My 2023 Trip to Denmark
5 Days solo
I’m the “accidental” owner of a Tesla Model 3. I won’t go into how that happened, it’s a long story. The fact is important for understanding this trip, though. I don’t really need nor particularly want a car, but selling it would mean realizing a loss, and I didn’t like that idea, so I could not bring myself to do so.
Meanwhile, for much of 2022 and early 2023, I was beginning to understand that I would have the opportunity to travel solo again. I just did not feel motivated to travel. After all my earlier trips, I felt like I had both learned how to travel solo and overcome the fears that I knew might hold me back.
Now, it was not fear holding me back, it was lack of motivation. I no longer particularly like flying, although when I’ve been able to fly business class, that definitely helps. Even so, I usually find the experience stressful and unpleasant. Visiting exotic locations had its appeal for a while, but I’ve visited most of the places that interest me.
Looking back at my “best” vacations, I realized that the ones I enjoyed most were the solo trips where I mixed long drives with modest hikes and photography. I started to think about using the Tesla as a way to travel. That would mean avoiding flights, which is good, and restricting myself to locations that are in driving distances. I have not explored as much of Scandinavia and Europe as I could, so that was most likely fine.
One advantage to an electric car, I had always known, was that it’s possible to sleep in it with air conditioning. I had tried sleeping in the car during a drive to Italy with Anna (the initial reason I came to own it), but it was not very comfortable. I could make a “bed” by folding the back seats down and laying with my feet in the trunk. The back seats, however, did not lay flat, so I kept sliding into the trunk.
If I could figure out a solution to this problem, I decided, then I would have a good reason to keep the car. That became a new project, similar, in many ways, to my original project of learning to travel solo. I spent a lot of effort figuring out how to sleep comfortably in the car, where I can park legally overnight to sleep in it, and how to solve all the other issues that come up with this form of travel.
This trip, then, was what I considered my Danish Test Drive. An opportunity to us the car as a “mini-RV” on a short trip to work out the kinks, in preparation for a longer trip to follow.
My route
Day 0 - Sunday, May 14, 2023
Copenhagen 11.24
Whew. I got a full night’s sleep last night. 99%
I had a couple of fairly intense dreams, but I’ve let their memories slip away.
I went to bed feeling anxious about being “caught” attempting to sleep in a parking lot where it was not allowed, because I read about the police coming by to give tickets to some members of Park4night.
I can see that I have some fears about this.
1. Fear of discovering that, while I can sleep in my Tesla, I will always need to pay to park in a campsite, which will diminish my interest in this form of travel, both because it’s more expensive, but also because I’ll have to start to worry about finding a spot, dealing with other people, and so on.
2. Fear that the fear of being discovered, woken up, and forced to leave and/or pay a fine, will result in an inability to sleep soundly, even if it never happens.
3. Fear of being “attacked” (not by police, but people who are either just angry or who want to break into the car to steal things). #2 applies for this fear as well.
4. Fear that I won’t be able to relax and “sleep in” in the mornings as I’m able to do at home.
So, lots of fears. And… some excitement as well.
I was reminding myself as I made breakfast that when people learn to drive, they often have fears, even though literally billions of people have done so successfully before them, so there is lots of evidence to suggest that they will be able to as well.
Of course, there are millions of people who have died in automobile accidents, to it’s not like the fear that the new driver feels is completely irrational.
I find myself feeling fear about making carmping mistakes, even though I don’t have any fears that they will be fatal, just uncomfortable, and those are, I think, fairly rational fears. The shame I feel about having those fears is the irrational part.
And it’s the shame that I’m really struggling against.
Just like the woman who asked Crowd Science why she is so lazy. Her behavior was quite appropriate. She needed downtime from her 12 hour shifts in an emergency room 4 days a week. She enjoyed her downtime. She also felt shame, resulting from messaging that she had internalized suggesting that a “better” person would not need as much down time.
This is one of the things that I’m struggling with. Feeling shame about being quite good at giving myself what I need.
14.30
I’m tempted to leave this evening, rather than waiting for Monday morning, but it would mean changing various plans, so I’m reluctant to do it.
20.27
I’ve decided, with certainty, to leave tomorrow morning as planned. I’ve started the install of the latest update for the Tesla, and that will be nice to have out of the way.
