Mod: Short Queen Memory Foam Mattress Cutdown

When we bought the Winnie, the previous owners had put a full sized queen mattress on the short queen base in the bedroom.  We were excited to see how well it fit, so we promptly put in a full queen sized memory foam mattress with a topper and we sleep great.  However, after a year with it, we've decided that squeezing sideways around the bed is getting old and that we think we'd prefer a short queen after all.  Neither of us are particularly large or tall, so a short queen should be fine, and that's the size we had in our travel trailer.  Of course the executive decision was deferred to Kevin since I'm 5'1" and he's 5'11" - he said go for it.

Here's the full queen and the space between the foot of the bed and the wall.  It diminishes when the bedding and comforter are on:

 

So we looked at eHow and watched some YouTube videos and borrowed an electric knife from some friends and set off to cut this baby down.

After unzipping the mattress cover I had to cut away a muslin cover, then under that was another cover with a zipper.  Under that was finally the foam!

Some measuring and marking (a nice long straight edge like a leftover from a bathroom remodel project is helpful here), then we got to pull out the knife.  It cut like buttah.

 

Finished product: 5 extra inches of space!  And the bonus should be that the sheets and blankets stay tucked in at the foot of the bed since it doesn't extend beyond the platform anymore.  We will see if Kevin regrets the decision or not!

 

Mod: Replacement Doghouse Console

So, the stock console seemed like a pretty big waste of space, or at the very least not a very well organized use of space.  I had seen mention of a replacement "slimline" or "trimline" version in a couple of forums, so off I went searching.  Once I figured out the word I was looking for was CONSOLE I had no problem finding what I was looking for.  Ford makes one and Winnebago makes one - slightly different, but I went for the Ford one for about $50 off of eBay.

Before:

After: 

So, the verdict: I don't think it saved us any space, but the new thing has a lot more cubbies and space for our junk.

CT - West Thompson Lake Campground

A great stay at one of our local favorites!  Even better this year because my parents are one of the sets of campground hosts for the summer!

West Thompson is an Army Corps of Engineers location and has a dammed lake.  Of course Theo is old enough for lots of dammed puns and jokes, thanks to the Percy Jackson books ;)  Pretty funny and kept us giggling.

We were on site #6, with water and electric hookups.

We got out for some paddling - that's my mom, whizzing away from us.  She made it halfway down the lake while Theo and I were still monkeying around with his paddle!

And the genny was due for an oil change, so my dad coached us through since we're newbies to the Onan.  He has a clever "funnel" - the side is cut off of an old oil bottle so it has a nice long reach - smart!

  

I asked them to pose so I could snap a pic for the blog - watch out QVC models!

And here's another project we did - disco lights!  They're LED strips that I found at BJ's so I couldn't resist.  They're really thin so I just mounted them right on the awning roller.  I have a remote control and can make them do all sorts of excitingly tacky colors and flashes!

We gave Kevin a propane pizza oven for Father's day - he's been playing with a modified weber kettle homemade version at home, so propane is cool since we can take it on the road.  Fun to build our own pizzas!

Some pics from chilling and fishing:

Oh, and we saw this little water snake! 

My parents were back on duty on Sunday, and Theo wants a job there so he can drive the little cart.  Grandpa won't give him a ride since it is "official use only"...so the obvious solution is to work there and make himself official!  He has a few years yet :)   

Toad or No Toad - how do we get around?

When we bought the Winnie we traded both our truck and travel trailer, bringing us down to a one car family (well, two if you count the Winnie.)   We decided to give it a season of camping before making any sort of decision on replacing the second car for commuting.    Since our car is a Honda Insight hybrid, it isn’t towable 4 down, so we wanted to see if we wanted to look for something 4 down towable as a second car.  We’ve carpooled in the past and decided to do it again for the summer while we determined our needs. 

After a season we decided that we don’t need a toad vehicle.  If we were fulltiming, sure, but for our weekend and vacation travels it just isn’t worth it to get a towable car, tow setup, brake system, etc.  Depending on where we are at and what we are doing we either ride bikes or walk, rent a car from Enterprise (the bonus is that Theo loves checking out new cars), or just drive the Winnie if we need to go somewhere.  We’ve also called a cab once – but that proved to be about the same price as getting a rental car for a day. 

And in case you care,  the carpooling schedule got a little tricky for a bit last summer so I decided to look into taking the bus for a few days.  Lo and behold, the city bus that stops at the end of our street goes downtown, a stop right across from my office!  It turns out I really enjoy taking the bus – I get 45 minutes of reading and coffee-sipping time each way, so nice!  Yes, a little longer commute than when I drove in, but I’m loving the reading time and I’m saving almost $100 a month in the parking contract alone.  Plus, the boys got me a nifty Kindle Paperwhite for Christmas, so I am happy as a clam.  Yes, there have been a few times where we need a second car for a day or two to cover weird appointment or meeting schedules, but in those cases we turn again to Enterprise.  We’re still way ahead of paying for a second car, insurance, taxes, gas, parking, etc…and we get to feel pretty green to offset the mpg we get on the Winnie ;)

Where does Theo ride?

We get this question fairly frequently.  We can have 5 passengers in addition to the pilot and co-pilot.  There are two seatbelts on the sofa and three at the dinette.  The dinette also has a tether anchor for a carseat as well if T was smaller and still in one.  So, most of the time he’s on the sofa with one or both of the dogs, but we also sit at the dinette and play cards and games (for this we put down a piece of that non-skid shelf liner.)  The dogs either sit with Theo on the sofa, on the floor right behind the cab, or on the back bed.

VT - Quechee Gorge State Park

Kevin's turn to run the Covered Bridges Half Marathon! And a spectacular weekend for it!

We stayed at Quechee Gorge State Park on site 33, huge site!

We cheated on Friday night and walked across the street to pick up Pizza Chef pizza. 

There's even a staircase right from the campground to get to a couple of restaurants, a visitor center, and Quechee Gorge Village - so convenient!  We parked for the weekend and walked everywhere. Theo was a litle put out by the sign even though we were clear to pass :)

Of course we had to hit the Cabot cheese tasting place at the village shops:

And the candy shop next door:

And the toy museum upstairs - very cool!

And we played a little disc golf on the course they had set up:

A couple of nice hikes down to the gorge:

And of course Theo had to get wet at the gorge (which meant mom got pretty wet too):

Here's a nice shot of the gorge from the bridge, and yes, I held on to my phone nice and tight to take this shot!

Also at the campground were our friends from the dogandtrailer.com group, Lisa ran the race as well!

And some race day shots:

Some chillaxing and  canine solar charging, followed by a quick round of mini golf behind the pizza place and then we headed home: