Blake, I have been through the basic survival mode. Go, Man, Go! I spent the last year sleeping on a Walmart Camping Air Mattress. Best sleep I have had in years. I have some back trouble and it saved my life. I wore it out....they were not designed for that kind of continued use....and I will get a new one this week. Give it a try. They are good. Not terribly expensive.....I think $24.95. Cheap enough to be a throw-away, really. Made from heavy vinyl, don't immediately get mishappened, you can adjust the hardness for your sleep style by adjusting the amount of air in it. They have a velvet finish on the upper side. They come in several sizes from cot size to king size. I bought a queensize, put a fitted cotton mattress pad on top, and fitted sheets and bed covers. It was heavenly. Like I said, best sleep in years. One thing, it is vinyl, and snagging it on something with puncture it. Good luck, John Rodgers "88 GL Driver "Blake C. Thornton" wrote: > So, mostly this is a follow up on getting rear ended a couple days ago. > Here is what happened. > > For various reasons (mostly because of preference) I have been sleeping > in my van's bed for almost 6 months. I told the insurance adjuster (of > the company of the guy who hit me) that I expected a rental car. That > was absolutely no problem. He was all ready to give me a car before I > even asked. We then worked out some details and I told him: > > "well, I'm not sure how to bring this up, but not only did I lose my car, > but I also lost my bedroom. I sleep in my van and now I dont have > anywhere to sleep" (which was not entirely true). > > He was left pretty speechles and finally offered to give me a rental van > and I could "lay my matress out in back". This seemed like a reasonable > offer and I of course accepted. > > I took my van to the shop and picked up my rental van (chevy astro - I > had to remove one of the back seats). > > The shop and the insurance people fought over repair bills and finally > came to the price of $2000 (or thereabouts) and that is what they will > fix it for unless they find some hidden problems (which the shop didn't > think would happen). The shop was recommended to me by the local shop > here in salt lake that I really like, so I think they are probably ok. > > So, things are looking fairly good. > > On a side note, I slept in the astro last night, and will probably sleep > there tonight too. It was not very comfortable, at least not as comfy as > the westy, but nothing is. I slept in a parking lot and the windows were > tinted, but no curtains. By the time I woke up and got going this > morning, the parking lot was full. So, my comment on stealth camping is > that I am quite sure that my westy with curtains pulled is much more > suspicious looking then this astro with tint. If you look at the astro, > you can see inside if you look, but who's going to look -- its an > innocent looking van. > > So, I had this thought. I remember we had a full size ford van as a kid > and my dad built some sort of bed in the back you could sleep ON and > store stuff UNDER. What I was thinking was that if you slept underneath, > no one would ever know you were inside. I'm not sure who this appeals > to, but if you've been woken by the police a few times, you could surely > appreciate this idea. > > Anyhow, that was my thought. I will never emply it because I like my > vanagon and dont think that I will ever own a different van (but hey, who > knows?). > > Thanks to all the suggestions that I recieved on my first post. > > Blake > 84 westy, > SLC UT |
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