Day 1 - Monday, May 15, 2023
Langeland 16.56
Trip underway!
I slept reasonably well last night, despite waking several times. I got up at my normal time, a bit after 8am, finished packing my G’night/G’morning kit after brushing my teeth, made breakfast and coffee, checked off my exit todos, and left at exactly 9am.
I didn’t really push myself to meet my schedule, I just did. I took pictures of the car storage locations, which I didn’t really need to do, but I’ve been curious how much space I use, since when I travel to Norway I expect to have more things with me and I’ll need to make space for Anna and Martin too, when they are with me.
I drove over the bridge and made it to the supercharger right on time, but the location I had given in my calendar was inaccurate, so it took a few extra minutes to locate it. Then I set the car to charging and walked in to use a toilet, pick up my lunch, dinner (a chicken caesar salad), some notes, and a coffee, but couldn’t find any protein bars. I should have asked in Føtex, but didn’t do so.
I was on my way out to the car when I got notification that it was done charging. Good timing.
I then drove to the place I hope to carmp tonight. There was a camper in the parking lot and a nice set of public toilets, so it seems like a good option. There were a few other cars too, but I expect they will be gone. It will be interesting to see if any other campers are there when I arrive.
I then drove on to the spot of today’s hike. I got there just as the Penny Marshall memoir was ending. Very good timing. She had cancer and a brain tumor in her 60s and was successfully treated after assuming that she’d die. So she found herself wondering what to do with the rest of her life when she discovered she wouldn’t die. She ended up thinking that, people who like their lives, just go on living them, which is what she was already doing. I think I have come to the same conclusion, but it was nice to hear that I wasn’t the only one.
I then went on my hike. My legs are tired. I got back to the car and, after a little consideration, decided to sit in the passenger seat and start working on my next Calvin page, so I’ve been doing that for 40 minutes. Sadly, when I got into the seat with my SketchBoardPro, I punched a hole in the speaker on the door. It looks like it has a metal grid over it, but now that it has a hole in it, it just looks like cardboard painted black. It’ll probably cost $1000 to fix.
I’m not happy about it, but no sense crying over spilt milk.
While I was making breakfast, Malene sent a text to ask how things were going with my first trip. I told her that I had to postpone, but would be leaving in minutes. She warned me that truckers had planned a demonstration where they were going to block the on-ramps to all highways in Denmark to protest new rules. Luckily, the police decided this would be illegal and they called it off.
Day 2 - Tuesday, May 16, 2023
Kolding 09.45
First night achieved. It was difficult to sleep. Only 58% quality and I was aware of waking multiple times. The bed wasn’t very comfy and I was cold. I eventually raised the cabin temp to 20,5C, and that actually helped.
Will write more in the car. I’m eating breakfast at Starbucks.
Flensburg 12.41
OK, well, I didn’t have time to write earlier. I’m now in Germany, at the first location. It turned out that the MediaMarkt shop is in a mall (of course) that also has Intersport.
So I shopped there first and got:
Poles
Rubber tips
4 t-shirts
Shower sandals
They had only one self-inflating mat and it was only 3cm thick, so I’ll try the next shops.
I then went to MediaMarkt and bought the iPad.
It’s starting to rain, which is OK, given that I’m just shopping today.
Shopping is difficult, as always, but at least it hasn’t been too busy and people in shops leave me alone until I need help, then they are nice. They speak Danish, which I thought they might, though I begin with English.
Gasse Høje 20.56
Whew! I’ve been wrestling with my bedding for about an hour. I’ve built up a sweat!
OK, here’s the status.
I bought at the trekking store:
a 10 cm thick “self-“inflating mat
an inflatable pillow
a car chair (got a 20% discount… I bought the display model, only one of that color)
a hiking chair matching color and brand
a hands free UV umbrella
2-3 more t-shirts
I think that’s about it. I went back to the first store, because I liked a pouch they had for eating utensils, and it turned out that they had a tick remover as well.
The mat was quite expensive, but I felt that the thickness, width, and length were important for most versatility in the car, since I’m not sure how I’m really going to end up arranging the Tesmat.
It’s supposed to self-inflate in about 15 minutes, but I got no reaction in that time. Luckily, it comes with a hand pump, and I was able to force it to inflate in another 15 minutes. That’s a nice feature. They suggest leaving it inflated when storing it, so that the memory reacts more quickly.
Doubling both the mat and the Tesmat makes the resulting mattress to tall, however, so my feet hit the roof of the trunk.
Making the Tesmat it’s normal size helps, but then I need to have both seats down, which I wanted to avoid, so that I can have one seat up and have a place to sit. If I don’t, I don’t have any space for my stuff.
Buuuutttt, I figured out that I can fill my extra comforter and under and long kits in the Tesmat bag, and use that as an extension, so my pillow doesn’t fall like it did last night. That, alone with the increased height, will hopefully allow me to avoid sliding into the trunk like I did last night.
I’m parked tonight on the top of a hill. I found it on Park4night and it claims there is space for 2 campers, and 2 were already parked when I arrived. They glared at me, but I parked anyway. I kept my distance.
I decided to put up my privacy shield immediately. I was right that keeping the shiny side in ended up working better. I don’t know if it looks better, but it stays in place better.
Now, it could be that, after putting stuff in the sub-trunk that I don’t expect to use, and some stuff in the Tesmat bag, I might be able to make the full bed, lay on the sheet, comforter, and pillow, then have the passenger front seat available for me to sit in…
Let me try that.
21.31
Whew!
Putting the fitted sheet on is hard! But I succeeded and now the full size bed is made. I tried to take a picture, but it looks like a jumble of white sheets, so I won’t share with any one yet. I’m sure I’ll continue to improve.
The real question is whether it’s going to be lumpy again tonight or if it will be better.
It’s also very difficult to move into the front seat, which is a pain, but I think I’ll get better at that too. I found that by putting the seat back, I could get my last leg over more easily.
Day 3 - Wednesday, May 17, 2023
Esbjerg 09.20
Well, I’m making progress.
The sleeping mat was a definite improvement, as was using the Tesmat bag as a bed extension. I’ll have to think about how to “fill it” if I haven’t brought an extra comforter… perhaps I can buy a very simple inflatable something…
I woke at about 5:30 or so with 77% sleep quality, which is better than the 58% I had the night before.
Monday-Tuesday: 7h 48m in bed - “asleep” for 6h 14m, 58% quality
Tuesday-Wednesday: 6h 16m in bed - “asleep” for 4h 54m, 77% quality
But I definitely felt more rested this morning.
I “got up” at 6am and had fully packed the car, dressed, brushed my teeth, and drove at 7am. It helped that I wanted to find a toilet, but I’m also getting better at finding a system for packing my things.
I was correct to think that I don’t need access to my grooming kit. That doesn’t belong in my hiking kit, but not loose either. I’ll stick it in my subtrunk.
Today it’s quite cold. 8C and windy. I’m going to take a hike in a wooded area and use my trekking poles to see how that feels.
It turns out that there is a supercharger in Esbjerg, where I’m having breakfast.
I made a video of my hike on Monday last night and sent it to Anna, Malene, Anna & Martin, and Kate. It gave the feeling that postcards gave when I was in Ireland and Namibia.
I’m quite pleased with camping in the car. It’s a solitary joy. I can’t really imagine sharing the full extent of it with anyone else, because it’s so cramped in the car that no one else could be in there with me to see that it works, nor could I capture it with a video camera. That’s OK with me. It reminds me of my dreams of having a little space ship that I could use to explore the universe, back when I was in high school.
Day 4 - Thursday, May 18, 2023
Nykobing Mors 08.46
Headache this morning, though it’s related to a mistake I ended up making.
I turned the A/C on last night, which definitely helped with the temperature in the cabin. Without A/C, the heater doesn’t seem to turn on. On the other hand, the A/C uses MUCH more battery, so I used 150km for last night!
09.54
Whew! Exciting morning.
Once I realized that the A/C was using so much of the battery, I turned off Camp Mode from my phone, because I couldn’t find a way to turn off the A/C. After a few minutes, my speakers started blaring electric guitar at max volume. My ears still hurt!
