Introducing: Trailer 2.0

Here's the process of the building of the new and improved Trailer 2.0 (official name still to be decided). (Our teardrop was wonderful, but small, and both Cal and Sam are too long to fit in it on their bunk bed anymore. It was time for something bigger!) I am always blown away when Gregg comes up with ideas like this in his head (LOTS of sleepless time crunching numbers and solving problems in that head of his), designs them on the computer, calculates, measures, cuts, screws, glues, staples, paints, and creates a completely functional and awesome thing! These photos will take you through from the very beginning to our first sleepover in the backyard (and beyond! - I'll keep updating here, so stay tuned for when any new improvements are made, like that free-standing table at the end!). (And in case you missed the first version, here's a recap of the teardrop!)

21 Dec 2020: Teardrop box off the frame and stashed in the corner for storage (Gregg did that all by himself with by rolling it into position on golf balls! (I know!)).

2 Jan 2021: Time to widen and lengthen the frame.

23 Jan 2021: Walls framed! And bunk bed staging in the kitchen. Also, please note the nearness of our green Subaru to the trailer work zone. He not only built this thing himself, but he built it in a cramped and cold garage in the middle of the winter!!

6 Feb 2021: Bench/bed framed in.

8 Feb 2021: Sam's bunk added at the end.

9 Feb 2021: Insulation!

12 Feb 2021: Hinges added to benches for easy access to storage underneath.

13 Feb 2021: Outer wall going on!

15 Feb 2021: More shell installation.

20 Feb 2021: The lid/roof gets started.

22 Feb 2021: More roof.

25 Feb 2021: Roof shell.

26 Feb 2021: Final piece added to the middle of the roof.

1 Mar 2021: Figuring out ideal roof height.

5 Mar 2021: Cutting foam to fit our spaces.

6 Mar 2021: Railing for Sam's bunk (removable!) made and installed.

12-13 Mar 2021: Building the door (and watching the Ags playing past midnight!)

15 Mar 2021: Realized the foldable door wasn't going to work after all, so only installed the bottom half on the trailer.

17 Mar 2021: First test run. Also notice the doorknob installed (that was a big deal!). My one contribution to the project: covers sewn for the foam pads (all from sheets we weren't using in our linen closet!). Also, table top (aka middle of our bed) cut and fit.

23 Mar 2021: Staining the outside.

24 Mar 2021: Painting the roof.

26 Mar 2021: A look at it in the daylight. ;) Plus, carpet pad cut to fit.

27 Mar 2021: Arms that hold the roof up installed and pads installed for testing. (We also got a memory foam mattress topper to add to our bed - we'll be sleeping like kings!)

29 Mar 2021: Latches installed to keep the roof down while driving.

2 Apr 2021: Time for the tent attachment. Cue staple gun and c-clamps!

7 Apr 2021: Tent canvas is all attached. And carpet is added inside! (Thanks to Paul and Kim for finding that for us!) Plus, new sleeping bags arrived for the kids (no more noisy slicky sleeping bags!) so they needed to test them out for a few minutes before bed.

8 Apr 2021: Done enough to sleep in! (The table isn't functional quite yet, and a zipper will be insalled in the canvas above the door eventually.) Our first sleepover was chilly and windy, but it stayed up and we managed to get a little sleep. Realized the new mattress topper is stiffer than we like, so brainstorming better foam combinations to fit our preferences. But overall: success!!

 

13 Apr 2021: The table stands on it's own!

26 Apr 2021: Rain test! (It's waterproof!)

3 June 2021: Zipper installation for the door! (Yes, this was completely nerve-wracking! We used a sticky zipper that is used for dust shields in construction projects - usually it sticks to plastic barrier walls, so we didn't think it would stick permanently to our canvas, but it would help hold it in place while we stitched the zipper to the canvas for a more secure attachment. Well, the sticky stuff gummed up our needle and thread almost instantly, so we resorted to a stapler to hold it on. Doesn't look super awesome, but actually from a distance you can't even tell! But it does the job and lets us stand up to enter the trailer, rather than crawling through the small door hole like we had previously been doing.)

May Vacay {Day 7 - 8: Lake Tahoe then Home}

Day 7: Friday, 7 May 2021: Lake Tahoe Loop to Elko

We woke up in Carson City and logged into Megan's Zoom graduation from PT school at The Ohio State University while we ate breakfast. We were having internet trouble after an hour, and that was about all we could handle anyway, so we wished her well via text and waited for some video highlights from Mom and Dad of her actually getting hooded while we drove up to Tahoe for the day.

O-H! (I-O!)

bonus video!

"congrats to Mugs, PT, DPT!"

Our first stop was Emerald Bay where we hiked to Eagle Falls and soaked in the excellent views.

It was a steep climb up the mountain
to the falls.

Time for a snack break and somehow
Sam ends up on Gregg's shoulders.
Every. Time.

The bridge crossed right over the falls.

Manzanita blossoms!

Then we continued our loop around the lake, driving through all the towns back into California and back into Nevada, where we ended up at Sand Harbor Beach for the afternoon. We parked our bods on the sandy beach and immediately noticed a plethora of ladybugs all around us! We splashed rocks and walked in the sand and then we got hungry for lunch, so we went back to the picnic areas in the trees for our meal. The kids were really eager to cash in on their prize money from Callie's swimming challenge in Eureka (she earned a dollar for herself and for Sam for each lap that she swam without touching the bottom: 15 laps = 15 dollars for each kid to spend in a gift shop if we could find one) and since this beach was a Nevada State Park, and it happened to have an (OPEN!) visitor's center, we made good use of the combination. The kids came away with cute new stuffed animals, a Desert Tortoise (promptly named Sea Glass by Callie) and a Black Bear (named Jackson by Sam), and everyone was happy. After our stop in the shop, we walked around the boardwalk to get more views of the crystal clear turquoise lake and then we headed back to the sand for a few more minutes of rocks and frisbee (Sam also got a disc in the gift shop since his bear was one of the smaller, cheaper options).

The colors are just amazing!!

Jackson made the trip around the loop and gets his
first appearance in a family photo.

Waves are bigger later in the afternoon!

After we left Tahoe, we headed to Elko for the night (with a pit stop in Winnemucca to pick up Domino's pizza for dinner - it was Friday, after all). 

Day 8: Saturday, 8 May 2021: Elko, NV to Home

We slept Friday night in the Comfort Inn and woke up early the next morning (body clocks still on Mountain Time but physically in Pacific Time) and headed right for the pool! We were stoked that it opened at 6 am and, not super surprisingly, there was no one else swimming at that time of morning! So we took advantage and swam and played and splashed for a good long while before heading back up to our room for breakfast (frozen breakfast sandwiches and oatmeal packets from the front desk, and leftover pizza from last night).

Happy swimmin' folks.

Then it was back on the road for the last leg of our journey. It was so nice to only have about four hours to get home - gave us time to get unpacked and laundry going and mow the lawn and lounge about the house once we got back. Such a marvelously memorable trip!

Finished one more audiobook
enroute. I liked it. Gregg not
so much (but he's not a fan
of this sort of "make up the rules
of your magic as you go" type books).
I think the kids thought it was fine.
:)