thanks all for the encouragement. had a very interesting trip.... my first van trip, as i said. i did the cooking kind of inbetween: i think i prefer the snack method, rather than the heating up method. i didn't do any cooking from scratch, but brought some home cooked things to heat up. i think i'll prefer to keep cooking super simple: less prep, less cooking, less fuel used, less cleanup!!! so i agree with Qxxx.. and i'm a foodie.
the first night i woke to a nightmare: three bears, standing upright, were terrorizing the camp. i flopped back to sleep, somehow. desert_sailing - i like the sailing saying - and i think i will live by it. (uh, go small go now??) .i didn't no if a list was the way to prepare - i kind of threw things in, but am trying to make a list, post trip, to use next time. i was afraid that the trip would be so difficult or unrewarding, etc, that it would be er... my last, or something like that....
i found a bunch of nice, hopefully future camp sites. this is basically near ebbett's pass ----- what a gorgeous area........stayed at pacific valley, paying $5 per night (i'm an old f*rt). now, i'll order some things for the van and next trip... thinking of pulling the trigger on a lithium battery, and possibly a bulkhead partition. that would be for stealth, plus i live in an urban area, where smashed windows are common. but as i sat in my van, i was realizing a bulkhead would block a lot of view and light. my cargo van has no sidewindows, only rear.
.my main worry, or one of them, was the evening and night, when i'd be sitting in my van, no cell, no radio, no anything, really. it was ok --- actually, a lot of quiet time, which was quite a change. in the city, i'm kind of attracted (addicted, more like it) to all the amenities of the internet, tv, radio, cell, bla bla... but out there, i began reading a meditation book i'd gotten, and some fiction (woman in white, which has never gone out of print in 140 years).
thanks for all your help!
