THE REST OF THE STORY

I see the LITTLE GREEN TRUCK got to tell his story already. I have always thought Mister Bob likes him better. BUT I suppose it is only right since he was part of the family long before me. AND if you think about it, Mister Bob would not have needed me if he didn't have the LITTLE GREEN TRUCK to pull me
After Mister Bob got his truck, he started looking for a trailer to go with it. He advertised in the American Truck Historical Society magazine for a low deck, moving van type trailer. It was almost 6 weeks before he got a response. He had given up hope of finding one through the ad. When a guy from Jolliet, IL called and said he thought he had what Mister Bob was looking for ( that would have been ME!). I was in the far corner of this guy's lot, surrounded by his working trailers. This guy was closing his business and needed to clear out everything. I had been in the back corner for so long (over 5 years), that I thought I would never get to travel again. I had heard talk of scrap yards and knew I really did NOT want to go there! Anyway Mister Bob came to see me, managed to get into the corner and check me out. I heard Mister Bob tell the guy he was interested if I could still go down the road ok. I started to exercise right then. So by the time the guy could get to me, I would not have stiff joints and would roll down the road ok. It worked. So I moved to Michigan and became part of the family. I was pretty secure in being the one to be pulled by the Little Green Truck, that's what he used to take me home. But then about a month later a bigger trailer(40 foot) moved in with us. There was some discussion about which one of us was going to become their home. Miss Jan wanted me because Mister Bob had never driven big trucks pulling trailers before, and she thought I would fit in campgrounds easier. Mister Bob thought my running gear was the better of the two of us. So sure enough I was the one!!! The other trailer became a storage trailer for now. They would like to convert that one now, but they are having too much fun traveling all over with me to take the time to convert it.
In the fall of 2006, they started working on me. Miss Jan sand-blasted all the bottom trim to get off all of the several layers of paint. I had been working for the carival at my last job. There was faint lines where you could see Complete Carnival written on my sides. They had left boxes of baseballs and two tracks that one would throw the balls down to knock something over to win a prize. Mister Bob was going to just replace my skin at the bottom where I was really rusty and holey, but decided to pull all that old stuff off and give me a complete face lift with all new galva-steel. I felt pretty naked for awhile there because he had stripped me down to just my doors and ribs. Wow!! It was getting to be winter time and I was still naked. My boards were put back on inside but they were waiting for foam insulation to be sprayed in before they could cover me up again. The guys doing that were deer hunting which is a couple weeks or more. After I got foamed then , the family proceeded to re-skin me. The new skin was cut, then glued, put in place and then screwed. Hopefully with the glue on, it woild be placed in the right spot because they could not move it once it made contact without causing dents and creases. Once that was done then my windows had to be put in place. Miss Jan stained my tongue-n-groove ceiling boards. Then Mister Bob started putting me together. They had an old cabinet that Miss Jan had bought 25 years ago and refinished. He used that for a wall dividing the living area from the bathroom/bedroom area. He turned the bottom shelves of the cabinet towards the bathroom for storage in there. The top of the cabinet hold dishes and basic items. Under the sink he made sliding shelves to make it easier to find the stored food. He hung a drop space to store their hot-plates (gas and electric) and then a drop leaf counter on the front of the cabinet. He put an old '76 Hotpoint refrigerator next to the counter and bolted that down. Then on top of that he put a wooden box (that he had built to store their electric oven)that is hooked to the wall. The only major thing she wanted to take with us was her MIGUN massage bed, so he turned that into a murphy bed in the living area. So it can be used when needed. They used a water bed frame ( for storage underneath) and have their own queen size mattress on it. There are a couple closets in the living area ( one for hanging clothes and the other for the extra food etc). In the back doors is an area about 3 feet deep. He has shelves for tools, sewing machine, 2 inflatable kayaks, Grizz's cage, the blue box, ladder etc. So that is how we travel for now. One happy family!




ps.. there are more pics in the trailer album in our Picasa web albums.