Who we are and what we are doing

Let’s get some intros out of the way. My name is Mike and my wife is Kim, and we, along with our 2 dogs, are hitting the road! We’ve quit our jobs, sold our house (and most of the things in it), bought a campervan and are setting off on a year(ish) “vanbatical”. Our rough trip plan is to leave Thunder Bay Ontario and head west to BC, then north to Yukon and Alaska , and then travel south along the west coast of Canada and the US as winter sets in and temperatures drop. We’ll spend winter in the southern states and maybe even venture down to Mexico and travel along the Baja Peninsula. As winter ends and spring begins, we’ll head back north for a visit at our parent’s place in Kenora before deciding our next steps.

The Rig

Our vehicle and home for the next year(ish) is going to be a 2001 GMC Savanna 3500 with a camper conversion by Safari Condo. It’s a pretty sweet ride! We spent a few months searching and considered everything from a Sprinter to a Prius with a rooftop tent. We decided we wanted something self contained with plenty of interior room for us and the dogs. We also wanted something that was easy to drive and park, and that was at least somewhat ‘stealthy’ for parking without screaming “The tourists are here!”. All in all, I think the van will be just about perfect for our needs and because it was already built out, I got to spend my time customizing and tweaking the setup instead of building it from scratch.

There is a double bed upstairs in the popup and the rear bench folds down into a second double bed. The front seats swivel 180 degrees to face the rear of the van. This opens up the space immensely and when combined with the 2 person middle bench and a table, this makes a little dinner table suitable for 4 people. There is about 3 feet of counter space and lots of storage for kitchen items and food. Along the drivers side at the rear is our “closet” with lots of space for our clothes. Accessible from the back doors and under the rear bed is our “garage”. This space hold all our camping gear, dog food and accessories, fuel and other miscellaneous items. On the back of the van is our swinging hitch mount bike rack. This allows us to open the back doors without having to remove our bikes each time. 

So that the gist of our plan and van. I’m sure we’ll go into more detail about things in the future but that gives you a rough idea of what we are doing.

Happy trails!