On the Road!

We did it! We packed all our stuff, cleaned up the shop and the house, hitched the BettyMobile to Twyla, and hit the road! I’m sure you’ll be shocked to read that we left a little later than we’d hoped (story of our lives, apparently!), but we *almost* left Virginia today. As I write this, we’re 11 miles north of North Carolina, in South Boston, which is south of … Halifax. **shrug**

Anywho .. it sure has been a full couple of days! Finding the perfect spot for those last little bits of stuff was kind of challenging, especially because the camper is full of new little spots for stuffing stuff! And there were a couple of curveballs on finishing the camper that Matthew had to navigate (but I’ll leave that part of the story for him to tell).

We actually slept out in the camper the last couple of nights, and even though it was a little chilly, we were super-cozy! We’re not camping tonight or tomorrow though … we just want to make tracks, plus the evening lows are in the 30s right now; for both of those reasons we don’t really want to spend a lot of time figuring out how to park, set up camp, make food, stay warm, etc. We’re aiming to get to Oxford, MS by Monday afternoon. I have a long-lost friend living there and I’m super-excited to see her and meet her family.

I’m gonna sign off now and catch some zzzs, but stay tuned for road stories ahead!

Insider’s view!
Ready to roll! Just as soon as we back it out of the driveway …

The Last of the Big Cuts

I put away the sawhorse worktable this evening. I had one last precision cut to make for the countertop, and I would ‘t need it anymore. Likewise, there was a bit of aluminum trim that took some figuring and measuring before cutting, but that’s in the rearview mirror now.

There’s some caulking and sealing that I need to do around all the screws and that aluminum galley trim, but we’ll have to wait until we get to 70 degree weather. We think the whole thing will come together tomorrow.

Real Talk

Last night I had a dream where I was in an airplane. But it was more like just sitting in a seat that was hurtling through mid-air; there was no body to the plane itself. I was LOVING the ride – the view was amazing (open air! tons of leg room! no shared armrests! 10K feet above land!) – the whole experience was exhilarating! But … I had the feeling that my seat was tipping forward. That I might fall out of it and plummet to Earth (!!!)- which was pretty scary. And …. I was having the hardest time holding onto my stuff. Y’know, like, my water bottle, my magazine, the peanuts the flight attendant handed to me* .. all of it was succumbing to gravity and I was trying desperately to keep my hands on it. It felt like a lot of things to keep track of, and I was pretty nervous.

I don’t think it takes a professional dream interpreter to figure out what this is about. We are really truly super close to actually doing this thing! This thing where we use a trailer that we built from scratch (FROM SCRATCH) to be our primary dwelling (!!!) as we string together points A-B-C-D-E-F (etc). It totally feels like jumping into the air, enjoying the view and the ride, but all the while scrambling to make sure we hold onto our stuff. I … (and when I say “I” … I’m pretty sure it means “we”) … have a fair amount of anxiety about what it means to dive into this unconventional lifestyle. Every night I wake up trying to solve how we will do this or that in the future. “How will I figure out cell/internet coverage everywhere to make sure I can make it to all my meetings?” or “What if there is an uncomfortable amount of condensation inside the trailer – will the fan really help with all that?” or “What will I do with my shoes and outside clothes at night when I tuck inside the camper?” or “What app(s) should we be watching to avoid scary storms?”

But, wow, how exhilarating it is, as well! We’ve sketched out a 9-month scheme where we reconnect with loved ones and explore interesting places in MS, AZ, CA, OR, WA, CO, IA, MN, and MI! And if it works (i.e., if the camper is working, if we find a happy balance of camping/housesitting/friend-visiting/work AND we’re still enjoying it) …. how many more states and friends/family might we be able to visit in the next 8-12 months?!?!

As a side note: we’ve been watching “All Creatures Great and Small” and here’s a quote that played heavily into the episode we watched last night: “Without fear there can be no courage.” (Also, we’re taking to heart some recent fortune cookie advisements — see attached photo below.)

