From zero to hero in a couple of weeks? Not really.
When we started out with Big Paul half a year ago, we knew how to drive the van. How to create and establish everything we wanted and needed inside the car turned out to be another story.
Two amateurs on a steep training curve!
Meanwhile, we are quite happy with what we have achieved so far. And with the generous help of our friends we could finish the particular building steps much faster.
What is taking so darn long now and is challenging our nerves are the details. It’s a step by step approach to the dogged nature of different materials that oftentimes collide with our creative ideas.
Now things are getting tricky
People who turn a van into a camper, usually first build a frame inside. The frame provides a stable structure with right angles wherever you need to lock something into position.
We didn’t want to do that because we wanted to keep Big Paul’s original truck design. The van will be our mobile hotel only when we travel. Other than that, it’s just a big car with a practical loading space.
Also, a frame would have taken up space we didn’t want to lose on the bed and our seating facility.
This meant, we had to cope with the curves and different materials of the vehicle body.
The real challenge was the mosquito screen on the side door. Our dear friend Gudrun helped us with the sewing, as you can see in our previous video clip.
Now, the refinement of the installation was the tricky bit.
Our challenge: The screen has to be removable, because we are only going to use it when we stay in mosquito infested areas. For this purpose, it has to be fast and easy to put on and the material must be as impervious as possible.
Since we want to use it as a door, it also must be easy to open and cross and to close tightly again.
We decided to use velcro and magnets. Well, we don’t seem to be disinclined to work …
This week’s video shows some aspects (see my partner’s blog post).
Having experience with various sorts of blood-sucking critters in different countries, we know that a screen like this will never keep all of them out. This is when the good old fly swatter will come into play.
Blue magic on the high grounds
After all, travel time is coming closer, but the month of May is also a great time to spend in the Bavarian Alps. So many beautiful flowers are welcoming us with their colors and scents.
Most of all, I don’t want to miss the season of my favorite blue flower, the Enzian (stemless gentian). This flower loves the high grounds with their rougher climate and grows where intensive farming is scarce. So, you have to travel and climb a bit, if you want to see it.
This flower has the brightest, most impressive and absolutely magic blue I have ever seen on a plant and I always look forward to walk across the mountain meadows to enjoy it every year.
