I have been camping in my 1990 Chevrolet Silverado Blazer 2-door for the last 20 years. When I removed the back seat there was just enough room for a 3/4 sized (Hollywood, as some people called them) mattress to fit between the wheel wells and from the back of the console to the tailgate.
After all those years with my wife and I getting older, she decided we needed a little more room so she found me a 2001 Chevrolet Express van with low mileage on the internet. After checking it out and taking it for a test drive we bought it on the spot. It was a nice passenger conversion LT model with all the bells and whistles available in 2001. I will chronicle the changes I made to transform it into my Class B- motorhome in the next few postings. I call it my Class B- (B minus) motorhome because it is just a regular van without the raised roof.
Camping at Custer State Park, SD in February, 2015.
Camping and visiting Scott's Bluff National Monument, NE in October, 2014.
After all those years with my wife and I getting older, she decided we needed a little more room so she found me a 2001 Chevrolet Express van with low mileage on the internet. After checking it out and taking it for a test drive we bought it on the spot. It was a nice passenger conversion LT model with all the bells and whistles available in 2001. I will chronicle the changes I made to transform it into my Class B- motorhome in the next few postings. I call it my Class B- (B minus) motorhome because it is just a regular van without the raised roof.
Camping at Custer State Park, SD in February, 2015.
Camping and visiting Scott's Bluff National Monument, NE in October, 2014.
I have not made any major modifications to my DIY camper conversion van in quite some time. We have been using it all summer camping at state parks in SD that we have never been to before. We even camped last week (December 6, 2020) at the Game Lodge Campground in Custer State Park. My van's sun visors are somewhat lacking compared to the one's in my old 1990 Blazer which had a panel to slide out on one end for more efficient sun blocking. My newer vehicles have sun visors that actually slide on the rod to extend farther. I decided to make a change in mine similar to the old Blazer. I have sun visor organizers on them and simply slipped an old plastic license plate filler from our local car dealer behind the sun visor organizer. Now I can slide it out for more sun blockage. Simple but effective.
J herb wrote:
.........Have you done anymore van mods ? I'm going to build a cabinet on the upper right side above the bed after the first of the year.
Stay safe and well, Jay
I have not done anything other than minor little fine-tuning items to the van and actually using it for camping. This coming week the temps are supposed to be in the 50's in the Black Hills so we are planning a camping trip to Custer State Park. I have been spending my time in my wood shop making infinity boxes for my brother, sisters, and grand daughters. Pumped out eleven of them for upcoming Christmas presents. Last year I made everyone ring-toss games and the year before that I made them all yard Yahtzee games with 4"x4" dice made from an old square post I had handy. Not sure what I will do next Christmas. The old barn is starting to fall apart at my parents old farm so I may try to make some lamps out of old barn wood. I collect ideas all year long so I have many to choose from. I am working on my next van update. It will be a long box for my roof rack to hold my fishing rods, radio controlled car, golf clubs and my metal detector. After watching "The Detectorists" series on British TV, I am ready to take mine out again.
When I get my roof rack box finished I will post info on it. I am also working on another project. I made a couple of shelves from the grills of my old 1990 K-Blazer 1500 for my 1/64 scale models of my Corvette collection. I found another grill from an old Chevrolet pickup that I will modify to hold the 1/64 scale models of all the cars I previously owned and my collection of old Tootsietoys cars I had as a kid. The openings in the Blazer and pickup grills are just about perfect for these small models. I just have to add a little extension in the back of each opening to make a deeper space to set the car.
My brother-in-law found me the grill from an older Chevrolet pickup that I reworked like the 90 Blazer/Suburban grills. It is not as good as the vertical spacing for the cars was only 1 1/8" so a lot of my cars would not fit. I did add a lighted Chevrolet emblem to it and some highway striped road tape from Hot wheels for the top shelf on this one. The others I just covered with sticky back black felt. I also spray painted the entire grill flat black (it was gray like the one below) and added a stripe of chrome tape down the middle to better match the 90 Blazer/Suburban grills. The 73-78 pickup grill below may work better but I have no tried one yet. It looks like it has taller slots like the 90 Blazer/Suburban grills.
I used the top two grill shelves for my 1/64 scale Corvette car collection. The bottom grill I use for my old 1950-60's Tootsie toy car collection that I played with as a youngster. I also have small models of each car that I owned or drove in my life. I had to repaint some of them to match the cars I owned. I also included a model of my Dad's H & M tractors that I drove on the farm, the 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 that I learned to drive on, and my Dad's first pickup which was a 1958 Chevrolet fleetside.
Hi back at you J Herb,
As you have probably heard on the news our state of South Dakota is wide open so we can camp at almost any state campground thru the pandemic. Also as a result of this our state has one of the highest rates of Covid-19 in the country. We are staying safe by isolating, wearing masks, and not getting together in any groups nor out to eat. We buy a lot of take-out and pizza that we cook ourselves.
