Working on the Mesa...

  We have reserved site# 18 the week of September 18-24 at Grayton Beach State Park in Florida! So we have a lot to do to get the camper in order for a week-long camping trip. 

I started by painting both bed ends gray instead of white.

Right

Left

My sister's boyfriend came over and figured out how to hook up the light and fan for the first time ever!

Both of which, I finally spraypainted white.

We bought a microwave a while ago but think it would be cool to keep it above the fridge while we're camping. It fits almost perfectly!

Skip, my sister's boyfriend borrowed the rivet gun from his work and helped Michael install the new bed end corners.

Then came a BIG one...I hadn't planned on replacing the windows. I was curious, but it looked hard. So I googled and researched. I found 1 tutorial and tried it out. It worked! So I am in the process of replacing all of them.

A very cloudy before...

 A very clear after!

Many more projects to come! We still have weatherstripping, countertops, touch-up painting, fridge install, curtains and hopefully flooring.

Camping with family!

Michael asked off for Sunday and Michael's parents invited us to camp with them at Shoal Creek so we finally got to camp again! I told my sister about it and she decided to come last minute with her kids & boyfriend too.

We were way too busy having fun-setting up camp, making a fire, roasting hot dogs & marshmallows, swimming, fishing & laughing to take pictures. 

I did manage a few with my iPhone.

We used our portable AC for the first time. It had a hard time keeping up with the 95 degree temps. I suspect that it was due to our camper not being airtight though. Remember how we have to keep the electrical door open to plug 'er up? That leaves a HUGE hole and our bed end corners are broken so we can definitely see daylight through them. Not to mention our pitiful weather stripping... We actually have a electrical cord outlet for the door so it doesn't have to open anymore, we just haven't installed it yet. And we have new bed end corners, but again we haven't installed them yet. The weather stripping is a cheap, easy fix...I guess we just haven't been too excited to work on the camper knowing we can't camp for awhile.

Passed out pups...

So we weren't exactly prepared for the heat, but we had fun anyways!

And the best surprise ever?!? My sis & bf came inside our camper to tell us goodbye Sunday night and shared with us that they are expecting!!!! I'm sooo excited to be an Aunt again!

Camping at Old Federal on Lake Lanier

Rain was forecasted for this weekend but we decided to camp anyways. This is a busy park so we had to make reservations a few weeks in advance. 

It was nice Friday night a lot of people were out walking, kids playing etc. We had another pull-through site and an even easier set up-we're getting better at this!

Our electric hatch has to be open in order to plug the camper in so we used trashbags to keep the rain out.

Saturday there were scattered showers. Breakfast was egg, cheese & turkey bacon sandwiches. We walked when it wasn't raining and went to check on my new work building when it started to rain heavily. We stopped for lunch at Zaxby's and brought some food back to my coworkers.

The rest of the day we hung out in the camper watching movies. 

The storms got pretty crazy that night, with lightning all around too. We left early Sunday morning because they were calling for more storms.

Camping By Ourselves!

My husband got a new schedule at work, he will be working Fri/Sat/Sun all summer so we won't be able to camp much--so we decided to go ahead and take advantage of his weekends off right now. Even if it's still pretty cold at night, it is nice during the day.

Shoal Creek campground on Lake Lanier is about 5 miles from our house so we deemed it to be the safest place to spend our first camping trip without friends. We could easily run home if we forgot or needed anything! Camping here is expensive ($48/night lakefront) but really convenient. 

We got here pretty soon after work, pulled into our pull-through site (love!) and set up in less than 30 minutes.

We were right on the water, it was beautiful at sunset!

We put some chili in the crockpot but it took a very long to begin to get warm so we microwaved it and then watched a movie and went to bed.

In the morning we let the dogs out and cooked breakfast--egg, cheese & turkey bacon sandwiches, a camping tradition for us.

We walked the dogs to the bath house and laid in bed most of the day.

Michael's dad came by and took us out in his boat for a sunset cruise.

The view of our camper from the water.

Because it was pretty cool weather there weren't many boats out, the water was very peaceful.

Great sunset...

Later we grilled some turkey sausage and made mashed potatoes and peas in the microwave. Michael's dad made us a bonfire and we made made some s'mores. We slept in on Sunday and left at a leisurely pace. 

