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This is my first camping trip since about 9 months ago in August of 2021. Went camping over Mothers Day at Oahe Campground #1 is our favorite site #42. It was a beautiful weekend. We have not been camping since last August because we decided to downsize from our four bedroom house with 2 1/2 baths, a sauna, and a four car heated garage to a smaller house in the big city of Aberdeen, SD which is a 2 bedroom with 2 baths and a single car garage. It involved a lot of rummage sales and online selling to get rid of much that we had accumulated in 40 years in the same place. We decided to retire to a larger city and downsize a lot of our possessions to save the kids some headache when we get too old to care for it all. We do love it living in a larger city instead of the smaller town of about 350 that we had lived in almost all of our lives. It helped that a found a heated storage shed for my camper van, Corvette, and wood shop tools. About the only upgrade I have made to my DIY camper van was an improvement to the overhead water storage system. I used 6" PVC tubing for the tank and had it connected to an air compressor quick disconnect line to the water valve located on the side of my van. I changed it to a garden hose quick disconnect which allows a lot more water to flow through the tubing. I did have to add a shut off valve to it as the garden hose quick connect does not shut off the flow when disconnected like the air compressor disconnect did. The water tap is connected to one of those magnetic tool trays for easy access. Everything works better now. I did not get a chance to open my new awning from NAPA as the weather was a little too breezy. Maybe next trip I will post a picture of it in use.
Last edited by Black'95; May 12th, 2022 at 9:26 AM.
Planning on heading out again for our 2nd camping trip of the year. We are going to a local campground at Richmond Lake Recreation Area. Another equipment testing camp night. We love to hike when we camp and, being a woodworker, l like to make my own things if possible. One of the things i have made for myself and most members of our family is a walking or hiking stick. I make mine out of walnut most of the time, although I have made them out of oak and bamboo. I usually put a 1/4" threaded stud on top to act as a camera monopod, then I put a threaded adapter into a wood ball to top it off. On the bottom I usually add a pointed end with a rubber removable cover on it. I get these from websites that cater to walking stick DIY'ers. When we visit different national parks I am always on the lookout for medallions to add to my stick. A few times when I could not find any, the place may have a penny press machine that turns your penny into a souvenir that I can drill small holes in and attach to my walking stick. My wife likes to keep her stick lighter so she chooses not to adorn hers. Over the many years I have been collecting hiking medallions I have filled up two hiking sticks and am now working on my third, which will probably be my last as I am in my late 70's.. I also add a hand strap on the top of each stick sort of like they use on ski poles. We give our hiking sticks a workout on every camping trip.
It is time for another update, although this is not a modification to our van camper. Recently we purchased an electric scooter. It has proven to be very handy around the campground. We can zip to the comfort station quickly with it. We are looking forward to finding other uses for it.
For a couple in our 70's we balance quite well on it and it appears these old dogs can learn new tricks. We do keep it in its ECO mode which keeps us down to 10 mph or slower which is fast enough for us. Last fall I tried my grand daughters' hoverboards and did not do well on them but the scooter has a handle and is so much easier to balance on.
The handle easily folds down so we carry it strapped to our rear mounted ladder. I forgot to get pictures of it in transport mode this last trip, so will post a picture of it the next time we go camping.
We are always looking for games to play while camping. I have admired all of the different cornhole game boards that I have seen while camping but knew that I could not carry something that big around in my van camper. My wife came across this one from GoSports that is a collapsible version. It disassembles into the space of the small carrying bag that I can find room for in my van's back storage area.
We tried it out in our yard when my youngest son and his family from KY visited us in June. My grand daughters loved it and even got my youngest 4 year old grand daughter to play when they moved the "boards" closer together. I will be carrying this in my van on all future trips because my wife likes to play too.
I noticed the other day that Walmart has a collapsible version of corn hole similar to the one I purchased on Amazon. They also have one with LED lights so you can play it in the dark.
Previously I posted about the new electric scooter we got to travel around the campground with. Here is how I carry it strapped to my ladder with bungee cords, the heavy duty rubber truck tarp kind. I cover it with a heavy duty trash bag to protect it from road dirt and rain.
Here is what it looks like without the trash bag covering it.
I have mentioned how I make camp coffee in previous posts, so now I will give you a little more detail on how I do it. I have an old Aluminum percolator coffee pot that I discarded the inside parts. I use it to heat up water to boiling with my camp cooking hook. It gets very black over the open flame so I transport it inside a travel bag.
To brew the coffee, I use an old fashioned drip-o-later like my aunt used in the 1960's. They can still be found at nearly new stores and rummage sales in various sizes. It operates on about the same principle as a modern coffee maker. You pour the hot water in the top and it drips through a metal basket attached to its bottom where the coffee grounds are. I add a paper coffee filter that my aunt did not use back in the day. The brewed coffee drips into the bottom part of the drip-o-later. When the coffee is all brewed, I pour it into a thermos and our two insulated coffee mugs for drinking later.
Another view of the apparatus.
I store my coffee grounds in an old clear ice cream container with my coffee filters held around the outside with a rubber band. This all fits neatly in the top container of the drip-o-later for traveling as seen in the second picture.
I carry the drip-o-later in my old Navy ditty bag and the fire blackened pot in the blue bag for travel. These both fit in one of my wife's 6x12x12 inch under bed boxes.
Now you know the secret to my camp coffee that my wife loves. Yes, I know it is a little time consuming, but when I am camping I have lots of time to putter with it while my wife makes breakfast. We love to waste time around the campfire, relaxing, reading, and enjoying nature.
Last edited by Black'95; July 28th, 2022 at 10:48 AM.
Last spring I purchased a new awning for my van from NAPA for $99. I have had it mounted on my van's roof rack since but have not had a chance to use it. This weekend we used it for the first time and am totally pleased and happy with it. It was easy for my wife and I to put up as all the parts are attached and simply fold out and connect together. After its storage bag was unzipped we rolled it out, lowered the two legs, folded out the side supports and connected their pins into the holes it the top of the legs and adjusted it tight. There were four Velcro straps on each side to attach the awning to the side supports. The only extra parts were the two ropes and stakes to ground it. It gave us more shade than our old awning.
Today's posting is about a new grip for my hiking stick. I discovered "My Grip" by FastCap. It is a moldable synthetic that you heat up in boiling water for a couple of minutes, then wrap it around any handle like my walking stick or my hammer or ax. Then you grip it and squeeze your hand grip into it and it cools in that shape. It really gives me a more comfortable grip on my hiking stick while using it. I added one to my small hand ax too.
They come in many colors, but I ordered brown so as not to clash with my hiking sticks.
Last edited by Black'95; August 29th, 2022 at 8:42 PM.
It has been a long winter in South Dakota. I usually get to go camping in the Custer State Park area of the Black Hills of South Dakota during February or March when the weather warms up to the 60's for a day or two. Not this year, it never got nice enough for us to get our camper out of the heated garage to go camping out west. In fact our first camping trip for this new year was about a week ago. We took it out to our closest state park for our first trip to rest up and make sure everything was working right before any big trips.
It was time for another upgrade. We always use an electric heater sitting on the floor for heat at night when the temps get too low. This spring I purchased a small faux fireplace style heater for the van. It was just the right size to fit in the top horizontal door area of our kitchen unit. I mounted it in and it works perfectly. It has more air space around it than it had in its original stand and draws its air from around the top, both sides, and the back of the kitchen unit so there is good circulation. The original thermostat I put in for the other heaters works with it. My wife is quite impressed with it and likes that we don't have a cord and the heater on the floor to stumble over and it is a much more even infrared heater.
May 8th, 2022, 7:35 PM
