I feel so, so clever and crafty.

I just ordered a palm sander (A 5″ Porter-Cable Random Orbit Sander) off Amazon. (Thanks Awesome Handy Curtis for deciphering the specifications for me and figuring out what would work best for what I plan to use it for. Curtis belongs to Emily @ Dreameyce.)

Also, today I went to the auto parts store and bought Bondo, which has a bunch of scary warnings on it but will apparently be exactly what I need to fix the dents in my camper.

I found a blog with photos that have confirmed for me that this trailer is almost certainly a 1964 Winnebago. That blog is located here. (I’d put it in the blog roll but the writer sold the unit after restoring it and it’s no longer being updated.) There is one small difference that isn’t accounted for by the inside of my camper being stripped, and that’s the quilted-patterned siding at the bottom edge of my camper, which isn’t present on the one on the other blog. I’ll continue to research.

I’ve drawn up a variety of floorplans but I’ve got a ways to go before having to make a final decision, so I’m just spending a lot of time thinking about which one will work best for me.

(I may be moving RV posts to their own blog- anyone have any opinions?) I know most of the dog people on my blogroll probably could care less!

Anyway, Jessica and I (along with WHV puppy Reed) drove down to Mabank today in her Ford Escape (my car doesn’t have the hitch on it yet) and picked up the camper. Along the way, we stopped (immediately, and yes, it was a planned stop!) and got some new tires for the camper. The tire store folks were very kind to us, and hitched and unhitched the trailer (I need practice, but greasing the hitch so it doesn’t require a hammer will help, as will it NOT being 105F- my brain shuts down about 99F and I start feeling awful around 101F and just staying upright becomes Interesting.) and installed the new tires while we ran down to the auto parts store and picked up a set of magnetic towing lights so we could be legal, as the electric connector on Jess’s towing hitch didn’t match up with the connector on the trailer!

Mike, the fellow I bought the trailer from, is apparently as much of a camper junkie as I am, because over the weekend while he’d waited for me to pick up the mystery camper, he’d found himself another project- a 13′ 1964 Shasta! (no wings, though!). It may be up for sale, and it’s already restored, so if anyone in Texas is interested, drop me a comment and I’ll forward you his information.

Getting the camper into the driveway was another adventure, but we got it in (with some assistance from the guys across the street), and she’s now sitting in my driveway, waiting for me to start work on her.

(This is a slightly re-worked post from the original incarnation of Gypsy Arts on Blogspot.) My friend Nancy Wright calls RVs ‘turtlehouses’, as in, the house that you take with you when you go places. I love the description, and I think it’s really evocative of the thing I love about RVs- a way to see the world and still sleep in your own bed every night behind a nice solid door.

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