It took a few moments to figure out what was going on, probably less than a minute, but it felt longer. I touched the screen but it was blank white. When I did understand, I turned camp mode back on and the music stopped. I was, of course, wide awake by then.
I was concerned that I might not make it to a charger, so I packed up as quickly as possible and then started looking for a charger. It seemed like I should be able to make it to the one I had planned on. I misread the screen to think that it was only 50km away, but actually, it was saying I’d have 50km left in the battery when I got there.
That, it turned out, was optimistic! I had only about 20km left in the battery, and 3-4%, which is much less than I would have liked! If the charger had not been there or I made a wrong turn, I could have been screwed.
So, I need to be sure that I have a good 100km buffer when I camp, taking into consideration where I will get the car charged the next day. Having the A/C on was definitely better than not.
I wore my hospital pants while sleeping, which was also comfortable.
In any case, I made it. I had plans to go to a specific cafe for breakfast, but there was a McDonalds “cafe” by the charger. They don’t have any real breakfast options in Denmark, but I got a coffee and a muffin, so I’m not hungry. Charging was estimated at 45 minutes and I’m glad I did not wait. I was also able to use their toilet, which was clean.
Last night I tested using the SketchBoardPro to support the mattress. This still wasn’t perfect, but it was better than without it. My sleep app recorded 87% last night (8h 3m “in bed” and 7h 13m “sleeping”) and I did feel that I had slept more thoroughly.
I also noticed there is a Harald Nyborg by the charger. At McDonalds I decided to see if they had something like a bigger stiff piece of plastic that could act as a support. They had several camping tables, which I have not bought yet. I found one that was the right size, then went in to check on it. I was a little afraid that the legs might be a problem, but after considering it carefully, I decided that they would be fine, and the table was actually quite appropriate for my needs as both a table and a bed support, so I bought that.
As for water, I think I have one bottle left of the water I brought with me. So 6 bottles is enough water for what… 4 days? Maybe 3 and a half.
My HelloFresh order is planned for 9:00-10:30 on Saturday, so I will need to sleep on Fyn on Friday night. At least, that’s the furthest from home that I can sleep on Friday night.
I’m not sure where I will sleep tonight yet, but I saw a place that looks like a nice place to hike for today.
12.44
Well, the day has actually gone better since I managed to charge the car.
I found a very cozy place for lunch. I reserved a table, just to make sure that they would be open, since it’s a holiday. That was lucky, because they are as busy as it gets, according to Google Maps. I came early and parked in their lot and spent the time drawing. So I’ve finally finished a row of the Sunday strip. I might actually finish one page on this trip.
Drawing in the car is harder, although it could also just be that I’m influenced by my strange day.
I wrote Anna & Martin, Malene, and Kate about my experiences. Martin suggested a trip in early July, which I think could work. I could leave in late June and be back by the end of July.
Then I’m starting to think now that I might then take the ferry to either the Faroe Islands or Iceland for August.
I found a passenger seat remote control, which would really help in the car, but it requires installing some form of electricity, so I’m not sure if I trust that. It’s also fairly expensive, but I’m warming to the idea, because moving that seat is a real pain.
Day 5 - Friday, May 19, 2023
Bogense 12.55
My guess is that I’m a little dehydrated. Both my headache and dry mouth are the indicators that I’m depending on. It’s not that I’ve been avoiding drinking. I’ve been drinking a lot, but I did hike for a couple of hours and my water started to run low yesterday, plus there was no toilet by the Park4Night location last night, so I did limit my drinking at the very end of the day. That as probably it.
I finished my water this morning and bought a package of 2 liter bottles of water for 7kr in Bilka as the Tesla charged. I can’t remember if it was 6 or 8 bottles. Anyway, the price seemed ridiculously cheap. I used “self-checkout”, so it’s possible that it only registered a single bottle, but hey, I didn’t complain.
I had breakfast at a cute cafe (Penny Lane) and now I’m seated for lunch at a cute restaurant (Cafe Solo, which seemed more appropriate than Cafe Onkel, which was the other option in the town I chose). I’m seated next to a family with 4-5 children (I don’t want to look carefully). All that matters is that they are fairly loud, which isn’t great for my head, but I’m OK with it.
