Day 605, Friday and the big Mega Millions

I was so glad it was Friday and the big buzz was the Mega Millions Lottory. I think it is up to $640 million now that would be nice. I wonder what kind of trailer and car you could buy with that kind of money, big grin! Ahh to dream.

I really had no plans for the day or Friday night and tomorrow I have to drive to Portland for a wedding and my nieces 9th birthday. I'm not looking forward to being gone for another weekend and to drive over the mountain but I need to go.

At 5 pm I invited Christian and Tracy over for pizza in the trailer. Tracy was dog sitting but Christian was more than happy to partake in some pizza and beer.

Day 604, Sad day for the chickens.

Today was stormy with strong winds and rain.  This is the part of winter/spring that really starts to get on my nerves and I long for beautiful summer days.

An awesome set of trailer towels

At noon, I came for lunch and I went to check on my chickens.  One of the hens was having breathing problems and I wanted to give her more antibiotics.  When I got to the pen I only saw three hens and thought that's not good.  When I opened the door to the big coop I found the Rhoda Island Red had died.  I really wasn't surprised, she didn't sound good the night before and the medication didn't seem to be helping.  I'm now down to 3 chickens out of the original 14. It was a sad day and I tossed her lifeless body in the trash can.  Oh well such is life on a farm.

I was very happy to find in my mailbox another one of my purchases from eBay, it was a set of dish towels.  I'm not one to get excited about towels, but these are really cool!  They are vintage pictures of canned ham trailers, an old car, a fisherman (with the Seattle area map, including Tukwila where the Packard came from) and one of those old metal chairs.  I think they will be  awesome in the trailer.

Day 603, Taking photos

Traveleze and Packard ready to go.

The weather was actually holding and the sun was  out.  Anna texted around 7:15 am that she would be on her way shortly to take the pictures.  This gave me about 25 minutes to get ready and to have the trailer hooked up to move.  It is so much easier to move the trailer with the John Deere mower than the truck.  When I went to start the mower, the batter was dead.  I quickly tossed on a battery charger and let it charge. By the time Anna arrived the mower was ready to start and I pulled the Traveleze out of the shop and on to the front driveway.  We thought it would be fun to have the Packard in a few of the pictures, so I brought her out too.

Anna has a great camera and I snapped a few pictures with my iPhone.  The lighting was perfect and the clouds in the sky provided some dramatic interest. We spent about an hour playing with the camera angles and positioning the car and in the end I think Anna got some great shots.  I was happy with what I got on my phone.

I got to work a little after 9 am and I shared my photo's with the office.  Everyone thought they looked great and they have been very supportive of my crazy obsession with the restoration and car hunting.

I was pretty focused on the Traveleze at work and I couldn't help but think it would be a lot of fun to pull the Traveleze with the Packard to some of Oregon's great nostalgic camping location and blog about it.  At the Governor's Conference on Tourism last week I actually talked to a few of Oregon's travel people and they liked the idea too.  I followed up with several via email and forwarded some of today's pictures from this morning.

At 4:15 pm I had my workout and I was in sad shape after being gone for a week.  My trainer whipped me into shape and had me do a ton of running up hill on the treadmill. 

A beautiful morning for taking pictures

Following my workout I had time to stop off at Flyte Camp and check on their projects. Now that my trailer is done I really don't want to stop, seeing what they are doing.  They are such great people, and what a fun job, making jewels out of lost treasures. 

At 6:45 pm Tracy was coming to pick me up and we were going to go see a special, 20th anniversary showing of the Bodyguard, in Bend.  I really wasn't sure about this, but Tracy wanted to go and I knew we would have fun.  I bought the tickets at $25 for the two of us and Tracy bought the snack, her water and my pop corn, drink and hot dog, which came to almost another $25.  We had spent $50 to see a movie we could rent for nothing.  The funny part was, when we go into the theater, we were the only people there.  Tracy didn't want to sit in the theater alone and they were having problems getting the movie to run, so they refunded our ticket and we headed home.  Actually, we headed to Macy's so Tracy could do some quick shopping. 

We had a fun even though we didn't get to see the movie and I think we were both happy at the thought of going to bed early.

It had been a fun day!

Day 602, Tuesday

I spent a little time working on the trailer today and I got out the Fiesta wear plates from the 50's that Tracy bought for the trailer in August of 2010.  With the quirky vintage Oregon tablecloth the plates would look great.  I'm not sure if I keep the plates in the trailer, they are heavy and breakable and I would want to bouncy around and break.  I'll have to see if I can figure out a way to pack them and keep them safe.

