projectmidge

Restoration of our vintage trailers. 1967 Airstream (Midge), 1957 Silver Streak, and 1961 Holiday House.

Mid Mod Trailer Trash at the Denver Modernism Show! And Updates!

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Since my last blog post, we have  had an exciting couple of months!  So many camping trips – Paonia State Park with the Holiday Rambler; Leadville and LaVeta with Midge; and Leadville again with Midge AND the Silver Streak (we took both trailers and camped with my brother and his family); Salida with Midge (my first solo trip!).  It’s been a fun summer!

To top it all off – my merry band of misfits, the Friendly Average Campers of Colorado, exhibited several trailers at The Denver Modernism Show, August 26th and 27th!

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All is can say is…..WOW!  This group has some amaze-balls trailers.  Holy cow! I will post pics of them all….they were so beautiful!  And, I must say…..we were THE HIT of the Show.  So many people!  Everyone was so nice, and truly appreciated being able to tour the beautiful trailers and visit with the owners.  It was a great experience.  In fact, we got several new members over the weekend :-).  One of the attendees touring trailers Friday night asked if they could bring their vintage Shasta on Saturday morning and display it!  Of course, we said yes!  I did not get a picture of them with their trailer, but it is the red/polished aluminum Shasta in the pics below.  We will be back next year with even more fantastic trailers!

(If you click on the pictures below, they will enlarge.)

In case you didn’t notice, we displayed the Holiday House (AS-IS!!! Ewwww!) Dear Husband thought it would be a great idea.  He thought people would really get a kick out of it.  I thought….”um…NO.  It’s gross!  It’s falling apart!  No one wants to see that!”  Well, he was right and I was wrong.  Yeah.  I just admitted that.  (SIGH).

We polished the Silver Streak, and she looked drop dead gorgeous.  (I’ve put some “before” and “after” pics at the bottom)  It’s amazing what some spit and polish can do for these old gals (ok, ok…..we didn’t spit on her).  All the ugly black marks are gone, and she is sparkly!  Oh, and, obviously, “it” is a “she” and her name is “Miss Behavin'”.

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RubyLane.com was there and did a live feed tour of our beautiful girl:

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The trailers were displayed Friday night and all day Saturday.  The vintage car show moved in on Sunday morning, so the trailers had to pull out Saturday night.  I was asked to leave my trailer for the car show, which I didn’t mind one bit….saved me from hauling a trailer home after a very long couple of days.  Well….as luck would have it, there was a “trailer” category in the car show, and little “Miss Behavin'” won!!  (Um, yes…..she was the ONLY trailer there, but still!).  The car guys told me she would’ve won anyway, and I choose to believe them ;-).

Our next trip is in a couple days!  We are heading to Estes Park for Scotfest!  It is so much fun!  I’m pretty excited.  We are taking Miss Behavin’ this time.  She is all prettied up and ready to roll.

We winterized Midge after our last trip to Salida.  I don’t think we’ll be taking her out any more this year, which makes me kind of sad.  I do love her.

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Dottie and Midge @ Turquoise Lake

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Turquoise Lake

Our poor Holiday Rambler only got 1 trip this year!  We took it to Paonia State Park and met some friends who, also, have a vintage Holiday Rambler.  Theirs is a mansion compared to our little 18 footer, but they looked so cute together!

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Ramblin’ On!

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Holiday Ramblers

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I l love these trailers!

We have a few more trips planned this fall, so we may take the HR out again (Palisade Winefest, Grand Lake, and Lathrop State Park).  I love this little trailer, too!  It’s beginning to be a problem – having so many trailers.  I feel like I’m mistreating the ones that get left behind :-(.

Dear Husband is in the process of enlarging our garage door so we can get the Holiday House inside for the renovations.  It’s going to be a big job, but being inside will make it much easier.  We rehabbed all of our other trailers outside, which is such a pain.  The weather never cooperates, which makes it difficult to get anything done.  We’ve named the Holiday House, “Astro”.  It’s got such a futuristic Jetson’s vibe!  So, I think that means we have 2 girl trailers (the silver beauties), and 2 boy trailers (the Holiday’s).

Here are some before/after pics of the polishing.  I love our polishing guy!  He’s amazing.

BEFORE:

DURING:

AFTER:

So that’s my update!  Whew!  It has been busy, busy, busy…..and FUN, FUN, FUN!!

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Camping Season is Here!!!!!

Boy, did that seem like a LONG Winter!  Rain and snow in May.  That is not supposed to happen.  In addition to no camping, I lost my garden THREE different times!  Crappy May.  I’ve lived here for 25 years, and still plant my garden way too early.  I know better than that, but geez….the first nice weekend in April, and I’ve got to plant my garden.  Not very smart.  Someone PLEASE remind me of this fiasco next April!

