We hear that quite a bit these days. I am sure we will hear it more as these last 4 months FLY past! But we have been staying busy and having a little fun, too. For our 10th wedding anniversary we took a camping trip to Lake Powell 
and then went cruising around the area to see places like Big Water, Escalante, Grand Staircase and more. Here are a few more photos from that trip.
After that fun weekend we had to return to work and start wrapping up a few things. But we did squeeze in one more fun camping trip to the woods near Mormon Lake. While there we attending the Overland Expo and bought a few more items for the trip! We purchased a hard-core ice chest made by Canyon (right there in Flagstaff) and some TREDs (Total Recovery and Extraction Device). It is too bad we did not have the TRED’s at Powell, as we did get stuck in the sand and had to pay a guy $20 to pull us out!
After some fun weekends we decided to settle down to work on Alta. There are still many repairs, modifications and improvements that we want to make. I will add photos so you can see how she is changing in subtle ways that will improve the performance and function of our Volkswagen Westfalia Vanagon AdventureWagen hightop van for our big trip.
Putting on the heavy duty springs from GoWesty made a big difference in the ride and also raised her up about 2 inches. Clearance will be important for the rough roads. And Mike learned a lot about the suspension. It is a good thing he did, because about a week later we broke an axle………
So, he had some fun learning about the CV joints and rear suspension as he did a replacement of the drivers side axle (Vanagain was a great vendor to work with) and also, while he was there he put Koni shocks (Bus Depot was fast on that shipment) on the rear. Here are some fun photos of Mike at work-
In addition to this mechanical stuff, we have been doing the following items:
- replace screens on upper windows (which meant repairing the hardware and the latches, because they broke while I was replacing the screens)
- remove the AC hoses and lines to increase space at back of closet
- paint over the glass outside, insulate the inside of rear window on high top and behind closet
- install rubber floor mat throughout front seat area
- install custom cabinet/console around shift lever
- install webbing to keep objects from flying off shelves and out of cabinets while driving
- order hot water heater (more later) called AquaCube
- remove lower front grill to increase air flow (since installing box up there, it seems to get hotter)
- measure for new curtains throughout entire van
Photos of these, and more will be showing up soon.
