beside the bed is a closet with sliding doors. On one side, we keep our ‘good’ clothes or what some might consider more formal attire, for dancing or going out. On the other side we keep hiking boots, dance shoes, spare sneakers and other shoes we don’t wear every day.
Another large space is under the bed, but is only accessible from the outside. What goes in there are items we don’t plan to use for a few days. On the side of this space is room for tools and mechanical items.
Attached on the back of the van is our bike rack. Some years we take our hybrid bikes or our tandem bike, but this year we have two lawn chairs, the zero gravity kind. Their main purpose is for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day in Pasadena, California, when we settle on Colorado Boulavard for the Tournament of Roses Parade.
There is also a small space outside, above the cab of the van, to carry weather-proof items. The problem, of course, is to put them up there and get them back down when you need them. There is also a cost of approximately 1 mile per gallon of gas as anything outside affects the wind stream.
Inside the van there are lots of other nooks and crannies to put things. All we have to do is remember where we put what! Enjoy the photos with this post; they're not scenics, but our way of showing you what our home on the road looks like.
In conclusion, for this week the reader must consider this is not a lifestyle for many seniors. We choose this traveling lifestyle not only for the economic advantages, but also for the freedom it offers us: To go anywhere and not be readily identified as "out-of-towners."
It, our lifestyle, just works for us.
From Corpus Cristi, TX, The Sparkling City by the Sea (Gulf)
James and Joan, the American Vagabonds
You can e-mail James and Joan at american_vagabonds@yahoo.com. Follow them online at www.registercitizen.com’s home page, then click on the blog link. Stay tuned for the next post!
Bidding goodbye to a fine American city, we are now heading west, staying on I-10 until we hit the Texas border. Then we plan to go south along the coast.
We entered Alabama on Dec. 15, and the difference in landscape was immediate. There were fields of cotton along the roadway — which had not been in evidence in Florida. We used our GPS to guide us on the state and county roadways. The GPS we have now is a Magellan, which is pretty good with finding our way. We started out with a Tom Tom a few years ago, but since it gave us drastically wrong directions, we switched to a Garmin.
We named it ‘Ms. Direction’, and sometimes ‘misdirection’ depending on the results of our instructions from her, but after a few years her maps were out of date and we wanted something different.
Hence, the Magellan — and when she is on target— she is ‘gellin.’
When she is off, we need more assistance! Our iPhones have MapQuest, and a few other navigational helpers, so if we are lost — we are really lost! (We do use road maps, too.)
We thought this week we would give you, the reader, an idea of how we live in the van and our rather unique lifestyle.
The van is a 1997 Volkswagen with the inside camper by Winnebago. It has a lot of miles on it — 193,000 — but James says it drive like a new car. We are averaging 23 mpg on the highwayand 20 mpg in the cities. James does the driving, while Joan navigates, checking the maps, iPhones and GPS.
She also spends down time knitting to keep busy. The top of the van pops up with canvas sides and zippers to open screens, to increase head room and ventilation, and provide a bunk (never used as such yet) or storage, depending on what we are doing.
We have all the comforts of home, only in a much smaller space.
We will start with the "kitchen." The surface of the stove and sink is stainless steel and easy to keep clean. The gas stove has two burners that work great. A lid covers the burners when we aren’t cooking to provide a small work space. We have a small sink with a cold water faucet. Below the burners is a small refrigerator that doesn’t work as well as we’d like, but runs on electricity, battery, and gas. Beside the fridge, there is a small cupboard for groceries and cooking utensils. (Notice the operative word here is SMALL!)
Next to the cupboards, the back seat stretches across the van. A small couch barely seats two, but it’s cozy. The seat folds down to become part of the bed at night, and during the day we sometimes eat meals there, or just relax. There is a space in back of the couch where we put bedding and duffle bags when we are traveling. At night, when the bed is made, the duffles go up on the top bunk, or in the driver’s seat. The passenger seat is turned around to add to the living area.
Beside the food cupboard is a small cabinet where we keep our morning coffee supplies. We make drip coffee as good as any resturant — or what you can make at home. We use a Jet-Boil with a butane burner to heat the water, then pour it through a funnel made by Melitta with a coffee filter and the coffee in it. The coffee drips directly into a cup and so we have delicious coffee in minutes!
We use the same process when we are camping and backpacking. Under the coffee cabinet we keep cards and small items in a drawer, and a bottom cupboard for our electronics: Notebook computer, DVD player, battery TV, weather radio, and a few other incidentals.
As we previously mentioned, the ‘downstairs’ bed is a narrow 46" wide. It has taken us many experiments to make it comfortable.
Too hard, too soft, it was like the Three Bears’ beds. We have finally hit on the most comfortable system with air mattresses under the foam mattress. The foam mattress is only 2" thick and folds in sections. On this, we use a fleece ‘sack’ Joan made from a set of sheets, and on top of that blankets or sleeping bags depending on the weather.
We put hanging pockets on the wall next to the bed to hold glasses, tissues, etc. We don’t use the "upstairs" bunk for sleeping, since this requires climbing up and down, and it is difficult to make up with the bedding.
There are lots of storage spaces in the van. Beside the bed is a closet with sliding doors. On one side, we keep our ‘good’ clothes or what some might consider more formal attire, for dancing or going out. On the other side we keep hiking boots, dance shoes, spare sneakers and other shoes we don’t wear every day.
Another large space is under the bed, but is only accessible from the outside. What goes in there are items we don’t plan to use for a few days. On the side of this space is room for tools and mechanical items.
Attached on the back of the van is our bike rack. Some years we take our hybrid bikes or our tandem bike, but this year we have two lawn chairs, the zero gravity kind. Their main purpose is for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day in Pasadena, California, when we settle on Colorado Boulavard for the Tournament of Roses Parade.
There is also a small space outside, above the cab of the van, to carry weather-proof items. The problem, of course, is to put them up there and get them back down when you need them. There is also a cost of approximately 1 mile per gallon of gas as anything outside affects the wind stream.
Inside the van there are lots of other nooks and crannies to put things. All we have to do is remember where we put what! Enjoy the photos with this post; they're not scenics, but our way of showing you what our home on the road looks like.
In conclusion, for this week the reader must consider this is not a lifestyle for many seniors. We choose this traveling lifestyle not only for the economic advantages, but also for the freedom it offers us: To go anywhere and not be readily identified as "out-of-towners."
It, our lifestyle, just works for us.
From Corpus Cristi, TX, The Sparkling City by the Sea (Gulf)
James and Joan, the American Vagabonds
You can e-mail James and Joan at american_vagabonds@yahoo.com. Follow them online at www.registercitizen.com’s home page, then click on the blog link. Stay tuned for the next post!
