Don’t tell Steve, but this summer and fall have been about soaking up the midwest, in case our remaining years living in this part of the country are limited. Because: I’ve still got that dream of moving westward.

In the mix of this gorging on Midwest fun: time with friends, here! More time on the Mississippi, more time on Lake Superior, more time in the Wisconsin north woods. Pay another visit to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (and maybe the mitten, too) and do some more camping.

And so: we recently took on the latter item by doing a weeklong camping trip in Southwest Minnesota and South Dakota’s Black Hills. The plan was to visit relatives in the Black Hills and flex on camping skills needed for a trip of a length longer than 24 hours. We also wanted to test out a camper van, as a rental, to see if it might make driving and camping any more pleasant for all four of us (Steve, me, Cooper, and Rollo). The challenges we’ve faced with SUV + tent camping trips include:

• Cooper (the GoldenDoodle) gets anxious in the car. Our theory is that he thinks he’s running, and seeing moving scenery go by could be a contributor. Maybe his spot in a van would have limited window access.
• The same canid is so hyper-social that he needs to vocally acknowledge everything he sees and hears. Tents and snug campgrounds (with no plant barriers between sites) don’t bode well for a good night’s sleep for any of us.
• The freeze-dried meals may be a little spendy, but they make planning easy and they don’t take up much space. They are flavorful and (usually) satisfying, but cooking together is something we love to do. Why not do it outdoors?
• Social media seems to indicate that moving & living in a van is fun. Storing one when not using it doesn’t sound fun, so we decided to rent one.

Planning and Prep

Back in July, we reserved a medium-sized, simple van from Voyager Campervans for 8 days in September. I’d started my rental search looking at RV’s, and I simply couldn’t agree to towing a trailer or driving anything that would be stressful to drive or park. This van was a reasonable size (a Dodge Ram ProMaster 1500) and came with a 5-gallon water jug and a frying-pan sized butane stove. It had no plumbing, gas or electrical installed for toilet or cooking: we were happy to rely on campgrounds for bathroom visits, and we planned to eat either cold sandwiches or meals we could fix at a picnic table.

We reserved a few campsites to fill out the week, and notified the relatives on our route of our impending visit. We were relatively sure that Cooper wouldn’t be magically cured by the van, so I booked multiple-night stays at campsites, to give him at least a day at each place to rest and hydrate. I figured that would also be calming on everybody’s nerves: to explore each park a little, or just relax at the campsite, rather than do our usual rush-in, eat dinner, sleep, make coffee, pack up and go. Our “Camp Every Month” challenges have been fun, but the model could use a little tweaking, to make the experiences a little more effective as restorative and/or enlightening activities.

As the date came closer, we planned and shopped for a few one-pot dinners . At some “white elephant” gift exchange in the last 20 years, a tiny “camping cookbook” landed in our possession and it had some viable ideas! We opted for a simple jambalaya, a white bean and ground turkey chili, and Steve picked up some Hamburger Helper. It worked for our families in the 1980s, why wouldn’t it work, at a campsite?

Packing, once we retrieved the van, took a little longer than usual. It involved some food prep! Plus: a different version of luggage tetris: there was more than enough space, and some items need to be fastened down to avoid annoying or dangerous jostling as we traveled. Steve tackled the “What luggage fit into different nooks and crannies?” question.

The trip outline

• Drive 4 hours
• Two nights at Blue Mounds State Park in Minnesota
• Drive 6 hours
• One night with relatives in the Black Hills
• Drive 20 minutes
• Two nights at Custer State Park’s Grace Coolidge Campground (South Dakota)
• Drive 1.5 hours
• Get a donut at Wall Drug
• Drive 4.5 hours
• Two nights at Split Rock Creek State Park in Minnesota
• Drive 4 hours
• Unload the van, start laundry
• Show off the van to the neighbor, return it

How it went

A friend asked me, upon our return, what a favorite part was. Instantly, I thought of that moment at our Black Hills campsite, about halfway through the trip, when Rollo started communicating with me, without very clear indicators, that he wanted a change in what we were doing, or at least, where we were all sitting. I took him into the van, left the side door open, and got us both comfortably seated. I started reading a book, and he settled into his dog bed and went to sleep. I think he just wanted to be taken off sentry duty, so he could snooze:

I finished a book! This is not groundbreaking news, over the course of a year or month for me, but it’s pretty unusual on a trip that affords time near trails, water or cultural attractions. We allowed time, and so opportunity, to sit still. Sometimes I read, sometimes I went looking for dragonflies. Once, I played ukulele. (Our less still moments involved hikes, a little yoga, a wee drive to the general store to get milk for hot cocoa.)

We’ve done quite a few long drives with the dogs, over the past few years. We’ve eaten a few meals at highway rest stops, juggling dog leashes and bread/cheese/chips wrappers that the wind tries to steal. We have rushed a few camp dinners, racing with waning light or deteriorating weather. It was such a pleasure to be able to pull over, crawl into the back part of the van, assemble a sandwich, pour some water into the dogs’ bowl, then sit and eat a relaxed lunch, while wind shook the van. If we had to! Most of the time, the weather was perfect and we enjoyed time outside of the van. This was a three-campfire (and four s’mores) trip!

This trip started on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, and ended a week later. We planned it for September mainly because campsite reservations were a little easier to get: we figured most families would have kids back in school by then. Given this: we were not surprised to see few kids at the campgrounds, especially on weeknights. What did manage to surprise us: the campgrounds were 90%+ full of enormous RVs. And a few kinda large circles of camp chairs around fire rings. Apparently we aren’t the only … older travelers enjoying the last bit of generally lovely summer weather. And yet it was a little weird how quiet the campground got, not too long after dark… I think the campfire circles may have been for morning/day fires.

So, so many huge RV’s. I’m still floored; so many of our campground scenes in the past have us mostly bookended by tents. It wasn’t just scenery, it was some jarring noise disruption: at every campground, there was power-tool noise from a few of these RVs, that simply isn’t noise you get with tent campers. Usually, someone using a drill to prepare their rig for travel (once, before 7am!). Some dude was using a leaf blower to clean out his trailer’s gutters.

It’s a weird world, at campgrounds after Labor Day in 2025.

Of course, our van had an RV license plate: we were one of them, even if ours took up less space. We were also part of the group finding that these rigs are … kinda nice. The van’s walls (and wood paneling on the inside) provided just a bit more sound barrier for the dogs, from sounds outside, like from critters, people, tree creaking. For the most part, it was just enough to allow all four of us better sleep. The same walls and roof provided improved (vs. tent) shelter for all 4 us during a quick rain squall at a campground, as well.

Another upgrade from tent camping: the bed in this van was pretty big! I don’t think it was wider than our queen-size bed, but it went the full width of the van, which meant there was no way to fall off the edges. Downright cozy! This reminded me a bit of bunks I had a summer camps. I even had a little pocket to store my glasses, jewelry and a few other objects, on the wall.

Overall, we had a great trip. More details are below.

1. We loved the teakettle that came with the van rental, a little titanium number. It held a surprising amount of water.
2. The butane stove was awesome, so easy to use… it was fun to branch out from our usual Jetboil ways. The stove did struggle on cooler mornings (below 50°F) to get coffee water to a boil.
3. The vehicle itself was easy to drive and trouble free! The conversion design was excellent.
4. Whether sleeping with us on the platform, or sleeping on the floor, our two 60-lb dogs had a great experience.
5. The cargo d-rings behind the seats were excellent attachment points for dogs (we feel they are safer clipped in, when van was in motion: we used some of my climbing gear to connect their harnesses)
6. The thick-walled, Yeti-esque Igloo cooler that came with the van rental was awesome. It really kept our food cold! With an ongoing supply of ice, anyway. Every 2 days, we needed to refresh.
7. We enjoyed the rechargeable reading/mood lights (the detachable sconces), and added one of our own, during the trip: Looping a p LED cable to the side wall bunge gave us a disco camper van!
8. [UPDATE!] I forgot to mention the Jackery power unit that came with the rental. It was a super handy way to charge phones on non-driving days, and it powered a wall fan that kept us cool, on the warm nights. It also powered my strand of colored LED lights.

What will we do with what we learned?

The van was fun, but we’ll pass on buying one. We don’t see ourselves using it super often, so we’d have to store it somewhere. Maybe that will change, but not in the immediate future. We’d definitely rent again!

It was really nice to cook non-freeze-dried food while camping. We plan to do more of it! We’re keeping an eye out for one-pot fresh-ingredient meals, and we found one this week: Sausage with Charred Cabbage and Giardiniera. FreshOffTheGrid.com has some great ideas and tips, as well.

We’ve got a couple days of camping planned for early October, and we are looking forward to tent camping with the doggos, again. It won’t be in a crowded campground: we are going with a Hipcamp site, which hopefully will promise us some quiet time with nature.