We graduated our two sons in May!  Older son graduated from CU-Boulder and younger son graduated from Littleton High School!  We are very proud of our kids and relieved that is behind us.  Having 2 graduates at the same time is exhausting!

Anyway….I know this blog is supposed to be about Midge the Airstream, and it IS.  The thing is, though, our first trip out this year was with the Holiday Rambler.  It was a Tin Can Tourist gathering, and since we took the Airstream to the TCT gathering last year, we decided it was the Rambler’s turn to shine.  Midge is going out next!

Ramblin' On

Ramblin’ On

We camped at the Glenwood Canyon Resort in Glenwood Springs, CO.  (Campground review is at the bottom of this post). Hello, Beautiful!!  Gorgeous, gorgeous area.  All the TCT’ers were camped along the Colorado River.  There were some really cute vintage campers and we met so many awesome people!  The river was high, and it rained.  The resort employees were filling sand bags near us at a frantic pace, which was somewhat disconcerting.  Obviously, we survived.

Colorado River

Colorado River in our backyard 🙂

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Sand bags along the Colorado River

Camp set up

Camping!

The first night we arrived, we were to have a potluck in a central location.  Well, the rains came in and it was pretty miserable.  It was decided to have a “traveling” dinner:  everyone took their plate from trailer to trailer.  It was kind of funny and sad at the same time.  I did not make it to many trailers that first night because it was just raining too much.  Needless to say, everyone had lots of left overs.  We had a crock pot full of Dear Husband’s amazing bean dip and a huge bowl of spicy guacamole.  Not much made it home with us….those are some great left overs!

I’m just going to post some random pictures from the weekend.  Because of the crappy weather, I didn’t take too many pictures.  There were some cray-cray-adorb trailers, though.

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I’m a bit obsessed with our plug in “porch light”.  It is original to the trailer and just makes me smile.  Lord help me if I ever forget to unplug it and put it away….Dear Husband would surely divorce me if we lost it on the road!

Plug In Porch Light

Plug In Porch Light

Princess Nellie won the golden ticket, and got to accompany us on this trip.  At the TCT camp out last year, we had all 4 dogs, and it was a pain in the butt.  We weren’t going to bring any dogs this time, but Dear Husband decided she deserved a special trip.

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Princess Nellie

Tired Camper, Nellie

Tired Camper, Nellie

The rain ended in the evenings, and we enjoyed a couple large communal camp fires.  Lots of drinking and laughing.  Seriously, a fun bunch of people!  While raining, we would enjoy a cocktail or three under our awning.  For the most part, it kept us dry.  There were a few places that it dripped through the seam, but I think if I Scotch Guard it, it should help.

Cocktail Time!

Cocktail Time!

Cocktail Time!

Cocktail Time!

Here is the usual night shot.  I just love my campers at night time 🙂

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Night Time for the Rambler

We headed home on Sunday, June 7th.  Of course, it was a blue sky beautiful day!  It was an uneventful trip, and a beautiful day in the mountains!

Vail Pass

Vail Pass

Please forgive the poor resolution of that picture….damn iphone. (it’s probably my fault, but I like blaming my phone).

Vail Pass

Vail Pass

Glenwood Canyon Resort:

The resort is stunning!  It has beautiful cabins, secluded tent sites, full RV hookups, and a lodge (restaurant/bar) on the main level.  We were on the lower level river front sites.  Electric and Water hookups only.  There is a dump station up near the main bath house.  The campsites along the river are fairly small, but well maintained.  There are some beautiful tent sites along the river, too.  It was great fun to watch the rafters go by.  The cabins look really nice.  The only complaints I heard was the fact that there is not a bathroom or bath house on the lower level, and noise complaints.  It is quite a trek up the hill in the middle of the night if you need to use their facilities.  I was thankful we had a wet bath in the Rambler!  There was a wedding going on at the resort, which I didn’t mind.  It was fun to see the beautiful bride and guests all dressed up.  We could hear the music from the main lodge where the reception was taking place.  Not a big deal to me, but some of our fellow campers didn’t appreciate it.  Also, there are train tracks across the river.  I, personally, love the sound of a train.  I know that is not a popular opinion.  The resort does provide ear plugs if you need them.  It is pricey at $58/night for water and electric only, but we would come back.  They have a zipline and offer rafting tours, also.  Next time we go, we will bring the kids along.  They would love it!  It is a short 3 minute drive in to Glenwood Springs.  They are dog friendly (additional fee) and Nellie seemed to like it :-).

Next at bat:  Midge!  We are taking Midge to Lucy’s Place in LaVeta, CO at the end of June.  We are meeting some friends there.  They are bringing their vintage Avalair camper.  I can’t wait to see it!  I think it is a 1963 Avalair.  It is a silver trailer, too, and I’m excited to see the Silver Sisters camped out next to each other!  I will definitely try to get some decent pictures.  We will go to the Sand Dunes and enjoy a part of Colorado we’ve never been to before!

Stay Tuned!

 

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Mt. Princeton Campground with the Holiday Rambler

First things, first.  Dear Husband finally applied our Ramble On Club decal!!  Lucky number 13 :):

Applying Ramble On Club Decal

Applying Ramble On Club Decal.                

Ramble On Club #13

Ramble On Club #13

We took the Holiday Rambler to Mt. Princeton Campground in early August. This is such an awesome campground! We were in site 5. It is a wonderful site. The river is directly behind you and the rv and tent pads are nice and level.

This campground only has 16 sites and they fill up fast. You need to get a reservation at recreation.gov. All the sites are nice, but the ones along the river are by far the best. This is dry camping. There are vault toilets and a hand pump for water. There is no dump station, but the Chalk Creek Campground has one and it is just down the road.
This awesome blog post continued HERE!

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Holiday Rambler Door Project, part 1

Well, you know how I mentioned I had a plan for our hideous door?  I think it worked out well, and it is a huge improvement.

I bought a lot of vintage 1960’s road maps on EBay for $9.00, foam applicators and some Mod Podge at Walmart.  I bought 2 of the large containers, but 1 was plenty.  When it comes to Walmart trips, the fewer the better.  I did not want to risk having to make an extra trip.   I just really dread going there, and I’m not even sure why.

Supplies:

Doors Supplies:  Maps, Mod Podge, Scissors, Foam Applicators

Door Supplies: Maps, Mod Podge, Scissors, Foam Applicators

This is what I started with:

Ugly Door. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.

Ugly Door. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.

I cleaned the door really well and scuffed it up with a cheap sanding block from Harbor Freight.  I’m talking about the kind of sanding block that will irreparably harm anything it touches.   It came in a pack of 10 for $3.00.  Awful, awful sanding blocks.  I am really pleased that I found a use for them!  Scuffing up this eyesore of a door was really quite enjoyable.  Once that was done, I played with the lay out of the maps and cut them into the pieces I needed.  I then applied the Mod Podge and started placing the map pieces where I needed them.  Do one piece at a time.  When adhered, apply Mod Podge on top.  Keep doing this until done.  I know.  That sounds so easy!  And, it is really easy, but time consuming because of the positioning and cutting of the map pieces.  I wanted certain parts of the map to show…..like the entire Colorado map (where we live), the Nebraska map (where I am from), the Rocky Mountain National Park map (where we like to camp), etc…you know what I mean.

This is 1/2 way done:

Door 1/2 done

Door 1/2 done

I had a bit of trouble getting the bubbles out of the larger map pieces.  After wrestling with them, and cursing my unborn children, I realized the bubbles looked kind of neat. Like TOPOGRAPHY!  Once that realization hit me, things proceeded much quicker.

This is where I finished up today:

Door almost done, just needs a few more coats.

Door almost done, just needs a few more coats.

Closer view of door.

Closer view of door.

I need to apply several more coats of Mod Podge.  I might seal it with polyurethane.  Not sure yet.  Dear Husband has not replaced the window yet.  obviously, I got impatient.  When the new window is in, it will look great! Once completely finished, I will post a picture.  The door is not perfect, but I can live with it, and now we don’t need to worry abouIt buying a new one any time soon.

We have some little projects for Midge that we are working on, too.  We have not forgotten about her!  I will update with her updates as soon as they are done.  I love her so.

Addendum:  I meant to add these pictures last summer, but forgot!  These are from our trip to Mt. Princeton.  I made a screen protector out of some left over aluminum and Mod Podged the remnants of my maps to it.  My little rug rat dogs really enjoy destroying screen doors.  It serves a great purpose and is crazy cute, if I do say so.  My husband is kind of worried about the Mod Podge crush I have going on.

Mod Podged Screen Protector

Mod Podged Screen Protector

Mod Pdged Screen Protector

Mod Pdged Screen Protector

 

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Maiden Voyage with the Holiday Rambler

We had a successful maiden voyage!  We made a quick weekend trip to Garden of The Gods RV Resort in Colorado Springs.  We got down there really fast!  It was kind of nice.  We were set up and walking the dogs by noon!  I will give my review of the campground later.

First of all….it hauled perfectly.  We used Dear Husband’s big boy truck (Chevy 4 door DuraMax), although my Tahoe would have pulled it just fine.  We stopped at Monument, CO for something to eat and a guy stopped and took pictures of it :).   It really is cute.  Granted, Midge has the “WOW!” Factor, but the Holiday Rambler can hold its own in that cat fight.

Here is our camp site, all set up:

Holiday Rambler Awning

Holiday Rambler Awning

The awning went up so easily!  And, I think it’s pretty darn cute.
But wait, there’s more! Click here!

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Awning for The Holiday Rambler

Holiday Rambler Awning

Holiday Rambler Awning

Well, would you look at that!  I made another awning!  I amaze myself sometimes.   I had some requests to immortalize the making of this bad boy awning, so I have a tutorial listed on the right side of this page, up near the top under the “About” tab.  It is titled “Do-It-Yourself Awning Instructions”.  I know, clever, huh?

The instructions aren’t that different from the instructions I originally used for Midge.  I do not have a picture of the awning on the Rambler yet.  It is parked on my driveway next to Midge, and I need some dirt or grass to put up the awning poles.   We are planning the maiden voyage with the Holiday Rambler in a couple weeks and I will get a picture then.

UPDATE:

Here is the awning!  It worked great, and was really cute!

Holiday Rambler Awning

Holiday Rambler Awning

Holiday Rambler & Midge

Holiday Rambler & Midge

Back ends

Back ends

Holiday Rambler & Midge

Holiday Rambler & Midge

Don’t they look cute together?

 

 

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Holiday Rambler – Inside is Finished!

 

 

Holiday Rambler Kitchen

Holiday Rambler Kitchen

Well, we have finished up the inside of the Holiday Rambler.  It wasn’t nearly as time consuming and brain draining as poor Midge!  Bless her heart.

Some of the accomplishments over the past few weeks:

  1. New water heater
  2. New water pump
  3. New fresh water tank
  4. New shower floor (talented husband made a shower pan and lined it with a scrap of left over linoleum.  Cost = next to nothing!)
  5. Ran new Pex water lines throughout
  6. Installed new curtain hardware  and made curtains
  7. Reupholstered all cushions
  8. New coat of polyurethane  on all woodwork

The cushions actually look pretty good!  They blend well with the walls and turquoise accents.

 

Holiday Rambler Gaucho End

Holiday Rambler Gaucho End

 

Holiday Rambler Dinette Cushions


But wait, there’s more renovations HERE!

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Working on the Holiday Rambler

George brought the Holiday Rambler down to Denver so we could work on it this winter.  It’s home will be on the Western Slope.  She is parked at a rental property we own that is across the alley from our house.  It is pretty handy, and besides, Midge is residing in our drive way and we don’t have room for 2 campers back there.  Dear husband wanted to move Midge to a storage lot, but I wouldn’t let him.  She needs to be here with me.

I still haven’t come up with a name for the Holiday Rambler yet.  It’s tougher than you would think!  Midge came easily for some reason.  We have joined a new vintage Holiday Rambler Club.  It is called the “Ramble on Club”.  We are charter member number 13!  I have thought about naming her “Lucky”…. trying to negate the number 13!

Any way.  Remember these pictures?

1965 Holiday Rambler Dinette

1965 Holiday Rambler Dinette

 

1965 Holiday Rambler Kitchen and Dinette

1965 Holiday Rambler Kitchen and Dinette

 

1965 Holiday Rambler Counter, Fridge, Furnace, Gaucho

1965 Holiday Rambler Counter, Fridge, Furnace, Gaucho

Wow.  She is so cute and clean and tidy.  I miss those days.

This is what happens mid-renovation….be forewarned – It is shocking.  This is what I have to deal with.  I love my husband.  He can do anything.  EXCEPT pick up after himself.

Ready?

The horrible mess of a renovation.

The horrible mess of a renovation.

 

....and more mess.

….and more mess.

 

....and still more mess.

….and still more mess.

I KNOW.  

So sad.

This is what happens when my husband runs new water lines, installs new fresh water tank and water heater, and replaces the shower floor.   I told you he can do anything!  The mess he makes is the cross I bear.
More renovations HERE!

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Sibling for Midge :)

Well, we have somehow acquired another vintage camper:  A 1965 17′ Holiday Rambler!

We bought a 1967 Holiday Rambler 20 years ago when we first got married.  It was absolutely PERFECT.  It looked brand new.  It even had all the manuals and receipts from the original purchase.  We loved that little camper so much.  Then we had a couple kids and sold it for a new, larger camper.  We have always regretted selling it.

A few days ago my husband happened to spot this 1965 Holiday Rambler for sale in Craig, CO, and now it is ours!  The inside is in absolutely wonderful condition.  The outside could use a paint job and we need to find some new decals and emblems, but it does not need any major work. All major systems are working great!  It has new tires, too.  I will reupholster the cushions (they are fairly new), and make new curtains.  It is so cute and it is such a relief that it doesn’t need any work!

Midge is still my dream trailer and will stay with us in the Denver Metro area for trips based out of there, and the Holiday Rambler will stay at our property on the Western Slope for trips out of there!  It’s perfect!

Here are a few pics of the Holiday Rambler….yet to be named 🙂

1965 Holiday Rambler

1965 Holiday Rambler

I love the louvered windows!

But wait, there are more pictures HERE!

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