We actually had some summer vacation and took a break from the RV build. We've really been putting some miles on the car. First we drove to Florida and stopped in to Jax to see Jan & Rich right before they sold their boat Slip Away. We stayed with Rich's brother & wife Ron & Kim in their beautiful house. Of course we popped some champers & did a lot eating & jabbering, and fit in a bike ride too.


Then we headed to Vero to visit Jon's parents.We had a good day laying some sod together and accomplished a few other little things around the house in between visiting. We also drove down to Lake Worth to visit my sister Ann and to pick up the gray water tank that we'd ordered from Dura Weld. We liked how the fresh water tank came out so ordered a smaller 30 gallon gray tank. Now it just needs a mount fabricated. We walked a lovely stretch of beach with Ann looking for turtles (saw a couple along with several nests) and tried to catch up over a picnic lunch. Not long enough!


We drove back up to NC and took a breather from sitting in the car to do a few more things on the truck. Jon finished fabricating the entryway cabinet which is very detailed and therefore time consuming. It had a million pieces and we needed to get them all bonded in fast and in order because the temps were in the high 90's so there was only a small window to work with. Never have I had to struggle with such temperature extremes before with regard to paints, adhesives and varnish. Months ago it was the freezing cold temps and now it is over 95, which is the cutoff for most things. Nuts!



But we got it in, and it is varnished up. It will hold shoes on the bottom, then produce on the next shelf, a closet for handy jackets, a couple of shelves for books, a couple of shelves for things like keys and sunglasses and then the upper area is just for show with space for 4 bottles of wine and wine glasses. That part will be lit up.

We also put the flooring in. It was a milestone of sorts because we'd bought it months ago and it has been sitting there waiting for when the cabinetry was finished and finally that time came. It went in fast, which is unusual for anything we do.


It was also time to finish the profiles and corners on the exterior of the RV. Because Jon designed an angular habitat to make it less like a square box, we had to make custom profiles and corners for all but the upper back which was square. Those are the only corners that were provided. After a lot of filling, shaping and sanding, they were ready to prime & paint. We are not thrilled with how the paint turned out but it is good enough.

Then we set off in the car again for Vermont. The agenda was to visit my parents, enjoy some Vermont summer, sell our Scamp camper and get some metal work done for the RV. We managed to get all of it in and had fabulous weather to boot. We knew that Scamp campers have quite a following and that ours was fixed up really nice but we still wondered how fast it would sell. Well, suffice it to say we had overwhelming interest and it went in a flash. The couple who bought it live right in town and have plans to take it around the US like we did. We made some good memories in it and its nice to know it went to a good home. Now we can't joke anymore about the Taj-ma-small or Shrimp Scampy. We hope that when we sell Evergreen we have a similar positive experience.
Along with the camper we decided to sell our canoe too. It has been in situ for over 25 years and we decided given that, we could live without it. We want to get an inflatable kayak for the RV.

We took some pretty bike rides, picked blueberries, did some interior decor shopping for the RV in tax free New Hampshire, were given some beautiful birdseye maple wood for the table that Jon plans to build for the camper by long time family friend Chase and did a few things around the house. On the last day, the four of us drove to the town of Windsor to walk the old prison grounds that have now been turned into a wildlife preserve. There were lots of iconic rolling green hills, birds, sun and a little pond to have a picnic beside.

On the drive back down to the boat, we stopped at a truck parts recycling business and picked up a 2015 fuel tank for the truck that Jon found online. We've been searching one out for months now and finally were successful. It really is amazing how much we can stuff into our car and this trip had to be a record. Not only did we have a 50 gallon fuel tank, but we had the wood, a bunch of metal in preparation for the rear mount on the truck, the spare rim for the truck, a lot of tools, all the fluffy interior purchases and a bunch more.

And now the metalwork has started. We're using a local guy named Charlie, just 3 blocks from the boat and things are off to a great start. He is A-OK having Jon right alongside him and they work together. In just 2 days, the rear tire mount/motorcycle mount is well underway. Jon has done an incredible job of designing all of this and we are both really excited to get some of this off our worry list!