Problem With Keys: Solution Found

The idea of losing our van keys in Central America was a real concern. How would we get back into our van in remote areas without breaking a window? If we did break the window, we would have to have a spare set inside the van, available to whom ever else breaks into our van. This problem is now solved! With a real estate key lock box we can leave our keys safely secured to the van (on the hitch chain loop). You can program it yourself, and it has a 10 key pad, so the likely-hood of someone figuring it out is very slim, and its designed to keep people from breaking into it. With this we don't need to bring keys with us, they can stay safely at the van, where we need them. -Jason

Shade: A Must Have

I have been looking and looking for a reasonably priced awning for the van, they can cost a $1000 or more! I have even searching for used ones.The Shady Boy awning may be the answer I've been searching for. Its light weight (15lbs) water resistant and will hold up even in the wind. We would get the silver one. I don't know the currant price but they should be around $360. There are no mechanical aspects to this awning so it should hold up nicely. If you have any other ideas please let me know. -Jason

Water Filtration: Part 2

The Aquapak is a solar pasteurization system that can pasteurize  up to 3 gallons of water day. Just fill it up and leave it out in the sun, when the wax indicator melts its done. I ordered two of them to increase the amount of water I can produce. I will also need some sort of holding bottle for the water to keep in. This system will do the bulk of our water pasteurization for: washing, cooking, showering, and drinking.

Thanks to my friend, Jay, who brought the SteriPEN into my search efforts, it will supplement my water pasteurization needs when we are out-and-about and run out of water. You just sterilize the water you are about to drink, it takes about 90 seconds for a Nalgene. This will keep the drinking water in Central America safe to drink. It has draw backs though, you can only use it on clear water, so a non filtered water source wont work, but thats where the Auqupak comes back into the picture. (the SteriPen pictured has a solar charger!) With the addition of these two systems I will have three sources to make safe water with if you including the Sun Oven. -Jason

Passports Step 4: Their Arrival

We now have four of the five passports that we need!! I am soooo excited,  I've never had one before. When they arrived, I felt like how I used to when I was a child, opening the big present on Christmas. It was a nice feeling. This step really brings the trip into focus for me, somehow making it more real now. To complete the passports for our family Miranda needs to get that baby out, unless an ultrasound picture would work, the 3D kind. I'm usually against that sort of thing but maybe for this......not. I'm hoping for a baby tonight! -Jason

Free-Diving: The Art of Holding Your Breath.

As a child I loved snorkeling, I would swim for hours looking at all the mysteries of the deep. It was liberating at a time of my life where I was faced with many struggles. I loved looking for lost treasures on the lake floor, or stalking crawdads in Whatcom creek. When I think about all the beautiful ocean shores we will be visiting on our voyage to Central America I become elated, thoughts of tropical fish, coral reefs and hidden treasures flood into my minds eye.I'm exploring the sport of free-diving, using a mask, snorkel, and long fins, to dive deep, 50 plus feet down. There is a large subculture that enjoys swimming in this way, playing with dolphins,

spearfishing or exploring. There are breathing techniques that will help you stay down longer and training techniques that will build up the length of time one can hold their breath. I'm looking forward to learning how to dive this way. I will be bringing a free-diving set up and speargun depending on legality and cost to spearfish. -Jason

Sun Oven

The sun is looking like the miracle-cure I've been searching for. With a Sun Oven you can bake, boil and steam, so the only foods you cannot cook are fried foods. Also pasteurizing water is done at bellow boiling point. It can reach temperatures of up to 400 degrees!


All without the need to buy fuel. The only requirement is the sun. It will even work in winter. The R/O system most likely will go out the windows to make room for this baby. -Jason 

Water Filtration

So I thought I would install a R/O system to filter our water in Central America, but it wastes 4 gallons to every 1 it cleans. I feel like that would be irresponsible to bring such an inefficient water filtration system to a country that may pay a lot for its water service. I'm a bit stumped, I need a filtration system that is good enough to filter out all the nasty things that may be in a third world country. More research is required. -Jason

Living Out of, Not In

This question keeps coming up, "How are you all going to live in that small of a van?" The answer is, we're not! Think of the van as a place to sleep and store our stuff, but on wheels. Kind of a tent on wheels, that we camp with like a tent but cooler and wont leak or blow away. We'll have power, music, video, a/c and drinking water (R/O system) all fixed into the van. We understand it will be a sort of roughing it experience, that may wear on us over time. The idea is to go as long as we are enjoying it, and return when we are ready. The fact that the van is small is a good thing from my point of view, it will keep us from wanting to hang-out in it, forcing us to see the sights and meet people in a culture. Remember this, if the 185 miles of tropical beaches of Belize was your backyard for a month, would you just hang-out in the van? -Jason

The Man Van

We bought the van! We had it checked by a mechanic and it needed $600ish dollars worth of repairs. Negotiated a fair price, and stayed in budget. We are super excited. Jay is driving it from Grants Pass and he should be here in a day or two. I will schedule the repairs to be done asap. Now we have to make it livable. The bed is too short as it is, we're going to buy an extension for it. It goes behind the back seat to add length to the bed when the rear seat is down, it makes it into roughly a queen size bed. I hope we can find one to match our vans interior. -Jason

Drivers Permit: International

We both applied and received our International Driving Permit today. It helps  police in other non-English speaking country's interpret our drivers licenses. It isn't strictly necessary but can smooth out any potential hassle in regards to us driving out of country. It's good for a year from date listed on it. What you're seeing is the front cover and the last inside page. The I.D.P. is 17 pages long, including the front cover. It has a ten other languages in it, that explains our drivers licenses and how it is coded. It costs $15.00 plus the $8.95 for the photo. It's a nice feeling to be getting all the details done, it helps make it real now. 137 days till we are on the road and a few months after until  we are leaving the U.S. of A. It was about an hour from start to finish, including completing the applications (online form) getting two photos taken (same place as our passport pictures) and running across town to the AAA to get the permit. Not too bad. -Jason

Passports Step 2 & 3: Pictures and Applications

So, last Thursday, we went down to a local printing place that does passport pictures.. talk about anxiety with two little kids!! They were, however great to work with, and were quite speedy about the whole process! Poor Faelynn looks a bit stoned in her pictures.. he told us we weren't supposed to smile.. but then today when we went in to actually turn in our applications, the lady said it was no big deal.. I am kind of grumpy about that, because now we all look like we have our mug shots on our passports... se la vie right? 

Today we went into the good ol post office with our printed out passport applications!! (got to love the internet!) 375 dollars later we are all set! The woman at the post office was SO helpful, she checked our applications line by line, and helped me fill out mine (I had to send mine separately since I just had to change my name) So now we just wait for 3-4 weeks!!

And then of course in about 6 weeks we get the pleasure of trying to get a passport picture taken for a two week old! -Miranda