Twin Lakes

My rubix cube boat rack seems alright  I just moved the kayak forward and raise the roof. I have seen other Sportsmobiles with way more than my 40 lb. boat on top, but this is all I can lift. In fact one morning I was not quite up to this much weight. I would love to meet the animals that can lift the ones I have seen in pictures.

Check in was pretty straight forward. I chose Annett campground in Mono Village at upper Twin Lakes because there were so many fail safes. For 10 bucks more I could get full hook ups. There is a store for the things I forgot and if I burned dinner there is a restaurant. We were the only van in the entire campground so I guess this place was overkill.

Happily all systems worked well and da wife stomached it all well. The van has no propane or water. To cook I set up a Camp Chef oven and single burner stove working on disposable propane bottles. Most fully equipped class b vans don't have an oven. I like an oven. For water I used a Coleman hot water heater. The sink I made and ran the grey water into a 5 gallon jug. Worked like a charm. She thought this was normal and made no comment about my Jethro engineering.

Princess and the Pee:
I worked for months in the driveway to get out bugs before introducing the wife and dog to the van, but bringing them along was the acid test. The first thing I did was not level the van. She never said a word and figured out right away which way to lay. The fridge is electric so it didn't care. I leveled up the next night however because I noticed.

We walked by a huge trailer running a generator and I thought: "Really? For ten bucks more why not just get full hook ups?" And just then she said: "It is so nice a quiet up here." So my thought process went from utter disdain to "I gotta get me one of dem."

She was just as happy in the van as out. The whole water and cooking system can go on the picnic table, but she liked it inside next to the fridge, so great. I thought it might be too tight in the van.

There are not enough trails for bikes up here but it is very pretty. The one really nice trail has no bikes allowed  I understand how the the young berm up the trail and throw roost into the faces of the granola heads. They really ruin it for the AARP group. The sign should just say: "No wipper snappers." However is you are willing to break the law it is a fantastic single track from the lake into the high country.

The Lake is wonderful for our boats. Fishermen, or Fishing people as Francesca says, are a great group to go camping with. If you are wondering how I get the boat off top here is a picture. It is very easy. The tie down it simple too. I just put eyebolts where the bolts are.

The next drive took us high up in the Sierras to a place called Virginia Lakes. The only guys up there this early are skiers. The lake was frozen over, but we had a very nice lunch.

My seat is a problem on long trips, but by using a lumbar pillow I am fine. The coil spring front end makes for a luxurious ride considering it is a 350 van. The A4OD or what ever is a nice transmission. It doesn't search for gears too much. I could set the cruise control and just relax up and down hills. Going up hill the gas gauge moved faster than the speedo, but overall it did 11 mpg which was better than I expected with the aerodynamics and hill climbing. I have the 460.