Expanding our Horizons

Life's a journey, and we never know where our journey will lead, or how long the jouney will last or what may lie ahead.  It is made up of twist and turns, ups and downs, and hopefully a whole lot of suprises on the way.  When my husband and I purchased my little vintage travel trailer, I had dreams of taking Dottie across the country and exploring mountain after mountain. I love hiking and exploring.  I love sitting by a mountian stream under tall pine trees.  We didn't do that, but instead bought a piece of property with a small lake where one only had to throw thier rod in the lake to catch a fish shortly after. 

There was only one problem, my husband decided he didn't like ducking down everytime we went camping.  I don't know if you remember, but he is 6'6" and our Shasta Travel trailer is on 6'5". 

After lots of disscussion we decided to sell our our little vintage travel trailer, and instead put a tiny tiny cabin on our property instead.  We were all ready to do this when we found a smaller piece of property on a bigger lake.  One that doesn't need to be mowed because of all the trees, which is a plus. 

I will be creating another blog, for this journey and when I get it up and running, I will post a link here. Until then, enjoy your journey!

The Brave Little Mouse

I love the outdoors.  I love the sunshine, hiking through the woods, the smell of pine needles, and warm summer breezes.  I do not, however, love everything that nature has to offer.  I detest bugs, especially ticks and mosquitoes! The only other things I have a difficult time with are snakes and mice.  I had adventures with all four of these creatures while camping in our little vintage travel trailer.  Our property was way out in the country and we had to keep the grass cut short to keep the tics off of us.  Although we concocted a little recipe to keep the ticks at bay, we always would come home and find a few that evidently didn't mind our concoction.  Lemon eucalyptus oil is my favorite one to use, because I like the way it smells best, but geranium essential oil, lavender, citronella and cedar wood oils also have insect-repelling properties in them. Mixing them with non-volatile agents like witch hazel extract or soybean oil help as a carrier for the oils.

The snake encounter was one that still sets my heart to beating whenever I think about it.  The area that our property isolated in is a rocky area of North Eastern Kansas, and is known for having copperheads around.  Lucky for me copperheads defense it to freeze when danger is near, had it been to strike, it would have gotten me for sure.  We were picking up rocks around the property to use to make a fire pit, and I bent down to pick up a rock.  Right there not even 5 inches from my hand, staring me in the face, was a copperhead about 4ft in size. I jumped back as quickly as I could, got up on our deck, and remained there creeped out until it was time to head home.

We all know mice like to climb in our little travel trailers and make themselves at home.  I'm ok with that.  I don't necessarily enjoy it, but as long as I don't have to see them, and they keep to themselves, it's all good. 

Well this weekend we decided to head up to the property for some peace and quite,rest and relaxation.  We had smores by the campfire and was enjoying the beautiful evening.  It was time to call it a night, since I enjoy reading, I snuggled up in bed, and was really enjoying a good book, when all of the sudden a brave little mouse jumped on my shoulder, ran down my arm across the bed and scurried away.  Well, to say I was freaked out doesn't even come close to describing what I was.  When I say I don't like mice, that is putting it mildly.  When my husband and I first got married, there was a mouse in our apartment, (I called this one the flying devil mouse from hell) I made my husband and I leave and we went to spend the night at his moms.  I can become paralyzed with fear, and although not very rational, it is still the case. Needless to say, we packed up all our gear and headed for home at 11:30 at night, because I refused to sleep in the same room with a mouse who was brave enough to walk all over me.

I recently read that mice do not like the smell of peppermint.  If you happen to have some peppermint essential oils around, put a dab or two on a cotton ball and hide them around your travel trailer.

Our Little Slice of Heaven

Well other than taking our camper out a few times we never really took it traveling with us, because last year we found our own private little paradise.  In searching for camp sites, I came across some land for sale, and we couldn't resist.  It is 3 acres of seclusion with our own little lake/pond.  Not really sure what to call it.  It has a stream that feeds into it, and it is big enough for a little boat with a trolling motor (which happened to come with the property). The pond/lake is filled with bass and blue gill and is about 2 acres in size.  We have kind of set up camp here.  It is only 1.5 hours from our house, so it is just the right distance for a quick get away.  It also came with a little deck that we pulled our little vintage travel trailer right up to.  The deck needs a little sanding and stain, but other than that, it is quite perfect.  Where our little trailer sits, there is a great view of our little lake. The price for this little slice of heaven only set us back a few thousand dollars. Woo Hooo!


