Sunday, October 16, 2011

Living Large

Living large in a small mini-motorhome. I like to think of my little old life as something grand. Ha ha ha!  It's a wonderful illusion that keeps me happy and optimistic. So I call my mini-motorhome my wheel estate. My upper bunk, over the cab, is referred to as the guest loft. I specifically wanted a motorhome that would sleep an extra person in comfort, since I am single, I wanted to have the ability to have a friend  hop along for part of  the adventure. 

My newish hexagon shaped canopy, I have renamed the gazebo. 


In back is my pool, oh but you can't see it because of the pool cover. OK, just kidding, no pool in my temporary back yard (just a big ocean!) 

I could not fit the entire tree above me, into this picture. Given that my wheel estate stands 10 feet tall, you can get an idea of just how far that dead broken tree branch fell, to ultimately  stab a hole in the roof of my beloved home. (See my prior post The Stabbing)

On a side note, I don't understand the obsession with constant frantic text messaging on cell phones. As I am sitting here typing, I just watched an adult male fly by on his bicycle through the campground, going at a good clip, while texting on his cell phone with one hand. A few seconds later, I heard a crash, followed by ouches and ohs with a few unprintable expletives thrown in. I ran out to help. He had crashed into a tree!  I offered him first aid and bandaids, as he was scraped up badly, but he refused. Amazingly, he was still clutching his cell phone when I found him in a bloody heap in the bushes. I think he was super embarrassed, as he was in a rush to jump up and be off again.  He got up and rode off, still clinging to his cell phone. Blood was running down his shins and elbows as he rode away. I guess he wanted to Facebook his accident or Twitter his boo-boo. 
The dog is so small, the beach is so wide.  Harley absolutely loves the beach, the wind in his fur, the running on sand, the digging up smelly stuff , and chasing the shore birds, just to watch them take flight.  A dragonfly fluttered by as Harley tried to mimic it. He can be a dancing fool at times. My formerly water phobic pooch has learned to walk beside me as I wade through the healing waters of the salty seas. He no longer  minds getting his little paws wet. He did try to drink the ocean, then spit it out, coughing and hacking while giving me a confused look. After each beach romp, I give him plenty of fresh water to rinse out the salty taste. 

This is a far cry from the puppy that used to whimper and cry, straining at the leash, digging his paws into the sand, in a defiant "No, I won't go there!" attitude of visits in the past near water. I would have to always pick him up and carry him, shivering and shaking. While at Hartwell Lake this summer, I was determined to gently coax him to get over his water phobias. On a very hot day, I even got him to enjoy wading and swimming in the cooler waters of the lake. I know he's not a water dog, his little heart and chest get cold super easily, but I just wanted to be able to walk down the beach, wading in the water, without my puppy on a leash freaking out. Success!  Yippie!  He now quite confidently walks on his leash, letting his little paws splash in the water, while I am able to wade deeper, walking the beach. We are both immensely happy with this new arrangement. 






A closer view of my new gazebo arrangement. The patio mat is 9x12 feet, the hexagon shaped canopy is 10x12 feet. Now how do you measure a six sided shape with only 2 measurements?  This puzzled me when I bought it and the box read 10x12 foot hexagon canopy.  Then I measured it. From one post across to the next post is 12 feet. But from the middle of one panel to the opposite panel side, is 10 feet. I just recently discovered the legs of the gazebo have three different height adjustments.  In this picture, I have the legs at their lowest.  It's still plenty tall enough for me to walk under it. In the heat of summer or around tall friends, I can see the advantages to setting it up to be higher.

I was further confused how best to lay out a rectangle rug under a hexagon gazebo. I finally decided since the rug was 12 feet long and post to post was 12 feet, that I should center one post at each end of the rug. That worked surprisingly well. The kit came with big long heavy nails, to  nail the gazebo legs into the ground. It also came with 6 tent stakes and 6 ropes attached  to the upper canopy, so you can literally tie it down at 12 points. While most campsites come with a picnic table, I found that they are not very comfortable for me, for typing away outdoors. When I first bought the motorhome, I found a bargain folding card table.  It makes a lovely desk or dining for four.  Having both the folding table and the picnic table is great. I am often doing repair projects, so having table space to lay out parts and tools is a huge bonus.

While you can't really see the guide ropes unless you enlarge this picture, I did tie two to the opposite side of the picnic table bench , and several more to surrounding trees, plus one to the ladder attached to the rear of the motorhome. It was storming intermittently when I arrived on Hunting Island, so I wanted to make darn sure, my gazebo wouldn't take flight without putting up a big fight first. I sat under it in the rain, just thrilled to be alive and be here, in spite of the wonky weather. It was nice and dry as long as the winds didn't blow the rain sideways.

Initially I was thinking of buying a screened tent room. How glad I am that I did not. What happened was the Coleman Factory Outlet had this hexagon canopy greatly reduced. The storage bag had a broken zipper plus   the outlet store was offering 40% off everything the day I was there. Luckily they were out of the screened tents.  I finally decided to grab this bargain, since my roll-out awning attached to the motorhome has just about died completely. I have repaired it numerous times with junk yard parts, heavy duty tape, strings, bungee cords and so on. The frame is mangled, the awning material  is shot. It takes an act of congress now to open or close it, making it a royal pain to deal with lately. Buying a new rollout awning was going to be more than 10 times the cost of getting this canopy on sale with the discounts. While I do plan to replace the roll-out awning, I just couldn't scrape up the funding at this point and time.  Now I have the hole in the roof to deal with from the recent tree stabbing...  

Since the motorhome is small and compact, I do so much enjoy the idea of living large in the great outdoors whenever possible. I also like to visit with old and new friends as does the puppy dog. Amazingly I travel with 5 outdoor chairs, though 2 of those are literally on their last legs. The red sling chairs were very cheap at a discount store,  but have worked really hard.  The legs are fine, but the thin fake canvas has taken a beating over the past 2 years. My sturdiest chair  is a white handicapped chair for using in the shower. My friend bought a fancier one, she was going to give this one away, so she gave it to me. It does fit in my shower and travels there when I am on the road, since it doesn't fold up. When I was having trouble with my legs, it was great  for showering while sitting down. It has thick rubber feet. Since it's made for the shower, it's great for outdoors too. It has a heavy weight limit, plus all four legs are adjustable to several heights. I've used it many times as a sturdy step stool for doing things around the camp and wheel estate. When living large in a small wheel estate, it pays to have things that serve multiple purposes, to justify the space they occupy.

The string in the picture is part of Harley's outdoor tether system. Campgrounds require dogs on a leash, but so far no one has complained about me having him tethered outside when I am working outside. Because I often jump up to run inside for more coffee or more iced tea or more water, coupled with Harley running around on a tether, I could see where a screened room would just be a pain in the elbow for us in quick order.  The screened rooms are built like a tent, but have zippered doorways. I could just see the hassle of zipping and unzipping for me, for the dog, for more iced tea, for a restroom trip and so on. I decided the screen would be a big hassle.  I could just use OFF spray if the bugs were bugging me. 



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1 comment:

  1. Your estate looks very grand:) I am just glad that idiot was on a bike and not driving a car!

    ReplyDelete


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