forest & co.
It’s time to meet Forest. A green 1996 GMC Yukon. His body is splattered with rust, the passenger window doesn’t work, nobs are missing on the dash and for some reason I can NEVER successfully open the back door. Yet, he is the love of Andre’s life. Well, besides his dog, Julep, and myself of course. Despite his quirks and pronounced signs of aging, Forest is a beast. He plows through deep snow, blasts through thick mud, and rumbles over rocks like he was born for it and nothing else. With more than 233,000 miles to his name, Forest is about to become a legend.
At the start of the New Year, Andre and I decided to make a pact. Neither of us is usually very keen on making specific New Year's Resolutions. You know, the ones that sound like, "lose 10 pounds," or "eat healthier," or "read more books." We tend to set and work toward different goals all year long. For example, I wanted to learn how to work my Nikon camera, so I found some Groupon online courses, set at the steep price of $5.00 (I'm always willing to pay a premium price for my continuing education). And Andre wanted to learn Spanish and now diligently mumbles to himself while typing answers into his Duolingo App every evening. One resolution that sounded sublime to us, however, was setting aside one entire weekend per month to travel somewhere new together. We love to be active and outdoors. We love to do things that allow us to have the puppy dog in tow. And we LOVE running off of The Plan of No Plan. Where does Forest fit into this equation you ask? Well, Big Green was to be the catalyst of our monthly adventuring. We decided to transform him into the perfect (a very loose term, mind you) mobile camper. We just had to find a suitable recipe first...
The recipe we adopted is as follows:
1. Thule pod on roof for skis (most precious of all cargo)
2. Reflectix to cover all windows and keep out the Colorado cold
3. Mattress pad for cozy sleeping
4. Plastic milk crates for storage
5. Mexican poncho to divide front and back areas
6. Sleeping bags and LOTS of blankets (I think we might actually freeze this winter)
7. Shrug shoulders and agree that this all sounds "good enough for now"
With the truck fully assembled (that is to say, our best GUESS of how it should be assembled), we were excited to think about how much of the state we see, how many ski days we could fit in, and how much money we would save on lodging! We were pretty - no, WILDLY - confident about our amateur attempt at a camper van life, and couldn't wait to choose our first weekend and our first destination. The only thing left to do was throw out that old bag of Trail Mix that we made on our fist date 7+ months ago and make a fresh batch!
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| Forest, in all his green glory |
At the start of the New Year, Andre and I decided to make a pact. Neither of us is usually very keen on making specific New Year's Resolutions. You know, the ones that sound like, "lose 10 pounds," or "eat healthier," or "read more books." We tend to set and work toward different goals all year long. For example, I wanted to learn how to work my Nikon camera, so I found some Groupon online courses, set at the steep price of $5.00 (I'm always willing to pay a premium price for my continuing education). And Andre wanted to learn Spanish and now diligently mumbles to himself while typing answers into his Duolingo App every evening. One resolution that sounded sublime to us, however, was setting aside one entire weekend per month to travel somewhere new together. We love to be active and outdoors. We love to do things that allow us to have the puppy dog in tow. And we LOVE running off of The Plan of No Plan. Where does Forest fit into this equation you ask? Well, Big Green was to be the catalyst of our monthly adventuring. We decided to transform him into the perfect (a very loose term, mind you) mobile camper. We just had to find a suitable recipe first...
The recipe we adopted is as follows:
1. Thule pod on roof for skis (most precious of all cargo)
2. Reflectix to cover all windows and keep out the Colorado cold
3. Mattress pad for cozy sleeping
4. Plastic milk crates for storage
5. Mexican poncho to divide front and back areas
6. Sleeping bags and LOTS of blankets (I think we might actually freeze this winter)
7. Shrug shoulders and agree that this all sounds "good enough for now"
 |
| This truck might now be more comfortable than my own bed |
With the truck fully assembled (that is to say, our best GUESS of how it should be assembled), we were excited to think about how much of the state we see, how many ski days we could fit in, and how much money we would save on lodging! We were pretty - no, WILDLY - confident about our amateur attempt at a camper van life, and couldn't wait to choose our first weekend and our first destination. The only thing left to do was throw out that old bag of Trail Mix that we made on our fist date 7+ months ago and make a fresh batch!
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