Our VW bus would never pull our vintage travel trailer.  It can barely pull itself lol.  But we drove it out there one day and thought we would capture a picture of the two of them together.

More updates on our vintage travel trailer

Well my husband and I (mostly my dear husband) has been working on finishing up our little travel trailer.  He has finished putting on all the trailer's emblems, painting the wheels of the trailers, putting up trim and painting appliances.  We were going to paint the door to our trailer red, but it has a lot of dings so we opted for white right now.  We still need to add trim around the opening of the fridge and some quarter round around the floor, then I think we will be ready for the finishing touches, YAY!

Here are some pictures of all we have accomplished. If you want to see before pictures, check out my first post.

I put up the paper towel holder after I sprayed it with red spray paint made to cover plastic, it used to be a harvest gold color. The tray that you see also came with the trailer.  The seller threw it in with a bunch of other stuff he didn't want.  It was old and scratched up and had a picture of a pheasant on it.  I decided to use some left over red paint and a piece of scrapbook paper.  I used Mod Podge to adhere it.  There is a small hole behind the tray where the old gas light use to be.  I am going to look for a spice rack to hang here while on the Nebraska Junk Jaunt.


Some other things I would love to find, just to name a few, are salt and pepper shakers, a canister set, a  bread box, an old tin match box, a vintage aqua or red radio,  a little vintage stove top coffee pot that percolates, a vintage wall clock in red, some old lanterns, some old coffee cups, and lots and lots of enamel ware.

I am still trying to decide on a fabric for the seat covers, but I got this throw at a thrift store a while back for $1.50.  I guess it will do for awhile.  The other cushions are covered with red sheets that I got for $2.00 each.  One nice thing about having sheets thrown over the cushions is that it makes them easy to wash.  I got that cute little pitcher at a thrift store for $2.00 too.  I made the throw pillow the other day.  I was cruising through pinterest and saw a really cute pillow and wanted to make one of my own.  I am new at sewing but am having a blast making things I never dreamed I could before.  Although it is not as well done as my inspiration pillow, I love how it turned out! When I get back from the Junk Jaunt, I want to make some more pillows and some bunting.  Decorating is the fun part, and I can't wait to get started!

 Here is a better picture of it. Not bad for my first pillow ever!

 We added some trim as a chair rail! We still need 1 more piece though.

Taking my travel trailer on a Junk Jaunt!

I just found out that I get to attend the 9th annual Junk Jaunt that is held in Central Nebraska. This is a junkers dream. The Junk Jaunt is held the last full weekend in September each year.  This year the Junk Jaunt starts early on Friday September 28th and ends on Sunday September 30th.  There are about 30-35 small towns that take part in this with an occasional detour sign directing you to a farm. I've never experienced a sale of this magnitude before, but I've heard that the Nebraska Junk Jaunt draws people from all over the country. 

I purchased a route map for $7.50 and I'm very glad I did.  It list every town and some key items that each vendor will have, so my husband and I can skip the sales that don't really sound like they will interest us. The route makes a loop through some very scenic country. It includes the Sand hills, Journey Byway and the Loup Rivers Scenic Byway.

I don't know if this is realistic or not, but we are going to try to hit 6 towns the first day and 6 the second.  If anyone has actually done the jaunt and has experience with this I would appreciate hearing from you.  We are going to start on the southeast part of the loop and travel north on the loop and then start heading west at North Loup. There are 393 vendors listed in total for the towns we are planning on visiting.  Most vendors are open til 7 or 8 in the evening and later if it is a business, so we will see.

We are going to take our travel trailer and spend the night a couple of nights.  There are not a lot of places to camp in the middle of Nebraska, so we might have to rough it.  I can't wait for the adventure to begin!

QUICK UPDATE: It was a blast!  Here are just a few treasures I found.  I painted the spice rack red.  My favorite finds were the fan and match stick holder, and tea cart (I want to paint that red too). My favorite part of the trip was having people stop me to tell me how much they loved my little vintage travel trailer. 

We saw quite a few others little travel trailers on our little jaunt and even camped right next to another one.  It wasn't done up though and it was too dark to take photos and by the time we got around the next day, it was already gone.

