So... me and my girlfriend got to the states with our backpacks and before 24hs went by we realize that is impossible to move around without a vehicle...
At first we got a ride from SF to yosemite and toke a bus(the only one in 3 months in the states) to merced... rent a car there and got to the Oregon Solar Eclipse Festival.... after the festival we got another ride to Bend and stayed at a friends house...
Our priority there was to get a van to travel with...
They have this awesome website called Craigslist... you can find there anything you need second hand really cheap if you know how to look...
After maybe two days we found this Toyota Previa '91... 272.000 miles!!! but good shape and pretty cheap... just 860U$...
So, we bought it, got an insurance, new plates and everything...
We were really lucky to be at this friends house... he had all the tools and was so generous... most importante over all of that, he has a wolf!!!
Koruna, so smart, so gentil...
We ended staying there almost a month... first in a room looking for the van and while we builded a bed in it and after we were just parked outside sleeping in the van but still using the house... we were coming and going to campgrounds around bend... they have so much nature around... we just loved it...
Cold morning in one of the campgrownds
So nice to travel with friends...
Amazing skyes...
So... i mainly want to talk about the van proses...
The previous owner have 6 kids so he had all the seats in it...
The first step was to take seats and carpet out and see how much space we had for a bed and luggage...
I dont know whats your feeling but i really love building something from scratch and this was an awesome opportunity..
In the states they do everything big... stores, houses, roads, parking... so we went to Home Depot!
I think we went something like 10 times to buy more stuff... wood, screws, lights, carpet, tools, glue, etc...
So, we have the van and we have the wood.... mesure, cut screw, mesure, cut, screw.... the frame starts looking good...
you can see how comfortable we look with tools... over all we have fun!
One of the most difficult things was to find a high density foam mattress... because the van was not so tall and under the bed we needed to put our stuff we wanted a thin mattress but not one that would feel like sleeping on wood... We went to 5 or 6 places and we found this nice one pretty expensive one... i think we payed 40 u$ for it... but what a hell, we are going to sleep on it for three months... :)
We built the bed in two pieces so if, we have someone traveling with us we can fold the bed and put one extra seat down...
so, nice mattress, nice wooden frame, big plastic containers for our clothes, drawers for other stuff and a bunch of shit just thrown underneath the bed... we love it! home sweet home!
The van was in pretty good shape, just a weird sound that traveled with us from start to end without major problems... we traveled almost 8000 miles and only change the engine gasket, the battery, and the wheels...
BendIta's open heart
See how smart i look! :P
Daniela it's also smart anr tough
I think at the end we spended less than 1300U$ including building and all...
We called it Bendita (bought it in Bend and my girl is Italian... Also Bendita in spanish means Blessed)
For final details we covered the windows with carpet that we cutted for fitting in exactly, we put some nice solar charged LED lights on the sealing and fill it with other stuff
We bought in different thrift stores (dose are second hand places all around the states... we love them, so cheap and so many things) you know... a lot of people in the states buy new stuff all the time and throw away pretty good and almost new things...
I wish i had a drivers license but i don't... poor Daniela droved so much! I just did it for short distances mainly in national parks... Number 1 in my to do list, get a drivers license next time at my city!
See you on the road!!!
The end...
***** All photos and text are originals *****