Our First Camping Trip!

For our very first camping adventure in our Apache we joined our friends/coworkers at the R-Ranch in Dahlonega, Georgia. It is a camping resort complete with horse stables, pool, playgrounds, movies theatre and game room. And not to mention the AMAZING views as it is surrounded by mountains.

The view as you pull into the campground.

My traveling partners...

Of course we chose halloween weekend for our first outing. It was the first weekend our camper was ready!

It was warm during the day but got very cold at night. We borrowed my work truck (that has a hitch) to pull the camper as our car didn't have one yet. We got there after dark because we were waiting on our coworkers to arrive but they had a funeral to attend to. Michael backed into our spot after about 15 minutes of trying-his first attempt ever to back a camper up. We began to set up camp by lantern light. After we were set up I began to cook steak tacos that had been marinating in the cooler. They were yummy and we were definitely starved after all the waiting and hard work!

We settled in for the night with our pup and our heater. We tried sleeping on one side together but the beds are only 48" wide.

We were up with the sun and made some breakfast with our friends. It began to warm up and we watched some football and had a late lunch. We played some games and took a bike ride then made chili in the crockpot for dinner.

Then it was time for costumes and the hayride and halloween dance! I was pretty ambitious thinking I could get ready to camp for the first time and volunteer to make 5 costumes...but I did it!

I made Barney (my hubs), Fred & Wilma and Pebbles  (coworkers+family) the avatars are my bosses grandkids!

At night after we added some string lights.

Sorry for the lack of pictures...we were having such a good time I forgot to take too many!

The day we painted every surface....

We had a plan and supplies and all day to make a huge start in our little Mesa's tranformation...

We started with the cabinet doors. The border is brown plastic with a wood veneer insert. The hinges were brass colored with rust spots.

And after...brown plastic painted black and sheet metal added.

The metal is just sitting between the frame and the wood laminate so if we ever want to take it off we can, it's not permanent.

The kitchen before.

And after. Black rustoleum paint and sheet metal.

The table area before minus table.

The table area after. All the lower sidewalls painted with rustoleum gloss black and hubby cut a new table out of mdf and painted with chalkboard paint.

Looking right into the camper from the door. Notice the panel dangling.

and after...

Sidewalls and ceilings before...

 

After white paint. And obviously I will need to spray-paint the off-white plastic vents as well.

There are 6 of these panels all different sizes. We painted 4 white and 2 with chalkboard paint.

It works again!

Thanks to Apache Sales we have a working lift system again!

All the way popped up!

Now we have to replace some of the living hinge, install the new table husband made, put the made over cabinet doors back on and paint literally every surface...

While waiting for parts...

We take off the aluminum trim and spare tire cover.

The trim is cleaned and shined

Top: After         Bottom: Before

The spare tire cover lettering gets painted.

An ugly before.

A much better after.

IT BROKE!!!!

We tried to crank it up today and it went up a quarter of the way. Then the front half would not budge! We were very upset....

A piece even fell off of the gearbox as we tried to crank it up.

A very sad, wonky Mesa.

We discovered that the gearbox was broken the whole time but worked at the shop because it was very well compressed. When we towed it home we must have caused some pieces to come loose and therefore the gears would not turn on the front gearbox.

The contents of the guilty gearbox.

After much googling we have decided we will replace the front gearbox for the low price of $175 :(

We bought it!

The owner called me and said they would like to get $800 for the camper. My husband and I decided that the price was very reasonable and went to inspect it with cash in hand.

The owner set it up and showed us how to work everything. He gave us a lot of things he bought for the camper. Seeing as how we don't have a tow kit on our car yet, our great friends towed the camper home for us.

On the way to it's new home!

I secretly visit the Apache...

After many hours spent googling Apache campers, I decide to do a little detour during my deliveries and see the Apache up close one more time and talk to the owner about how much he wants for it.

Dirty, but not too shabby...

Missing the "A" but the body isn't banged up or anything.

The front doesn't look bad at all. Just the tongue is rusted.

Storage compartments. And a mounted level.

The owner told me he would talk to his wife that night and let me know how much they wanted for it.