Our first camping trip in the Paddy Wagon – expectations vs reality?

Yes! We recently returned home after spending 4 nights and 5 days camping in THE PADDY WAGON and I’m here to report an honest assessment of our experience.

First I’ll start with my EXPECTATIONS:

1. I expected to be uncomfortable.
2. I expected there would be a lot of inconveniences.
3. I (secretly) expected that after a few days I would be ready to go home.

Before we embarked, Pat was scrambling to try to accomplish as much as he could in the van. We even postponed our trip by a day to give him a little bit more time to install the sink and faucet so we would have running water. We knew that it might be months before the van is finished and ready for heavy duty travel, but with electricity, water, a bed, and a refrigerator, we were eager to try out “bare bones” camping.

First stop was a state park where we paid $22 a night for a 3-night stay. After parking in our camping spot, Pat pulled out the solar panels to start catching the rays before retrieving our propane camp oven/stove to bake fresh turtle pecan cookies. (YUM!)

Almost immediately, we learned that my beautiful pregnant-past-her-due-date daughter-in-law’s water broke and she was in the hospital waiting to go into labor. So with fluttering hearts, we poured wine to go with our cookies. (Both delicious.)

For the next several hours, we heard updates. Labor was going slow… nothing dramatic happening yet.

At our campsite, we ate an ultra-healthy dinner and made our first mistake. We stayed outside, and the mosquitoes ate us for dinner.

By the time we retreated into the van, it was impossible to open or close a door without letting those pesky blood-suckers inside, which reminded me what the famous British activist, Anita Roddick, once said:

If you think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito.

More on mosquito netting and citronella candles in my next blog post, but suffice it to say that we ended up with enough itchy welts and bumps that I Googled “are mosquito bites dangerous?” (short answer: rarely) and every day from that point, we tried to beat the mosquitoes to bed before they beat us.

One of the most wonderful moments of my life came the next day when we received word that my first grandbaby was born.

OH, MY HEART! OH, THE TEARS!

I will never forget that moment. Nor will I forget lying on our van bed, holding the cell phone up over our heads, and seeing our newborn grandchild for the first time via Zoom.

For the next few days we quietly celebrated as we hiked, cooked camp food, toasted my son and daughter in law with more wine, and bided our time, hoping to be able to meet this little angel before we had to head home. When the invitation came, we extended our trip one more day and decided to try boondocking for one night.

For those of you unfamiliar with #vanlife lingo, “boondocking” is camping outside of a designated campground without any connection to water, sewer, electricity, bathrooms, etc. You have to be completely self-sufficient, and there are apps that help you find places where you are allowed to stay.

On one of these apps, we found a spot right on a lake. It was a gorgeous view, even when a horrendous storm blew in and rattled the van with thunder and pelting rain all night. Our entertainment was watching a spectacular lightning show across the water through our rear windows.

At some point during the night, poor Maya was so nervous that Pat turned some soothing dog music on his phone to calm her nerves.

I’m not going to reveal exactly where we stayed because we found out (by a policeman who pulled up beside us) that we were not really allowed to stay there overnight. But he kindly didn’t make us leave, and said we could stay unless somebody else asked us to leave. Fortunately, the storm was so violent that there was little chance that a local was going to venture outside to ask us to split, so it turned out to be a great spot.

Now, here’s the REALITY:

1. The van was far more comfortable than I expected it to be.
2. There were a few inconveniences, the biggest of which was that we couldn’t open the lid to get into the refrigerator unless we pushed the bed frame into couch mode. Another inconvenience was that we had to pack food and equipment in stackable clear plastic bins, which was a pain, but when we have built-in shelves and cupboards and everything has its place it will be so much easier.
3. I LOVED EVERY MINUTE AND CAN HARDLY WAIT TO GO AGAIN.

Since all systems were GO on this trip, I intend to post another blog in the next few days to provide a review on how all the systems worked. (The only hint I will give you now is that out of all the systems – plumbing, electrical, induction and propane cooking, fans, bed, refrigerator, toilet, shower, bug management, and Maya – there was only ONE thing that we didn’t test… and it may not be what you think…)

In the meantime, here are the faces of the HAPPIEST GRANDMA AND GRANDPA IN THE WORLD!