To give a little back story to this post, I have to start all the way to the beginning of our planning for this trip over three years ago. I promise to give the short version here and later we’ll document in more detail our journey to our XP Camper decision.

During the first stage of our trip planning we spent many, many hours researching and discussing our perfect vehicle for this trip. We decided on a Sportsmobile and made the big purchase last June, eight months before the start of our big trip and plenty of time for us to get comfortable with the Sportsmobile and prepare ourselves for almost two years of living in it.

Unfortunately, after a few weekend getaways we quickly realized that the Sportsmobile wasn’t going to work for us. Now we have to quickly find a plan B since our start date was only three months away. We gave Marc at XP Camper a call and put in our order for an XP Camper. These campers are awesome but we would have to wait until October of 2014 to get it. We were expecting to start our trip the first week of March! We decided that it would be worth the wait and we would find an intermediate solution to take us through Baja then up to Alaska and we would stop by Grass Valley in October to pick up our new XP. So now we had to find something economical that would carry us through to October. An FJ Cruiser with a Cascadia Vehicle Tent was our solution.

The roof top tent (RTT) was great in the warmer climates but we weren’t so excited about the experience during the colder, windier and wetter days. We started to worry about how comfortable we would be once we started heading into the cooler and wetter climates of Oregon, Washington and then Alaska. Then one day while we were in Baja we received a call from Marc saying that a used XP Camper was available and would we want to buy it!? This would be ready 8 weeks earlier than the new XP and we could have it for our trip to Alaska! We jumped at the opportunity and made some changes to our Alaska ferry and Denali camping reservations. Things are looking up!!

XP Camper is a small operation in Grass Valley and as such, the timelines are a little fluid. We were given about a 4-6 week time frame when the XP would be ready so we decided to spend much of this waiting time around California and Utah. Dates were slipping a bit so we finally decided that we should just start driving north and hit the Oregon Coast and continue on to Seattle so we wouldn’t miss our ferry. We couldn’t delay our Alaska trip any longer so if the XP wasn’t ready, we would just have to spend a little more time with our FJ and RTT.

And then we received the phone call!! Our XP would be completed by the end of the week! We received the call when we were in Astoria, OR so we made a quick U-turn to drive back to California and pick up our XP. We would only have 14 days to make sure that everything was in working order before getting onto the Alaska ferry but no more living out of a tent!!

We still had a long day ahead of us to get to Grass Valley, CA and pick up our XP Camper. There were more than 400 miles between our campsite and Grass Valley, CA, our destination for the end of the day. Fortunately, the miles were beautiful, driving through the Avenue of the Giants along highway 20. The smell of the redwoods brought back memories of mountain biking with friends through the Santa Cruz mountains in California. 

We stopped at a picnic area along what was once a river but now is a wide rock bed with a narrow stream of water that might be called a creek. Then later in the evening we had a very nice dinner at the Blue Wing Cafe in Upper Lake, California. We were surprised to see this cute little town just north of Clear Lake. We were expecting to find a run down little town for the seasonal angler and instead we found a cute renovated historic area. Our next stop would be the Holbrook Hotel in Grass Valley. We didn’t arrive until well past midnight. Although it was a long day of driving, I had a hard time sleeping. I felt like a little kid on Christmas Eve wondering what grand present Santa had waiting for me under the Christmas Tree!

And then we finally got to see our new home for the next year!! We arrived at XP in the early afternoon. Marc and the team were putting the final touches on our camper as we walked in. I couldn’t wait to get moved into our new home.

Finally we will have a place where I can cook a meal inside and place any leftovers in a real refrigerator! Actually, we have two refrigerators, one in the camper and one behind the driver’s seat in the cab. No more buying bags of ice and throwing away food because I couldn’t keep it cold enough. We have a wonderful little dining area at the rear of our camper where we can enjoy our meals in the comfort of the camper. And last but not at all least, we will have a wet bath! Although our storage capacity has almost doubled, Darryl is firm on keeping our gear at a minimum. No need to fill up every nook and cranny of the camper, and there are many!

Marc and Toni spent a couple of hours with us going over the details of the camper and how everything worked. Our plan for the day was to pick up the camper and then drive our XP Camper and FJ Cruiser to the Bay Area to do the big swap. Just before closing time, Marc was ready to move the truck out of the garage for us. He turned the ignition and nothing happened. We knew that there were issues with the battery but we thought that they had been replaced already. We already learned well before the beginning of our trip that things would not always go as planned and we would have to be patient with some of these curve balls. We waited for two new batteries to be installed and then drove to the Bay Area, a little later than expected, but we were so excited to have an awesome new home that our enthusiasm wouldn’t be dampened by a little battery issue!

“The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray” and that is what our journey has been but I wouldn’t change a thing! We have had and we are having an amazing adventure.

We have had the unique experience of living on the road in three different types of overland vehicles. We will document what has worked and hasn’t worked for us in each of these vehicles in later posts.