Working on the Packard

With Labor Day behind us and a beautiful summer coming to a close, I decided it was time for an update.  The Traveleze has made several more adventures, and the more time I spend with her, the more I fall in love.  The little trailer is so much fun and it makes me smile from the inside out.  The little appliances perform amazingly well.  I've cooked full dinners in the Dixie oven and I have invited neighboring trailer-ites over to enjoy hot meals.  We've cooked meatloaf's, pork loin, cookies, cinnamon rolls, peach pie and much more in this tiny kitchen.  Everyone seems to be surprised I use the oven, but that's what it is there for and if I'm hauling

it around it's going to get used.  There is something wonderful about preparing food in the trailer.  It fills the tiny space with amazing aromas of delicious food and evokes all kinds of memories.  I can't help but remember how my grandmothers kitchen smelled when she would pull fresh hot cinnamon rolls of the oven.  

I can't help but feel at home in the little trailer.  Bring friends with me to share the experience and meeting new friends along the way, is all about the fun.  The warm amber glow of the birch walls, create a cozy inviting space, that transports me back in time.  I wake up in the back bed and look over the tiny space (which seems much larger when laying down) and I can't help but feel I am safe in familiar surroundings.

The 53 Packard, needed some help, and last May I took her in to start a frame off restoration.  The goal was to have her done by August 5, but that didn't materialize.   She is currently off her frame, getting rust repair performed and minor body work.  With a little new paint, rubber, chrome, wiring and a handful of miscellaneous pieces and parts....she should be good to go and most importantly be ready to pull the Traveleze around Central Oregon.

As we enter into September the weather levels out into perfect days and cools nights, ideal for taking the trailer out camping.  The big South Beach rally is coming up and I'm eager to pull the trailer to the coast again. There are over 50 vintage trailers signed up and I'm eager to meet up with new found friends from the last trailer rally in Seaview Washington. 

When I look back over the restoration process and the ridiculous expense involved, I no longer have heart palpitations.  The Traveleze is pure joy and I enjoy every minute I can spend with friends and the Traveleze.

 

Day 893, The Traveleze safely stored under cover for the winter

Newport, Oregon

Well, here it is several months after my last post.  The Traveleze went on a big adventure to Newport and along the Oregon coast in September.  My good friends Tracy and Christian went with me and we had a lot of fun.  I even managed to take them past our old cabin on the coast in Waldport and show them where I spent my summers and weekends as a kid.

Hwy 101, Oregon Coast

Right now the Traveleze is safe undercover and is plugged in and is being heated through the winter.  The low temperature the other night was ZERO and we have had snow on the ground almost since Christmas.

1942 Packard 120 Convertible in the snow, Christmas 2012

My friends at Flyte Camp have done several TV programs and they keep finding vintage treasure after treasure to restore.

I did manage to snap a few pictures of the Packard in the snow.  I backed the car out of the garage about 11:30 at night.  The temperature was around 19 degrees and with the camera set on a night setting on a tripod I was able to get some pretty neat shots. I really wanted to back the trailer out of it's resting place but I figured it might be a bit difficult to get back in with the snow.

Packard in the snow, Christmas 2012

Winter has a firm grip on Central Oregon and the days of camping with the trailer are a long ways off.  I'm already signed up for two vintage rallies this summer and I'm sure there will be a few more opportunities that will show up.