December 2022
Now for some practical advice. One recommendation is to buy an annual National Parks Pass ($80) if you will be traveling in the West part of the country as after three major park visits, you will be ahead of the game and then it is just bonus. If you will be any state along enough with parks, consider a state park pass as well. I did this in Utah and was definitely worth it.
For navigation, consider buying a Garmin navigation device (the non-subscription kind) for your car since you won’t always have cell reception. They work on GPS so you can still find your way out of areas where no cell service exists. I have an old Nuvi which is crude in its abilities but has no subscription fees. Make sure to update it before you depart and periodically when you have internet access. Also best to obtain some paper maps of each state in general and if you can of larger cities so you can map out where you want to go day to day. I found I wasted a lot of time backtracking to something I had just been near or simply forgetting to go somewhere I wanted to see until I was too far away. Another consideration is a spare phone on a different provider service. I used an old iphone with a one year bare minimum Boost Mobile subscription ($100 for the year) as my emergency back up in case I lose my phone or on those instances where AT&T worked better than Verizon.
Now for setup. Throughout my travels I had an ongoing open debate in my head as to whether I should have gone with a conversion van rather than trying this whole thing in my Subaru Forester. The primary advantage would be a better experience at campgrounds since when “camping” I find myself mostly sleeping in my car at night even when I set up my tent – that midnight run back to the car when I hear noises or just want quiet – leading to more time at hotels and Airbnbs than I had envisioned. My biggest issues were the less than comfortable sleeping situation since there is only so much one can fit into the cargo area of an SUV (somewhat solved with my new comfortable mattress set up), having to pee in the middle of the night, and the cold front that kicked in and then the heat spell with mosquitos, each making it quite unpleasant to exit my vehicle to cook breakfast and dinner when it is dark and the outside temp was mid 30s or too warm to put the skeeters to rest. I solved many of these, though it still kind of sucks not being able to sit up.
One thing I can tell you to do before you start is to figure out your sleeping arrangement, and try it out for an entire night, not just an hour. After many months of trial and error, I finally found my setup – more on that below. I initially started with a dog bed combo set up from the now defunct Bed, Bath & Beyond that would probably have worked in my younger years, but now in my mid 50’s and many broken bones and internal hardware later, was simply not cushy enough. While you can add and improvise along the way with the help of some kind individuals (one kind woman donated her meat packing foam – probably full of toxins but added a layer of comfort), your options may be limited when in remote areas and many will fall short of what you need. I can tell you the makeshift set up will lead to more misery than necessary. In Florida, in a rental SUV larger than my Forrester, I bought what looked like a great cheap temporary solution, a blow up wide pool float. Turns out the triangle areas you see in the picture did not fill with air by design so sleeping on it was near impossible. I first tried shoving all my clothes in but that did not work well. Next I bought a number of those blow up arm floaties for kids to shove in the triangles but needed about 15 to fill so the four I bought were just a start. For the third night I found a narrower blow up pool float for $9 (and found the same one the next day for $4) thinking I could put it on top of the green mattress but then it was like being in an incredibly unstable water bed so I tried to shove that into the triangle at top which kind of worked, sort of. I then gave up camping in Florida.
What I finally found was a 25″x75″ mattress on Wayfair that fit into my vehicle with just the wider seat down so the narrower seat could still be used to sit in, pee at night and more easily get in and out of the car. I topped it with some cheap Walmart memory foam which I cut to size and I now have a pretty comfy setup. The biggest challenge was how to deal with the hump and then the indentation where the seat folded that corresponded to exactly at my hip and the angle differential of 4″ from front to back. Books arranged just right under the lower part of the mattress combined with a just right folded yoga mat worked okay but took time to get in position. Because I always wanted me seats up when not sleeping so that it did not look like I had a lot of stuff in my car, I needed a platform that would take up little space and fit in the cargo space behind the seats. This is the one time I had to enlist help, though minor, to cut some 3/8″ plywood. We cut 2 pieces that were 24″ wide to fit in the cargo area underneath my drawers so I could still use my cargo cover without a bulge. I simply layer them a bit to run front to back and on the back piece, raise it with a 2″ block (you could probably go with 3″) and then fold and wedge in my cheap yoga mat where it indents.
