Betty - 30 days, 6600 Miles in a rented van

First of all, it wasn't me. I ain't that crazy.  Or young.  But Daughter number 1 Jami is.  Every year she goes to Saranac Lake in upstate New York to visit good friends. This year, covid19 made airplane travel and staying in hotels problematic, so she came up with the brilliant (or insane) scheme of renting a van for a month, having dear old dad throw something together to make it livable, and setting off.

Betty

Named for the beloved, fearless, and somewhat wacky Betty White, this Dodge rental van is about to undergo a fast transformation.

Since the furniture had to be installed quickly and removed even more quickly, we had to come up with a unit that could be pre-built and attached to the van framing with velcro straps.

The rental agreement was for 30 days, and not a moment more.  The Hertz pricing algorithm wanted to add hundreds of dollars to the price if she was one day late returning the van.

Here's what we came up with.

And here's the real thing.  Fresh water pumps out of the Sparklets bottle and the sink drains into a five-gallon jug. Jami's brilliant idea of plastic tubs meant secure storage on the road without the need for cupboards, drawers, and doors.
 

The white thing in front is a wastebasket

The trip was not all play.  She works mostly remotely in this covid time, so with this little workstation setup, she could get some work done using a WIFI hotspot.

The plan was for a standard twin bed to be placed opposite the cabinet, made up all the time so she could just flop in after a long day's driving, but at the last minute, sweet cousin, housemate, and fellow adventure traveler Lisa offered to come along and keep her company on at least part of the trip... .

...So the twin bed became bunk beds.

This presented a little problem, because that upper bunk really limited elbow room and the ability for two adults to move around in the van, so...

We came up with a solution. In the daytime, the upper bunk swiveled up and hooked to the ceiling beams with rope clips. Made moving around much easier.

The Master bathroom

Somehow all this needed to fit...

In this...

But she made it work.

Can you tell this is a girl's van? Hint: the rack on the door is for shoes! 😍

With Chewie for a privacy curtain...

And R2D2 for a mascot.

The two road warriors had a cozy little home.

3700 miles out

2900 miles home

   

          Across Lake Michigan on the ferry

Destination: Saranac Lake New York

In the words of songwriter Robert Earl Keen, 

The road goes on forever, but the party never ends.

Campo Grape Harvest 2020

When the grapes are ready, friend and local winemaker Richard Westfall somehow charms a few of us unemployed seniors into showing up at his vineyard at the ungodly hour of 6:45 AM for the harvest. We do it for the experience, for fun, and to see the process, but basically we're slaving away picking grapes for eight hours.

This year we picked Grenache.  We pressed about 30 gallons of it to make rosé, but it all went through the stemmer/crusher, and the rest will ferment for a while with the skins on.

Don't I sound like I know what I'm talking about? Not bad for low-grade field labor.

Stemmer/crusher

Some people, (not me!) have referred to rosé as "garbage wine." But in this winery, garbage cans (clean and new of course) do get used in the process...

They made me use the press because my feet weren't clean enough...

Didn't go home empty-handed.  Two bottles of Westfall Winery's famous Blue-Label Wine!

They actually do have fancy labels, but the ones I got were "sneak previews."  I really shouldn't drink the Zin for at least a year, but I probably will ignore that rule...

Dreams do come true... an air-conditioned shop!

I've been doing woodworking for 50 years. My first projects got done in the living room of an apartment. Most of the rest of the time, my shop was the garage. My poor wife never parked a car in a garage the whole time we were married.

Never have I had the luxury of air conditioning.  Until today.

I bought what's called a 'mini-split' system, which is the same thing installed in the house.  It's halfway between a window air conditioner and a full-house central air unit.  It's really designed for one room or open space, but it's silent and very kind to the electric system.  

Like the central air system you may have in your house, it has an outside unit, but it's so quiet you can barely hear it, and it only runs as fast as it needs to, as opposed to being full-on/full-off like a central air unit.

The inside unit needs to be connected to the outside part with insulated pipes, and since I had already closed in the wall where the pipes needed to go, I cut out a section of sheetrock.

But I saved the piece, so it will go back.

Voila! Tomorrow I'll texture and repaint

Also, eventually another large cabinet will go on that wall, just like the one on the other side of the door.

You're supposed to hire a professional to install these things, but being a "senior on a fixed income" (read "cheap."), I decided to do it myself.

The main reason to hire a professional is that some special equipment is needed.  A vacuum pump and special gauges to suck all the air out of the pipes before letting the freon flow through them.  I just bought the equipment for less than a pro would have charged me, and now I have them for when I add another one of these little air conditioners for my dining room! (Stay tuned for that.)
 

Flaring the pipes

All hooked up and ready to go.  The tubes on the ground are drains.
Molly is unimpressed.  More interested in the box.

Moment of truth (AKA the Blinding Flash Test)

It displays the temperature setting

Whaddaya know... it works!

INSIDE

OUTSIDE

 

After weeks of 100+ degree weather, this week we're getting a cold snap.  By Saturday, it's supposed to get down to 72!  You're welcome, Campo.

Luckily, this unit is a heat pump, which means it becomes a heater in winter.

More Power!

 Tim the Tool Man Taylor's got nothin' on me!

Good neighbor Eric has come through for me again. Back in March, he generously gave me two great solar panels to add to my system.  I installed them on the shop roof, and they gave the batteries a nice boost. It's been so hot this summer that I started dreaming about putting an air conditioner in the shop, but that would mean even more solar panels, so I contacted Eric again.

Not only did he find four more panels for me at a great price, he dug into his own stock again and gave me virtually everything I needed to install them, including the rails, roof mounts, wire, and a few other goodies.

It takes a lot of stuff to install solar panels

Another good friend, and well-known Campo fixture "Rat Rod" Andy came over to help me hoist the panels up on the roof and get them fastened down. He doesn't share my terror of heights, so his help was much appreciated.

I installed a "weather head" to get the wires down into the shop...

... and a small breaker box in the shop to act as a combiner.  All the panel wires come in, with one breaker for each set, then two wires go back up and out, to connect to the house.

Fourth breaker arrived broken.  Didn't need it.

E, C, W for East, Center, and West.

The wires connecting to the house are cleverly (sez I) disguised by piggybacking on party lights.  

Still waiting to actually use those lights for a party.

The astute among you will notice that I am also using my solar clothes-drying system...

As well as my patent-pending laundry cart and manly clothespin carrier.

Sign of the times...

This won't mean much unless you're a nerd, but the new array is putting 25 amps into the batteries.  That's about a 50% increase over what I had, so now I'm definitely thinking air conditioning!  I'll give the system a while to prove itself first.

A Visitor

Yesterday I opened my back door to do something, I forget what, and found Molly's twin on my porch.  Surprised the hell out of me.  I asked her what the heck she was doing there, but got only a blank stare and a couple cautious yips.  I was able to sweet-talk her into coming in the house, she wasn't interested in water or food, and she and Molly just sniffed each other.  A couple attempts to mark my rug, but I barked at her and she stopped.  She was well-groomed and healthy, but no collar or tags, so I put her in the truck and went to visit the nearest neighbors.  Only two were home and they didn't recognize her, so I posted on a community Facebook page and sat on the couch to wait, with one little white dog curled up on each side of me.

Within a few minutes I saw a frantic post from the owner and arranged to meet her at the gas station.  She was teary-eyed with gratitude. I like that in a woman...😁

Just looked at the map, and the little critter had come nearly two miles to my doorstep.  And I don't think it was the first time.  A long time ago, maybe a year or two, I had Molly in the truck under the oak tree and had gone back to the house for something, when what to my wondering eyes should appear but Molly, way over south of the house!  WTF? How did she get out of the truck and over there so quickly? Using my best dog-whisperer techniques, I screamed bloody murder at her for being a naughty girl, and of course she took off, never to be seen again.  Turned around to look back at the truck, and there was the real Molly, wondering what all the fuss was about.

My visitor.  A well-groomed version of Molly

A shortcut would have been over coyote-infested hills.