The Route 66 Chick

With the 2017 Route 66 event season in full swing, my pertussis quarantine over, and an itch to go places in the new van, June proved to be a busy month. Between St. Louis and Chicago, I gave a program, attended a program, went to the Route 66 exhibit at Missouri History Museum twice, drove across the Chain of Rocks Bridge, sold and signed books, and, with my BCC colleagues, produced the third annual Blue Carpet Corridor festival weekend. Here's a brief rundown of my June: June 1 - At Jubelt's  in Litchfield, I met up with Bill Kelly, Executive Director of Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway, and Dave Tucker, Vice-President of Blue Carpet Corridor, for hand-off of materials for Blue Carpet Corridor weekend. Lunch was terrific as always at this long-standing cafe-bakery. June 4 - I drove to Greenville to record a podcast for Creekside with Don and Jan at Owl Creek  with the lively and fun Don and Jan Stover. We talked Route 66, the upcoming Blue Carpet Corridor event, and my n...

Dreaming of road trips in the van was mostly all I was able to do in May. Hours of work for Blue Carpet Corridor , writing deadlines, and a several-week bout of pertussis (yup, whooping cough), drastically slowed my van conversion progress. One result of all that prescribed rest was a Pinterest board chock full of clever and cute van camper ideas. You can peruse those should you wish at my  Van Camper Ideas . Meanwhile, Alice waited patiently for me to get to work. With all those ideas, I started measuring, planning, ordering, and, when I was finally non-contagious and could leave the house, shopping. I soon amassed a pile of stuff on my dining room table, including some treasured things from my mom's kitchen, thrift shop finds, and goodies from Ikea and Target. We'll see how much of it actually fits in the van. The photo just shows the cute stuff (no piles of bungees, tools, first-aid kit, carbon monoxide detector, rain poncho, and other necessary but non-glamorous items). ...

You may recall that my new (to me) van, Alice, had a previous incarnation as a State Farm mobile office. She came home with me from DeSoto, Missouri, still equipped with a very large ladder rack on the roof and a heavy desk and attached office chair wedged crosswise in the cargo area. So that I could get to work cleaning, measuring, and planning the interior, (and also so that my neighbors could quit wondering about my new hobby of buying white vans with ladder racks), I was anxious to get the equipment off and out of the van. Alice looks spiffier after the rack removal and a trip to the car wash. Steve Rensberry and his son Ben to the rescue! Last week they arrived one evening armed with a step ladder and tool boxes. After ascertaining that the ladder rack was bolted to the rack rails and so could be removed leaving the rails intact (and not needing to plug holes in the roof), father and son went to work. Steve removed the bolts and together on ladders they were able to sli...

Introducing Alice, my adventure van and soon-to-be mini-glam-van-camper! Alice the Van, at the restored Texaco station in DeSoto MO. You know that feeling when you went shopping and came home with the wrong thing? You know, pants that don't fit, shoes that hurt your feet, dress that just looks all wrong? Well, I did that in February with the first van that I bought. A van to convert to a mini-RV was the right idea, but that specific van was not. I had been researching the little Ford Transit Connects for months. I loved the first-generation style of the 2010 through 2013 models, but the majority of them are high mileage. So I talked myself into a 2015 second-generation Transit Connect. Less headroom and not so cute; long wheelbase and low mileage. But that van had one more thing--that "new car" (translation:  chemicals) smell. Most of you know I'm asthmatic, and chemical and fragrance smells and I do not play well together.  I tried boxes of baking soda, a...