Flip it. Break it. Fix it. Rub it down....oh nooooo

*Written 07.30.2015*

Always stuff breaking, always stuff to fix. The past couple of days have been busy, needless to say. We're still assessing all of the damage that was done due to the trailer flipping. Even though we fixed the arm, to be able to tow it, there are still some things Jamie wants to do to make it stronger. He is going to place some metal brackets/angle irons at the front, back and down the middle of the wood on the trailer, then bolt them down into the metal arm, so it has less chance of twisting or moving around on its own. We found the Specialized (bicycle) has a split where the brake meets the hydraulic cord, so when you pull the brake, hydraulic fluid squirts out. The back tire rim is majorly bent along with the back bike rack and the handlebars and seat are scuffed up. It's interesting that the Specialized got so much damage and was the inside bike on the main rack and the Hyper was on the outside and barely got a ding. Figures! 

The bike is NOT supposed to pointed up to the sky like that! Guess the rack is bent too!

One of our heavy duty bins broke apart from the bottom to the top, but for now is fixed with gorilla tape. A couple of lids on the other bins got scratched up but are still usable. 

 Our big white "Lifetime" table has a hole in the corner. 

My scooter got hit as the trailer flipped, so she now has a broken taillight, a piece of the side & the license plate holder broke off. 

Other than all of that, I think the tarps and the TV antennae got the worst of it. There are huge, gaping holes in both the canvas and plastic tarps that go over the bins, I'm pretty sure I can sew the canvas one but the plastic one looks pretty beat up. The TV antennae looks like it was ran over several times, it's pretty rough. 

I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it a million more times, but I'm very thankful and appreciative that Jamie is so handy and is willing to fix pretty much everything. I think if I would have been alone, I would have totally freaked out and probably just sat and cried somewhere and his frame of mind is, "It might take some hardware or a certain tool (or whatever), but I think I can fix it." He is in town right now getting some more hardware, etc. to have on hand and also to fix the trailer, antennae and the bicycle. A word to my fellow woman (or person who doesn't understand or want to lug a bunch of tools around), just go with it, don't get on them about too many tools. If we hadn't had all of our tools, especially power tools, it would have taken us either much much longer &/or a lot more money to do what we did in the gas station parking lot, than the 3 hours and $6.00 it took. Let your handy person keep their tools, it might really be worth it one day.
So, as I started this post with, it always seems like we're fixing stuff...we wake up to our 9 1/2 year old 1,000 watt inverter not working. It went kaput! We use this inverter for all of the "heavy lifting"; to inflate/deflate our air pads that lay under the mattress, to power the coffee maker and to run the big power tools, for things like fixing the trailer.  Then as we were trying to figure out what was going on, Jamie also found a kink/split in the cord on the air pump, so after deflating the bed with one of our small 150 watt inverters, Jamie took the pump apart and fixed the wiring so it wouldn't spark when turned on and now it works for pumping up the bed tonight!

It just seems like everything is breaking at once and while we try to have a good attitude about it, there are many moments of frustration, plus this 107+ degree heat adds a little misery to all of these projects. I try to help with getting tools and holding things for him but I'm just not as creatively witty and handy like my main squeeze. I do keep him fed, keep the van and living space clean and take care of the dogs as he fixes everything. I think all in all, it's a win win!

*UPDATE*

The bicycle tire and rack have been fixed and roll just like there was never any accident. As well as the hydraulic cord to the brake...all fixed!

We found another piece of metal at the dumpsters to fix the antennae with and it works just fine, it may not look very pretty but it works!

The inverter has been fixed, it needed a new switch, which Jamie found on a vacuum at the dump.

I have yet to take pictures of the finished trailer just because we have been moving around a lot lately and the bins have not been off of it, so when we tear everything off at the next camp, I'll be sure to get some pics for those of you that are interested in how Jamie made it stronger.

Until then...
PEACE

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Sew Long!

Some people are leaving today, off to new adventures or back to work. Not us...not me. I have a few things I have not checked off my list, that have been lingering in the background ever since we got to the R.T.R. There were things I needed to cross off of my list at camp before we could move on. I needed pics of our friends,

[caption id="attachment_3563" align="alignleft" width="150"] Bernie & Birdie[/caption]

I needed to fix our comforter, yep it's totally massacred again, and I needed a nice day to be able to cut Trisha's hair. I think today might be the day...so I thought! This morning was absolutely beautiful, a good morning for a little walk over to Jenn's camper. Last night at Happy Hour, she told me to come over in the a.m., to borrow her sewing machine.

We chattied as she got ready for work, then I walked back to Joon where I set up my Sewing Studio for the day, along with Savannah's help of course!

I think today must have been thee longest day of my life...okay, that's what it seemed like. I'm happy the sun was shining and it wasn't windy and I'm almost done with the comforter. Yep, all day and it's not done...like I said, it was a hella long day! I guess the haircut is going to have to wait until tomorrow. Just as I was getting relaxed and comfortable, J' said, "The antennae came in...let's go get it!" I was like...Now!? I wanted to cry...okay I think I may have. I was just so freakin' tired and with Joon Van, we have to pack and repack the van when we move...that was the part that threw me into burnt out mode and tears. We drove to get the antennae and whoa babay, if we don't pull any stations in with this thing, then it's just not possible. (At the moment I'm trying to enjoy the thought of veggin' out to some tele and not the fact that this will have to travel inside the van...haha)

[gallery ids="3567,3568,3569"]

I'll let you know how it goes with this Clear Stream 4 antennae.

to be continued...

