Blog Recommendation...Slow Sally & Crew presents a Realistic Picture of Class B Travel

 

Slow Sally & Crew is an interesting blog for those who own or are interested in vintage Class B van life. Nat and Marc are a Canadian couple traveling in a 1994 Dodge Roadtrek. They travel throughout North and Central America with their dog,Walter. 

Their most recent post, "Vanlife: the Mundane, the Bad, and the Ugly," is especially good. It was posted on February 17, 2024 and offers interesting details from their travels that present a more realistic picture of what happens when a couple and their dog take off for adventures.

Road Trekkin' Podcast--Recommendation

Jimmy James posted a link to his Road Trekkin' podcast on the Roadtrek '74-'03 - Vintage & Classic Years group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/148366135690824.

I've listed to the first few episodes and enjoy his content. He is chronicling his travels across Canada in a vintage 92' Roadtrek. He shares his triumphs and struggles in taking a 30 year old vehicle on a 10,000 km journey.

Using a Folding Camping Oven

Vanlife in a Roadtrek or other Class B involves compromises, yet, campers are a creative lot and there are often compromises or work arounds that are fun to try. 

Roadtreks don't have ovens, so we tried out Coleman's camping oven  a couple of times this spring. The camping oven folds flat for storage and is easy to assemble when needed. Coleman has been selling the ovens for decades and initially designed them to set on top of their ubiquitous two burner gas camp stoves. 

You can find the find the ovens on Amazon or at Walmart. They are also available used at garage sales,  thrift stores, or you can find resellers posting them on sites like ebay. Prices generally appear to fall in the $40-60 range.

We initially set up the oven using the Roadtrek's two burner stove for breakfast cinnamon rolls at Mount Magazine State Park.

A couple of days later at Petit Jean State Park, we set the oven on top of our Solo Stove to bake some biscuits.

We watched several YouTube videos of other folks using the ovens on Coleman camp stoves and many experienced difficulties achieving sufficient baking temperature when it was windy. We didn't face this issue inside our Roadtrek for obvious reasons and the oven heated to the necessary temperature in minutes.

The oven also reached the necessary baking temperatures very quickly on top of the Solo stove. I was attentive in both cases to watch and remove the pan before burning...you don't want to wander away while baking. 

My only caution with the Solo stove is that the burning wood does result in some airborne ash that seasons your biscuits. 

All-in-all, we'll keep the oven folded in our Roadtrek storage and have it available when we want to try baking at camp. Let us know your experiences with baking while camping in the comments below...

 

Northwest Arkansas - Starting the Camping Season

 

It has been a while since I've posted to the blog. We've enjoyed several trips and a number of shorter adventures during the time and I'm slowly catching up on some of the accumulating videos.

We put up our initial video from the late March trip to northwest Arkansas,  Overview of Our Trip to Arkansas. It was a great way to start off the camping season. Links and short descriptions for the video segments follow:

Days 2 and 3 of our Arkansas Trip - We spent our second night at Lakeview Army Corps of Engineers Campground in northern Arkansas. We then drove on Day 3 to Mount Magazine State Park.

Days 3 and 4 Hiking & Sunset at Mt Magazine State Park - We enjoyed a lovely stay at Mount Magazine State Park. The trailhead for the hike to the summit of Arkansas' highest peak was just across the road from our campsite. We walked up to the summit and returned via the lodge for pleasant lunch. That evening after supper we walked to the west for spectacular views of the sunset.

Day 5 Drive from Mt. Magazine State Park to Queen Wilhelmina State Park - We left the Mt. Magazine campground and drove on the scenic overlook loop. We also hiked a bit before exiting the park. The drive to Queen Wilhelmina State Park was roughly 100 miles, so we took our time and enjoyed the drive. After reaching our destination and setting up camp, we walked on a couple of short trails to close out a wonderful day.

Day 6 Talimena Scenic Drive - We enjoyed a lovely & leisurely drive on the 54-mile route from Queen Wilhelmina State Park to Talihina, OK. We then retraced our drive back through Mena, AR before returning to the state park.

Day 7 Walking on the Ouachita Trail - We enjoyed a wonderful walk on the Ouachita Trail from Queen Wilhelmina State Park to the Pioneer Cemetery.

Day 8 Petit Jean State Park - We arrived at Petit Jean State Park and visit the Palisades Overlook and Bear Cave Area on our way to the campground.

Day 9 Petit Jean State Park - Our second day in the state park was amazing. We walked from the campground to the Lodge on the CCC Trail. We ate lunch at the Lodge and then walked to the Cedar Falls Overlook and back to the campground via the CCC Trail.

We then drove to the Petit Jean Gravesite & Overlook. We then visited the Rock House Cave and drove on the Red Bluff Drive Loop.

Quick and Cheap Replacement of a Rocker Switch

A rocker switch on our control panel broke during the dewinterizing process this week. I was filling our fresh water tanks and went to the control panel to check the water level. The switch basically just froze and no longer provided electricity to the panel.

 Replacement of these switches is one of the easiest RV fixes. Our local hardware and auto parts stores don't stock the switches. Fortunately, they are available on Amazon and arrived in just over 24 hours for a price of under $6.00.  Actually, five switches arrived for $6.00, since this was the minimum order size, and I now have a couple of backups.

The photo below shows our working control panel after the installation of the switch. It only took a minute or two to finish the task.

 

Leave a comment below if you have any questions or suggestions!

Some of our Favorite #VanLife or Travel Vloggers

There are many, many people living #vanlife with YouTube channels. I'll pass along links to a couple of vloggers that we enjoy and follow. 

Catherine Gregory is living full time in a pickup camper. She primarily posts videos of her travels in the western United States. 

The quality of her hiking and backpacking videos is impressive.   

Tread for the Globe with Chris, Marianne, and their van, Trudy. They describe themselves as an ordinary couple  on an extraordinary journey as they set out to visit every country in the world either in their van or by backpack. 

We began following their travels around the United Kingdom and as they began their journey around the world by crossing Europe toward the Middle East and beyond. 

They've spent much of the last year or more traveling around Turkey and their twice weekly videos have provided really amazing views of life in a country that most of us know little about. 

Chris and Marianne returned to the U.K. over the holidays to visit family and will be starting off 2022 by driving across the United States.

Do you have your favorite travel or #vanlife vlogger? If so, consider dropping a note and url into a comment below.