Our New Travel Van

Looks good in our driveway!

I mentioned before that we decided to trade in our beautiful 33' 5th wheel travel trailer for a small RV.  We bought our 5th when we retired three years ago and while we loved it for it's apartment like living we missed being able to travel down any road and stop anywhere.  That's something you can't do when you are towing a large trailer.   Our trailer with our truck was 50' long.  We will miss our roomy trailer but sometimes we like to get off the interstates and ride the back roads and this little guy can do that.  So that's why we finally decided on this compact travel van (it's 20' 4").   

It's been too hot here the last few days to continue to pack our new travel van with the essentials....even with the A/C running.  So it's back in storage until this heat wave breaks. 

So would you like to take a tour? 

The lounge and bedroom.

This is the lounge and bedroom area.  The couch is electric so with the flick of a switch it rolls down to a double bed size.  We have the option to put a board in across the two cushions to make it into a large king size bed if we wish.

There's an HD TV (cable TV ready) enclosed in a  cabinet over the cushion on the right (above) along with a built in radio /DVD/CD player.  I didn't think to take a picture of it.

The kitchen.

Here we have lovely Corian countertops with a small sink, a two burner stove and a small freezer/refrigerator under the sink.  We don't have solid surface countertops in our "stick" home's kitchen but nothing is too good for our RV.

Bathroom.

Our little, teeny, tiny bathroom with sink, toilet and shower...and Corian countertops.

Kitchen, Lounge and Bathroom.

Our kitchen is on the left, bathroom on the right and lounge area in back.  The carpet by the couch is removable and we have already taken it out.  I'm so glad it's not carpeted.  It's so much easier to take care of without the carpet.

Dash with driver and passenger seats.

Both the driver and passenger chairs up front swivel around.  That was one of our "must haves"...comfortable chairs to sit in at night. 

The van dash came pretty basic with just a plain radio so we had it upgraded after delivery with a radio/DVD/CD/GPS/MP3/iPhone combination.     

There is a door in front of the passenger chair facing us to exit the van in addition to the driver and passenger doors.

Our little clothes closet is on the left.  You can just see the door handle for it.  On top of the closet is a combination convection/mircowave oven.  Something new to learn...how to work a convection oven.  Don't have one of those in our "stick" home either.  

Layout for Pleasure Way ExcelTS

Here's a view of the layout.    

Picking up our new travel van!

Two happy campers!  

We haven't taken any trips in it yet and it's killing us.  It's just been way too hot.  When we picked it up we discovered that the A/C wasn't working properly so we had to take it back to have a new unit put in.  That's done now.  

This is the second small RV we have had so we do know that we have to select carefully what we take with us as the storage is limited...and we have to be careful about the payload weight too.

  

It' s always easier to pack for Hubby than for myself.  I like to take several pairs of shoes and more clothes than I probably should for all the "what ifs".   So wish me luck..I feel like Cathy above.

We learned that everything we pack must have a place...it looks too messy if you leave too much sitting out on the counters and tables when set up at a campsite.  Plus when traveling down the road everything has to be put away anyway.   Trust me you don't want loose stuff flying all over the van.    

Hope you enjoyed the walkthrough!