New Beginnings

So it's been a while... Not that you would know that as this blog is a new venture for me. Some of you may be familiar with my previous camper renovations. If not, you can find them here: https://www.facebook.com/shastarestore/

This last year or so has brought a lot of change for me that has kept me away from working on campers for a bit. But I'm back and it feels great to be building again!

The truth is that I met a girl. A wonderful, bright, energetic girl who took an incredible interest in building a camper with me and over Labor Day weekend we found our new "together" project. We were road tripping and on our way through Moscow, Idaho we spotted this 1954 Terry Coach sitting on the side of the highway. Being a sucker for old campers I stepped on the brakes and we had a look.

Neither of us had any real intent to buy a project at the time and we were on our way North for a weekend with our boys (We didn't have anything to tow a camper with anyway). But I took a photo of the seller's number and we went on our way.

As the weekend progressed it became obvious that we were both a little bit obsessed with the idea of adopting this cute little canned ham and it kept coming up in conversation. I remember sitting in the porch swing of our vacation home with a cup of coffee when things got real... We started talking about what it would take to fix the camper up. Would we keep it or flip it? How would we get her home? Was there even a way to get a tow hitch installed on a Subaru in Coeur D'Alene on a Sunday? (The answer to that last question is "no") But I think it was at that moment that we decided we wanted to take on this project together. I was excited to swing a hammer again and Josie was getting giddy about interior design. We were going to do this together. How could I say no???

So, we stopped and looked again on our way home and made an offer. Our seller was asking $1950 but graciously accepted our offer of $1300. After which Josie talked him down another $200. Her negotiating skills are always fun to witness. So the Camper was ours for $1100!

We had to return the following weekend to pick her up. It's a 6 hour drive from Boise to Moscow and we did an up-and-back all in one day. I am grateful for two things: 1) The camper towed incredibly well and we had no issues making good time getting home. 2) Josie is the best company on road trips.

So after 12 hours of talking politics and hip-hop artists, eating gas station snacks, an amazing steak dinner in a cowboy town and tearing down a dark highway with the windows open while screaming along to Janes Addiction tunes we made it back. Our baby was home. We named her Elsie on the way. Elsie. I think it suits her quite well :)