So …. yes. We’re actually making it happen. There are still a number of things to put in place in the next few days (gasket on the hatch door, sealing the fan [haha see what I did there?], attaching a bike rack, installing a countertop) but **if they all come together** we’re aiming to vacate this lovely family home 0n Saturday and set off on our great adventure.

Oh! By the way, we took the BettyMobile out for a test run last Thursday — we drove out to “our bar” (the one we worked at this summer/fall) and had some of our coworker and bar regulars have a look-see. Video below as evidence.

*PS I have no idea how the flight attendants were navigating this free-form flight and distributing comfort (nuts) and safety (prevention from plummeting to Earth). Surely it’s a sign of providence and proof that it’s possible.

Fenders On!

These beauties are stainless steel. They were not free.

The fenders are screwed right into the frame. The trick here was locating where the voids in the frame were. For a refresher, here’s a picture of the trailer when it didn’t have the outside skin:

You can see where there are these cutouts to save weight on the structure, but I didn’t want to put a screw there, so I went back to my Sketchup drawing:

And used that to tape the outline of them from the outside. That’s the green tape that was on some previous pictures.

More Doors

Listen to this:

That’s the sound of the hatch clicking into place. It took a day of fiddling to get it all to fall into place, but here’s the door fully dry-fitted.

Once it all was in place, we took the door back off for some more painting. It’ll get fully sealed and wired very soon. I’m pretty amazed at the consistency around the frame. I had to take a video to get it to all fit:

That gap will have a rubber gasket to seal it when all is said and done. The entry and storage doors are also fully installed:

Those tape square are for helping me mount the fender.

Galley Hatch Redux

A new galley hatch door gets its first coat of paint.

The galley hatch door seems to be coming together. The the big test will be how it fits when installed on the camper, which will be happening soon. Speaking of tests, I’ve been referring to the galley door as my final exam in my teardrop building class. It has been the most challenging build I’ve ever had to do, that’s for sure. Here’s some highlights of the process:

While the galley hatch door is getting painted, we’ll see some big progress with the remainder of the camper. Storage and entry doors will go on today, and the galley shelving should be mostly completed. Stay tuned for an update soon! In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this teaser of the storage hatch doors getting their insides painted…

Why the different colored paint, I wonder…

Galley Hatch Latches

Not many exciting pictures in this update, but some important steps have been made. There have been a great deal of fiddly bits that have been addressed, mostly around the galley hatch.

Next big step is to put the outside skin on the hatch, and finish up cabinet work in the galley. Expect to see some big changes in the next post!

Merry Decembrrrrrr!

Once upon a time, way back in Plan N or O, we thought maybe we’d be on the road heading west by now. Boy oh boy, am I glad we’re still cozy and warm in Virginia, instead of trying to move across the frozen southland! I hope you are also safe, healthy, and content this Christmastide.

The camper is definitely still progressing, but some of these final details are kind of fiddly and painstaking. Like wiring all the tail lights and interior lights for the galley! And making galley shelves! I really admire and appreciate Matthew’s careful, deliberate approach. We’re still trying to figure out what sort of finishing touches to put on the galley decor, and we may leave some of those things unfinished for now. We’re still aiming to get to southern California by Jan 19, but in addition to finishing the camper, apparently we need to be mindful of weather … so … stay tuned! (I’m sure Matthew will give you a more thorough update on the camper build soon.)

In the meantime, I had another nice trip to Michigan earlier this month to spend time with Iris. I routed my return through Philadelphia, and Matthew came up by train so we could spend a few days with my brother, sister-in-law, and niece. It was such a nice visit! Highlights included an amazing dinner cooked by my brother who pulled out all the stops (!!); a visit to the Museum of the American Revolution (a most excellent museum, where Hannah happens to be Manager of Special Programs); an afternoon in the Italian Market, where we gathered lots of yummy ingredients for a dinner together; spending some time in Hannah’s new 3-story brownstone in Society Hill; and having lovely conversation with all three of them. I didn’t take a ton of photos, but I’ll include a few below.

Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Storage Hatches and Other Fine Carpentry

All failed attempts at building galley hatches must be burned on a day of a full moon.

The second attempt at the galley hatch is going slowly but surely. I no longer needed the old hatch as a reference, so its last act of service was to provide some warmth and entertainment.

The main failure of the first galley hatch attempt was that the pressure from the interior skin changed the curvature of the ribs, so they no longer would make a watertight seal with the sides of the camper. To mitigate that this time, I’m trying a few things. In the old design, there was an interior and exterior skin on the hatch (much like how the rest of the roof structure is built). This time, I’m planning on leaving the interior exposed. This will make wiring (and one day, re-wiring) that much easier. It should also reduce weight. And it will reduce the forces trying to make my ribs go out of spec by 50%. I also added a few more ribs and reinforcement to the new hatch to really reinforce that curve.

No skin in the interior means that I want to make those exposed ribs on the inside look nice. So the big steps over the past week have been to apply a facing to the ribs from thin strips of poplar. This will cover the exposed plywood of the ribs, and my hope is that once glued in place will actually add another ply to help hold the rib shape.


Meanwhile, work continued on the main body of the camper. The big achievement during this spate of work was getting everything finished in the “basement” – thats the storage area under the bed platform. The storage hatches are lined with a rubber gasket (sorry, I didn’t take a picture of that for this series). The hatch doors seem to fit well, though I guess we will get our real test once we hit the road. I also used butyl tape on the through holes for the lights, and coated the screws that hold the lights with 3M 5200 marine sealant. I’ll use this for all instances where screws enter the wood from the outside. Hopefully that will keep water and rot out.

I still need to paint the inside of the storage hatch doors and do some finish work on the outside, so you’ll be treat with more pictures of that work in a later post.

Every day is Thanksgiving around here …

What?! Two posts on the same day?? That’s an awful lot of Betties. But I have a story to share.

Once upon a time, way back in November of aught-6, Matthew and I were in Australia. On the day of American Thanksgiving, we bought ourselves some special items at the grocery store (kangaroo steak!) and went back to our camper van, which was parked in a beautiful beach trailer park. This particular park was primarily occupied by retirees who had built impressive compounds and were living their golden years in community, sharing morning exercise classes and evening game nights. We needed a key for the “barbie” in order to grill our steaks, so Matthew went to the park office to get one. While our host was looking for the key, Matthew told him we were gonna grill our Thanksgiving dinner, and the guy said, “Every day is Thanksgiving around here, mate!”

We repeat that quote frequently, and I’ve definitely been thinking of it A LOT these last few weeks. I’m happy to report that my sister’s surgery went very well: the post-surgery pathology reports show that all residual cancer was successfully removed from her abdomen/pelvis, and the surgeon said her chances of living a normal life span are very good! Oh my goodness, so much relief and gratitude for that news! She’ll have 3 more rounds of chemo to further address the tumors in her lungs, and then likely be put on an anti-hormonal therapy for life to keep those guys in line. I’m heading back to Grand Rapids next week to be with her for the first of these last three chemo rounds; I’m looking forward to spending more time with her and hopefully joining her in some Advent observations and a little Christmas decorating.

But even in addition to that great news, there’s so much to be thankful for. I love my job; this crazy camper dream of ours might actually be coming together (knock on wood!); there’s a lot of laughter and music around here; and our families are in good health and doing well. And boy oh boy am I grateful for all our amazing friends. I feel like I haven’t been very good at being in touch with you lately, but I have been thinking a lot about all you lovely people, and feeling so truly blessed to have you in my life.

So THANK YOU!! I’m sending out lots of love and looking forward to whenever I get to give you a big hug again!

And because no post is complete without some photos, here are a few more: