First coat of paint inside the main cabin.

Mirrors put on.

          This one was completely rusted. We sanded it and painted it the hammered black we like so much.

           The drivers side  mirror was too badly damaged to fix. We bought this one on clearance for $10.

                                          
                                 Here is what the rusted mirrir arms looked like before we painted them.

Vents

Ugly brown vets











            Lovely hammered black vents

Painting prep!

                                            Here we have the benches torn down and sanded.

                                                      Here is the kitchen prepaint

                                          I pulled out all the drawers  and gave them a quick sand

                                                 

                                        Here is the bathroom all pianted but needing some trim work
                                       We are changing the bathroom fiber glass from nasty 70s yellow
                                                               to a light almond white.

                                                Here is the base coat on the closet in the back.
                               I'm thinking I want to decorate in there somehow but I haven't decided with what

yellowstone

A piss poor map.

We are planning on spending two full weeks in Yellowstone. I want to see Berlins face when he sees a bison for the first time. Maybe if possible I'd like to ride our scooters around on some nice hilly terrain.

Bathroom

Bathroom walls are he next step is to do the tub and tile. Tomorrow hopefully i'll get the old circuit board in the generator out and find a place to order a new one. Then it's on to the main cabin and maybe a new on-demand type hot water heater.

The generator.

The most pressing issue with the RV is it needs to have the generator fixed or replaced. Best case scenario I'm going to have to replace the Circuit board worst case is I need to put in a whole new generator.

Gaining momentum

I have been looking forward to this trip so much. The last few months have been filled with yard sales, donations to the VA and closet purges, in order to get rid of as much junk as possible. I have not done this in a few years, and forgot how freeing it is to give things away. The less clutter I have the better I feel. What time that has not been spent in school or in downsizing has been spent looking for the perfect RV. We had a crush on an 84 Itasca 23 foot, with the bed in the back, but it was way out of our price range. Jamie found our 78 Tiffin Allegro on craigslist one night after we had been out to pizza and beer at Hub brewery. We drove straight up to Longview Washington in the dark to look at it. We bought it, the price was right and it was a little one like we wanted. I have to admit at first I was excited about buying “die Fledermaus”, but by morning I began to wonder what we had done. The guy we bought it from had kept it overnight with the promise of emptying the tanks for us. Unfortunately he got high and managed to overflow the toilet back into the coach. By the time we arrived by train he was using a shop vacuum to suck water out of the carpet. So the carpet was shot, the floor was wet, and it all smelled like piss, yay! But we had already paid, and taken the train, and well, we were in it too far to back out.
He is old, his tires are almost old enough to legally drink. He has water damage in various places, he smells weird, and the bathroom is vaguely mustard colored. After a few days of panic and regret, and visions of Berlin escaping in Yellowstone only to be eaten by bears, I am beginning to come around. Die Fledermaus is cute, I drove off one day and saw his one little headlight eye peeping out from under the blue tarp and it made me smile. He is stumpy, awkward and badly neglected, but hey we can’t all be perfect. I think with some love, a serious tune up, and some new tires that he might get us where we are going. He has a mismatched bohemian charm, and he is actually newer than 80% of the cars I have ever owned. My 1973 Impala Vahlhalla never let me down, can’t say the same for my 1976 Cadillac hearse “Vanity”, as she had the tendency to burst into flames on evenings out.
I think my initial panic had more to do with the overwhelming amount of work we have to do, not just on the coach, but on the house, and in the next semester at school. I am also nervous about moving to yet another place where we know no one and we have no safety net. It's not the first time, all of my previous moves have been adventurous to say the least, but I guess i'm just older now and I worry more. I also have our fuzzy anchors Berlin and Moscow to worry about. With every day we spend tearing apart and repairing the RV I feel a little bit better. Pinterest and thewinnebagodiaries.blogspot.com are helping with the inspiration, and Volk Vodka & Session beer are helping with the anxiety!


~Christy

Scooter #1

On this trip we want to get  a pair of 50cc scooters to roam around the cities in. 

Here are pics of the first one.

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                     $300 1989 honda elite this is how it looked when we brought it home.

Here it is after some cleaning with a nice black base coat.

Here it is with the new seat cover. I haven't gotten it installed as I had neglected to buy a electric staple gun prior to its arrival.  So far so good I can't wait to get it finished and take it out on the Road!

Food.

Food is going to be very important on this trip. The Wife has been vegan for 7 years and we love to try new things. Hopefully through the course of this trip I can help provide some handy tips on how to eat vegan on the Road. I'm going to be using http://www.happycow.net/ pretty extensively. One place I know we are visiting is Cakewalk. Having more or less a full kitchen on board the RV, I'm also going to post some of our favorite recipes converted to work  in a tiny space.

Renovation!

Today we repainted the mirrors,the stove top and the Bathroom. We still have much to do and only 4 months to go!.

RV purchased and pre renovation pics.

 We finally bought an RV! It's a 1978 Tiffin Allegro. It's short 21ft. Has an over head bed and a large rear Bathroom

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