Little Adventures With Dolly
| 2025-03-17: Hunt for New Jumbo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| We have had many wonderful adventures in Jumbo, but now we want to go farther
and longer. We haven't ventured far from Edmonton in Jumbo because she's
getting old and less roadworthy, she only has lap belts (and I'm a stickler
for a good shoulder harness), and she doesn't have a toilet.
This year we looked into getting shoulder harnesses for Jumbo, and that was not an option, so we decided that we would replace Jumbo with something that would allow us to take longer trips. We would both love to go out to Vancouver Island, and also to Newfoundland. So, we started looking around for something new last year. We thought about maybe getting a motorhome, but we both really like being able to keep the van in our condo parking lot, so we decided, very quickly, on a camperized van. What we really want is Jumbo, but with a few upgrades. In early March I found a camper van in Lethbridge that looks really great. It's similar to Jumbo, but 17 years younger, and has a toilet and shoulder harnesses. It doesn't have the slidey door on the side, but it does have doors on the side that we can open and look out like we like to do. We didn't want to drive all the way to Lethbridge, and stay overnight, just to look at one van, though, so I found some other vans along the way that we could look at as well. I sketched out an itinerary, made some arrangements, and booked us a hotel in Lethbridge. We had two vans to see in Calgary, so we had lunch with Kim, and then had a look at the two vans: 1. A 2015 Dodge Promaster 2. A 2022 Ford Transit We then carried on to Lethbridge where we saw a 2002 Dodge at an RV dealer, and then, at last, we met up with the woman selling the 1996 Dodge camper van. We took the van for a drive, and she drove very nice. I am in love.
2025-04-03: Picking Up Dolly | We were definitely interested in Dolly after the first time we saw her.
Incidentally, her original name was actually Ace Vantura, but I digress. We
made a deal with the seller, Sahlysse, to get the van inspected. She would
take it in for the inspection, and we would pay for it. The only important
thing that came out of the inspection was that the van needed new tires, so
Sahlysse paid for the new tires, and we bought a van!
| Traveling home from Lethbridge, we had Nemo and our new-to-us van. I drove
Nemo, and I followed Brent (in the van) down the highway. Jumbo's "cap" was
sort of flush with the line of the van body, but the new van's cap bulges out
quite a bit. I hadn't really noticed that before, but I really noticed it
following the van down the highway. I thought, wow, the van looks really top-
heavy. We should name her Dolly! (nod to the wonderful Ms. Parton).
| It took a while for the name to stick. We considered other options. Brent always says that driving one of these vans down the highway is like driving a sheet of plywood down the highway, so he suggested calling her "Windsor" (for Windsor Plywood). "Windsor" became her last name, and because it sounds royal, we tacked a "Lady" on the front of the name, so the van's name is "Lady Dolly Windsor". 2025-05-13: First Trip - Lions Campground in Red Deer | 2025-05-14: Lions Day 2 | 2025-05-15: Lions Day 3 | 2025-05-16: Return to Edmonton | 2025-06-01: Second Trip - Lions Campground in Red Deer | 2025-06-02: Lions Day 2 | 2025-06-03: Lions Day 3 | 2025-06-04: Lions Day 4 | 2025-06-05: Return to Edmonton | 2025-06-13: Third Trip - Lions Campground in Red Deer | 2025-06-14: Lions Day 2 | 2025-06-15: Lions Day 3 | 2025-06-16: Lions Day 4 | 2025-06-17: Return to Edmonton | 2025-07-07: Jarvis Bay (Sylvan Lake) | | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
