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The Ultimate Bird BlindBy Matt HeydenIn 1997 I read The Feather Quest by Pete Dunne. The book is a delightful read about how Pete traveled around the United States and Canada for one year in a camper van. A camper van is simply a full size van that has the livability components of a regular large motor home. They have kitchens, bathrooms, showers and beds. At that time we were using a large motor home for our travels and towing a car behind. The combination worked well enough, but we generally found ourselves spending a lot of time near interstate highways. Pete’s book inspired us to become more adventurous in our birding. As an experiment we replaced our motor home with a 10 year old camper van. But we went one step further, we got rid of all the cars. It would serve as the only car. It would be permanently packed with everything from field guides to cold weather clothing. It would always have canned food on board so that we never had to leave when we were simply having too much fun. Indeed this would be an experiment. I figured we would try it for a year, and then do something else. So, how did this experiment work? We ran that 10 year old camper van for 7 years as our only car! We got rid of the interstate traveling, and our snow bird migration took on a whole new twist. Instead of pounding down the interstate, we took all back roads. It took forever to go anywhere, and we never took the same route twice. Every obscure wildlife refuge now was in reach. Crummy weather didn’t deter us, as we could always go inside to warm up, have a hot meal, and get dry clothes if need be. All the optics were on board. All the field guides were there, even the caterpillar books! We also stopped traveling with reservations. Previously we had been using the busy state parks along the interstates and needed reservations. Now we were using the out of the way ones that were sometimes actually empty. Imagine getting an entire state park to yourself for $12! The other treat was the Army Corp of Engineer Campgrounds. Imagine entire lakes with no homes around them. Now imagine that most every camp site is water front, and spacious. An amazing thing was that because we ran it everyday, it was always road ready. Letting the large motor home sit for extended periods always created problems. With this van, everyday became a birding trip. It was really that different. Imagine traveling the Blue Ridge Parkway end to end and having dinner and breakfast at the scenic vistas while watching raptors. Now imagine you are birding at Blue Springs, and having a very good day. The rangers come around at closing and evict the crowd, and the only ones left are the campers. It’s just you, the full moon and the incredible board walks. And of course the bats and owls are a nice treat as well. Some additional surprises were that the van was so easy to drive, that going into a city wasn’t an issue. It actually fit in a normal parking spot. Putting it on a ferry was easy, and cheap. Kayaks actually fit inside, and bikes went on a rack on the back. Birding adventures had become easy, fun and very inexpensive. When the van was 17 years old we decided to sell it. Now get this. After all that wear and tear, it sold for $2,000 less than what we paid for it. It was replaced with another 10 year old one that we like even more. So, when it’s time to do something about vehicles, think about considering a camper van as one of your options. |