ventures OUR NEW van finally arrived. We picked it up last Fri- day, spending several hours with Henry Epp at Go West in North Van, trying to learn how to operate all the equip- ment inside. That might be easy for some, but not us — until now our idea of ‘‘roughing it’’ was a hotel with no room service. What did we know about three-way *~frigerators, grey and black holding tanks and inverters? Bloody nothing, that’s what! For months, I’d been stockpil- ing a closetful of gear, all design- ed to fit into a 19-foot vehicle. Brian locked at the pile and shuddered. I grinned weakly and began stowing the stuff. A reader once warned me, ‘‘If anything rattles, the driver will go nuts.”’ Just about then, surveying . my stockpile, I decided that it might be a short trip for either of us. To start, I had Brian cut squares of thin foam and I set a square between plates, lined cutlery drawers and shelves. I tucked glass between plastic and pushed tea towels in strategic corners. Everything fit in, more or less. Saturday morning, Brian drove out of the driveway and within 10 feet there was a clatter. I did a bit of quick rearranging and we were on our way. ,,, Good luck must follow fools —~ nothing else rattled! I-consulted my ‘‘Discover Washington”? handbook and we chose a rough itinerary — down _ 1-5 to Mt. Vernon (find a camp- site). Next day, drive to Snohomish (no campsites listed) and return to La Conner (find a campsite). Home Monday. Right now I’m going to cop out —- there’s no point in making any mention of the campsites we found — what could i compare them to? I suspect the first miracle was finding sites at all, given our lack of experience. . The first thing we discovered was that in some sites an adaptor plug is necessary for the electrical ‘hookup. Luckily one came with our van. The next thing we learned is that 12-volt power doesn’t do much cooling in the refrigerator — we were told that 90% of campers drive with the propane ' hooked up. ‘Pd also read that this is dan- gerous. I don’t like that kind of 1 WEEK GETAWAY all Inclusive Lodge, riding vacation, mountain trail rides, . fishing vacation feg. EATS - only 9995 ” (includes flight from Vancouver) ‘reserve before May 31 Join us for our 1993 opening week at beautiful Chilko Lake. ~ Call Now — Limited Space. McLeans River Ridge Resort P.O, Box 2560E Chiike Lake Williams Lake, B.C. LV Y2G@ 4P2 -- - 1394-4193 (Lodge) 1-398-7755 (24 hrs.) PAX 2388-7487 | Barbara hicGreadie TRAVELWISE danger. Our committee of two is still discussing that option. I had to laugh about the “roughing it” side of camping. There we were, surrounded by hundreds of seasoned traveilers. Inside our van was a TV, a mi- crowave, a built-in coffee maker, built-in toaster oven, a refrigerator, a stove, a flush toilet and a shower. Life sure can get tough! For the sink, there’s a water | heater. Cold at night? Turn on the furnace! With a bit of struggle, we assembled our king-size bed. We have the option of twin beds should one of us get real mad. lem. I started to cook dinner and Brian decided to lurch around the stove, poking in cupboards, fuss- - ing with fittings and generally making a full-sized nuisance of himself. “Get out of my way,’ I screamed politely. He did, for about two minutes. ‘Pm serving notice right now — after one weekend of picking Brian out of my food, I’m ready to kill. If, I should come home alone after our next trip, assume that the body will never be found. I have a new respect for camp- ing cooks with surviving spouses. And now, the first serious prob- TRAVEZ ith ‘one darn It was quite chilly that first night so we didn’t test our suit- case-sized camping table but ate inside with the back door open. Soon, a crowd of friendly campers gathered, looking over our obviously new vehicle. They were members of the Good Sam RV Club, meeting for one of their regular rendezvous. I gathered from the comments that our van is unusual, although we didn’t know that when we bought it. “That's one darn fine-looking rig,"’ remarked one Jady. I think it’s the color scheme that does it — instead of woodgrain finish we had all the cupboards done in white and the rest of the interior in shades of green, Until then, we'd been at a loss as to what to call this vehicle — a van? A mini-motor-home? A camper? Nothing seeme‘ right un- til we heard “‘fine-looking rig” in broad American. I’m sure that all the things we learned on our first shakedown cruise will draw hoots of laughter from experienced campers. Take the smoke alarm, for ex- ample. All the equipment is new so it gives off a bit of an odor. The alarm doesn't like it one bit! Light the furnace? Screeeech! Use the left burner on the stove? Screeech! | finally yanked the bat- tery long enough to cook dinner and heat the van in the morning. At one campsite, we were warned that the peacocks and pre- sumably the pea hens were mating and downright cantankerous. Believe me, they screech louder than the smoke alarm — I hope they’re enjoying themselves. However, one avoids mating peacocks. . We had fur on our first camp- ing trip. I like cooking in it, The bed is extremely comforta- ble. I can get up at my regular 6 BUY LOW FOODS CORRECTION NOTICE In our flyer selling May 23-29, 1993 the coupon for POTATOES on Page 6 states an incorrect bag size. Coupon should read 10 lb. BAG’ We apologize for any inconvenience this aertor may have caused our customers. Sunday, May 23, 1993 - North Shore News ~ 27 ine-looking rig’ a.m, and it doesn’t seem to bother Brian — in fact, he gets up as soon as the coffee is ready. It's a treat to park and make a decent lunch instead of searching out the nearest greasy spoon. The people we met were friend- ly and very helpful. No one laughed at my dumb questions, The van (a Dodge Ram) drives like a dream and parks easily. It doesn’t go limp on hills or in the passing lane. Jt doesn’t Jurch on corners. The seats are nice and high — Smurfs like me need all the height we can get. Our table is plenty big enough to hold our nightly Scrabble © game, tea mugs, snacks and ashtrays. And the vehicle is small enough that we won’t feel like cop-outs should we decide to pull into the Hilton for a change. I didn’t realize how small our “rig’’ was until a 40-foot mega- home from Texas pulled in alongside. It took the driver about six tries to line it up and his wife arrived a bit later, driving the car. Our daughter Lori looked over the van and said, ‘‘I sure hope you don’t become two-footers.’”’ Huh? “*You know, like boaters. Every year they need just two feet longer.’’ i don’t think so — all I have to do is remember that Texan! 7. 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