Traveling around the USA in my self-converted campervan - a Dodge ProMaster City passenger wagon. After a 40-year career as a graphic designer sitting behind a computer, I thought it time to get out and see nature and our country, and to have some fun.
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Curious to see your sleeping pad extended. Ikea lists it as being 76 inches long but our little vans only have about 70 inches of cargo length with the seats folded up.
It was a bit of a squish. But it worked.
@@MaryAmesMitchell that's actually really good to know
Why aren’t you traveling? Where did you go? Please upload
This was PERFECT!!! Just what I needed!!! Everything I've watched seemed soooo elaborate and sooooo expensive...there really seemed to be no hope. But what you've done is exactly what I have been looking for .....really appreciate it!! THANKS SO MUCH!!!
Great. Good to hear. Thanks.
Miss seeing you and your wonderful videos, hope all is well 💕
Aw, thanks. This puppy takes all my 'editing' time. I've filmed lots of content. I just don't have time to create the videos. She's getting better though. x
I enjoyed the sight seeing tour you took me on. The dirt roads added some extra excitement. I hope you get a chance to edit your other trips and post them because your content is great. Thanks again.
Thanks. I'm working on it. Where are your favorite places to camp?
I hope you can make more videos and get them edited. I love your channel and don’t mind if Abby is barking lol. I would love an about you video where you tell us your life story. No editing required ❤️
Anything for another early bird. I do have another channel about non-RV stuff. Mary Ames Mitchell. And I've published books about my life. Abby put a kink in my editing time, and then there was Christmas and taxes. I hope to get back to travel videos at the end of this month. Thanks for the encouragement.
Thanks for explaining this. I will read the book. I wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for this video you made.
Glad it was helpful!
I found your vlog while looking up Gualala . Thanks for sharing your adventures!
My pleasure 😊
As one "old lady" corgi mama to another, you have some great ideas. I've been looking at ikea hacks and that folding mattress is just the ticket!
Thanks. It's not the most comfortable. But the idea works great.
So surprised to see Nicco at the end! 😊
We thought about doing it ourselves but didn't feel comfortable about the electrical. We really wanted a lithium and solar panel set up. Paid a conversion company to complete our conversion and are very happy with the results. You did a nice job. Any tips for our first road trip?
Congratulations. You are ready to roll. I would start close to home.
Where did you get your dog curtain from
Hi. The only curtain I have is the block-out curtain that I got from Bed, Bath and Beyond. I cut it to fit and hemmed the new edge.
This has been very helpful. Thanks!
Glad to hear that. Thanks.
If you like train rides, there is a fantastic tourist train that runs from Carson City to Virginia City (old West mining town). Many of the Virginia City saloons have turned into restaurants and some still serve alcohol & other beverages. The train winds around a mountain pass and was the highlight of my stay in Carson City NV. Enjoyed your California history and information on the Woman’s Suffrage moment. Hard to believe it’s taken years to obtain equal rights. 1920 seems so long ago and old fashioned, and misogynistic compared to 2021.
Wow, that train ride sounds like fun. I'll see if I can arrange it when I can take my grandsons.
@@ramblinginramsey1395 you might have to wait until 2022. Here is the link. Best to call for reservations ahead of time. Train fills quickly during peak season: www.virginiatruckee.com/maps-directions/carson-train-route/
@@microvanlife7490 Terrific. Thanks for the link.
Nice work on the video! Looks like a cool place 🙂
Thanks. I appreciate your feedback.
Mary I so enjoy your videos as they keep the juices flowing for our next adventure which should leave after Labor Day. While it’s nice to live in Hawaii I envy your ability to take off from your driveway on a moments notice and explore so many interesting places. Thanks again.
Thanks, Bob. It makes me feel so good to hear that. Let me know how your trip goes and what you find. Love to Meg.
I took my son to Cassini Family Campground 20 years ago. Trampoline didn’t exist. But free hay wagon rides and a bonfire were great attractions along with the General Store and cool water in the Russian River. I think we had free use of canoes also. Can’t remember but we took our 20’ class C there. Thanks for bringing back wonderful memories.
