Spring is almost here, time for minivan camping plans

What little energy that was not sapped by winter, sickness took the rest the past six months.  I went from having bronchitis in late October to dealing with a cold throughout December to a mystery illness that began in February and finally diagnosed in March.  Finally after getting treatment and sleeping for a week straight, I am almost back to baseline health.  Of course, the fact that the most miserable winter in recent history is past probably helps as well.

Enough about my misery, on to happier news - minivan camping!

I am finally going to clean the interior of my minivan so that I can test out curtain redux part 20,123.  This version is cutting some fuzzy fabric to fit one of my windows, attach the loop part of Velcro, and see how that holds up over the weekend.  If it stays up, then that is my plan for privacy curtains.  If that doesn't work, I am going to the home improvement store, buying the huge roll of reflectix that I saw when I was looking for window screening, and cutting it a little larger than my window.  Might not be pretty, but it will work. 

Another version of bed platform

For the first couple of short trips, I am going to remove my second row seats (third row folds down) and put a full sheet of plywood in the back.  This will act as a flat surface to put the twin sized mattress topper on (4-inch foam mattress topper from walmart).  By not cutting it down, I will be able to use the sheets without any worries.  I figure for a weekend adventure, this will be easier to deal with than the over-engineered platform that was built earlier.

Yes, I do have a tendency to over complicate a solution

I already have an old camping chair that I plan on taking.  A plastic bin to store clothing and food.  I am keeping things simple this time around.  I think I was suffering from choices paralysis.  I just need to book a tent site at a local (i.e. <2 hours away) and take off for the weekend. 

Hopefully I will report back with the final pre-trip version of my minivan window privacy curtains.  I am sure that it might change after my first trip.