The first 75 miles

For Father's Day we took a short trip out to Chandler, OK to see Sharla's parents and took the trailer along to stretch its legs. We thought it was appropriate to take the scenic route and drove back and forth along Histroric Route 66. The trailer handled beautifully, some interesting observations.

• It is narrow, being only 4 feet wide I was surprised how it tucked behind the Explorer so well.
• It certainly turns heads and it is so fun to watch people chat to their car mates about our pride and joy.
• It tracked very well, there was no swaying or oscillating.
• Everything stayed put as it was supposed to.
• The trip was too short to get a bead on fuel economy, but we are going to take it to St. Louis next weekend when we go to pick up AJ and his cousins.

Here is a picture of the trailer out in the open getting its first breath of fresh air. Along Route 66 is a new landmark a travel spot called Pop's they have hundreds of kinds of soda pop in their iconic bottles. The landmark features a giant pop bottle that is quite colorful at night.

Today is the Day

I am happy to report that today is the day that I have finished the trailer. After a very long and hot weekend; tonight after work I was able to get some major things checked off the list. And while there are a few minor details to finish I am for all practical purposes done and the trailer could be put into service immediately.

Choirs of angels singing and bright beams of sunshine beaming down.

Maybe that is to dramatic a mental image but from my perspecctive it is faily accurate. 115 days from the humble beginnings to today. The lights are installed and wired, all the finish is on the exterior, the windows are installed, and the tongue box is completed (Sharla's favorite detail by the way).

You can see that the tongue box is fitted to the curve of the front.

The tailights are set into the bumper.

Here you can see that the cedar stips continue from the beginning of the curve through the roof and down the hatch in the back. Once some of the nit-picky details get finished I will post a video walk-around.

Another weekend has come and gone and while progress was made, it's all the pieces that take more time and don't illustrate much progress. The major accomplishment this weekend was to cut out the doors and fit the windows. In all of my conceptualizing I never anticipated that this task would take an entire day. :-)  If I didn't put as much pressure on myself it would probably be healthier. 

On a separate note. Sharla indulged me and for my birthday present she was willing to camp out with me at the Sprint store Friday night so that I could get a new phone. The Palm Pre was launched on Saturday and I was 6th in line. I have been looking forward to this phone since Jan and am really pleased with it. Thank you sweetie for a wonderful birthday. I hope you feel that yours are just as special.

I will be back on the teardrop next weekend and will have to have everything just about finished up. 

Best Laid Plans...

Well my original goal was to try to get the trailer done by the end of this weekend. You guessed it, this weekend came and went and the trailer is not quite done yet. But I was able to make some progress on Saturday and the results are not too bad.

As far as the trailer goes, there are only 3 major elements left to do.

1. The side doors need to be built and have the windows installed.
2. The wiring and trailer lights have to be installed.
3. The box that will go on the tongue needs to be designed and built.

I have decided that while wooden fenders will be really cool there is nothing keeping me from doing those later. The majority of the frame has been covered and many of the final trim details are done. As it stands I think it will need 2 good days to be finished.

The lower hatch dorrs turned out really well and other than the fact I have run out of copper screw caps, it looks all finished. The trailer lights will be set into the bumper and then the marker lights will be mounted on the sides along the bottom skirt board.

The inside of the galley have been polyurethaned and looks really nice. Notice the paper towel holder.

The Brazilian Cherry laminate flooring has been put installed in the cabin and really finishes off the insterior well.