You are so welcome. I think hay wagon rides were among the variety of activities, just not every day. We actually never made it to the boat rental shop. We'd purchased cheap inner tubes from the drug store and the little kids were content. Maybe when they are bigger. Thanks for your comment.
Is your van a 6-cylinder engine to handle the towing??
Hi. No. Just 4-cylinder. The max I can tow is 1600 lbs. This was the only trailer I could find that was light enough. It's 1350 lbs dry. Even the tear drops were too heavy. Thanks for writing.
Great to hear from you. Meg and I are looking forward to getting our Westfalia out of hibernation as it’s been stuck in Salt Lake City for 18 months since you know what hit. Heading north and east to Dakota badlands, Minnesota,Wisconsin and other places not seen before. Stay safe.
Fun to hear from you, too. Hope you can find a window of time with decent weather and no fires. x
23 mpg while towing an A Liner is great gas mileage. Thanks for posting!
It is the smallest A-liner, and I don't have a heavy air-conditioner.
Thank you!
You're welcome!
123 miles per gallon!😂🤣😂 I had to rewatch and made sure I didn't hear thing! Did you mean 12.3 miles per gallon? Thanks for sharing your adventures!
Oh gosh. Thanks for catching that. I should have said 23 miles per gallon while towing. 30 miles per gallon not towing. And that was over Grant's Pass.
@@ramblinginramsey1395 That's great MPG even with towing!😍
@@MoBangFoYoBucks I thought so, too.
Are the rear seats removable in the City wagon version?
I think so. They are attached with some great big bolts. Not sure I could do it myself.
Great videos. I am trying to figure out exactly which thermal blanket you chose. REI lists 99 of them. www.rei.com/search?q=thermal+blankets&pagesize=90&sort=min-price
All is says on the duffle bag is REI. Nothing more specific. Sorry. It's gray!
Loved the book, could not watch the emotionally manipulative film.
I can understand that.
I’m going to look for “Nomadland” on audible so I can drive and listen at the same time. My son was homeless for two weeks in the SF Bay Area before I found him a veteran’s shelter in Sacramento. I permanently left California in November 2020 because of poor state leadership! Homelessness among single American adults is increasing exponentially because those with minor children (regardless of citizen status) get the available affordable housing! Now our borders are porous again, adult homelessness is increasing in major cities outside California. Homeless people living in vehicles have caused Walmart locations to end overnight camping because they stayed too long!
Thanks for sharing your observations. I hope your son is faring better. It's really a shame when people abuse Walmart's hospitality.
🙂🙂🙂🙂👍👍👍👍
Thanks.
Great video. I agree smaller and simpler is better.
Thanks, Thomas O'Brien
How its holding up mpd?issues
I'm sorry, but what is "mpd". I'm just a little old lady, not well versed in Internet Speak. Ramsey Jr. is doing great.
Thanks! Going to order the book!
Terrific.
I read the book first then watched the movie. The book is much better at portraying todays life. Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon is about a journey of self discovery around the US in a 79 Ford Econoline work van named Ghost Dancing back in the eighties. Although the book references Blue Highways I don't see much of it . I have traveled around much of this country on old BMW motorcycles , old truck campers and vans. Now building out a 16 Ram Promaster City work van to travel with. I enjoyed your no build build and am doing that for now.
Thanks, Kenton. Sounds like you have a lot of stories to tell, too.
Unfortunately I need air conditioning! Otherwise I love your camper!
Thanks.
I get it.
I grew up in the upper valley. Near the Norwich Vermont sites you visited. So cool to see this from a visitors perspective. And, incidentally the Quechee Gorge is pronounced Kwee-chee.
Got it. Kwee-chee. I have trouble with the river names in Maine, too.
Omg. I have watched so many videos and this is the first one that has been REALLLLLLLLY useful. I am about to buy a cargo version of the Promaster City. Thank you for being so detailed..
You are so welcome. Let us know how it goes.
In your temperature induced rush, you missed the Marshall "Major" Taylor Monument outside of the Worcester Public Library :(
Thanks. I'll add it to my list for my next trip.
Just looked up Major Taylor and learned something new! Have you read his autobiography?
