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Jim_Oker

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Everything posted by Jim_Oker

  1. You didn't mention lahar! 😉 I like where we are up in the Hollywood Hill neighborhood - now the "close in country" that is so much more rare than it was when we moved to WA in '94, at which point many natives were already saying the region was ruined. I still like the area for many reasons but yeah the growing population is not my favorite either. I like the moss and grey though (repeat skin cancer, thankfully only basal cell) and the mild climate. We had fun a few weeks back camped in our van in a backyard right on Lake CdA about an hour from Spokane, and though it was a lovely scene it reminded me of how hot it always has been when we visit our formerly CdA, now Spokane friends in summertime. Thankfully we don't all love exactly the same things or we'd all want to be in the same places!!
  2. Sherry - yes indeed! We have plenty to do between now and then, including plenty of camping. I'm looking forward to the new toy though, of course!! BTW, thanks so much for sharing tips on fiberglass maintenance - your link to a Practical Sailor overview article with many links was super helpful. I have to do remove some oxidation from an undermaintained top of our camper van, and that info was by far the most comprehensive and credible of all the sources I've found for dealing with that job and getting myself back on the straight and narrow with respect to taking care of my fiberglass toys!!
  3. So much depends on your travel style and what sort of comforts you will be happy with. I have a 72 year old friend who spends a few months' worth of nights each year sleeping in the back of his Toyota Tercel Wagon from the '80s, most often in wintertime near ski areas or backcountry ski tours (in case you've ever seen the documentary "Dirtbag" about climbing legend Fred Beckey, it's worth mentioning that this friend of mine has climbed with Fred more than once and is in Fred's direction in terms of expenses and creature comforts or lack thereof 🙂 ). We have done a lot of camping in our Class B van - a standard length Ford E250 with things like furnace, fridge, inverter and microwave, but no bathroom. We've been pretty happy with it but as I've eased out of salaried life it has started to feel a bit small for the two of us on extended trips, particularly when the weather turns wet and we spend more time inside the van. I think it will continue to be my go-to choice when I do solo photography safaris to places like Utah for a few weeks, but we've decided to get an Ollie for many of the trips my wife and I will take together. As a former colleague put it, "each tool is best for something and worst for something else." The van is very maneuverable (including the ability to be parallel parked in any decent length city parking space), we can leave the dog in it with the vent fan running on most days while parked for errands etc., and it's nice to be able to transition from driving to hanging in the living space w/o needing to get out of the vehicle. But it can feel quite small at times, it is at times a bit of an annoyance to shift from sleeping to driving modes when we will be returning to the same site that evening - to the point where we sometimes defer errands or driving outings in favor of on foot or on bike explorations nearer to camp. We have strategies for dealing with the lack of a bathroom when boondocking or staying at park campgrounds that have no showers (including a "sun shower" unit etc.) that work OK enough in many situations particularly in warmer more pleasant weather. But I am looking forward to being able to use the Ollie wet bath, to have a "home base" that one or both of us can drive away from (we don't always want to leave camp at the same time!) and to just have a bit more space for some of our outings. For now I expect to keep the old camper van as it has more utility value to me than it has resale value given its age and mileage ( it still running and working quite well).
  4. Nice job! I will have the factory install their standard backup camera option on the unit that they'll be finishing for us in December, as it seems like a decent option and we don't have an existing screen we'd want to feed the video into. Too bad the Garmin doesn't have IR illuminators for night video - I've found this to be really nice with the camera we had installed on our camper van's raised top, which feeds into the display of our relatively recent aftermarket stereo display. I pull into camp sites late, after taking photos through the "golden hour" and "blue hour" so the night vision has helped me a ton. We used a camera from Rear View Systems (not to be confused with Rear View Safety, which also seems to make a nice range of backup camera systems) that has performed well for about four years of fairly hard use now. FWIW it still looks new despite lots of use on a variety of dirt and gravel roads from WA to UT, often at speeds sufficient to coat the rear of the van in dust. It just has the metal "hood" that comes stock on the unit, which has sufficed to protect the unit well. They (and Rear View Systems) both have both wired and wireless options fwiw, but sadly I doubt there's a practical way to feed the signal into that Garmin navigation unit. As someone who spent a career in computer systems and software (including a lot of work with multimedia systems involving multiple video inputs/outputs) it's frustrating to see the tower of babel going strong in such systems.
  5. I have a scheduled delivery of an LE II in late December. I'm still sorting out some of the options for our unit, and I want to thank many of the current owners who have contributed generously here on this forum, which is a great info resource. We currently have a 2004 Ford E250 with a (no-bath, fairly simple) camper van which has been great for use in nice weather in all seasons and for boondocking in nicer weather, but the Ollie will open up a variety of new options such as off-season coastal camping here in the PNW (when the standard sized van with a raised top can start to feel VERY small for two plus dog!), spending a few nights in local ski area parking lots with the ability to clean up each evening, and so forth. After considering a variety of RV options, I settled on this as the one that best met a mix of aesthetic and practical goals for four season camping. We will initially use the Ford (which has the 5.4L V8) as our TV, but I suspect that we will eventually buy a worthy truck or beefy SUV for the job, as the Ford won't be optimal for either winter or mountain towing. From what I've seen I have no doubt a few current forum members will be more than happy to tell me what will and won't work for the job ;-).
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