rhondaburgandy
Rhonda Burgandy and Friends
A place to talk about Rhonda Burgandy, Luna and Billy Bobble Thornton
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A day trip to Toolangi State Forest - stunning!
I felt bad for Luna having to jump up and down down from the seats, and it was annoying to move the seat up and down for her, so we solved the problem with these caravan stairs, which I think will be useful for other things too. That’s lucky because Luna jumps straight over them, every time.
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From a drive along the Black Spur, on the way to Mount Dom Dom for a walk
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Curtains!
After a restless night in a brightly lit showgrounds camp, it was clear that Rhonda's super dark tint was not tint enough for sleeping, or for privacy at night time. Although she has a curtain between the front seats and the back, I was relying on the tinted windows in the back, and having nothing over the front windscreen meant I lost a lot of valuable front-seat space at night time. It's time for curtains!
Many Nissan Elgrands come with electric curtains, which is one of the reasons I first fell in love with them (I love a feature!) But Rhonda had so many other things I loved that I couldn't turn her down just for the lack of electric curtains.
I hunted around online for ideas; magnetic curtains, classic fabric hanging curtains, pre-made curtains... but I liked the idea of reflective/insulating curtains. I roughly followed instructions from a few different people online. I bought a roll of thermal reflective insulation from Bunnings for around $80.
Most windows were easy enough to create a template for, so I drew a template onto the insulation sheet and cut it out. The windows in the Elgrand have a handy lip you can tuck the insulation into so it really blocks out all the light!
Next, I spent way too long in Spotlight to choose the fabric I wanted to cover them with. I spent so long and I left without choosing.
Then I went back a week later and found Mr Right
I cut the fabric about 2cm bigger than the insulation templates, and stuck it on one side with fabric glue and a paintbrush. I also glued down the remaining 2cm overhang on the other side of the insulation. After the glue dried, I hand stitched around the corners to keep the fabric in place even if the glue didn't work. So there is one side which is still the silver insulation that faces outside, and the fun fabric faces inside.
The back window needed some extra support, so I added in some suction caps to keep it up. Here is the finished product and what it looks like going to bed. I used them at a festival that was hot and sunny, parked in the full morning sun, and they kept the van pretty cool and dark inside!
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Road trip to Sydney
This was the first time I camped with Rhonda on my own; no Luna or Tim. Luckily Billy Bobble-Thornton was with me so it wasn't too lonely.
I drove up via the Hume Fwy, and came back down the coastal route, and the photo above is from a free lakeside campsite near Wodonga. It was very windy and a bit rainy. 5/10 experience, however, it was just a quick stop between driving late at night, and needing to log in to work by 9am.
From Wodonga I drove to Holbrook and set up my desk for the workday. It was really fun to park somewhere pretty and pretend I was working in an office, while also secretly wondering if that creek was going to flood. It was in the floody time of 2022.
After work, I drove to a free campsite at Gunning, and the next morning made it to see Trupti in Sydney. I spent Saturday with Trupti and stayed at her beautiful new apartment on Saturday night. Isn't Trupti amazing buying a stunning place with this beautiful tree-with-ocean-glipses view!
On the Sunday, I left Sydney and headed back down the coast. One thing I wish I did differently was not stay at the Nowra showgrounds. I didn't plan enough in advance to pick a nicer place, so it was a lost opportunity to camp somewhere lovely. Also, Rhonda had some oil problems - I think she just ran on out of it! With some advice from Dad and a trip to autobarn, and then another trip to another autobarn, she was OK again.
No photos from Nowra, it was literally parking in the showgrounds in the middle of town, but at least they had nice showers. This is the time I decided that I really needed to make some curtains for Rhonda. She has very dark tinted windows so nobody can see in during the day, but at night time if the lights are on inside - people can see me, and also the street lights were annoying.
After Nowra, I stopped for a walk and lunch in Batemans Bay, then had a beautiful swim at Narooma, which is always such a delightful town to stop in; it's full of beautiful memories, that gorgeous blue sea and seals!
A storm was rolling in, so I left Narooma and headed to visit my aunty, cousin and her family in Eden ish. I had more oil problems on the way. It was really great to catch up with them, they even made me up a bed to sleep in! It was Halloween and they made these cute jack olanterns while I was there.
The next day, I checked the oil (all ok) and drove the 6 hours home to my loves, with a quick stop near Traralgon to visit my bestgurl, Jamie.
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When driving from Melbourne to Sydney, there are free campsites for travellers in small towns along the way. This one was in a town called Gunning, it had hot showers and a real peaceful vibe.
