It was one year ago this week that I flew out to Colorado Springs, CO to pick up our new van from Wayfarer Vans. I spent two nights and two and a half days driving back to Oregon with Clifford the Big Red Van.
In the past year we have put just under 9,000 miles on Clifford with 1,500 miles of that being just the drive back from Colorado. About 2,000 miles on our Burns/Reno trip and probably another 1,500-1,700 on our week long vacation in September.
I’ve spent twenty one nights and Mia has fourteen sleeping in Clifford. We’ve used Clifford for day trips to the beach, a base of operations for bike rides and a decent number of Home Depot/Lowes runs with just a little commuting since selling the Subaru Outback.
In the past twelve months we’ve done some minor tweaking to the van and added some additional items that don’t come with the base package.
- Jackery 1000 watt portable power station
- Shoe Organizers for back doors
- Generic car fridge/cooler
- Gas Strut for the boot box
- Wheelie box (should have ordered this with the original kit)
- memory foam mattress topper
- Pendleton wool blanket
- bamboo boxes for behind the vanity storage
- Moonshade awning
- front window shades
- assorted utensil storage bins for vanity
- SumoSprings
- Above bed cabinet (new item from Wayfarer)
- LL Bean waterhog mat
- fairy lights
- additional Havelock insulation in the nooks and crannies
- running boards
- Little buddy heater
We also had the muffler and resonator stolen off the van while we were hiking up in the Gifford Pinchot area. I still think the morons thought they got the catalytic converter but had no idea what they were looking for.
Mia has said she is never sleeping in a tent again! I cannot say the same thing but having the van has greatly increased our camping this past year. I don’t think Mia and I did any camping as a couple in 2019 or 2020.
For future Rhodes Trips I’d like to do a road trip to visit Mia’s cousin in San Francisco, get back down to Crater Lake, do a loop of the Olympic Peninsula, drive across the country to New Hampshire to see family! More exploring of Oregon and Washington in general.
It’s been a good year with some great memories. I look forward to going new places and doing new things with Mia and Codi for as long as we can.
Thanks for reading,
-Pete
ON & OFF RHODES 
One Comment Add yours