Engine Block Cooking

Tim and I have talked about getting a little portable stove for Vanpira and that's all normal and cool, but today I was thinking.. what if we did some engine block cooking as well??

Some internetting directed me to wikihow: How to cook food on your car engine

It's another version of braising food - slower than an oven but faster than a slow cooker.

I predict lots of engine block hotdogs on this trip...

Yurts. Fun to say, fun to stay

We don't plan on van dwelling on our entire trip, no siree. I'm sure as comfy cozy our van is going to be, there will be times we will want things like an actual bed, running water, and solid ground.

One place that we are planning to stay in is El Cosmico in Marfa, Texas - which is on the way to New Mexico from Austin.

They have refurbished vintage trailers you can stay in, as well as yurts:

and teepees:

Of course, both these things in reality are giant tents, which I am a-ok with. Can't wait to get out there in that beautiful Texas desert

As an added bonus! They have Dutchtubs to rent. Dutchtubs are awesome portable hot tubs which are heated by burning wood in a metal pipe coil.

Look how happy that Dutch lady is!

The Rough Plan

Seems like people had a lot of questions when they read the first post of Vanpire Weekend, questions which I didn't think to provide the answers to originally.

So here it is:

We are probably planning to leave in early May and take about 2 months on the road (???)

Here is a tentative map of where we want to go

Can you see that? I gotta tell you, Google Maps is not the greatest road trip making tool there is out there. I was using Rand McNally also, but it was too ugly to be posting.

So the rough idea is down the Atlantic Coast, through New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, DC area, Richmond, Virginia Beach, the Outer Banks, Wilmington, Myrtle Beach (not marked on the map), Charleston, Savannah, and then down the east coast of Florida to Vero Beach, FL, where Tim has family. Then it's back up through Tallahassee, Panama City, Mobile, Biloxi, New Orleans, Galveston / Houston, Austin, Las Cruces, Albuquerque and then to the Grand Canyon. After the Grand Canyon, back through AZ to Phoenix and straight to San Diego (and possibly Tijuana??). Once we get to California, it's straight up the coast to LA, SF, and all the way up to Portland, OR. I think Portland is going to be the most Northwest that we go. Our return trip is going to see us through Yellowstone in Wyoming, Mount Rushmore, the Twin Cities, and to Chicago! Hooray! After a short stay with family in Chi, we'll head up to Grand Rapids and then it's off to Canada. We'll see Toronto and Montreal before we head down through Burlington and HOME HOME HOME to Portsmouth!

Of course, this is a rough preliminary sketch. Who knows what could go wrong or right or what detours lie in our future....

The first Vanpire Weekend

Shortly before I was felled by an unknown barfy illness on Friday night, we purchased our van for our roadtrip.

There she is. What a green beauty. (?)

She's a gigantic 1998 Chevy Express 1500, 4.3L V6, auto tranny (hehehe), Gladiator conversion van with 122K miles. And she is going to take us across the country and back.

...

But not before Tim rips up everything from the inside and customizes her.

Her name is Vanpira. Maybe. That's a working title only.

Post Script: I don't think we like Vampire Weekend that much.. it was just the first van related pun name we liked. This was the first and last time we will mention the band. Unless we get some frosty horchatas on our trip.

--M