I’ve found a location for my hike and where to park tonight (just beside the bridge). I’ll only have a 1-2 hour drive tomorrow morning, so I should be able to make it before HelloFresh delivers my meal ingredients for the week. I don’t have any food in the fridge, so I should get breakfast along the way, if I can find anything open.
Last night I set up the bed using the table as a support. That worked as I had hoped, although it lifts me so close to the trunk roof that laying on my back with my legs crossed led the top foot to touch. I think I can adjust by just filling the self-inflating mat a little less tonight. The table is sturdy enough and does not seem to risk damaging the mat, though I still have it in it’s plastic bags. I may look for a nice slightly padded bag as it’s permanent home.
It leaves about 10cm or more on either side, so it probably wouldn’t work great if I had another adult with me, but it works great for me alone, which is definitely my preference now and (I hope) for a long time forward.
I toyed with driving straight home, but there are a few advantages with sleeping in the car tonight.
I want another night to solidify my setup and breakdown procedures. It’s starting to go pretty smoothly and I’d like to make sure I commit it to memory.
The bridge is cheaper on the weekend (I think).
I’ve already driven a long time today, plus despite sleeping fairly well, I didn’t sleep very late, and I’m concerned that, after my walk, I might get sleepy if I drive too much.
Otherwise, I’m also trying to avoid just “running home” when the first opportunity presents itself. This is a short trip, but I am still testing how well I will handle longer trips. Like I can see that I “need a shave” now and I haven’t showered for 4-5 days. Now problem so far, but how well will this feel after 2 weeks? Should I plan on finding a campsite with showers once a week?
Even though I won’t do so on this trip, I know I’ll need to on a longer trip.
Copenhagen 21.45
Well, while charging the car, I decided I’m not too tired to drive 90 minutes to get home, but I did feel too tired to sleep, get up early, and rush to drive home then. So now I’m home, and I’m glad I made that choice.
First thing I did (after using the toilet, which I desperately needed) was take a shower, which felt better than it’s felt in over a year.
I’m thinking I should do a DK Test Trip “retrospective”. Not for anyone else, just for me and my parts. Honestly, my overall impression was good, but it was interesting to see that I was right in assuming that, once I started to sniff that I was close to home, I’d rather make a bee line there rather than stay another night in the car. That’s interesting.
At this stage, I’ve spent a lot of money on carmping (I’ll have to work out exactly how much), and I haven’t really “saved” much yet (I didn’t have to pay for hotels, it’s true, but I could have driven to Germany and back in a single day, if I wanted to, and that would have been much cheaper than the option I ended up taking).
The idea with carmping, however, is that I can take “vacations” without having to pay for:
Flights
Accommodations
Rental vehicles (although I am paying for the Tesla, so this isn’t entirely fair).
Those generally are the most expensive parts of travel. My food costs while carmping are likely to be about the same as they would be if I flew somewhere and rented both vehicles and accommodations.
So that’s the “money” side of things.
Another side, however, is the question… did I enjoy it? If so, what did I enjoy?
I’ll give an actual retro a try.
Day 5+1 - Saturday, May 20, 2023
Copenhagen 22.24
I’ve had a day of slowly plodding through various activities that felt right at the moment. That’s been nice.
I still have some things on my “to do” list that I’ve happily moved to tomorrow. I’ve continued working on a “retrospective” which gave me lots of ideas to improve my solo trips, including buying a water reservoir for my backpack, since I realized that I did not drink enough during my hikes because it’s too difficult to get to my water bottles.
I also learned that my backpack allows me to strap my trekking poles onto the pack without removing it. I need to learn how to do that.
I’m feeling generally sore all over, which I take as a good sign that the trekking poles are helping me work out my upper body while hiking, as I hoped they would. I discovered that I can easily tighten them, so the problem with them collapsing unintentionally should be under my control.
I like the “retrospective” idea for myself, because I actually can see myself improving a lot this way.
I had another idea to make the comforter stay better distributed in the comforter cover by pinning the corners with safety pins. I’ll try that in my own bed.
I made the video for my last hike. I chose a fun song that I have always liked and that seemed appropriate for this one. I wanted to get the whole song in, which was challenging, but I was able to stretch out the overview map at the end to nearly 30 seconds, and that worked.