The Voyage of the Tramper

For our last trip, I picked leaving in Fall, to arrive and ski as long as possible. That turned out to be 42 days in Colorado, mostly at Monarch on the Continental Divide. We savored a few other resorts, Loveland, Copper Mt., Cooper, Beaver Creek and Purgatory among others. We lived in our beloved Tramper in the coldest Winter in our “vortex” above Salida. Jane longed to hop out onto warm grass so much that upon leaving CO for home, we went West. The Grand Canyon afforded 15 degree f in February, but at least as we hiked to the bottom, it was 60. The foothills of the Sierras in Three Rivers were a delightful change, but once we headed East towards home on I-70, of course I got to ski again in Loveland, and our “Carney Nature” was key to being able to park on an upper lot during a storm, guided by a nice security guard who instructed us to move down by 5:00 AM when they would plow that lot.

That, of course brings us to this time. Jane picked Spring! She wants to see Teddy Roosevelt National Park. During our informal scouting moments, she also announced the idea to start at Cape Henlopen, DE and dip our toes into the Atlantic. I knew instantly where that led. Our trip will partially be guided by folks we can say “hi” to along the circuitous way. “Mapquest” says it 41 hours driving past Milwaukee to Kirkland, Washington. That’ll be an easy 10 day drive with stops added. Of course one of our guiding questions to locals met along the way, “what should we do tomorrow?” could easily add 10 more adventurous days to that path.

Last time was a 1957 Yellowstone camper I resurrected, towed by a ’95 Toyota Forerunner that was not really up to the task. Trailers teach you a lot about backing into places you think you can fit. They teach you that even a small engine working hard, gets <10 mpg. This time we move with more stealth and economy. We also don’t expect to do an undecided number of months on the road. (You can sigh with relief, there won’t be >180 posts/6 months to follow us this time.). We are expecting, not planning about 4-6 weeks.

I’ll detail just a bit about our selected vehicle. We had our usual adventures even finding this one. Budget of <10K, we saw lots. We “spoke” with quite a few Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist sellers who turned out to speak no English. Using “Translate” on a phone is a tough way to haggle. Some of languages we expected, African and Philippine dialects, but the old Italian speaking guy surprised us a little. (The texts with syntax errors did give us clues about ESOL). Finally, we found a Pakistani guy whose price on a high-mile 2010 Honda Odyssey was well beneath our budget. I will admit his fast toss of his phone to show me the one-owner Carfax led me to spend my own $40 to get a copy of my own. A few oil changes, brake inspections and the brief ownership of a 200,000 mile vehicle informed me it was a “keeper”. We paid to extra ~$1000 and had a timing belt, water pump and serpentine belt put on.

Driving the new friend and dreaming this Winter began to inform my plans. I never imagine being able to plan anything without free-thinking ideas for a few weeks at least. Ideas that seemed great are replaced by better at odd times, in the shower, or riding a bike. Brains are to be cherished, fed and allowed to work their own way sometimes. We camped (slept on the empty back floor) in the Adirondacks in October on the was to Cousin Caroline’s wedding in Stowe. I did the same solo for a bit Spring skiing at Mt Snow VT. Again, “where should I park?” asked at a local restaurant, led me to a plowed lot at Haystack MT, and abandoned ski area where a handful of other cold-weather vehicles moored for the night.

It was these one-two night forays that led me to sort the features of an empty minivan into an “action plan”.

David