Life with 3 Living Beings in a Van

By Jen.

Dates: 3/1/2021 to 07/28/2021

During my last post, I realized that some vital information about current travels had been left out of Jonathan’s posts. When we started traveling again this year, I made the executive decision to try it out with our cat. I felt cheated that I wouldn’t get the full time with my cat as our parked time had been cut short. After traveling with her in the van from Charlotte, I had hopes that she might do all right traveling. So I started introducing her to the van while parked. I occasionally found her exploring the van during her outdoor ventures. As long as she was alone or had 2 ways out, she was cool with the van. So, we did a 1.5-hour trip to a hiking location with her.

 

Charlotte, NC to Arkansas road trip in 2020.

 

She was definitely getting carsick while we were driving the winding AR roads. And, she kept trying to find a comfortable spot, trying the bed, the bench, the countertop, and even my lap. Eventually she landed on staying on the bed, and towards the end of the drive, she seemed like she was getting a hang of it. But, on the way back, it was a repeat all over again. This definitely did not bode well for my desire to bring her along. But I didn’t give up. We tried taking her with us to visit my family and another hiking trip. She fared better each time, with the exception of trying to run into the woods when we stopped at a rest area. I tried finding things to make her comfortable, but after a week, she was pretty comfortable without having a kennel or anything.

 

Spending a few hours with her in the van after a trip.

 

So, when we were ready to hit the road, I thought our Texas trip (2 weeks or so), would be a good trial run.

 

Giving her a chance to get outside. She doesn’t like the leash much.

I think she is starting to get comfortable in the van after a week in.

Occasionally, she decides the bench is a good spot to ride while driving.

Eventually she figured out how to burrow underneath our covers, which, while cute, is a total no-no for us as we don’t like dealing with hair while sleeping. So we had to start tucking in our comforter so she couldn’t do that anymore.

 

By the end of the 2 weeks travelling in the van to Texas and New Mexico and back, she was quite comfortable and considered the van her home. In fact, when we tried to get her to stay the night in the house when we stopped back in Arkansas, she did NOT want to get out of the van. But, no one killed anyone, and she seems to be mostly happy, so we decided to continue traveling with her.

 

A “box!”

 

It has been an adjustment. We don’t sleep with our cat, ever, for reasons and others mentioned previously, so we had to teach her that the bed was off-limits at bedtime. We did this by putting up our A/C curtain, which is a fairly effective signal for her. Jonathan makes her a little “nest” from our spare blanket so she can control her temperature overnight. We bought a smaller litter box and switched from clay litter to pine pellets and have to scoop it every day to keep the odor down. We secure it to our bench seat while we drive, then put it forward of the passenger seat while parked. I reduced her feeding mice toys from 2 to 1 at a time to reduce the likelihood of stepping and tripping on them. I had to buy a lint roller to control the hair left all over in this small space. Her “scratching post” in the van is my grass mat because she uses it and I couldn’t get her adapted to anything else. She really likes to sit on the floor of the “kitchen” when we cook, which has resulted in many a tail-stepping. And we are used as furniture even more by our cat than before, as there is little elsewhere for her to step. But, we have also taken time to teach her new tricks, like “sit”, “down”, “five”, and we are working on “flop”, which is getting her to lay down on her side. Who says you can’t teach a cat tricks?

 

Hiding during a thunderstorm.

A favorite spot on the floor, especially when it gets a bit warm.

 

Overall, I think she has mostly enjoyed van life, especially since it tends to be warmer than a house, and she still gets fed regularly with more treats.

Voyageurs NP

By Jen.

Dates: 07/03/2021 to 07/08/2021

It just so happened that Jonathan has family in Minnesota. So we contacted his parents and got the contact info for his extended family. They invited us to their 4th of July gathering, so we made a beeline there as we hit Minnesota. I was surprised at how flat Minnesota was! They were having a day at one of many Minnesotan lakes.

 

I even got out on paddleboard (that’s me in my lovely black sun protection/stinger suit)!

 

Then Jonathan’s aunt and cousin took us on a tour of their hometown and nearby mine. Turns out they actually had to move the whole town 3 miles back in the day because it was sitting on top of an iron vein they wanted to mine. We noticed the landscape in the area was greatly transformed by artificial hills from mining.

 

 

 

From there we decided to pursue our northern quest all the way to the border and visit Voyageurs National Park. This park almost exclusively requires a boat to visit it. There are a few hiking trails, but mostly the point is to get out on the water. We focused our time near the Ash River area.

 

We first paddled our way to Blind Ash Bay.

Blind Ash Bay. It was a glorious day.

Our new kayak is so much nicer to paddle than our old one.

There were lots of birds in the cattails.

Minnesota is filled with cattails!

 

After lunch, we checked out Long Sou and Lost Lake.

 

There was a family of what I think are grebes.

I knew there was a portage trail between the 2 lakes. Examining the satellite view made me think it was down this path through the cattails.

The kayak barely fit. Eventually, I had to give and we had to reverse out of it.

As we made our way back around the lake I spotted this flower shortly before I spotted the portage dock.

As I scoped out where to put the kayak in at Long Sou, this guy charged across the lake to distract me from its family who was escaping around a bend in the shoreline.

 

The portage trail was about 0.25 miles long, which was a long ways to carry our kayak, but we made it. Jonathan picked up 3 ticks along the way, though. Fortunately, he caught them before they latched on.

 

I had a visitor as well.

We found a massive beaver dam and lodge here.

I thought the white tips of the black-edged wings were interesting.

This deer was surprisingly large, so much so that we thought we were looking at an elk at first.

A beautiful day to be out on the water!

We crossed back to Lost Lake via the portage trail again, and Jonathan’s sharp eyes spotted this spotted frog.

We spotted a bald eagle flying high above the trees on our way back to the van.

 

By the time we got back and packed up the kayak, my right arm was nearly useless (somehow we always ended up needing to paddle more on the right than the left) and both were super sore from paddling all day. I don’t normally use my arms that much! But we paddled around 8 miles that day, so we decided to focus on hiking the next day.

 

First off was a hike to Beaver Pond.

There was a pelican at the Beaver Pond.

As well as a beaver lodge. We learned that beavers have 2nd set lips inside its mouth behind its teeth to carry sticks in its mouth while swimming. How unique!

 

We stopped at the van shortly to make sure the cat had water, and she decided she ought to run out and catch whatever was in the bushes. So we put her on the leash and let her have a brief foray. She definitely didn’t like being stopped or pulled back.

We tried a walk down Kab-Ash, but the bugs were really bothering Jonathan until he took off his white short.

There were apparently enough bugs around to support this very large/fat spider. I think it was about an inch from head to end of the thorax.

A squirrel decided to cuss us out on the way back. Apparently we were impinging on its territory.

 

To finish the area off, we made a couple of stops along the Vermilion River, including the Vermilion Falls and the Vermilion Gorge.

 

Vermilion Falls.

On the way to the gorge, we spotted a ptarmigan and its chicks! They were so cute!! The chicks were not nearly as silent as the parent; they still have much to learn.

The parent!

The charming green-lined path.

The gorge.

Top view.

Bottom view. What fun little flowers!

Do you see those yellow stripes in the center of picture?

They belonged to a long garter snake! It must have been 4 feet long!

 

I was very disappointed that I didn’t see any vermilion.

 

Sasha doesn’t do heights much, so it is always entertaining when I see her perched on the narrow armrest.

My view while exercising in the van and the cat finally gives up from weaving between my legs and settles for sitting by her treats to get me to feed her, haha.