I know that King and I have been missing in action for a few weeks now! We are sorry but will try to catch you up on everything! All through October and most of November, I was on the road and King was as the dog sitters enjoying long walks and play time with a ton of pups! The beginning of December consisted of traveling cross-country to Florida for two more jobs and to spend the holiday season with family. The exciting news is the two weeks in November before we left for Florida! But we will get there in time.
King:
Dad has been on the go so much! We have been all over the place and he has been working a lot a lot! When are we gonna have all the play and travel time?!?!
Although I love what I do traveling for such a long period without King can get tiring. So I was more than excited to get back to our beach days mountain hikes as soon as I could. Wanting to spend more quality time together and adding in our love for travel brought me to a natural conclusion of vanlife. Vanlife has been sweeping the world. Either you know someone that has made their own conversion or know of someone on social media that has. I don't have a sprinter van or a ford transit, but I do have a Chrysler Pacific that we have lived out of for fifteen days while we drove from Orlando to Los Angeles. With some hand drawn designs, modifications needed as we build, King and I now have a place to live out of on the road. This includes a bed that extends from 50" by 50" to 50" by 75", pull out cooking counter, ample storage and a 300Wh power bank to supply us with light and other power needs! In addition to that, I purchased a Thule cargo topper, window shielding for privacy and insulation, and bins to store everything we need for life on the road. This is a surprise to King so he hasn't seen one part of it! I have to have some surprises up my sleeve as a dad...
King:
Dad's been a little weird lately. Think this is what the other dogs talk about when they say their parents are going through a mid-life crisis. Maybe he will buy me the racecar dog bed I have been eyeing at Petco.
There were some major changes that I had to make to my plans as I built. Trying to get the bed platform into the van was a struggle. The only solution that came to mind was making the bed have a removable center support and hinges along the top platform. The overall build consists of a top platform that is a 50" square that will always be out to and able to lay on. Under that consist of 14" high of storage were we will be storing dry food, our cooking equipment, our portable shower, and much more! When the bed is in its stored state, King has three feet of room behind the driver and passenger seat to lay out and relax as we drive. When we are ready to pack in for the night the bed extends to 75" which is very close to the size of a full bed. After driving cross country the first time I learned quickly it is not fun to have to store items in the fronts seats each night. A lot of time is wasted moving items around the car instead of enjoying the destination. So there is a ton of storage under the bed and having a cargo topper definitely helps with out bigger items like snow shoes and other adventure tools.
A full video and van walkthrough will be posted once we are all set up organized! Traveling cross country cut my timeframe a little short. Our first trip is up to Washington at the end of January. Zoe will be coming for this trip so we will be sleeping three in the van and spending a total of 14 days on the road. As a build up to our first fully built out van adventure, King and I will be releasing all the videos from our first cross country travels. There is over 90 minutes of video footage from all the places we went and crazy things that happened along the way. These will be broken up into 5-7 minute videos and released incrementally as we get closer to the 25th of January. Make sure to subscribe to not miss one!
Being with family and friends for the holidays is so nice. I honestly did not appreciate it as much as I do as I have been away from them for so long. For me it's allowing my niece and nephew play with King and have all the the cuddles that come along with it. This Christmas, Cruz, my nephew took instantly to King and they have been together every day they can be.
King:
Playing with my cousins is just like playing with other pups! We wrestle and cuddle and spend the whole day together! Cruz loves to cuddle me on the floor and keep an eye out in the neighborhood with me from the porch.
Of course King and I were able to get out the beach for an amazing Florida sunset! Zoe snagged these photos at Picnic Park down in South Tampa while we watched the sun dip below the horizon. Clearly King is laughing at something...
King:
Little do they know that smell isn't from the beach... hahahahaha
While we are traveling in January I am hoping to make a post a day about each spot we hit, challenges we faced, mistakes we made and what would draw us to coming back again! As always thank you so much for letting us be a part of your day and we hope we can bring some knowledge or at least some smiles to you. If you have any questions about the van or want us to go more in depth feel free to ask!
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