This weekend marks the third anniversary of me picking up Clifford the Big Red Van in Colorado and driving him home to start this #vanlife thing. I wrote about year one here and year two here. The third year of ownership was less about major upgrades or big trips. The past twelve months was more about fine tuning a few things and getting out to enjoy the outdoors as much as we could.

Back in November 2022, just after writing about Clifford turning two, Mia and I headed up to the Olympic Peninsula for my birthday weekend. We also used this as an opportunity to test out a shore power hookup mixed with a small space heater. It worked well and definitely increases the chance of winter trips here in the PNW if we can find campsites with electric hookups.

Then in January of 2023 I did the least expensive “upgrade” to the van by adding an electric faucet at the sink. You can read about that here.

One of the things that attracted me to getting a van was using it in conjunction with bike racing. Either driving the morning of to races and having a nice dry and cozy place to change and hang out or driving to a race the night before and saving money on hotel rooms. Back in April I got to do just that. Newport, OR hosts the Coast Hills Classic every year. It’s just far enough way that I would have to either get up wicked early and drive down the day of the race or I can stay at South Beach State Park which is literally less than 10 minutes from the race venue.

The month of May was one of the only projects for the van all of 2023. I installed a Unaka Gear roof rack so I could mount an exterior light and for some future addition of solar panels, likely spring of 2024.

I’m pretty happy with how this one turned out. I may eventually splice in a light above the rear doors so we have both options covered. It is quite convenient being able to light up the vicinity when we arrive at a campground in the dark.

In June Mia, Codibob and I headed to Timothy Lake for a super nice weekend. Being June, the weather could have been horrible, but we lucked out with a great weekend of weather.

Just a few weeks later I started my longest solo trip since getting the van. 5 nights and 6 days. I slowly made my way from PDX area over to Anthony Lake, an area I had been dying to check out since learning about it a few years ago.

I ended this mid-June trip with a nice dusting of snow on my final morning. I used the space heater every night at Mud Lake. It was a great little solo trip and I am looking forward to coming back here with Mia and Codi.

The longest road trip (Rhodes Trip) of 2023 took place in July as a group of us headed to Moab, UT to ride the San Juan Hut system from Telluride, CO back to Moab. Carl and I left a few days early to slowly make our way to Moab before meeting the rest of the group, who drove straight through from PDX to Moab in one fell swoop.

Almost immediately after getting back from Moab, Paul and Noah came out from NH for some mountain biking and one night of camping.

After doing a lift assist park day at Mt Hood we spent the night at Camp Creek CG and then shuttled back to Timberline Lodge to ride the super fun Timberline to Town trail.

We had a bit of a lull with Clifford in August and into early September. As September wound down though we did the 2nd Annual (?) Friends Trip to Suttle Lake. Weather was not as nice as last year but still had a great time hanging out with everyone and enjoying a very relaxing weekend.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Peter Rhodes (@onrhodes)

Trips like this one are where Mia and I really love having a van. We pulled into our site just as it was getting dark on Friday night and it was cold and rainy to boot. Having literally no tent or anything else to worry about is great. We just stay nice and dry and relatively warm in the van.

Now it is November and I just spent another night in Clifford at Silver Falls State Park the night before Prosser and I ran the Silver Falls 7 Miler. Another night of POURING RAIN and John and I stayed nice and dry and warm. Then having a place to change after the race was beautiful.

Just over 30,000 miles in three years. Lots of modifications/upgrades since the initial purchase but things are settling down in that area. The aforementioned solar panels and eventually the often talked about, but yet to purchase, Webasto heater. Maybe 2024 for the heater? I’m definitely apprehensive about cutting a 5″ hole in the floor, everything else seems to be rather straightforward. I can always think of other ways to spend $1500.

So, there it is, year three in summation. Nothing like Rhodes Trip 2022 but definitely a lot more use on weekend trips.

Thanks for reading,

-Pete