Our "Other Fiberglass Camper"

Well here we are sitting in front of our Chinook motor home up at Camp James on the Kern river. I decided to buy this really nifty motor home because of the "other" fiberglass camper (trailer) that my wife was given. I figured once we took this out a couple of times she would never want to take the little 13' Scamp out and I could just somehow get rid of it and not have to re-hab it. Although she loves the Chinook, she still wants me to finish the little Scamp trailer. I do have to admit, the more I do to the Scamp, the more I like it too. Right now we have it in our garage so it is very easy to work on in my spare time. Oh well , back to the Chinook. This rig is a real pleasure to drive. It is just like driving a van. And power, this baby has a 460 motor, nothing slows it down. The only negative thing I will say about it happened when we recently had our home tented for termites and we spent 3 days living in the Chinook with our 4 little kitties. That motor home seemed really small for those 3 days. (Funny thing, it didn't seem that small when we took it camping.) That won't ever happen again! Grace is retiring next month and we have sold our home and will be moving to Washington in July. We are looking forward to some nice trips in the Chinook.

Well, here is another "interesting" project my Lady decided "we" needed to take on. She seemed so surprised that someone would actually give her this cute little trailer. When she finally told me about it (the day she arranged to meet her brother-in-law, who had a truck with a tow hitch, to pick it up) and took me to see it, I thought she had lost her mind. The floor at the rear had rotted out and was dragging on the ground and the lovely aroma of rotting wood permeated the entire trailer (all 13 feet of it). I really did not have time for this project but things like that don't seem to bother her. She talked the neighbor into letting her park it in her driveway because we didn't have any room. The neighbor thought it would be a fun project as well and talked about helping with some of the restoration. (I have yet to see any help from these two, hmmm) I have since installed a new sub-floor, built and installed new cabinet doors, reworked the wiring and braced up the sagging ceiling. I have purchased new wood flooring and will install it after the interior gets re-upholstered and the windows are replaced. The axle needs to be replaced as well and I have a new rear stabilizer jack I will install. I have also installed a towing hitch and wiring harness on our Jeep Grand Cherokee so we can move it now. Did I mention my Lady seemed surprised that someone was willing to give this trailer away??? Some times I feel like Ricky Ricardo on the "Lucy" show when she comes up with hair-brained ideas. And yes, my Lady usually follows up with a "Oh Ricky" comment when I ask her what she was thinking. LOL

Trout Fishing in the Sierras

One of the things I love to do is to go trout fishing in the Sierras. I try to make at least one trip a year with a fishing buddy. We have been doing this since I was in high school (A long time!).
In 2005 I was fishing on a bank very similar to this one and had a Momma bear and 3 baby bears walk right up on me. Even though I knew the best thing to do was to stay calm and slowly walk away, seeing yourself between a momma bear and her babies tends to make you panic. I slowly got up, grabbed my stringer of fish and tried to run. I slipped and went down face first. With this commotion, one of the babies let out a cry and scampered up a tree and I was sure momma was going to eat me. I was wrong, she didn't even flinch. Seems she was walking up and down the shoreline stealing stringers of fish. (Lucky for me)

Two of my Favorite things in life.

My Lady and Our 1954 Bel Air.

The Restoration of the Bel Air has been 'Challenging' .

(I am sure my Lady thinks the same thing about me)

New Blogspot

This is going to be a new adventure for me. I will be posting some of the things I am interested in and ongoing projects. Please feel free to check in often as I will be adding new "Stuff" as quickly as I can get to it. Gary