In August I wrote about our off-the-wall plans for what may very well be the oddest, bestest most awesome Thanksgiving of our lives next week. It involves packing up a rented SUV and leaving Los Angeles Wednesday night, driving straight out to Death Valley’s Eureka Dunes, spending Turkey Day and night there, then driving to Mesquite Springs Campground to spend a day and night there, and then our last day and night spent at the Racetrack Playa before driving out the long way via Baker and the 15 Freeway and back home.

In between there’d be the summiting of dunes, the biking of 26-miles of bad road between Ubehebe Crater and the Racetrack, and assorted other stuffs.

And in between all that would be the pitchings and ditchings of tents and the makings and breakings of camps three days in a row. On top of all that work, November nighttime temps in one of my favorite places in the world can get down into the low 40s or even the 30s. Brrrr.

So yesterday morning my baby suggests we ditch the SUV and the tent and the camping coolers for a camper van? And while I was hesitant at first because I was thinking about how such a potentially cumbersome vehicle might handle some of the bumpy roads we’ll be on, it didn’t take long for me to realize how much a campervan would eliminate all that tent pitching and camp breaking, while providing us not only a more comfortable buffer against any inclement meteorological conditions we might encounter but also some amenities from home.

26851_3And so I was all: Bay-bee! You’re A Genius!! Let’s Make It Happen!!!

So she emailed me today that she’d done it. She’d found a place in Hawthorne and made a reservation for a “B-19 Van Camper Motorhome” that looks a little something like this:

The ride’s somehow got a shower and a toilet in there, plus a microwave, and a stove and a fridge and a dinette that converts to a full-sized bed. And it’s only a couple hundred more than the SUV we were going to rent, which is a hella small price to pay for how much more fun we’re going to have and how much less we’ll have to work to have it. Woo!!! Hoo!!!

And bonus: The place is only eight miles from my office so I can bike over there from Westchester Wednesday afternoon and pick up our home away from home!

Death Valley here we come!