PT Camper

So many folks have expressed interest about my Cruiser/Camper conversion that I felt it was time for its own page. Special thanks to some key players who helped make it happen – Kenny Strever, Nora Brooker, Gale Pergande, and more…

The PT Camper started out as a humble car, one that I had had for years. She’s helped keep my mechanic in business but she’s never been without heart. As I was planning for this journey and preparing to move into my friends Patti and Brian’s I was searching for the perfect vehicle to take me on this adventure…

My lottery fantasy was the Bambi Airstream…

Google image.

I rarely remember to play the Lotto and never seem to win even when I do play, so the Bambi was out.

I then thought of a Ford Econoline, thanks to Nanci Griffith’s song about folk singer Rosalie Sorrells…

From Google.

But then gas prices went through the roof, and I also started freaking about the logistics of selling my car, buying a new one, switching over insurance and I was getting overwhelmed. Still, I dreamed and researched the following modes of transpo…

In Marfa, Texas.

Another Lotto fantasy, image from Google.

From Old Parked Cars website.

Then I considered getting a gutted cargo van and creating my own camper. But with each day dreaming I was hanging out in my home town instead of hitting the open road.

Then on moving day to Patti’s I discovered a wonderful thing – I was waiting for my friend Kenny (and his pickup truck) to help me make the final haul. In my infinite wisdom I had removed any chairs or comfortable devices for sitting and had a blazing hangover from Rockstar Bowling the night before. I was so damaged that I decided to wait for Kenny in the only semi-comfortable place I had left, my car.

So I opened the back hatch, flipped down the seats and was shocked to find I could lay out flat in the back of my tiny car! I had always joked that the PT had some kind of super power because the cargo would expand or contract as needed (seriously, I’ve put two adult bikes in the back without taking out the seats) but I never in a million years would have guessed this. When I was busy doing positive visualization, “The perfect vehicle is available for me” – I never realized it was sitting in front of my house.

The conversion process was a complete source of joy – I had lots of ideas and my friends with the talent helped me make it happen…

Kenny going over the basics, first.

I took the back seats out and went back and forth over whether to remove the passenger seat. On one hand it wasn’t very neighborly to just have the driver’s seat; on the other hand I needed all the room I could find. So they all came out about a month before I hit the road (and yes, I offered many people rides and then remembered I didn’t have any seats). When the seats came out I think it really started hitting people that I was going to do this crazy thing.

I looked over a bunch of different bedding options – air mattress, foam cut specifically for the PT, a bunch of blankets… and during the search I came upon an “extendable bed”. Extendable bed, what does that mean?

Yes it turned out that a toddler extendable bed from Ikea was the winning choice. The fit was perfect, the bed was surprisingly affordable and comfortable and I’m short enough that I didn’t even need the third bolster (but would thankfully decide to take it with me).

The conversion went smoothly, Kenny did the work while I drank beer…

Because I wasn’t sure how long I’d be gone and I had effectively given up my home to do this I felt compelled to make the PT Camper as home like as possible. I didn’t know at the time that these little touches would eventually become tethers that kept me feeling sane.

My buddy Nora made me thermal curtains for privacy and temperature regulation…

Nora's curtains with built-in pockets.

The Jetson Blue of the curtains, as Nora calls it, was a play on the old shower curtain I had turned into a closet for the car…

This layout changed the day before I left Orlando but the extra shower curtain material made one fab bolster, thanks to Gale Pergande…

Seriously Gale, you're trusting me to help?

More and more, the PT “Camper” was gaining interest from friends…

Dougie outside the Claddagh Pub.

Even strangers at my yardsale wanted to have a look. This once humble car was becoming a little Superstar…

But there was more to do before hitting the road…

These curtain hooks would prove quite creepy on my first night alone in the woods but I've become accustomed to them.

Bed? Check! Shelf? Check! Curtains? Check! Bolster pillow? Check!

Time to load her up!

Within about 3 nights of camping I switched the angle of the cooler, put my pillow on top, and gained about 6 inches of foot room!

Practicing. Months later I've never once done this scenario while traveling. In truth I still haven't even used my stove yet. With a can of beans and a hunk of cheese, why bother?

The day I set out, put my Ipod on shuffle and "Dancing Queen" came on...

But reality was far different than the dreaming… I had to make a number of adjustments to the plan as I went along – from little stuff like removing the driver’s side finger hook so I could actually use my visor, to big stuff like me being clueless and not properly measuring where the curtain loops should go…

Because of the angle of the back window my bolster pillow quickly became my back privacy curtain…

My Yoda Tom Tom went country…

And my first nights camping alone were absolutely terrifying.But I was determined to see it through, even when my fantasy of looking like Doris Day in an effortless Tomorrowland Car/Camper conversion setting was all shot to hell…

It was hot as blazes in Austin, all the families I parked by had left on Sunday – I was alone in the woods and scared.

But the more absurd the conversion became, the more I had to laugh. My life had become an I Love Lucy episode.

And then I started to cry, wondering what it was I was trying to prove. I looked at the pictures of some of my loves…

Then I opened a wine cooler my friend Moe had left me in Biloxi and hit the purple star and moon tap light Nora had given me, thereby turning my scary night into something good again…

I wasn’t trying to prove anything. I had simply decided to continue to experience new things and grow.

Tomorrow would be a new day, I’d be inspired enough to bring out my real camera, and each day I’d get better and better at PT Camping.

Fake out and $100 place holder for the daytime when the Camper was a Cruiser again.

Not quite Doris Day but getting better...

And to those who made fun of my car and called her a PT “Loser”, she got me from Florida to Arizona before she started having trouble so up yours!