Completed the awning awhile ago and recently played around with mockups of the interior, as mentioned many posts earlier. Here's some pictures for a reminder:
Definitely recommend going the cardboard construction route to mock up your layout. Doesn't have to be anywhere near perfect, but it certainly gives you a good feeling on what will be where.
I've seen some folks use thin plywood for mockups. That'd work too, but feels a bit too much work. Cardboard seems much easier to cut, tape, redo, move around, and then take down when done.
It has now been nine months since I took these pictures (yeah, I'm that slow to write about this). What surprises me is that the layout has not really changed since we put together "Cardboard BoB". But before we did this there were probably 3-4 major design layouts we talked about, with small changes to each of those.
Now, about that road trip...
Yeah, back down to Oregon. I'd be taking the bike down to my favorite town of Maupin, OR, right on the Deschutes River. There's a 6 and 12 hour bike race there every September, I was going down to help out and maybe get some riding in. Rather glad I did, as it was the last time for the event. It is no longer, mostly due to low turnout over the last few years.
Load up the recumbent bike and toss in the camping gear again. Yup, still have the plain Thinsulate on the walls and ceiling. It could be better, but it does a quite well even with that much exposed body metal.
Hit a 'rollover' milestone on this trip. I wanted to start taking a picture over 1000 miles, just have a bit of a memory of where BoB has been. That lasted... maybe a couple more photos. Oh well...
After the weekend in Maupin it was time to head south to Springfield, OR. Wanted to get a head start on things the next day, so I drove a bit out of town. I knew the road had this massive maintenance pullout, so I figured that's where I'd spend the night. These were taken the next morning.
As usual, there was a very strong wind from the W and SW, enough that it was rocking the van when parked in the open. Originally I wanted to 'hide' behind the gravel pile, be less visible to the road. Problem is that was the windward side. So... moved over and 'hid' behind the pile. Made a noticeable difference.
On the road down to Bend, OR. Roadside marker with viewpoints of the regional mountain peaks.
Stopped at the Crooked River and Peter Skene Ogden State Park. Having driven Hwy 97 a few times I had noticed this crazy bridge from the main highway. Today, today it was time to stop and check it out. Very impressive. Had a nice hike out along the gorge and enjoyed the views. This is a nice way to travel, being able to stop whenever and wherever just because...
Got my way down to spend the Sunday in Bend. I'd only driven through on the highway before, ended up having a great day walking all over the place. Enjoyed the river park downtown and then headed south to the Old Mill District. Even got to practice parking BoB in a standard ol' parking space. Try doing THAT in a regular RV. I missed getting a picture of the one downtown, it was even smaller (enough so that entry was through the sliding door, and at least it was on the end, so I only annoyed one car next to me)
On the road from Sisters, OR, over the hills to Eugene. Seemed a rather appropriate sign for BoB. I think he'll fit just fine.
Somewhere just off McKenzie pass.
Parked for the night at a trailhead for the Pacific Crest Trail. Spent an hour out hiking the trail where it goes straight through the lava fields. Started on the trail right before sunset, got back when it was dark. At least I remembered to take a small headlight with me.
And then on to Springfield, OR, and my second destination. Rolled in Monday morning to AM Solar, the best RV solar shop out there. I had been working with the guys for awhile on getting together the parts for my system and figured with a detour on the weekend I could stop by and pick it all up instead of dealing with shipping. Their customer service has been above and beyond.
Ended up taking home four 160w solar panels, wiring, combiner box, Magnum MS-1012 inverter/charger, and Bogart Engineering electronics (TM-2030 meter and SC-2030 controller). At this point I had not yet decided on batteries, so all the goodies for the electrical system, but no way to store the energy. That would come soon.
It was lunchtime by the time I was headed through Portland. So a bit of a detour off the highway and a stop at one of my favorite burger joints, Little Big Burger. Still managed to park on the street, but the length of the Extended PM was a bit more noticeable here on the old streets of Portland.
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