The Decision
In May 2022, I purchased a minivan, the 2019 Honda Odyssey. I named the minivan Storm because of the grey color, which is an excellent contrast to my White Honda CRV, nicknamed Winter. I knew I wanted a minivan because it would be affordable compared to the cargo vans. My parents and siblings either have Hondas or Toyotas and these are the cars I grew up with. Ultimately, I decided on the Odyssey because only a few miles were on it, and it drives easily and comfortably. Plus, packing all my and Luke’s gear for camping trips is relatively easy.
Storm has so much cargo space with the 3rd-row seats down. Luke has the 2nd row all to himself and can comfortably lie down on long road trips and still stand up and move around. I can put my cooler, camp kitchen, and other camping and hiking equipment in the cargo area. My long Hest Dually Mattress fit in this minivan (which was a pain to put in the Honda CRV).
We went tent camping in Mammoth Lakes, Big Bear Lakes, and the Red Cliffs of Utah. The drives were terrific! But honestly, the setup and the campsite’s breakdown started to be annoying. It felt like such a battle to take the tent down and put it away in the tiny bag. I’m a solo camper with my dog. Luke is not much help when breaking down the equipment. After the Utah trip, I needed to take advantage of the minivan’s space. During the weekends, we have to enjoy being outdoors; I spent too much time setting up and breaking down the campsite. So when we got home, I started to brainstorm and decided it was time to do a no-build minivan camper conversion.
In 2023, we’re starting the new adventure of van camping and vanventuring in Storm, the Honda Odyssey. Join Luke and me on these Weekend Vanventures.
