Despite going to bed after 2am we were up bright and early after having had a good sleep at the hotel.

Darrin from D&l auto sales picked us up in our campervan and we went back to the dealers to sign the papers and see how the van worked.

Our van is a 1992 Dodge Ram which is kinda ironic as we spent the last 2 weeks of our housesit dodging the ram. 

Super excited, we took our new keys and drove off. The v8 engine roared away, 5.9 litres of power guzzling fuel from the tank, and the money from our wallets. First stop, Walmart! We had to pick up things. A lot of things! BEdding, towels,  cups plates cutlery, the list goes on.

After a few hours of frantic shopping, we found our way to our first camp for the night at Yankee springs state park. The campground is surrounded by trees and our campsite is in a beautiful spot beside the lake. Now the next step, getting our van ready for our first night.

Walmart had regurgitated all over the inside of our camper van. Stuff was everywhere! There is heaps of cupboard space but it’s sectionalised so that nothing actually fits in the cupboards. In my mind, I am  plotting a lot of work for Mike.

We are both terribly jet lagged. You know that feeling where you feel normal, but when you try to think or do something, the simplest tasks take effort. 

First, we plugged in the power to make sure everything worked. Nope, no power. I checked and double checked it was plugged in correctly at the campground socket and the cord was securely plugging into the van. I switched the switches to the off position in case that would help. Nope. 

It was hot and I really wanted to try out the vans air conditioner. Also, we were unable to buy gas canisters for our cooker so we’d be relying on electric kettle for coffee.

Then we tried to get the water working but that failed too. The water was not coming out of the tap. On further investigation Mike found it was pouring out all over the ground. Shit! I thought. We’ve bought a dud!

Then I thought, no, these guys are professionals, they’d make sure everything was working. They’d had it plugged into power when we arrived at the shop, it was working then. I double checked inside the van. What I saw next surprised me.

I looked, I laughed, I FFSaked. Then I set all the fuse switches to on. Suddenly the air conditioning, kettle and microwave all kicked in at once! Stupid jet lag. But at least we can have coffee in the morning

The water is still not working, so we’ll have to take it back to the shop tomorrow. Thankfully it’s only a 25 mins drive.

The next problem was internet. Mike had bought a months worth before we left but it’s next to useless. And we can’t make phone calls because our nz numbers are out of credit and aren’t renewing for some reason. And we really need to ring the car place to find out how to work our water. So back to Walmart we went.

I picked up a cheap sim for $14 which will give me unlimited phone calls and 5 gb data for 3 mths. I doubt the data will last that long.

For dinner we got cooked some microwave Mac n cheese with some salad. It was actually quite nice.

We have to make up our bed every night but it wasn’t too much drama. And it’s really comfy and we had a great nights sleep.