@@ramblinginramsey1395 I have. I am an avid cyclist and a high school teacher so it was of interest to me. I don't remember it being a page-turner but... It illuminated a part of our American history about which I knew almost nothing. Since I am a white educator and I teach (coach) cycling it is important for me to seek out stories like Major Taylor's. If your in Central MA again, the monument is worth seeing. Its a beautifully executed piece of figurative sculpture. (I also teach art). Thanks again for your posts. I am curious what your next project will be?
@@steveallison320 We need more teachers like you. Re: next project. I have been working on the story of my great-grandparents, who were human rights activists during the 19th century. I should have the first of 5 videos posted by tomorrow. But I will post them to my Mary Ames Mitchell KZread channel, not this one since they have to do with writing and my books. I save this channel for stuff about traveling and camping. Thanks for asking.
I read the book when it first came out. I went into it with a romantic and hopeful mindset. As you noted, the realities of the lives that Ms Bruder documented were far from romantic. Fast forward to 2021; I am newly single and bought a 2016 Promaster City I am working on converting for extended camping, not living. Wish me luck I am excited and inspired by you. Because it is a dramatic film and not a documentary, I think the filmmakers made an appropriate decision to focus on the beauty and heartbreaks of the relationships forged between the Nomads rather than the dysfunction of our societies relationship with profit material possessions. That's a long sentence.
I agree. Trying to film behind the curtain at Amazon etc., would have been a huge Pandora's box. Hopefully the movie will lead people to the book.
I just bought a 2016 PM City and am going to start converting it this spring. I want to keep it really simple and though I am very handy the other build I have seen seem like huge investments of time. I want ot travel not build cabinets and electrical systems. I love your approach to this and agree that using less fuel is a big consideration.
It's great to be flexible. I rearrange the floor plan all the time. Adding a puppy has changed things a lot.
So helpful, thanks for taking the time to create this video!
You are so welcome, Devra. Happy rambling.
Dear Mary, thanks so much for this excellent post. I’ve ordered the book, and look forward to reading it. Your points about the skyrocketing cost of housing, and the seemingly permanent stagnation of wages are spot on. In Sacramento, it has been a very rough winter for our large and growing homeless population. There were several people who froze to death, and the City and County couldn’t/wouldn’t open warming centers, supposedly because of the risk of COVID. We have to do better.
Thanks, John. For the first year, the homeless have created tent camps under the freeway overpasses here in San Rafael, too. Yesterday, I noticed that one of them had burned down.
Hi Mary and thanks for the heads up. I just ordered book for my Kindle and look forward to the read. I’m currently satisfying my armchair roaming urges by reading Road Trip USA - cross country adventures on America’s two lane highways.
Hey Bob. I look forward to hearing what you think. x
Ingenious! Thank you I now know I can do this.
Great. Glad to help.
Makes sense!
Thanks.
Hi Mary , such fun to see you - looks like all goes well with you and your furry pals. Give me a call and we will get together. Cheers, Jerry Lehman
Hi Jerry. You are my inspiration when it comes to dogs. Will talk soon. xoxo
I love everything about this. Very minimal, very practical, and the way you had everything in there super cute. I am hoping to do something very similar. Bookmarked the Slakt, it is exactly the bed I was looking form. Thank you so much for this.
You are so welcome. Good luck with your build.
I just love your channel . Thank you for the adventures you share with us!💕
Thank you, Becky. That is wonderful to hear. x
Hi Mary👋, I would love to see some cooking or meal prep for keto videos, thanks for taking us along the ride, you new baby is darling🐶 and so is your older one😄
Sure, I can do that. Give me a few weeks. Thanks for the suggestion.
Simple, simple, simple ~ Loved it! Very informative and helpful! Yes, I’ve decided to buy the wagon, thanks to you! You’re a Lovely lady, so happy I found your channel 🎉 God bless you dear.
Awesome! Thank you!
Thank you for this, I have been toying with the idea of class B for going to rug hooking schools thur out the year,but thought it was too much to have since it would be everyday vehicle as well. Ramsey jr is perfect for my needs. Loved this might be copying you.
You are so welcome!
Love the Bed. Exactly what i need. Thanks !!
Happy to help!
What a cute puppy :)
Thanks. Do you have pets?
@@ramblinginramsey1395 Yes a cute danish/swedish farmdog :-)