Another big issue it took quite awhile to solve was privacy. I did not want drapes or shower curtains or anything that was not super quick and easy and took no skill to create. I finally found my solution in a full vehicle sunshade kit from Weathertech.com which consists of custom internal shades for every window. You simply push them into the window for a super easy set up in under a minute. They not only block out light and provide excellent privacy, they also act as insulation against the cold (there are two sides one to reflect light and the other to absorb heat). If you put in all your windows during the day while parked they keep the inside temp pretty cool as well. When it is hot and I need airflow, I instead put the front window sunshade behind the front seats to give some privacy and put Skeeter Beater bug screens in my front windows which allows air to circulate in while keeping the little flying critters out. You can find them at skeeterbeater.com or make your own. I like theirs as cut to fit already and the magnets are sewn in so no work on my part.
Now for bathrooms and showers. I have two different set ups for the nighttime bladder relief, I started with a cheap plastic bowl with a strong seal lid and a plastic wag type bag to surround just in case – fear of spill over in my car originally dissuaded me from frequent use so I went with a second option which is a cheap 1 gallon wide mouth plastic canister with screw top lid from Walmart. You can kneel over this and not worry about missing the mark. I then just empty in a toilet when I can and clean with a bit of dish soap or hand sanitizer and water. I have not used this for any solid waste and when I had food poising I made sure to find a motel room. Showers can occasionally be hard to come by as well but that is much easier solved, if not ideal, with a bike water bottle and a poncho. There are also rental showers at RV parks or by joining a national chain gym like Planet Fitness. Resigned to continue my journeys in my Forester, I was able to adapt. Rather than lay out $100,000+ for a van with the niceties I took a break during the coldest months and waited out my time in Santa Monica and the SF Bay Area where I always have a bed while my car sat in storage near the New Orleans airport.
Finally, where to put all your stuff. For the cargo area, I have two plastic drawers from Bed Bath & Beyond where I keep extra clothes clothes and belts and two small blacks bin with lids, one with camp gear and the other with laundry pods, spare travel blankets, and miscellaneous stuff I want frequent access to. I have additional packing bags shoved into corners, a warm clothes pack, a waterproof gear pack, pj type stuff pack, and another with jackets. Also in the back, my sleeping bag and a sleep sack and a rarely used tent with footprint, each from REI. Under your seats you can shove things such as a small camp chair, shoes, mosquito screens for your windows, bike helmet, your pee container, etc. I always have a decent amount of water on hand (make sure you have strong sealing lids, learned the hard way), toilet paper, Kleenex, small towels, and bags. In one wheel well I have my shoes and in the other I have two small igloo coolers, one to keep my food stash from molding (bars, beef jerkey, dried fruit) and the other for medicines, lotions and things I want to keep from getting too hot or too cold. I early on ditched using the cooler for fresh food as I can drink my coffee black and buy what I need to cook that does not require refrigeration when camping and often just go out for dinner. On my back seat is my mattress (it folds into thirds), and underneath that, my pillow and blue memory foam. I cover this with a tablecloth that matches my seats so it blends in. Finally, between the containers in the back, I have a 42L North Face bag that also can act as a backpack where I keep the clothes I use frequently all organized in packing bags from Sierra Outpost, my workout bag (resistance bands and tubing), toiletries, and a foldable travel pour over coffee filter. This is my grab and go bag as well as my go to while camping. My other bag is a camelback where I long ago removed the bladder to use as a bike commute bag and that padded area holds my computer. This bag goes with me everywhere. Finally, I have a shower kit which consists of an REI travel towel which is compact and quick dry and in the pouch I can fit a travel size soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotion and razor.
One last point is it is very important to stay organized and put everything back in its place right away (unless you are letting your tent dry out). If you don’t, you will quickly find yourself a very unhappy camper.