Adam and I are out on an overnight van adventure, hitting one of Missouri’s state parks, staying overnight Saturday and going back home on Sunday. Fast and furious, and one of the exact reasons we bought the van. It was even better than we expected though, since it rained all night and trying to tent would have been miserable. With the van, all we had to do was pull into our spot for the night, hook up the electric, turn the space heater and electric blanket on and snuggle down for the night, the rain a lullaby to sing us to sleep.
In the morning, looking at trails in the park, I realized we’d already been there/done that. This park was, in fact, the first van adventure we’d taken in the van, before we’d even officially named the it “Van Morrison.”
So yeah, a little nostalgia, camping there.
And also: a realization in how far we’ve come in learning the ins and outs of campervanning, and our campervan in particular. K and I have been out several more times than Ad and I, actually, and we’ve worked through a lot of the peccadilloes, but hey – there’s always more to learn. On this particular trip, the lesson was: the van is not an offroad vehicle.
Okay, I am still in semi-denial of that. I am NOT going to stick to pavement when I take him out!! But. Okay. Maybe it’s not smart to take it off on a gravel road with soft dirt sides when it’s rained all night.
We (I) had decided since we hadn’t needed to hike at the park, we should find another trail. And I did, a trail featuring a natural tunnel overlooking a river. Sounded lovely. What we/I didn’t anticipate was trying to do a three point turn on a gravel road with trees and mud to contend with.
And a really heavy vehicle.
It took Adam and I about two hours, his ingenuity, some scrap wood from an old barn and a lot of Jade cheerleading to get it out. K had been ready to drive the 2 hours out to rescue us with his truck, but we made it on our own.
It was an interesting exercise for me, to be honest. My first thought was, “Call for help.” Next thought was, “Okay, we have all the necessities to boondock here until the mud dries if we have to.” But really? I would rather be a person that could think through the problem, like Adam did, and find a solution. We both knew that if it didn’t work, we had K with his truck – and isn’t that the beauty of a good poly relationship? – but Ad was determined to try some potential solutions out first. And they worked!
I want to be like that. To be confident in my capabilities enough to at least try to solve things on my own.
