Wax On, Wax Off

You know what I love almost as much as camping? Attention. I love when my blog readers say they like what I write, and when people say I look good for my age. It definitely warms my heart, and I sincerely thank everyone that has been so nice to me. I also love it when my owner Gary spends time with me, and today was one of those days. Last week, I got a bath. Today, I got a good massage, or as Gary calls it, a wax job. He can call it whatever he wants, the bottom line is, it felt REALLY good. He began with polishing compound, and then a full coat of wax. He's still not happy with a few spots on me, and he plans on going over me again with some steel wool in the next couple of days. That means that he will be spending even more time with me. WOO-HOO!!! I'm hoping when he gets done with everything else, that he will apply a little Oil Of Olay on me. If he does, I will probably look no older than 39 for years to come. I think Gary could use a little Oil Of Olay for himself. Whoops, did I say that out loud?

SERENA!!!, and oh yeah, Jeff, Gail, & Maggie Too

As you know, I had a bath on Sunday, and now Monday was finally here. I had been looking forward to this day for months, a year to be exact, to once again see my girlfriend Serena. She was on her way here from Ohio, and like the typical female, she was making me wait. I was still locked up in the garage. Gary wouldn't even open the garage door so I could see her pull into the yard. How cruel is THAT??? Finally, around 5:30, she arrived. I couldn't see her, but I just KNEW she was here. Minutes later, Gary came out to the garage to get me. I was still hitched up to the van from the previous night, so no time was wasted with that. Out of the garage we went, and into the front yard next to the driveway. And there she was, that vision of loveliness, the sweetest little Serro Scotty EVER, my darling Serena. She looked INCREDIBLE, and we shared glances as we waited for our owners to go do something other than hang out around us. Awhile later, Serena's owners Jeff and Gail took Gary out to eat. Their dog Maggie got to hang out in the house, leaving Serena and I some time alone. The e-mails we shared in the past year were terrific, but nothing capares with actually being with someone you love. We had a couple of hours together before our owners returned. I cherished every minute. We spent the rainy night together, whispering sweet nothings to each other as our owners slept comfortably inside of us. The normally long night went by in what seemed like no more than the blink of an eye. The morning brought the sad reality that our time together was quickly drawing to a close. Our owners posed for some pictures with us, and before long, Serena was hitched up for the ride to her next destination. Parting is such sweet sorrow. I'm not at all sure when we will see each other again, but we will forever be in each other's hearts. Goodbye, my love.

What A WONDERFUL Day!!!!!

This was the best day I have had in a LONG time. After all the things that Gary has done for me, I am ashamed of myself for doubting him. He told me that big old Terry trailer would be out of the garage soon, and as usual, he made it happen. The Terry rolled out of the garage early this morning, and I quickly assumed my favorite spot right near the garage door. Nobody was going to get past me to get back in! I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful it was to look out that door, and to know that monstrosity would NOT be returning. No more trailers in MY garage from now on, unless they are Serro Scotty trailers. Gary hitched up the Terry to the van, and towed it over to the driveway. It is on the other side of the house, so I can't see it at all when I look out of the garage. Oh my gosh, I LOVE it!!! As much complaining as I've done lately, I'm surprised that Gary will even talk to me. But he didn't only talk to me, he pulled me outside for an afternoon in the sun, and then he gave me a much-needed bath before putting me back in the garage. I know that I seem ungreatful sometimes, and I complain when I don't get my way, but I'm really not a brat. I count my lucky stars everyday that Gary bought me and gave me this AWESOME home. He's pretty cool for an old guy. I'll be having another great day tomorrow. My girlfriend "Serena" is coming to see me from Ohio. I sure am glad I got a bath today. I want to look HOT when my Sweetie gets here!

Ron And Sherri Stop By

Gary was out in the garage earlier today working on that ugly old Terry trailer. I see he is making some progress, and I hope to see that thing gone PRONTO. Then, Gary disappeared for awhile, and when he returned, he had company with him. Ron was back again, having visited just this past Friday. And with Ron, was his wife Sherri. What a surprise! I had never met her before. She was really nice, just like Ron. I just love when people come to see me. It sure makes the long days in the garage go faster when someone stops by. Visitors are the next best thing to going camping. Thanks for the surprise visit, Ron and Sherri. You guys are AWESOME!!!

Ron's Here!

Every year since I've been living here, Gary's buddy Ron stops by for a visit while he is in our area for a work conference. I like Ron. He is always nice to me and showers me with compliments. As you know, I've been feeling kind of down lately because I lost my favorite spot in the garage. Gary has been less than friendly towards me because I've been complaining so much. So, it was good to see a smiling face for a change. I sure wish Ron lived close to us so he could stop by more often. It was fun to have him visit today, and I was sad to see him go. Come back soon!

Shuffled Out

I was so surprised when Gary opened up the garage door this morning, and there was the van, ready to hitch me up. I wondered at first if we were going camping. Had Gary told me we were and I missed it? Then I realized that Gary had on his grubby work clothes, and that meant we weren't going anywhere. But, he did hitch me up to the van, and pulled me out to the front yard. We weren't going camping, but at least I was outside enjoying some fresh air. Nothing wrong with that! I sat out there for a couple of hours, just hanging out and watching the squirrels playing in the trees. Meanwhile, Gary was busy in the garage, but I wasn't sure what he was doing. The garage door opened, and there was my brother Henry. He got to come outside too. This was unusual. I was thinking that Gary was probably cleaning the garage, and needed the room to move things around. I was certain my other brother Scotty would be coming out next, but instead, that ugly old Terry trailer rolled out. I knew that wasn't a good sign. The Terry trailer NEVER gets moved. I waited, but Scotty never came out. A little while later, Henry went back into the garage, and then, sadly, I was next. Scotty had been moved to where the Terry trailer was. Henry was moved into Scotty's old spot. And I was rolled into the middle of the garage where Henry used to be. Not a good thing for me at all. Being in the center of the garage meant that the Terry trailer would be taking my spot in front of the door. Now I know I won't be going anywhere for awhile because I have that big ugly roadblock in front of me. When Gary used to open the door, I could see out and enjoy the view. Look at the pics at what I'm seeing now. Yuck! This is NOT fun. Gary tells me that he's going to install the door and windows back in the Terry trailer, and it will be gone for good. He moved it to the front of the garage so he would have room to work on it. Well, I'll promise you this. I am going to bug Gary everyday until he gets that monstrosity out of MY garage. I want my space back, I want my view back, I want to go CAMPING!!!

Hometown Visitors

Gary belongs to several different online trailer forums. Recently, he made contact with Brooke and Josh through one of those forums. Unlike all of our other trailer friends, they live right here in St.Augustine. How cool!!! They were SO nice, and complimented me over and over again. As a former ugly duckling, I am still in shock when somebody says I look good. It sure is a great thing to hear. Brooke and Josh own a '65 Shasta named Mabel. I think that is an AWESOME name for a trailer. I know she needs some fixing up like most vintage trailers do, but I'm sure she will be a beauty when they are done. They have big plans for her. Gary will be going over to see Mabel soon, and I'm sure he will take pictures for me to look at. By now, you know how much Gary just LOVES to take pictures! I hope that Brooke and Josh will stop by often to visit. It's FUN to have company, especially vintage trailer fans.

My House

I was reading back through my blog posts today, and noticed that I never have showed you where I live. As many times as I have mentioned the Green Acres Garage, I've never actually showed it to you. So, here's a look at what I call "my house". It's a steel building, 30ft. wide and 60ft. long. That's a total of 1800 square feet. I share my house with Gary's abundance of junk, tools, and vehicles. In addition, my brother Scotty lives here with me, my brother Henry (not shown in the pictures), and a very large Terry travel trailer that Gary is fixing up to sell. These pictures were taken before Gary stripped all the paint off of me. I still look really ugly in the one picture that I am in. Anyway, this is the nicest place I have ever lived. I'm safe and dry and VERY happy. My brothers don't talk as much as I do, and I'm sure they wish I would shut up sometimes, but they are very nice to me. Check out the attached pictures, and come see me if you're ever in St.Augustine. I LOVE company!

Three Days Away

I escaped from the garage again this week, and got to go to St.Petersburg with Gary. He had some work to do at his house there, and I'm his "motel on wheels". Going there is nothing new, but at least I get to camp, even if it's only on a driveway. As you know by now, I'm all for camping, anytime, anywhere. It was an uneventful trip on the way over. We went straight there. I love when Gary decides to take side roads that we've never been on before, but there was no time to explore. We spent three nights, and Gary completed the majority of the things at the house that he needed to do. We came back home the same way we went, but Gary was more relaxed and made a couple of stops. I think he did that more for me than for him. He knows how much I like to see new places. We stopped at a nice little park called Wrigley Fields, and we hung out there for awhile. Gary made lunch and took a couple of photos of me. Another stop was made at a little park in Palatka, which is only about 30 miles from home. It was right by the water, and a nice setting for some more pics. It's a good thing I don't mind having my picture taken, because Gary takes a LOT of them. We made our way home, and back into the Green Acres Garage I went. It's about two months away before my girlfriend Serena comes to visit me from Ohio. I'm not sure if we're going anywhere before then, but I hope we do. It's always fun to go somewhere.

Some New Decor

Gary removed the red framed Serro Scotty logo that I had over my bunk beds the other day. I knew he wasn't totally thrilled with the way that it looked, so I figured he was reworking it. Today he surprised me with something I wasn't expecting at all....a photo montage of people and trailers that we have camped with. How cool it is to have photos of all our camping friends in one place. It is MUCH better than that boring old logo. And who's picture is right in the middle of the montage? My girlfriend, SERENA!! I know that Gary arranged the other photos around her just for me. Now she's not only in my heart, but on my wall as well. The montage will be a fun thing to show off when we're camping with old and new friends alike. It is AWESOME! I haven't had any presents in awhile, but this is a really special one. Thanks, Gary. You're the BEST!!!

Visitors From The West

I heard voices outside the garage today, and when Gary opened the roll-up door, there was Bill and Sandy from St.Petersburg. Boy, was I surprised! They have been good friends of Gary's for over 30 years. They were on their way home from a wedding in North Carolina, and stopped by to visit with us for awhile. It was nice to have company. I don't get to see many people other than Gary, and I don't even get to see him everyday. It gets lonely with nobody to talk to. I sure do wish we could go camping somewhere. I love my garage, but I REALLY love camping. I heard Gary say to Bill and Sandy that he needed to go to St.Petersburg for some repairs on his house, and that he (meaning us) would be going soon. I hope he doesn't make me wait much longer!

Driveway Camping

Gary rented out his St.Petersburg house in late June to an old friend. There is lots of work to be finished on the place yet, but it's livable. Gary now needs a place to sleep when he's over there working, and that's where I come in. So, I got to go along and do some driveway camping when we were there on July 8th and 9th. This was GREAT news for me. This meant that I wouldn't have to spend the entire summer locked up in the garage. Miracles DO happen. Gary had bought a brand new air conditioner for me last year, but never had a chance to use it. He had built a wooden frame for it that is screwed permanently to the air conditioner. The wooden frame fits easily inside my fire escape window. Believe me, when you're in Florida in July, air conditioning is a must, at least for humans. Gary had also built a portable shower stall to take along, and had bought a brand new porta-potty for emergencies. He had everything he would need. Other than some heavy rainstorms on our first day, all went well. We returned home on the 10th. Not sure when we're going back, but anytime is fine with me. As long as I can escape from the garage from time to time, I'm a happy camper.

Spring Break

After the Winter Camp-In at Wal-Mart, I was a lonely boy for about six weeks. Gary was busy working on projects here in St.Augustine, and also at his house in St.Petersburg. I didn't see him very much at all. Finally on March 26th, he began to get me ready for another trip. Gary's neice Jennifer, and her boys Jarod and Jude, were heading to Pat and Dan's farm in Georgia for spring break. You may remember Jen, Jarod, and Jude from our trip to Ohio in October. Anyway, we were going up to spend the week with them at the farm. Camping baby, YEAH!!! We headed out on March 27th, and spent seven nights on the farm. Everybody worked hard and had fun. The biggest surprises of the trip came on March 31st. A new baby goat was born (that's Gary and him in the first picture), AND, Diane the donkey had a baby also. That's Diane and baby Jaclyn in the second picture. TOO cute! Needless to say, it was an exciting day. Remember the baby goats that were born during our January trip? That's them in the third picture. Two months old now and getting bigger all the time. The farm is a really cool place to hang out. We came home on April 3rd. Even though the days in Florida were getting warmer, the nights were still mild. Gary decided to spend one more night in me here at home in the yard. I forgot to mention that my new antenna was working great everywhere we went. I rolled back into the garage on April 4th feeling a bit sad. I knew I most likely wouldn't go anywhere else until cooler weather next fall. That was a LONG time away. It was going to be a miserable and boring summer for sure.

The Second Annual Winter Camp-In

Gary and I participated in this event last year. Instead of staying home like we did then, we decided to go somewhere different, but close by. Where have most campers "camped" before? WAL-MART! The local store is about seven miles away from home. We found a spot in the parking lot away from the busiest areas, and set up for our stay. A couple of people came by and looked me over, and liked what Gary had done with my renovation. We both appreciated the nice compliments. As the sun went down, it was time for dinner. Gary walked down the street to McDonald's, while I held down the "fort". We had no electric of course, but didn't really need any. Temperatures got down around freezing during the night, but Gary had brought enough warm clothes and blankets to be comfortable. I never care if it's cold or hot, I'll camp anytime, anywhere. Other RV's parked near us during the night, so we weren't totally alone. We stayed all night, and headed home around sunrise. It wasn't the first time I had stayed in a Wal-Mart parking lot, but it was definitely the most fun. I can't wait to see where we'll be going to next year for this event. I'm sure Gary will come up with something interesting, right Gary? No pressure, buddy!