PEACE

Creepers in the Croatan National Forest

Alright let's see what's been going on... I'm finding it a little harder to write every single day like I had planned, just because some days are more fun to write about than others and also some days I just don't feel like writing...also we need a signal! The last couple of days have been filled with checking out some dispersed (FREE) camping in the Croatan National Forest. We found one spot by Google maps to start us off. This place, Fisher's Landing, wasn't what we were looking for,  although it would have been perfect if you could drive up to the site (to van camp) instead of bringing your stuff to it. With this site being the only site we knew of, we stopped into the Ranger's office and asked them if there were more sites like that. The Ranger pointed out where there were two other sites and off we went. We hit up the closest one first, Catfish Landing. It was a cute little spot right on the water. There was quite a lot of trash left over the years and I just couldn't stand to look at such a beautiful place all trashed up so I spent some time cleaning 'Her' up~ 4 bags of trash later and I was able to relax. I also figure Mother Nature gives us so much, it's nice to give back.

[caption id="attachment_1441" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Giving back[/caption]

We chilled here for only a little bit because (due to the trash) there were a ton of bees here and J' couldn't get a good signal, so we left and went to Wal-mart. We also had not stocked up on anything because we didn't know what to expect from this site and the road you drive on to get here is long, bumpy and obnoxious.

[caption id="attachment_1443" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Doesn't look bad, but ...oh boy![/caption]

We were also able to receive signal at Wal-mart for The Bachelorette, so that was a definite plus- hey ya gotta go with what you get people! The next day we geared up with food, ice, drinks, & gas and headed to the other spot the Ranger suggested, Long Point. We had to drive on the same damn road only twice as long this time and had quite a scare with the GPS. The GPS battery died so I plugged it in. It wasn't working. The GPS would turn on then right off~ even plugged in. Then it started not even turning on. I thought something got jostled inside due to the gravel road we had been driving for the last half hour. J' ended up messing with it later and found another cord that worked for it, so thankfully it wasn't the GPS device, somehow the cord was the problem...phew! We finally arrived at our destination and it was better than Catfish and felt a bit more private. Catfish had some 4-wheeling trails in back of the area we were parked at. Here at Long Point there is barely any trash on the ground, it has a vault toilet, a trash can and 2 picnic benches and it's also right on the river. It's beautiful here.

[caption id="attachment_1442" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Road in & terdlet[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1444" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Walking path to River[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1445" align="aligncenter" width="300"] River[/caption]

 When we got  here it was almost like a wind storm was starting, the van was even rocking back and forth. Then the rain came. We just sat in the van with the side windows (with screens) open for air and caught up on some of our stuff. After the rain stopped, it was almost dark so we just opened the side door and hung out.

[caption id="attachment_1447" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Enduring the rain storm[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1448" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Finally the rain stopped[/caption]

 There must be some kind of training or something going on around here because about an hour into being here we had a helicopter fly over us. But not just nonchalantly fly over us, like he could have thrown down a rope for us to climb up-fly over us. It was so close we both thought he was going to land right next to the van. They flew over us for the rest of the day. At first, I thought they were scoping us out, then I thought there had to be another explanation on why they kept moving over the same area so many times.

[caption id="attachment_1449" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Creeper[/caption]

  So I think there must be some kind of flying training or machinery training going on...don't know. It seemed like they were done doing whatever it was they were doing later in the evening, but as soon as the tv died (around 10 p.m.) and we were falling asleep~ there they were again and closer than they were in the daytime...geesh, give us a break! They came around four times and I got my camera out to record the noise and they never came around a fifth time...woo hoo! We woke up this morning and it's been overcast but hasn't rained yet, yay. We were able to pack away some things that we knew we wouldn't be using for a while, like our winter coats, a blanket and some other things. It was able to give us some more room and not have to move it around the 'cabin' every day. We washed up, reorganized, stretched and worked out a little. I labeled all of our GZ batteries along with some other cords so we know what's what when everything is clumped together on the floor. It's all about working smarter in such a small space. One crap thing that happened while things were being gathered & put outside to be organized~ the TV antenna broke...booooo. Hopefully Radio Shack will have something like it or close to it. The one that was so great about the one for Lil Phil (the tv) is that it was pretty small and had a magnet on the bottom so you could stick it to the outside of the top of the van for better reception. It was also just one straight antenna, not rabbit ears, so it was hella stealthy...fingers crossed we'll find another one like it.

[caption id="attachment_1450" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Time to clean her up[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1451" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Camping girl[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1452" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Who says free can't be nice!?[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1453" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Living in a van...down by the river![/caption]

Now we're just sitting at the picnic table looking for more National Forest Land North of us (we have pretty good signal here). We are also trying to get some good video of these helicopters ~ there's two of them today! It's like our own private air show...except they're not doing any tricks. I guess I'll just have to keep watching...

PEACE