After finishing our tour of Big Brutus in West Mineral, KS, we continued on to Caldwell, TX located approximately 30 minutes from Texas A&M University. We had approximately 9 more hours to go but got off to a fairly early start so expected to reach our destination in late-afternoon or early-evening.
We were heading to visit the Texas Ekmans and would be meeting up with the Florida Ekmans to celebrate Thanksgiving and Jim’s mother’s birthday. It is always a rousing good time when you get this clan together. Filled with lots of laughter and great food, this was the perfect stop before heading to Brownsville to cross the border into Mexico.
On a side note…
At this point, we are still getting use to our Roadtrek CS Adventurous XL but are happy to say that after our first night in West Mineral, it slept all 3 of us quite comfortably. Prior to this trip, Jim and I took a practice jaunt or, as they call it in the Roadtrekking world, a “shakedown” to Vermont from Madison. This not only helps you learn about your vehicle but helps to determine if there are any problems or kinks that need to be worked out. On the shakedown trip, it was just Jim and I, so we knew it was comfortable for the 2 of us, but this was our first journey with George.
The sleeping accommodations in our Roadtrek are pretty simple. In the back, there is bench seating (& table setup for eating) that easily turns into a king size bed. We didn’t do much to modify this area besides building a custom headboard that when the bed put away, turns into a convenient place to store our bedding and when down, keeps our pillows from falling into the storage area.
Of course, storage is always a concern in a small camping vehicle like this but you would be amazed just how much room there is especially if you pack smart. On the other side of the headboard we built, there still was plenty of room for plastic bins for storage of items we wanted to bring but didn’t need ready access to, lawn chairs, a table, tools, Vespa helmets, George’s bedding, etc. When we purchased our Roadtrek, we did opt for the XL version and I will admit that it was nice having the extra space.
As for George’s sleeping area, it is created simply by turning the front passenger captain chair so the back is against the passenger door and turning the second row captain chair so it is against the main sliding door. Then a cushioned bedboard is placed on top of the seats of these 2 chairs and Velcro-strapped in. Voila… a twin bed is born. Now I am not going to pretend this simple bed will work for everyone as it is short. For example, my other son James, who was not on this trip with us as he was on his own adventure in India, would NEVER fit. At 6’2″, he is too tall. But George, who is 15 and not yet through his growing years fit perfectly. He even said it was pretty comfortable. I’ll write more about this in other posts but we also occasionally rented a hotel room or an AirBnB to get either George or all of us out of the RV.
When these 2 areas are setup for sleeping, you can access the bathroom and kitchen area albeit a little tight. There are curtains that cover the front window for privacy and shades for the rest of the windows. In the morning, the twin bed and bedding/pillows need to be put away to provide maximum maneuverability and we liked to turn the king bed back into the seating/eating area but it certainly isn’t necessary.
I promise to write more posts about our Roadtrek in general and how it fared throughout this journey but for now, you get an idea how the 3 of us slept.
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