And Just Like That: Summer

 

Bam! Strawberries!

We have this tendency to go on vacation over the summer solstice. While we were gone, the garden burst into life.

Just about every year, this is right when the strawberries are ready for harvest. This was no different, except that we were able to harvest right before we left instead of missing it. We only have one 4x8 bed of strawberries, so we don't get too many. But those that we do get are delicious.

While we were on our road trip in our new van to Pictured Rocks National Park on Lake Superior and in Charlevoix, Michigan, running the marathon there, the garden was busy growing.

Pound sign Van Life is fantastic. My whole life I have wedged my camping gear into small cars because they make sense. You only go camping rarely, and it isn't worth sacrificing gas mileage in a daily driver for a couple of weeks a year.

K. and I looked longingly at fancy travel vans - Mercedes Sprinters that cost $200K. Do-it-yourself Fords that would sit in the driveway 50 weeks a year.

Then, as I struggled with how much I disliked my Kia Niro plug-in hybrid (woefully underpowered, beep like a dumptruck when you back up, noise-box inside and no kind of friend on the highway, as well as not being an NHTSA top safety pick), I tried to find something else.

I found it in the Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrid. It has 30 miles of all-electric range - 4 more than the Niro, such that 90% of the time when I am in the city, I can run it on electricity that we generate from our solar panels. 

It has 3x the storage space of the Niro. After it ran out of electricity on our 1,000 mile trip to Michigan, it dropped to 32 mpg. going 70 on the highway. That is as good as my old compact Saturn Ion used to get. 

And the space. We didn't have to pack the car like a hiking backpack. It just swallowed everything. More than that - we were able to transform it into a pound-sign van life place to sleep by shimming a 4x8 piece of plywood flat in the back and covering it with 1/2" puzzle-piece gym mat material. A couple of screen-socks to put over the windows for ventilation and keeping the bugs out, and voila. Quiet - we could hear the music while driving. Also, much more powerful. I could climb small rises without it noisily gearing down. It is almost two seconds faster 0-60, which makes a bigger difference than I thought when merging.

There are a couple of worries. #1, I couldn't afford a new one, so we got a used one from Enterprise Auto Sales with 51,000 miles on it (and half of the $50K price tag cut off) #2, it is a Chrysler, not a brand known for reliability. So I bought a three-year warranty. It won't fit a trailer hitch (because apparently a rear-end collision would cause that to drive into the large battery that lives underneath it), and, surprisingly, there is no place to secure a car-top canoe. This is O.K. I have an inflatable one, but Kevlarina, my lovely Sauris River 17', will continue to collect dust in the garage.

Getting back to the garden, we found snow peas ready to harvest, pole beans shooting up the trellis, pumpkins sending out tendrils to start their climb. Little zucchinis are ready to turn into baseball bats overnight, another load of strawberries, tomatoes that had grown six inches, and raspberries turning ripe. Unfortunately, the creeping Charlie in the back yard is trying to make a comeback in the back yard.

And the projects never end. While we want to let the raspberry patch grow, we also need to contain it. The deck needs maintenance. The patio needs work. The chores never cease.