May 15 - 28, 2024 - Lafe and Faith's Odyssey

Just Chillin’ in Cedar Rapids

We filled our first few days in Cedar Rapids with hanging out with my family, working, going on walks, and having campfires together. On Saturday, Faith and I met up with some childhood friends to go to Houby Days in the Czech Village area of Cedar Rapids. Despite being marketed as a festival about mushrooms, we didn’t see all that many mushrooms of any variety. We watched an underwhelming parade and climbed the largest hill in town: Mount Trashmore. It is aptly named as it used to be the area’s landfill and has since been turned into a hill to climb and bike on. For only being a few hundred feet high, it provides a lovely view of the city’s downtown. Later that night, Faith and the other ladies had a bachelorette party for Jeralyn, my sister, as she was getting married in just a week. After church on Sunday, we headed up to my grandparents to finish the van build.

Immediately upon arriving, we set to work brainstorming how we were going to set up the electrical systems in the van and, perhaps more importantly, get everything into the van. We started from the top down by first figuring out how we were going to mount the solar panels and roof carrier. We decided that, to get both to fit, the solar panels would have to be on the back part of the roof mounted to roof rack extensions fashioned from parts of another vehicle. We set to work measuring and determining how to get everything seated properly. Grandpa showed me how to install rivets, and I took the opportunity to discover for myself how not do it, in spite of what Grandpa had just told me. The next day, we got up, clocked a few hours at work, then finished installing the solar panels with small L-brackets made from spare metal. Those solar panels weren’t going anywhere in a hurry.

Next was the roof carrier. Because of the position of the crossbeams on our roof rack, we had to drill more holes in the carrier and modify the carrier’s mounting brackets to fit. We managed to get everything to work on pretty much the first try, and the topper fit with a few inches to spare between the sun roof and the solar panels. There was evening and there was morning, and we began the third day of construction.

With the top done, we were set to get cracking on the electrical. “Where was it going to go?”, “how was it going to be wired?”, and “did you read the manuals?” were all very good questions to start with. We knew everything had to somehow fit between the bed and the wall, so we started by getting the wires from the battery and the solar down there. Apparently, a lot of pieces in our van just pop together and apart, which made lacing the wires from the battery behind the pedals, under the floor coverings, and up to the shelf much easier and prettier than I expected. Next, we figured out where the battery, the heaviest and largest component, was going to sit and found that it fit perfectly between the bed and the wall at the front of the shelf. So, we took the shelf side panels we had cut in Boise and mounted them to a plywood floor panel that the battery could sit on. With the battery and shelving walls in place, we put one 2×2 along the outside of the bed, and one 2×2 along the wall prevent the battery from moving vertically and serve as a set of rails to set our other electrical components on. This layer was comprised of the battery charger and inverter and sat underneath the (not yet installed) main shelf above. With the battery firmly in its place, we again called it a night.

We awoke on Wednesday morning and jumped right into it. We figured out where we wanted the charger and inverter and mounted them to a small board. We then drilled a hole through the board to lace wires down to the battery. With the board put together how we wanted, we began carefully connecting all the wires to their proper contacts. After getting everything connected, we put the fuses in their places and waited for a few moments as all of the indicator lights started shining exactly how they were supposed to. Success! After a little more testing, we put the board onto the rails and began working on the shelf that was to sit above it. Similar to the side panels, we used cardboard to get a pattern of the wall that we then cut into a piece of plywood. With the base of the shelf mounted, we added the last remaining pieces and called major construction done! Don’t get me wrong, there was a lot left to do, but we had (almost) no more holes to drill or screws to place.

After getting everything squared away in the nick of time, my grandparents took us out to celebrate Faith’s birthday early at an entertaining hibachi restaurant. After dinner, we discovered that the roof carrier we debated on adding was quite necessary if we wanted to get all of our stuff into the van. Once loaded up, we bid our grandparents farewell and headed back to Cedar Rapids.

For the last few days of the week, I made up hours at work, and Faith started to get everything in our van arranged in a sensible way. In the evenings, we spent a while at a local park which was mostly flooded by the adjacent river. Although we didn’t expect to catch much, we got three-day fishing licenses and caught exactly three fish: a bluegill, a warmouth, and a carp. The first two were caught on a hook as you might expect; the carp, however, was a different story. When carp are breeding, they are apparently mostly unaware of their surroundings, which gave us the wonderful opportunity to catch a large female carp in the shallow flood waters with nothing but a small dip net and our hands. After bringing it ashore, we left it to die as carp are a highly invasive and destructive species. This was all well and good until a passerby took notice of the carp and attempted to put it back in the water. When they left, we immediately pulled it back out of the water, found a knife, and performed a vivisection to find out what was on the inside of said carp. The biggest item of interest was the heart: when you poked it just right, it pumped! If you have ever felt a muscle flex in your hand, you’ll know how bizarre and somewhat disturbing it is. Satisfied, we left the pieces of the carp for the scavengers of the area (which we later confirmed they happily consumed) and headed home.

By this point, the weekend had once again arrived, but this one was special. Not only was it a three day weekend for Memorial Day, but my sister was getting married! In order to have more time with the many friends and family that came to town for the event, we, naturally, went to a place that joined ax throwing and alcohol. What could go wrong? By the grace of God, nothing went wrong, and we escaped with all our digits intact. After a lot more hectic preparation and eager anticipation, Monday, the big day, was upon us. The wedding day was filled with busy waiting as everyone got ready and finished touching up the final details and decorations. When the appointed hour arrived, Jeralyn and Gideon were wed during a God-honoring service. Afterwards, we ate, a few speeches (all excellent) were given, and we danced for the next few hours. I may not be good at dancing, but I gave it my all and was rewarded with a lost and scratchy voice for the next few days. After the grand exit, Faith and I helped clean up then hung out a friend’s house for a small bonfire.

The next day, we squared away a few of the last details and got our van ready for departure to Kansas, our first real vanlife stop.