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Cloudy headlights
Rhonda's headlights were pretty cloudy, so I cleaned then up with a Turtle brand cleaner. They seemed to look a lot better but it only lasted a couple of months. Perhaps this is something that we have to do regularly.
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Gramping
In August 2022, we went to stay at/in/upon The Grampians, with Noor and Noor's friend Rachel. Noor and Rhonda get along so well. Here's Rhonda with some kangaroos!
Here's Rhonda parked outside our airbnb, pretty pretty.
And here we are at a damn wall.
We had lots of great walks and drives, I think the Pinnacle was my favourite though. Here's what that damn wall looks like from way up at the Pinnacle look out.
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Camping at the Olive Farm
Our first camping trip in Rhonda Burgandy was for a party at Pete and Bella's farm in North-West Victoria.
It had been a very rainy winter and spring, and the ground was mischievously soft and poor Rhonda got bogged-on-arrival. It took 6 helpful men to push her free.
There are various landmarks and camping areas at the farm named after Bella and Pete's friends. I've named this area 'Emily's Bog' - and I hope it sticks.
Here's Tim and I near their beautiful farm. It's canola season, and it's rained so much and it's also spring - so the landscape is so very colourful.
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Rhonda is excellent at drive-in movies.
We went to see Don't Worry Darling on a very stormy night at Coburg drive-in. We had to close the tailgate at one point because it was raining sideways, and the bottom of the popcorn box popped open at one point and there was little bits of popcorn all throughout the car. But other than that, it was a 10/10 experience.
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Tyre bling
If something *can* be sparkly, then it *must* be sparkly...
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Rhonda came with 20” rims, which are apparently cool but made for an incredibly bumpy ride. Even driving over a reflector while changing lanes made me cringe. Also, she needed new tyres before heading up to Mount Hotham as they don’t allow the super low profiles.
It was a significant expense for all new wheels and tires, but so worth it. The lovely people at Tyrepower Essendon ordered in these tough looking CSA 17” rims and fitted them the next morning. She drives so much better now and I feel a lot safer.
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A trip on the Great Alpine Road, Mt Hotham (July 2022)
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Bed mode, desk mode, dog mode
I don’t have any great photos of Rhonda’s bed mode, more photos to come! We have a double size trifold foam mattress from Clark Rubber which fits perfectly, flannelette sheet set and a doona for winter. It’s a full bed! in an elgrand! This photo is from a short camping trip/party at Pete and Bella’s olive farm.
My cork yoga blocks have been perfect for extra support of the headboard, in both bed mode and desk mode. Here is Rhonda in desk mode, the photo is from a working-holiday-roadtrip up to Sydney.
To avoid getting too much dog on the mattress and so that we can use the seatbelt, we fold up the bed and lay the middle seats flat for dog mode. We use a thin rug with rubber backing on the seats. The rug is also great to use under the awning when camping.
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Becoming Rhonda Burgandy
Rhonda was purchased secondhand from a man in Melbourne in May 2022, with the intention to become the best adventure pal that a gal could drive. After loving her fully seated guts for a few months, we got her camping ready.
NB from here on ‘we’ means ‘mostly Tim’
We took out the very back row of seats, which originally folded up to the sides. We just needed to take out some bolts and other bits, and there was a lot of advice available on the internet to help.
We decided to leave the middle row of seats so we could still bring human friends along on roadtrips. The middle seats rotate to face the back which gives us more space and options to use the seats while in camper mode. The middle seat has so many different configurations - seat, armrest, cupholders, secret compartment, middle table, high table, drivers shelf... endless possibilities!
Our idea was to have a bed that folds down to a full size bed and also folds up to be a table/desk/backrest and keep room for passengers. Rhonda is not a huge van so this needed some creativity...
Tim had 3 perfectly sized planks of sturdy formply that he had marked for another project. Approximately 600 * 1200mm each. Two go together as a square base for the bed, and the third is a headboard which allows us to fold away the bed. We bought coffee table legs from Bunnings which raise the bed just above the wheel arches.
There are 9 legs supporting the bed base; 3 on each side and 3 down the middle. (It feels very sturdy to sleep on!) Tim invented some clever brackets to hold the two pieces of formply together, so that the legs didn’t have to much to do and can just focus on being legs. The tape over the top is to smooth-over the bolts so the mattress doesn’t get caught on them.
We bought two 4wd-style drawers from Anaconda prior to building the bed base and made sure the legs fit either side of each drawer - it was a precision job! The drawers were pointlessly difficult to assemble and I almost had to write a letter of complaint, but they work great now they’re done. One thing we still have to do is raise them up by about 1cm as they currently get caught on the lip at the back when we open them.
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