New shower thing, cat, snake

After our memorial day trip, we decided we really needed a better shower enclosure. It's hard to enjoy hot water when a cold breeze is blowing your protective tarp onto you, and all of the steam is escaping skyward! So check this out:

Yes, it's kinda dorky. But it has a roof, see?:

And you can zip open the roof if you want ventilation. 

You can see a video of how amazingly easy it is to pop open here.

So that's cool. 

This is cool too:

LOTS of rattlesnakes on the farm these days. Isn't this guy pretty?! He was in the storage barn. We've seen four other snakes in the past couple of days (three rattlers).

And isn't this cute?!: 

Adorbs. Check out that paw tucked in his neck. Dang, I love that cat. Bruce-tillion! 

Memorial day trip!!

We had a great trip over Memorial Day! We drove up after work on Wednesday and met our friends at the Eugene Airport in Oregon, then spent the long weekend in the Central Cascades hiking and mountain biking and USING THE VAN. It snowed. And rained. Check it out:

Trip started with tornadoes. In California. What the heck?!

Dude's spot pre-friend arrival. 

Happy because he's only been driving for a couple hours a this point.

I'm happy because I barely drove the whole trip.

Carex's spot. As close to the driver as possible. Preferred to be in the footwell but that's not a good idea...

Tornadoes over there. 

First day we were on the Middle Fork of the Willamette river. The wet side of the Cascades. 

Big lichens!

Willamette River.

Potentilla!

Odia in the van looking out!

The set up. We didn't camp here but just had dinner. 

Shower got great use! It was awesome! (At least for me..I may have taken more showers than anyone else on this trip...)

Dinner time! Awesome fiesta chicken made in our dutch oven. Thanks TIm and Odia!!

Day 2 (Friday), we went to the McKenzie River. More snow than we expected but still a beautiful place. 

Way more snow than expected...

Day 3: Bend, OR. We camped in dipsersed camping in the Phil's trail system. Man, those trails would be great to live near if you were located in bend! Great for the dogs and the bikes. 

Yeah, it snowed on us there too, but at least the ground was dry!

Van in the distance!

BTW, we're getting married in a few days.
PS. Tim took this picture of us, and the next 10 pictures on my camera were of dog crotches. 

Day 4: We camped at the same site again, but in the morning drove to the Deschutes River trail and did that one. Pretty nice weather and a beautiful river, with lots of interesting volcanic features (lava!).

Lots of Lava.

After that trail, we drove around back towards the Willamette River (Oakridge, OR, where we started) and stopped on the way at this nice hotspring! There were a bunch of creepy people there but I got a nice angle without the weirdos!

Tim got this picture too.

On our last night there we camped at a great campground called Salmon Falls, right outside of Oakridge. AND, we made carrot cake!! It was delicious. 

Carrot cake in the forest: doesn't get much better than that. 

I will have more to add later, but that's our trip in a nutshell!! 

New Rims!

Check them out. They are hot stuff. Adam says they take the van from "airport shuttle" to hardcore camper van. :)

And a few more updates inside the van:

First, a door with cubby hole for trash under the sink..

Added cover panel that flips down and easily slides out (for when we want to move long things that need the whole length of the van):

We bought some organizers: (will be used soon!)

Here's the galley cabinet with the silverware tray:

So, things are looking really great! And the weather is so nice out..feels like summer, which is a nice change from the crazy rain/hail we had last weekend.

The Bruce: