Sudsy Saturday

I was promised on Thursday that I would have a bath on Friday. Little did Gary know when he made that promise, that it was going to rain the entire day. It was disappointing, but you can't fight Mother Nature. When we woke up on Saturday morning, it looked like it was going to be another wet and gloomy day. For the most part, it was. But there was just enough of a break by mid-afternoon, that Gary hooked me up to "Dodge", and we went outside for awhile. It was the first time I had been outside the Green Acres Garage since the middle of April. But overshadowing my joy of seeing grass and trees and a hint of sunshine, was my urgent need to be cleaned. Since I didn't get a bath when we got home from our last camping trip in April, I still had road grime and bird poop on me. I've gathered sawdust and lots of cobwebs during this long summer. I'm sure you've been so dirty at some point in your life, that you just can't wait to have a bath. That's exactly how I've been feeling. Gary got out the ladder and the long-handled scrub brush, and began washing my roof first. Then came everything else that he could reach from ground level. It didn't take long, and I was sparkling clean. It felt SO good!!! As soon as Gary was done, it began to drizzle again. He quickly put me back in the garage, and dried me with a soft chamois. Then I was rolled back into the middle of the garage, to the spot where I've been sitting for all these months. I was a VERY happy camper. Moments later, the rain stopped again, and it was time for "Dodge" to have his bath. He was cleaner than I had been, but he was still pretty dirty. Then "Casper" the cargo van got all the bugs washed off his front end. Who is "Casper" you ask? As you may recall, I had named the cargo van "Snail", but Gary wasn't overly fond of the name. Our friend Gail from Ohio suggested that the van be called "Casper". Gary liked the name, and honestly, I like it better too. So "Casper" it is. After all of the trailer and van washing was done, and after Gary got done with a few other projects that he wanted to accomplish today, then he got a much needed bath too. So, "sudsy Saturday" is over, everybody is clean and happy, and all is well at the Green Acres Garage.

Getting So Much Better All The Time

As the days count down to our first outing since the spring, I am looking more and more like a complete trailer again. My best buddy Gary still has other projects that demand his attention, but he's spent a considerable amount of time on me as well. Here's what has happened since my last post. The drawer under my bunk bed was completed. It's a wide drawer, but it's not very deep. My wheel well is right behind it. It will hold a lot of odds and ends though, and it makes good use of space that was basically wasted as it was previously. The drawer has a stainless steel front on it that matches my kitchen cabinets, and the two handles are smaller versions of the one that is on the drawer above my microwave oven. Functional and classy, if I do say so myself. I haven't seen my screen door in months, but now it's reattached to me and looking considerably different than it used to. The size of the slide was increased, and the tracks that the slide fit into were moved. This was necessary to gain access to my old door lock and the new deadbolt. My old interior door handle was modified and attached to a new piece of angle aluminum which in turn was attached to the screen door. The angle aluminum serves two purposes. The modified handle is bolted to it, and it closes in the end of the slide so no bugs get in. Gary thinks of EVERYTHING!!! The most fun of my recent improvements (at least for me), was changing out the pictures in the photo montage above my bunk beds. I know nothing about building and modifying things, but picking out photos and making recommendations as to how to arrange them was right up my alley. I've attached pictures of how the montage looks overall, then close-ups of the left side, the middle, and the right side of it. Three of the photos were used in the previous version of the montage, but all the rest are new. The pictures are of family, friends, and places we visited and things we saw during last year's camping season. Gary has HUNDREDS of pictures, but this was about all that I could cram into the frame. I wish I had more wall space for more pictures, but I guess this will have to do. I got a preliminary cleaning of my interior. All of the tools are out of me, and the sawdust and dirt got vacuumed up. My bedding needs to be washed and I need some scrubbing here and there, but I sure do look better than I did earlier this week. My exterior is a different story. I am SO dirty. As you can see in the last picture, Gary moved "Dodge" outside, and picked up all of the stuff that was blocking me from getting out of the garage. He promises me that I will have a bath tomorrow. We will see, but I hope that's true. I never got washed at the end of the last camping season. I've been sitting here so long that I have cobwebs all over me. Yep, I am downright disgusting. I will hopefully look and feel much better by the next time I write. Well, it's Thursday night, and football is on. I'm going to go and enjoy tonight's game. Sweet dreams, everybody. I'll catch you later.

Things Are Definitely Coming Together

Much has happened since my last post. Gary has worked on me every single day, and things are definitely coming together. The bulk of the remodeling and repairs are over, and I'm hoping for smooth sailing from here on out. My kitchen isn't 100% done, but it's close enough that Gary finally gave me the okay to post some pictures. I've been dying to show it to you, and here it is. I loved it the way it used to be, but this is SO much better. As you can see, my upper and lower cabinets are now connected via the new and improved side panels that Gary made. The edges got trimmed in new one-piece aluminum from top to bottom. And check out that backsplash. Isn't it AWESOME??? I didn't know what mini-subway tiles were until I was introduced to them, and now I am a BIG fan. Unfortunately, the brand new entry door with the porthole window that I thought I was going to get, just isn't going to happen right now. Between all of Gary's other projects and obligations, there just hasn't been time to complete it. That's alright. I'm sure that he will work on it next summer during our camping "off" season, and that will give me something to look forward to while I'm sitting here doing nothing. For now, my original door will work, and even it had some modifications to improve it. As I mentioned in a previous post, it now has a double cylinder deadbolt installed. That will positively guarantee that my door won't fly open as we're travelling, causing extensive damage to me like what I experienced previously. The window guard was modified to fit around the deadbolt, and it was freshened up (as was the inside of my door) with a fresh coat of Rustoleum gloss white. Last on my "show and tell" list for today, is my brand new bulletin board that Gary installed above my door. It was cut down in size to fit the space from it's much larger original size. Just so Gary knows exactly how I'm feeling right now, I tacked up the big message in the middle of the board. That pretty much says it all. The drawer that Gary has been working on for under my bunk beds isn't quite done yet, but it's very close. I hope to have pictures of it completed and installed by the next time I post. Well, that's about it for today. I think I'm going to check out the NASCAR race and maybe watch a little football. To all my fans and friends, have a GREAT day!

A Most Productive Saturday

Much to my surprise, Gary spent the majority of today (Saturday) working on me. Not all of the things pictured here actually happened today, but most of them did. Let me explain what you are looking at. As I mentioned in my last post, my new stainless steel kitchen backsplash has been installed. I'm still not allowed to show you the nearly finished product, but at least I can show you how the tiles were laid out, and how they looked before being installed in my kitchen. Pretty nice, huh? There is some wasted space under my bunk beds, so Gary decided to build a drawer to fill one of the vacant spots. In the photos, you can see that the drawer is being test fitted, and later in the day, it got two coats of black paint. The drawer will eventually have a thin plywood facing, and that will be covered with a stainless steel panel that will match the fronts of my kitchen cabinets. Next on the agenda for today, was covering up the big dent in my sheet metal that was created when my door flew open while we were trucking down the interstate. Gary looked through his spare parts, and found a twin to the vent cover that was already on me. It was the perfect disguise to cover that doorknob shaped dent. Other accomplishments today included installing a new water inlet cap and lanyard, and a new lanyard on my sink drain cap. Both of the lanyards were broken and needed to be replaced. To make positively sure that my door will never fly open again as we're rolling down the highway, Gary drilled a hole in my entry door and installed a deadbolt. This adds some much needed security as well. The deadbolt is probably the most important improvement that Gary has made to me this summer. I also got my door brow reattached today, and the last thing that Gary did, was to rework the metal guard that goes over the inside of the window on my entry door. One corner needed to be cut off in order for it to clear the new deadbolt. It will be freshened up with a new coat of paint before it gets re-installed. So there you have it. It was a VERY productive day here at the Green Acres Garage, and I am one happy little camper. Stay tuned to see what happens next.

Less Than A Month To Go

We are well into September, and there's less than a month to go before we head out on our first round of camping for the fall and winter season. Gary PROMISED me that he would spend lots of time working on me when September rolled around, but he hasn't exactly done what he said he would do. He's still been working primarily on his collection of vans and other projects, but there has been a LITTLE bit of work done to me. I am totally disgusting inside and out at the moment, and I'm sure that we won't be going anywhere until I'm in decent shape. That leaves LOTS to do, and not a lot of time to do it. I'm hoping that I somehow reach the priority status, and all of Gary's other interests fall by the wayside, at least for awhile. There isn't much to tell you about, but I can show you a couple of pictures that I managed to download from Gary's camera. The thin white board you see in the first picture, was cut and primered for my kitchen counter backsplash. The instructions for the stainless steel tiles (shown in the second picture), said that it was necessary to paint the wood with oil-based primer in order for the tiles to stick properly. So that's exactly what Gary did. After all, we don't want that pretty tile to fall off as we're heading down the road, now do we? I LOVE the tile. I think it adds a bit of depth and class to my kitchen. There was nothing wrong with the plain stainless steel sheet that used to be my backsplash, but it was not nearly as nice as the tiles. The new backsplash has been installed, but Gary will not allow me to post any pictures until my kitchen area is totally completed. I'll do as he asks. I surely don't want to make him mad and have him go camping in the van without me. I've waited since April to get the heck out of this garage, and I am NOT going to blow my chances. So, I will hopefully have some more pictures for you soon. Thanks for your patience. Love, Toaster.