Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2000 00:30:49 -0600
Reply-To: John Rodgers <inua@HIWAAY.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: John Rodgers <inua@HIWAAY.NET>
Subject: Re: rear ended - insurance - stealth camping / follow up(LONG)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
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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