Silver River State Park

Several months earlier, Gary had booked us into a campout at Silver River State Park near Ocala, FL. I really don't think he was keeping it a secret from me, but was just too busy and forgot to mention it. Anyway, we weren't even home a week from Pat and Dan's farm, and we were heading out once again. A few days before we left, Gary installed a TV antenna on my left rear side. You can see it sticking up over my roof in the second picture. Now we can watch some network shows instead of just watching DVD's. This trip would be a good test to see how well it would work. This campout was different than any we had been to previously. It was a joint campout between members of the National Serro Scotty Organization and members of the Southeast Tearjerkers, a teardrop trailer club. The event took place from Thursday, February 3rd, thru Sunday, February 6th. Gary and I stayed for one additional night. We met so many new friends, and had an absolute BLAST! There was a meet and greet on Friday night, and a potluck dinner on Saturday night. Gary said there was more food than everyone could eat. Nancy and Mabel from the NSSO drove all the way from Michigan for the event. They hadn't seen me in person since before Gary stripped off all my paint. They wouldn't have recognized me if Gary hadn't been around. There were lots of people stopping by to visit with us, and everyone was SO friendly. The campsites were the biggest I have ever seen. This may become a yearly event, and if it does, we'll be back for sure.

Happy New Year 2011

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. It was quiet around here. Gary worked on all of his projects, and didn't spend much time with me. That's alright. I know he is VERY busy. He always says "Hi" to me when he comes out to the garage, so that makes me feel good. He began the year taking the skin off my brother "Scotty". Poor old guy has some serious rot issues, and Gary wanted to see how bad it really was. It's BAD! "Scotty" will need a total frame-up rebuild. I may have been abused, but at least I wasn't in THAT bad of shape. "Scotty" will be a future project, but now Gary knows exactly what he will be getting into when the time comes. By mid-January, Gary was talking about going back to Georgia to the farm. No complaints from me. We left on January 18th, and came back home on the 28th. Ten nights of camping....WOO-HOO!!! Dan and Gary put up lots of fencing on this trip, both wood and wire fence. Gary also repaired the rotted right front corner of the pump house shed one day while Pat and Dan attended a wedding. But the coolest thing that happened was the births of two baby goats, one on the 19th, and one on the 24th. Boy, are they ever cute when they're that tiny. Lots of fun was had and lots got accomplished. It's always good to combine a good time and productivity into a trip. We hated to leave, but I knew we would be back soon. Even Jack the donkey was sad to see us go. Bye-bye Jack!

Back To The Farm

We left St.Augustine mid-morning on December 6th, and headed to the farm in Georgia for our second visit. Gary usually takes different roads to get to our destinations, so there's always something new to see. We saw a few old trailers along the way, but no Serro Scottys. Just as we did on our previous trip to the farm, we met up with Pat and Dan in Thomaston for lunch, then followed them home. The goats all watched as we pulled in, and the donkeys came over to greet us. They're so sweet. We parked in our usual spot next to the pump house shed where Gary could easily hook me up to the power supply. Gary worked quite a bit around the farm with Pat and Dan during the days, but we had our nights together. We would watch DVD's until we fell asleep. Fun stuff. Pat, Dan, and Gary had a good time going to an auction, a junk store, and cruising around through local towns when they weren't working. I stayed behind and kept an eye on the animals, or should I say, they kept an eye on ME. We stayed for six nights this time, and as usual, the time went much too quickly. This would be the end of our camping trips for 2010. It was an exciting year and a very active one. Gary's "to-do" list at home was growing longer all the time, so I knew we wouldn't be travelling for awhile. But winter in Florida is the best time for camping, and Gary was NOT going to let it go by without planning SOMETHING. More adventures just ahead. Read on!

Turkey Run 2010

Marty and Michael arrived from North Carolina on Tuesday, November 23rd. This year, Michael made the trip, but Kyle (who had made the trip in 2009), couldn't. Gary and his buddies spent the day having some fun around St.Augustine. Meanwhile, I was getting more and more excited at the thought of 4 more nights of camping at Tomoka State Park. We left for Daytona the following morning. Gary always books the same campsite every year, so I knew exactly where we would be staying. After last year, I knew I'd be by myself except at night. That was fine with me. I don't mind being alone, especially when I'm camping. Somebody usually comes by to look at me, even though I have no clue who they are. This year, a nice young couple came by and REALLY liked how I looked. They came by again after the boys came home for the evening, and asked to see my renovated interior. They had lots of nice things to say, and said they were looking for a vintage camper of their own. They camp at Tomoka every Thanksgiving, so I think we'll be seeing them again. The four days and nights flew by as they always do, and we headed home on Sunday morning. Marty and Michael spent one more night in the house with Gary, and left on Monday morning. Gary told me we would be heading back for our second visit to Pat and Dan's farm in Georgia in a week. I had another exciting journey to look forward to, and I wouldn't have to wait long for it to begin.