Bring on the meatloaf!

Tomorrow Anna from Flyte Camp is going to come over and take pictures of the trailer for an article being written for the Oregonian.  The weather forecast is not looking good, but if we want to catch the good light we will have to take the picture in the morning or late evening.  We decided to shot for 8 am and hope that it's not raining.  We were just going to have to play it by ear.

Today in the mail I received to pieces of trim for the Packard.  I don't really need them, but Rick said I should buy up a few extra pieces to have on hand and I was able to get them relatively inexpensively.

Day 601, Back to work

I spent a good part of the morning just sorting through mail, emails, phone calls and other projects that accumulated while I was gone, but by the end of the day I was feeling pretty caught up.  At least I had a good plan of attack for the rest of the week.  At noon I ran home for a late lunch and I had two of my recent eBay purchases waiting for me.  One was a vintage Oregon table cloth for the trailer and the other was a NOS section of the back bumper for the 53 Packard. 

Funky old Oregon table cloth.

Immediately following work I zipped home to spend more time on the Traveleze.  I cleaned the outside of the trailer with aluminum and stainless steel cleaner.  It looked pretty good I really want to take it out and give it a good wash, but for now it looked good.  I spent a few moments getting over-spray off the chrome trim rings on the wheels. I can tell I am going to have years of fun just puttering with the trailer.

I had been wondering how the 42 Packard was coming along and especially the engine rebuild.  I gave Rick a call and he has made a lot of progress getting the 42 back together.  He is currently working getting the new overdrive transmission in and he needs to have the drive line shortened.  The engine rebuild is still moving along but they still had one stuck cylinder when he had check last week.  Rick is putting the car back together keeping the current engine in place and we can replace it once the other engine is rebuilt.

Day 600, Flying home to the Traveleze

Flying home

My brother and I were up bright and early to head to the airport.  At 5:30 am there was no traffic and we hit almost every light right and made it to the airport in 25 minutes.  This normally takes 40 minutes to an hour with traffic.

We breezed through security and had plenty of time to kill before boarding and heading to San Francisco.   The flight from Palm Springs to San Francisco was on hour and we soon boarded the next flight to Portland that would only take one hour and 20 minutes.  We arrived in Portland 30 minutes ahead of schedule and this allowed me to catch a much earlier flight home.  $25 later I had a new ticket and was saying good bye to my brother.  He was able to get home and text me as I was boarding my flight and I got home exactly one hour after he did.

Tracy picked me up at the airport and dropped me off at the front door.  I went side and changed cloths and tossed everything in the wash.  I couldn't wait to head out to the shop and see the Traveleze. 

Flannel sheets

The trailer was just awesome and there was plenty of room in the shop for it.  I spent a lot of time just looking at it and figuring our a few things I needed to buy.  I had several items in the house that I had accumulated for the trailer and brought it all out .  First thing I did was make the bed.  I had red flannel sheets and they looked pretty good.  With a custom mattress it is going to require some creative fitting to make sheets work and stay in place.

I created a substantial list of items I wanted for the trailer, so I fired up the Packard and headed to town.  An hour later after shopping at several stores I  headed back to home and the trailer.

Pendleton Glacier Park Blanket 

After 600 days, I finally have my perfectly restored 14" 1950, Traveleze, canned ham trailer.  I blew my budget but the end result is truly spectacular.  I am so happy with Flyte Camp and the work that Justin, Anna and their team did for me.

This is just the start of many fun adventures to come.

Day 599, Our last day in paradise

1963 Buick La Saber

Saturday is our last day in sunny California.  The weather has been absolutely perfect and I really don't want to leave, but my trailer is calling my name.

Old town La Quinta is hosting an Art Festival today and my mother, brother and I went to see what they have to offer.  There were lots of people there and the parking lots were packed.  Luckily as I pulled in the parking lot attendant directed me to a spot that was just becoming available.  It was good parking karma.   First thing I noticed was a 1963 Buick La Saber convertible for sale.  It looked to be all original and in very presentable shape.  There was no price tag, only a phone number, which I snapped a picture of, so I could call later.

Walking the Old Town La Quinta Art Festival

The art festival was well attended and they had many nice things.  We made a loop and covered all the booths and had a good time.  It was starting to get warm and felt the need for some serious patio time coming.  It had been a fun few days, soaking up the sun and spending time with family.

Tomorrow it's up at 5am and off to the airport by 5:30am.