Meh

They can't all be winners. My latest trip to Sportsmobile (SMB) in Fresno to check progress on my RV conversion was a bit of a yawner. A lot has been done since my last visit, and it's good quality work, but it's mostly behind-the-scenes stuff; like pouring the foundation for a house, it's necessary and important, but not especially thrilling. But I do have some pictures, and a story or two. So, if I've riveted your attention with this scintillating introduction, read on...

What's been done and what hasn't? That's the crux of it. All the windows are in. The floor, wall paneling, and insulation are in. All the wiring and plumbing has been done - plumbing as in the pipes, not the fixtures. And two large holes have been cut in the roof, one for the air conditioning unit and one for the vent fan. It's a little scary to know that the van is sitting outside and is open to the weather - until I remember that this is Fresno in July in one of the driest years on record. It'll be fine, as long as birds don't come to roost. On the subject of weather, the highest reading on my car's outside thermometer as I drove around town was 106 degrees; so, yeah, Fresno.

What hasn't been done yet? Anything that has to do with furnishings, anything that will give this design its character. Not even outlines on the floor. So it's no wonder I was questioning whether this was worth the 5 hour drive up and the 5 hour drive back. Still, this was the only opening in my schedule for the next three weeks, and it did give me the opportunity to deliver the Container Store drawer unit that has to be installed as the galley is being built. Even so, I arrived at SMB at 10:25am and was out of there, having taken all the pictures and measurements I could think of, by 11:30am.

Here's an overview photo taken toward the rear of the van from the cab area:

First and foremost, I think having the windows in gives an idea how open and bright the design will be; the light walls and floor help too. Even so, looking into the van from the outside, the window tinting makes it nearly impossible to see anything of the interior, so privacy isn't compromised by all the glass. Looking near the top of the van, you see that there's a lot of wiring that has been run. At the lower left and lower right of the image, you see red and white pairs. Those aren't wires, but hot and cold water pipes ( or tubes, actually ). Those at the lower left will serve the galley sink, those on the right connect to the water heater. There's another pair further back on the right for the shower.  The pattern and color of the marine vinyl flooring doesn't show up well in the photo, but I really like it.

Here's a close up of the upper left of the previous image:

I like the way everything is neatly zip-tied together. The red and white are again water tubing. In fact, all the water tubing is run in the corners near the roof, except where a vertical run is needed to reach an appliance. At first thought, this positioning seems counterintuitive, but there's a couple good reasons. First, you pretty much know where it's not okay to pound in a nail to hang something. Second, consider this photo I took on my very first visit to SMB:

This shows details of the interior construction of an upper cabinet. I used to think the white board at the upper right was just to hide the transition from wall paneling to ceiling. Now I realize it's an access panel. If anything ever goes wrong with the plumbing, you remove a few screws, the white board comes away, and you've got direct access to nearly all of the tubing. Same thing goes for any wiring problems. Pretty clever. Before we leave the closeup of the wiring, look to the left of the loop of yellow wire and you can see the gray batting used to insulate the walls of the van. Look above the yellow loop and you see the gray foam rubber that insulates the ceiling.

Here's a closeup of the passenger-side rear window of the van:

You see that the lower part of the window is divided into two flaps that can be opened independently for ventilation using the knobs. Of course, I had to try them out, and I thought I'd found a defect. I could crank the forward flap wide open, the rear flap hung up after opening only about an inch. Huh. Then I realized it had to be that way. The rear doors of the van can open all the way around to the side of the van. If that rear window opened any further, it'd be in danger of getting hit and possibly broken. So many little details. By the way, when they're finished those bottom flaps will have screens to keep bugs from getting in when they're open.

A couple holes have been cut in the driver's side rear of the van:

The rear one will have a connection for a campground water hose. I believe the forward one is for connection to a portable satellite TV dish - something that I don't plan to get right away, but may in the future. The forums say you're much more likely to get a good satellite signal if you have a dish you can move around rather than one that's fixed to the top of the van.

Larger holes have been cut into the roof of the van:

The nearer one is for the FantasticFan ceiling vent. The one further back is for the interior portion of the air conditioner. As you can see, the positions of both are constrained by the structural braces in the roof.

I'll close this portion of the post with a couple "glamour" shots of the van:

It's a happy looking little van, don't you think?

As I noted earlier in the post, I was done at SMB by 11:30am. I remembered a great place nearby where SMB had taken me to lunch on my previous visit: Brooks' Ranch restaurant on Chestnut, just south of Central Ave. After a couple wrong turns, I found my way back and had a wonderful chili cheese burger. If you're ever in Fresno, I highly recommend this place; the staff is friendly, the menu extensive, and the food tastes great.

I had another wonderful meal that evening at Tacos & Mariscos Tijuana on Ventura. I ordered the Shrimp Veracruz. There's nothing refined about the decor or the atmosphere, but the food is delicious.

After lunch at Brooks' Ranch, I considered driving back home early, but I'd already paid for the night in the motel and I didn't want to deal with L.A. traffic on a Friday afternoon. So, I decided to kill some time by shopping. The Camping World in the San Diego area is 40 minutes from my home, the one in Fresno was just ten minutes from my motel, actually very close to SMB. I'd been looking for a good reclining camp chair to take with me when I start traveling in the RV. A quick check online showed that Camping World had one on sale that looked perfect. I could have ordered it on line, but why do that when I could try it out at the store? Sure enough, they had them in stock, and the floor model passed my "sit test" with flying colors. Here's a photo:

It's a "zero-gravity" style recliner. It had all the features I was looking for: a canopy, a headrest, a little side table, and the sale price was a bargain. So I bought it, proud that I'd avoided the $9 shipping charge. Only then did I think about getting it home. The box was big; it wouldn't go in through the side door of my car. Luckily, The car is a convertible, and by opening the top I could easily drop the box in the back seat. But I wasn't about to drive all the way back to San Diego with the top down, or even around Fresno in 105 degree heat. The good news is that with the box in the back seat, the convertible top... just... barely... closed. The bad news is that the box completely blocked my view out the back window.

Back at my motel room, I resolved to take the chair out of the box to see if it would block less of the view than the box. Once I got the chair out, I decided it was the most comfortable chair in the room and used it during the rest of my stay. And sure enough, in the back seat of the car, the chair itself blocked almost none of the back window.

One more quick story before I finish. Outside the Camping World, there was a motorhome for sale of a type I hadn't seen before. It's quite compact but has the boxy shape of a bus-like class A motorhome. I took a quick detour to peek inside. Though I'm irrevocably committed to the Sportsmobile at this point, I have to admit to a "grass is greener" moment. If this new model had been available when I was choosing, it would have been a strong contender. Would it have beaten out the Sportsmobile? Well... It's been a while since I've done a motorhome review, so... I'll review this new model in my next post and answer that question there.