Picking Up Themla and First Night in the Van!

Since the RV dealer I bought Themla through was about 45 minutes southish (dammit Grammarly, pretend it's a word) of Ottawa, I put an ad on Kijiji looking for someone to drive me. I found Ray, a nice man from Gatineau, who picked me up, chatted and took me where I needed to go.

I checked out of the hostel around 7am (I'm a morning person!), and Ray came by shortly after for the trip. I got to the RV dealer a little after they opened, paid the balance for the purchase and almost $300 for a safety inspection from a local mechanic, and picked up the keys. Ray took me to the next town over to Service Ontario for plates. I had to wait about 20 minutes for them to open, but I was first in line. 

Everything went off without a hitch, really. THANK GOODNESS. I put the plates on, hopped in Themla, started her up and drove back to the city. I managed, through fate, to find city parking about 5 blocks from work. I even backed her in! 

After work, I stopped by my storage locker (post about that to come!) to pick up a few things, like bedding, and ended up at a Walmart in Orleans. There is a problem with the fridge, and I haven't got a propane inspection anyway to use it, so I went in to get a cooler. As I was walking to the door of Walmart I realized I forgot the keys in the van. Oops. 

 I called CAA, and they said that although I have Plus, since it's a camper van conversion, I needed to get the RV upgrade. I fully intend to do that, but I just picked up my van that morning. After talking to my home club, they sent a service tech out. Thanks, CAA South Central Ontario! He popped the door while reminiscing about trips he'd made as a kid in a similar van, which was nice. Crisis averted, I made plans to prevent that from happening in the future, picked up some things from Walmart, and went back to the van.

 Putting the bed down was a bit of a learning experience, the first of many I'm sure I'll have. The bed is HUGE! Apologies for the lack of pictures, but it was dark and my cell phone takes shitty pictures to begin with. Each of the windows has a curtain, and most of them have Reflectix the previous owners cut to size to both block light and retain heat. Its kinda falling apart, so I'll be replacing that soon. The skylights don't have curtains and let in a lot of light. I'm thinking of using stained glass paint on them to filter some of the bright morning sun, and because it would be so pretty.

 Spending the night in the Walmart parking lot wasn't nearly as nerve-wracking as I'd thought it would be. Once I got settled in, with my many blankets and pillows, I was actually a bit warm. I'd wanted to leave the Fantastic Fan on all night, but being unfamiliar with the battery system, I didn't want to wake up to a dead battery. I may get a small clip fan, both for the white noise and minor air movement. It was still really nice though. 

I woke up around 6:30am, about normal for me, feeling relaxed and refreshed. I lounged in bed for awhile, then got my ass in gear. I'd decided overnight to drive back down to Aurora and see my family, sort and pick up some of my stuff, and just see how Themla drives. More on that, my experiences so far, what led me to live in a van, my goals, and whatever else I can think of in future blog posts!