Trying to stay cool in my 94 degree van

It has been insanely hot all week, which is extremely unusual for this time of year. It is only May, and we've recently had day after day after day of 90 degree weather. It was 92 yesterday, and as you can see on my little indoor/outdoor thermometer, it was still 94 degrees inside my van around 7pm last night. I slept with my rear hatch open and it didn't even really seem to cool down that much. Right now it is 90 out and currently hotter here than it is in Naples, Florida! I don't even remember one single day that was this hot here at ALL last summer. I'm pretty sure it didn't even get into the 70s until late June or July. I like it hot (and so do my plants), but this has been a little too hot for my liking. I've been sweating like a pig.

If all my windows stay closed during the day, my van obviously turns into a oven/sauna on wheels.

However, with all my screened windows open, it does manage to stay pretty shady and quite tolerable inside.

Yesterday, although the temps were in the 90s, I spent most of the day just laying around inside the shade of my van with a 12 volt fan running, the rear hatch open, my ceiling bubble skylight/vent cranked up, and both side windows open. Someone asked me awhile back how I stay cool inside my van during hot weather, so here are some photos of the fan & window screens that help me survive in hot weather.

This 12 volt fan works GREAT.

It is a $5 clearance Walmart item, and it clips right onto my dash:

I don't know what I would do without my rear-hatch screen. It keeps out the mosquitos, flies, wasps, and bees, along with the intense stuffy heat of a vehicle. I bought the screen from GoWesty.com, but I made the holes & installed the snaps myself. The project took me several hours a couple of years ago, but the end result was a perfect fit:

Both of my side sliding windows also have screens:

And what might someone do while they are relaxing (or hiding out) inside a hot (yet breezy) van all day? Get crafty!

The majority of my yesterday was spent laying around on my bed, sewing up a fun little padded iPhone holder for my dash. Now I have place to safely put my phone when it is plugged into the cigarette lighter to charge OR plugged into my newly installed, working TAPE DECK (woo hoo!!) to play music via my phone's iPod. My phone would previously just dangle there, slide off my dash while I was driving, or hang out down on the floor, none of which made me happy... I've already chipped my screen from when it once slid off my dash and landed onto my plastic floor console. SO.

I combined a plastic cupholder (50 cent yard-sale find) with a padded headrest cover (originally came with my matching seatcovers), and ta-da! A custom-made iPhone holder that matches the seatcovers that I love so much. I had no use for the matching headrest covers (I like to be able to see thru my headrests so that I can switch lanes easier), but I am now SO glad that I didn't throw them away. I also snapped off the top handle of that cup holder since it wasn't needed for my purpose. After wrapping the headrest cover tightly around the cupholder and sewing everything into place, I velcroed my new little phone-holder to it's new home on my dash, and I am very very happy with it.

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