1st time camping in my vintage travel trailer

We took our travel trailer out this weekend for her maiden voyage!  It was a last minute decision, so we didn't go very far.  It was such a great weekend, and it was my weekend off so we just couldn't pass up an opportunity to go.  Since I work every other weekend there were only 4 weekends for us to go camping before the 1st of November, and 2 of the weekends are ready are booked.  My oldest son is getting married the last weekend of October, so with time running out quickly, we decided it just pick someplace and go. 

We started searching for camping within an 1-2 hours of Kansas City, and quickly discover Lake Perry which only ended up being 1.5 from our house.  It was also close to Atchison Kansas, a little town I have wanted to visit for some time now. Atchison is known as the most haunted town in Kansas, but I wanted to go because Atchison is also know for the many beautiful historic homes featuring many architectural styles from the mid 1800's.

After we found a place to park, we strolled along this historic downtown area, ate lunch then took a historical trolley tour where I was able to learn quite a bit of history and view several of the beautiful historic homes in Atchison.

Around 4 o'clock we headed out to Perry Lake for our first camping adventure.

We found a seclude little site on a bluff overlooking the lake. 

My husband definitely needs practice backing in.  It took him several times to get her back in the sport nice and straight.

Since this was just a quick last minute trip we decided just to have hot dogs over the fire and of course I don't consider any camping trip complete without smores. 

When is was time to call it a night, we soon realized we had left the extra board that widens the sofa bed at home.  Since there was 3 of us, we had the bunk mattress, so one of has had to put that on the floor and sleep on it. 

The next morning we got up, had breakfast, then went on an hour and a half hike around the rocky shore of the lake.  It has been a long time since we have visited a lake, as we usually opt for sunny ocean beaches instead.  But we had a nice stroll, and my husband and son enjoyed seeing who could skip a rock the furthest. My husband won with 7 skips.

We saw another vintage travel trailer, but this one looked like it could use some work.

The trip home was even fun.  The route we chose to take home just happened to be on a partial route for Bikers for Babies.  There were people that were parked and scattered along route 92 waiting for all the bikers to ride by.  We got a lot of waves, thumbs up, and honks as we passed by people waiting for the bikers to pass by.  I felt like we were in a parade, it was quite fun.

Just playing around in my vintage travel trailer

Wow! I am getting really close to being ready to decorate my little vintage travel trailer, YAY!!!

Well if have read my previous post you know I have a really difficult time making decisions.  First picking out fabric for the curtains, then with picking out a paint color.  I never did choose a paint color, I just stumbled upon a bargain that I couldn't refuse, but ended up absolutely loving the result.

Well I have been pondering fabric choices just as long as I have been paint colors and I just can't seem to make up my mind.  I think part of the problem is that I like too me things and just can't settle on just one choice.

I am also a very visual person and have a difficult time knowing if I will like something without actually seeing what it looks like.  Not seeing it in person and seeing the exact color is another problem, especially when it comes to the aqua fabrics, are they too green or too blue? Ugg, just make up my mind already! I was originally going to go with the aqua on the top row, but my husband doesn't really like it. Here are some of the fabrics I am trying to decide on...

I am also thinking that I would like to use 2 fabrics, so that the cushions have a french country look to them.  Maybe something like these sofas...

Well then I remembered that a while back I bought a big bag of fabric for $2.50 at a thrift store.  It was originally $10.00 but it was marked down to half price, then the day I went in they had half off all of their linens, so I got over 10 yards of fabric for $2.50.  I bought the scraps so that I could make some bunting for my trailer.  In the pile of scraps was 5 yards of red western fabric and 4.5 yards of red and white gingham.  I have also bought some sheets and table cloths, so I thought I would just go out the my little vintage trailer and play for awhile.

Here I put a red sheet on the long bench, and some gingham fabric on one of the dinette cushions.  I brought some other stuff out and started playing around.

I threw on an aqua afghan that I bought at a thrift store for $1.50, (originally $3.00, but again I got it at half price) and a aqua table cloth that I bought at another thrift store for $2.00.

Here is a close up shot of the aqua tablecloth.

This little table cloth gives me an idea of what it would look like if I chose the large gingham fabric.

I just threw this on the back of the cushion for fun.  This is the little table cloth that was my inspiration piece for my color choices.  I really like the red aqua and yellow together.  I haven't been able to find any fabric with all three colors that I like, but I do like the pop of yellow!

Here is a shot of some vintage flatware that I found at a thrift store.  Each piece was .29.  It wasn't a full set but I thought they were adorable and just couldn't pass them up.  They need some polishing, but that will have to wait for another day.