This week I glanced down at the odometer of our Dodge Grand Caravan (Adventure Van) and noticed it said 149,992. As I was heading to work, and that journey is 10 miles, I knew I’d be witnessing the big turnover to 150,000 on my commute. Sure enough after getting my breakfast and starting the drive down East River Road I saw the digits flip to a big round number. I was coming to a stop at an intersection so I grabbed my phone and snapped a pic of the momentous occasion.

Ever since we purchased this van in 2021 it’s been on tons of amazing adventures with us (you can read the build out series in full here). When I first built it out I structured it around a removable bed platform for one person. This worked great for heading to races or quick adventures as a solo traveler. However, we’ve now figured out how to make it work well enough for two people that it has become our go-to rig for adventures big and small.

We had previously owned an Aliner Scout camping trailer, but after a half dozen trips, it just wasn’t working for me. The sleeping arrangement wasn’t comfortable, and the lower ceilings made it feel more cramped than I wanted it to. That meant that we had to come up with a solution for two people sleeping in the back of the van. The key to all of this was fold-out memory foam mattresses. I had previously been using one for my solo setup, but after doing some measurements I discovered that I could fit two of them side-by-side. It’s a tight fit, but foam is soft and it’s easy to squish them together.

Since the mattresses are fold-out style we can move them up out of the way while we’re traveling and have the van packed with stuff. Once we arrive at our campsite we unload and set up our camp and move other items into the front seat. Then we unfold the mattresses and voila, a nice bed for two in the middle of the woods. I haven’t built a second bed platform for the two mattresses, as when we’re traveling together the ability to fold the mattresses out of the way is beneficial and gives us more adaptability. For quick stops we also can squish everything into the front seats and usually achieve just enough room to unfold the mattresses, without having to leave things outside the vehicle.

Since we’ve discovered this set up we’ve been doing more trips in this arrangement. This includes our big trip out to Moab and Sedona earlier this year, where we dirt-bagged it on BLM land north of Moab. We just got back this weekend from a trip up north where we camped at two different parks with this setup and it never took very long to setup or tear down. Because the mattresses can also stack on top of each other we can put our bikes inside the van for long driving trips where we want them to be more protected. This setup has really unlocked a ton of possibilities for us and will hopefully push back the decision to get a full-size cargo van for a bit longer.

With all that being said, happy 150,000 miles to the Adventure Van! We can’t wait to see where you take us next!