AguaDream

Been working on some more of the final touches in preparation for painting.  The door and screen door on my old trailer were really a mess, but I'd been putting off doing anything about them out of some weird psychological blockage that if I took off the door and couldn't fix it I wouldn't be able to camp again.  So I had suffered with an exterior door which only closed with a gentle nudge at one corner and a screen door that took so much fighting to open and close that it had been nearly torn apart.  So when our July 4th camping trip fell through (not happy about that) I decided to put the time to good use and tackle the doors.   Long story short so far it's been pretty straight forward.  Taking apart the doors was easy.  I used the old ones as templates and got to work.  The aluminum trim was shot so I took them down to the local sheet metal shop to get new ones fabricated.  They will be ready sometime next week. I built out the frame and ...

Fallen Leaf Lake near Tahoe  is a wonderful campground, and the site of an informal annual gathering of vintage campers organized by Kathy Lebs.  All in all about 30 folks and 20 trailers and numerous four legged friends of various vintages sizes and states of restoration showed up for a few days of relaxing, hiking, and potlucks.  Unlike trailer rallies, this was much more casual...no schedule...no organized tours or clinics...just a bunch of friends enjoying the natural surroundings and each others company and common interest in aluminum homes on wheels.  My son Ben was off on an adventure of his own for the weekend, so Lucy my Lab and I enjoyed a grown up weekend.  A couple of firsts: 1.  Hike to Cathedral Lake in Desolation Wilderness...stunning, and an 1800 ft gain in elevation. 2.  Wahdingers-- a campfire treat of biscuit dough baked on sticks (dowels) and then stuffed with goodies, yum! Wahdingers! banana boats Potl...

Another successful trip up to Camp Mather for the Strawberry Music Festival  up near Yosemite for 5 days of camping, great music and festival friends.  Weather promised to be nice, but was quite cold and did rain (and even hail/snow for a few minutes) for one day.  the music was superb and our little Shasta was quite a gathering place.

I got to combine two of my favorite activities over this weekend.  Camping and Kayaking!  Each May I coordinate the Cache Creek Slalom and Downriver Races on Cache Creek (between Clear Lake and Woodland on hwy 16) in California.  You can learn more about the races on my other blog http://tinyurl.com/cachecreekraces .  We had a great time with more than 30 folks participating in the races and another dozen guests enjoying the camp and helping out.  The only thing missing was my son, Ben, who had a big bat mitzvah to attend and couldn't join the fun. I also got to put up my awning and set up camp for the first time with everything (except, paint and upholstery) done, and could really show off.  I really enjoyed having folks come and poke their heads in and oooh and awe.  The flowers were given to all the moms in attendance.   I had a couple of young friends who thought the trailer was a perfect magic place for them. What a great place for ...

After several weeks/months at it, I have finished the boomerang formica table top.  The boomerang was ordered last year from Home Depot (no I don't know where to get more).  The table leg folds on a rockler hinge  which has a positive lock making it very sturdy and easy to fold and store as well.  The  aluminum face nosing on the table came from prohmi.com.     rockler table hinge For the Awning. I ordered a 7 or 8 yards of outdoor (not sunbrella) fabric from FabricGuru and carefully studied the blog instructions from  http://thismontanalife.com/make-your-own-awning-step-by-step/   I was able to get awning rope from sailrite.com   http://www.sailrite.com/Keder-Awning-Rope-Tape#  which makes it really easy to slip the awning into the rail. I also used spur grommets instead of regular grommets, with the hope that they will hold better.  I do plan on using horizontal 1" pvc or wood dowels between the poles to mak...

Okay so a little off topic, but I just got a few dozen KiDECALS to use on my son's gear for camp this summer, and they are amazing. They stick to anything.  Definitely will be ordering some more of these personalized name labels.  Here are a couple of pics.

My friend kelle over at little vintage trailer is doing a give away of a trailer cover.  Go on over and check it out, who knows you might be a winner.