We continue to camp as a way of isolating and we do whenever the temps are above 50 degrees. Last weekend we traveled to Yankton, SD (about 300 miles across the state) to see if we could spot the Mandarin duck that was spotted there about a month ago and made Facebook. The morning we left we spotted a bald eagle about a mile from our house that was roosting in a dead tree in Roscoe Lake. There were two in the tree but one flew away as two vehicles stopped to admire them and take pictures.
We got to Yankton and drove to Westside Park across from the hospital where it was reported on Facebook that the Mandarin duck had been spotted hanging out with some wood ducks.
We spotted a lot of geese standing around on the ice. One goose entertained us by trying to walk on the ice with melt-water on top and an irregular surface. He slipped and slid and almost lost his balance several times.
We saw several different species of duck from mallard to wood duck. In fact, we saw four wood ducks but no Mandarin duck. We found out later on Facebook that he had not been spotted in the last few days.
Here is a picture from the city’s Facebook page of the Mandarin duck we were hoping to see. There are no Mandarin ducks in the wild in North America so it was suggested that he was an escapee from a zoo, bird sanctuary, or someone’s private collection. The city did have a contest to name the duck and the winning name was Duckota.
My wife took a picture of one of the wood ducks that I really liked because of the ripples on the water.
From there we traveled west of Yankton towards Gavins Point Dam and our campsite at one of the several state recreation areas on Lewis & Clark Lake on the Missouri River. We chose Pierson Ranch Recreation Area as we had never camped there before.
Our campsite at #64 was centrally located and protected from the wind.
We had a nice campfire to keep us warm while my wife warmed up Thanksgiving leftovers on the camp stove. We had a repeat of the feast from a day before.
We didn’t see the Mandarin duck but we still had a nice trip and a tailwind on the way home the next day.
As you have probably heard on the news our state of South Dakota is wide open so we can camp at almost any state campground thru the pandemic. Also as a result of this our state has one of the highest rates of Covid-19 in the country. We are staying safe by isolating, wearing masks, and not getting together in any groups nor out to eat. We buy a lot of take-out and pizza that we cook ourselves.
We continue to camp as a way of isolating and we do whenever the temps are above 50 degrees. Last weekend we traveled to Yankton, SD (about 300 miles across the state) to see if we could spot the Mandarin duck that was spotted there about a month ago and made Facebook. The morning we left we spotted a bald eagle about a mile from our house that was roosting in a dead tree in Roscoe Lake. There were two in the tree but one flew away as two vehicles stopped to admire them and take pictures.
We got to Yankton and drove to Westside Park across from the hospital where it was reported on Facebook that the Mandarin duck had been spotted hanging out with some wood ducks.
We spotted a lot of geese standing around on the ice. One goose entertained us by trying to walk on the ice with melt-water on top and an irregular surface. He slipped and slid and almost lost his balance several times.
We saw several different species of duck from mallard to wood duck. In fact, we saw four wood ducks but no Mandarin duck. We found out later on Facebook that he had not been spotted in the last few days.
Here is a picture from the city’s Facebook page of the Mandarin duck we were hoping to see. There are no Mandarin ducks in the wild in North America so it was suggested that he was an escapee from a zoo, bird sanctuary, or someone’s private collection. The city did have a contest to name the duck and the winning name was Duckota.
My wife took a picture of one of the wood ducks that I really liked because of the ripples on the water.
From there we traveled west of Yankton towards Gavins Point Dam and our campsite at one of the several state recreation areas on Lewis & Clark Lake on the Missouri River. We chose Pierson Ranch Recreation Area as we had never camped there before.
Our campsite at #64 was centrally located and protected from the wind.
We had a nice campfire to keep us warm while my wife warmed up Thanksgiving leftovers on the camp stove. We had a repeat of the feast from a day before.
We didn’t see the Mandarin duck but we still had a nice trip and a tailwind on the way home the next day.
This summer due to Covid-19 we set a new goal to camp in all the South Dakota Game,Fish & Parks campgrounds that we have not camped in before and this is our latest.
Cow Creek Recreation Area was this week's destination. It is one of the state park campgrounds north of Pierre, SD on the Oahe Reservoir of the Missouri River.
Our campsite was well protected from the wind.
For supper I cooked the dices potatoes and onions over the campfire while my wife worked on the rest of the meal.
We spotted some interesting cloud formations.
With the calm weather the reflections of the trees on the water was interesting.
The seagulls were busy finding something to eat in the lake water.
All the smoke from the western forest fires helped create some colorful sunsets our way.
On our drive back home we witnessed a rainbow just as it ended on what many consider a pot of gold for the SD farmers.
Cow Creek Recreation Area was this week's destination. It is one of the state park campgrounds north of Pierre, SD on the Oahe Reservoir of the Missouri River.
Our campsite was well protected from the wind.
For supper I cooked the dices potatoes and onions over the campfire while my wife worked on the rest of the meal.
We spotted some interesting cloud formations.
With the calm weather the reflections of the trees on the water was interesting.
The seagulls were busy finding something to eat in the lake water.
All the smoke from the western forest fires helped create some colorful sunsets our way.
On our drive back home we witnessed a rainbow just as it ended on what many consider a pot of gold for the SD farmers.
