Here in the peace and quiet of Herman’s Creek Campground, I’ve been breaking down in my head which van features have turned out to be essential<\/strong>, and which others less so.\u00a0 So here is a rank-ordering of the importance of the expensive gee-gaws I signed up for.<\/p>\n

rank-order of the features I need<\/h3>\n

In typical 80-20<\/em> fashion, the first four (well, let’s make five) items give me at least 80% of my joy, and everything else is expensive gravy.<\/p>\n

\n
1. shelter<\/strong> – It is a cold, rainy day here in the Columbia Gorge.\u00a0 Shocking, I know.\u00a0 In my truck, I would be having a miserable time, or more likely I would have chickened out and would be watching cable tv on a motel bed.\u00a0 One can spend only so much time huddled in a camper shell.\u00a0 A spacious, well-cushioned interior space in which I can stand up is the number one thing I’m glad to have every day.<\/li>\n
2. power<\/strong> – That is, functionally endless electricity, from my marine battery powered by my solar panel.\u00a0 Being able to do what I’m doing right now (typing this post) is the cherry on the sundae of my hanging in the wilds on a rainy day.<\/li>\n
3. solar panel<\/strong> – Without this I would be wedded to annoying campground RV hookups every couple of days.\u00a0 With this adequate power is always there … providing I remember to turn everything off when I should (see my post on lists).<\/li>\n
4. heat<\/strong> – When you need it you need it.\u00a0\u00a0 The fan on my propane heater is very noisy and wakes me up every time it kicks in, but if it’s 30’s or less outside it’s a big comfort feature.\u00a0 It got down into the high 30’s in Sisters the other night, and it was pretty sweet to just set the thermostat on the heater to take the edge off of it.<\/li>\n
5. running the sound system off the aux battery<\/strong> – A small thing, but listening to NPR or a Giants game at the campsite without worrying about running the battery down is pretty nice.\u00a0 I’ve lately taken to leaving the radio on when I’m running errands around town – why?\u00a0 because I can!<\/li>\n
6. refrigerator<\/strong> – I would be ok with good ole cooler technology for keeping things cold, but the fridge is pretty darn user-friendly.\u00a0 Because of the battery and solar panel, I just turn the fridge on when I start a trip and turn it off when I get home, and that’s as complicated as it gets.<\/li>\n
7. microwave<\/strong> – It’s quite a drain on the battery, and it’s a pretty wimpy nuker compared to my home model, but it’s awfully handy for the leftovers a thrifty guy like me accumulates.<\/li>\n
8. stove<\/strong> – So far all I’ve used it for is boiling water<\/strong>, but hot tea at night and hot coffee in the morning are essential to quality civilized living, yes?<\/li>\n
9. sink + hot water<\/strong> – this is the first night I’ve had a functioning sink.\u00a0 I think it will be handy – brushing teeth, rinsing plates, and face it, grimy hands are a bore after a hard night of tending the campfire, so washing them in hot water is nice.<\/li>\n
10. rest of the water system (shower<\/strong>), rest of the propane system (outside bbq hookup<\/strong>) – have not used these yet<\/li>\n
11. awning<\/strong> – just used it today for the first time because it’s raining, to give myself a little dry area.\u00a0 I’m missing something on it because the struts done fit into their brackets the way they did at the shop, but if I ever do use this for festival going, Burning Man or Coachella or such things, I will be glad I have it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    oh yeah, today’s camping report:<\/h3>\n

    Campsite #1 here offers a really choice panorama of the Columbia River through the trees, and at the back end of the campground is a spur trail to access the extensive web of trails (including PCT) that run along the gorge.\u00a0 And it’s only $10, which is a pretty good deal for right on the Gorge, I think.\u00a0 But despite all the ingredients for happiness being present, something is missing.\u00a0 Whether it is me or it is unclear (Edgefield hangover?), but I am not very charmed by the place and not real excited to be here … I think it’s the rain …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Here in the peace and quiet of Herman’s Creek Campground, I’ve been breaking down in my head which van features have turned out to be essential, and which others less so.\u00a0 So here is a rank-ordering of the importance of … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[36,42,45],"class_list":["post-45","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-23","tag-camping","tag-oregon","tag-van"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}