July, 2016: We got married in June, and set off July 19 for a two-week honeymoon loop out to the Bay Area, up to Oregon, and home to Longmont via Yellowstone and Jackson, Wyoming.
First, I need to say that the van did beautifully in the snow over the winter. I used it commuting to Vail and ABasin, in all kinds of weather over passes up to 12,000 feet. Motored steadily and never lost traction. It can be a handful in a strong gusty crosswind, but getting through was never an issue. I even slept in it a couple of nights, and was cozy in my down bag; water inside the van never froze. We’ve now put 15,000 on her.
In preparing for our summer trip, I built a light but stiff air dam to streamline the solar array. I hope this will improve mileage from 16 to maybe 17 mpg. It may also reduce some wind noise. It’s made of corrugated polyethylene sheet, attached to the fiberglass roof with industrial-strength duct tape and white vinyl tape. Vented on all four sides to keep the solar panels cool when we’re not moving. Whole thing adds only about a kilogram (2.2 lb) of weight.
Here’s what it looked like beforehand: 
Gail has sewn very nice fabric strips that velcro over the gaps where I ran the wiring harness. This means I can add new lights or outlets pretty much anywhere or any time I need to. She also put a nice danish oil finish on the remaining bare wood cabinetry.
We’ve also installed a Ride-Rite airbag system to reinforce the rear suspension, leveling the van when carrying the motorcycle. Combined weight of motorcycle and carrier is about 500 lb. — 230 kg.
The bike is a 1999 BMW F650, often called a Funduro. We’ll use it on mountain-road side trips and maneuvering downtown San Francisco. It’s a hell of a lot easier to park in the city than the van, which, at 21 feet long (with the motorcycle carrier) and 9 feet high (with the solar array) won’t fit most indoor garages.
Finally, I replaced the stock GM radio with a nice Clarion stereo system, so we can play road music full blast off CDs or our smartphones.
I installed a cross-over switch to the big house batteries so we can run the stereo in camp without draining the truck battery. On Chevy and GMC vans, stereo installation requires removing the entire instrument panel, which is one big piece of plastic. And all modern GM vehicles use a data bus system (GMLAN); to make the new radio work through the system you need a GMOS adapter box, for $50 to $100, in addition to the usual pigtail harness. The 
most fiddly bit is threading the antenna adapter cable through the back of the radio enclosure, and keeping all its connectors attached as you fiddle the radio into place.
August 2: Had a wonderful trip. We set off as scheduled on Tuesday, July 19, and after a night out under a full moon in the desert near Pilot Peak, Nevada, arrived in Mill Valley on Wednesday afternoon.
Rode the motorcycle to San Francisco on Thursday, and up the coast road to the old hippie town of Bolinas on Friday. 
Then we vanned up the coast, camping near the beach in a bracing sea breeze.
We rode the motorcycle around some of the twisty narrow back roads over the Coast Range, and visited old friends near Garberville. Then on to the Trinity Alps (see one of our motorcycle rides!), to Ashland and Crater 
Lake in Oregon, and Yellowstone National Park. Got close to some wildlife — in addition to the pair of bison here, we saw a bald eagle swoop across the trees to hook a fish out of the Gibbon River, and a lone wolf trotting along the far bank of the Yellowstone. Spent a day touring the north end of the park on the bike and rode 
back to the campsite through a bracing thundershower.
Then south through the Tetons to visit my daughter in Jackson and home via the scenic route through Lander.
Can’t wait for Honeymoon II!
Next chapter: High school reunion
gailandsethtravelling 
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