Shasta & Nomad

Shasta & Nomad

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Shasta LoFlyte - Day 1

99 just turned off the little space heater, the radio and the lights. She said, "Good night little trailer" and walked out my sticking door, slammed it shut and I watched her disappear in through her back gliding doors.
Then, as soon as I knew she was out of earshot I let out the hugest sigh and loudly proclaimed, "HALLELUJAH"!!

Holy running lights, who knew she was going to spend a whole entire day with me and who knew she was going to rip my rear to the bones! She better fix this cause I have been trying to hold myself together for quite some time now and I am feeling awful naked back there!

This morning started out okay. All of my cupboards and cubbies and storage areas were gone through. There was some stuff in me I forgot I had. It was all thrown away along with the junk I had in my trunk. We filled up one garbage can and two big garbage bags. Then out came Shelly the Shop Vac and we set to work getting me a little bit cleaner. It's always nicer to have a clean working environment. 

First came the kitchen and dining area. Here are some pictures of my insides:




There is sticky paper on the walls in my rear area. This made 99 shudder just a tad.



In this picture my upper bunk is in the up position which allows for more headroom.

And here my upper bunk is in the down position.

Because it was raining 99 was able to see where my leaks were coming from and it appears to be the windows and one area at the roof line. She said this means I needed to be sealed on the outside as soon as we get a dry sunny day over here. Then she told me she was worried what my bones might look like underneath the water damaged walls. No sense in prolonging the inevitable. She set to work ripping out my curb and street side rear walls. Anyone who has ever tried fixing up a forgotten trailer knows that this is an intense moment. You never know what you will find and sometimes once you start it's hard to stop. 

The water damaged paneling tends to come off in layers. The drips coming down seemed to only cause the initial layer to be wet because underneath it was dry. You could see where it had been wet at one time though. But we have had tons of rain and 99 was pleased to see that maybe some of the damage was from an old leak that had been fixed and not continual leakage.

Here you can see where I leaked pretty badly at one time. It was dry, just stained.


Now to see how bad my bones had been damaged. 99 kept on ripping me apart. She found my old insulation looked fairly clean. This was a good sign!

Boy oh boy was I pleased with my diagnosis. Not sure who was happier, myself or 99. My bones are pretty intact and not all rotted. 99 couldn't believe it. This kind of stuff never happens to her. Apparently she is used to sliding down the bannister and having the splinters pointing the wrong way every time! How could it be, she asked. Neither one of us know. She wonders if maybe my ride home shook things up to cause the windows to leak now, but even with the prior damage you would think that those braces under the windows would be rotted. Not the case. We both did a little Hallelujah dance and got right back to work!





Now we had been at this for quite some time! 99 still has to work on prepping me for new walls. They will not go in until the rain stops and I can be sealed up properly on the outside. It was way too early to quit working so we moved on to tidying up. My lower bed board was removed for more space. 99 loves the way my floors feel so solid underneath. She even found a spare tire! 


In the storage space behind the street side dinette seat she found one of those mini televisions with a radio option as well. She plugged that baby in and were jamming then!


She found lots of other things too. A broom and a dustpan, a hibachi, tiki oil, silverware, clothes pins, awning rails, and the list goes on. Most of it went right into the garbage!

Some carpeting that was on my floor was pulled up and 99 was once again in disbelief. She could not believe the condition of my original flooring! She told me some horror stories she had been through with other trailers, namely Edgar and Faith. Mine was pretty descent! At this point I knew I had won her heart. But I kept on impressing her. My dining room table was just about perfect. No burn marks where someone mistakenly set a pot down. My countertops were the same way. The sink cleaned up nicely and I even have my sink cover. I have all my original hinges and drawer handles. My pull out cutting board had sticky paper over it, but underneath the wood was as if it had never been used. My lamp shades have no cracks in them and the lights all work. The fridge was not filled with leftover food from many, many moons ago. Yeppers, it was a good day here at the jungle on the east side! Nice!









All of these good things will make life much easier. Don't get me wrong, I am not perfect by any means. You have already seen that. But just having these little things be okay makes a world of difference. Least that is what 99 said. She also kept saying, "thank you, little trailer, thank you!".

I kept saying, HALLELUJAH!!

Well, it's dark up in that house so I am sure 99 had the soup she kept talking about and the shower she said she couldn't wait to take and is now counting trailers until she falls asleep. I better end this blog entry and get some rest myself. Something tells me tomorrow is going to be another exciting day. 

Good night vintage trailer fans. 

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for giving "99" a break. She has had so many problems and heartaches over the last year or so especially. It looks as though things are starting to go her way, and I couldn't be happier for her. Looking forward to seeing what happens next. Good luck to both of you.

    Gary & Toaster

    ReplyDelete