Life is an adventure and even at home in my day to day there is lots of excitement and adventure. Going out of this place of comfort and exploring something new is one of the things that makes us feel alive. We have done so while traveling for years, packing up our kids, tents and dogs and going on road trips exploring this beautiful country. However now that our youngsters have grown up we have been debating for a while to live a more nomadic lifestyle for the summers. This lifestyle would provide the opportunity to travel to more distant parts of the country but should however still include the possibility to work for the both of us. Taking this into account we finally made the decision this spring to acquire a pre owned travel trailer. This would allow for all the things we want and need to do even when the weather is not on our side.
So in the last several weeks we have taken a couple of trips and trying to get to know our vehicle. I think I still have to discuss how we are going to name it. Will it be our “Rig” or maybe our “Betsy”.The first one, although a common name, sounds a bit overdone for what the trailer actually is. The second one would evoke the feeling of coziness and homeliness that would certainly be fitting for this trailer. In the few weeks that we have used it now it definitely has made us feel at home. So we will think a bit more about the name and once I know it I will share it with you.
The trailer is 11 years old and the decals are peeling off on all sides. This is our first task for this season, to take them all off and come up with a neat design to replace them. Hmm, the artist brain is already bubbling here with ideas......The interior of the trailer albeit being in the brown tones has a relative timeless geometric sixties fabric combined with plain dark brown fabric which I quite like. Our first idea was to totally renovate a trailer, but with this one we actually have lots of things that already work really well for us and it is in good shape. (Thank you previous owners!) It has two slides. One in a separate bedroom in which the bed slides into the slide, leaving space for a large trailer wide cabinet in the back. This is one of the most important features for me because I need a space to store canvasses for my art. The other slide houses a large dinette in the living area making it into a spacious area despite the small footprint. When entering there is a folding couch that besides the water tank houses a lot of storage space. Storage space, storage space, there is lots and lots of it in this trailer and so far we have not been able to fill it up. Might change for a more extended trip, but now everything fits perfectly.
We are slowly learning the do's and don't's from RV-ing and I am sure that there is much more to learn along the way. So far we have taken it to Beauvais Provincial Park, Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park, Reesor Lake in Cypress Hills Provincial Park and now we are in Waterton Lakes National Park. More on these parks in separate blog posts. The plan for this year is to go on shorter trips and then next year take it on an extended trip maybe to the east coast or up north. The latter would involve a bit more planning in regards to the home front. What to do with the garden and the greenhouse? Seed and plant it and have somebody look after it? Or maybe rent it to people who would like to garden for a season? Then again they need to plant within my crop rotation. If I do not use it for a year what about my winter stash of organic garden goodies. Do I want to miss that? Questions to mill about this winter!
I also feel that we still need to develop a routine. We have many plans and how to integrate them in a day so none gets shorted. I, for instance want to blog on a regular basis and want to paint, but also want to explore the areas that we visit. Then there are the daily things like walking dogs, preparing food, shopping and keeping the trailer organized and of course lazing around a bit. It will all work out but at this point we are not quite there yet. Especially getting to this point I noticed that there were so many things that required attention that the blogging part moved to the back burner for a bit. The garden and greenhouse of course NEEDED to be planted and sown before we left on our trip otherwise the growing season would become really short. While traveling I thought that on travel days we would have time for other activities but especially when there are a couple of hours of driving involved, not much time is left for a serious activity in that day. Also plan for some bad weather and days that your plans might not work out. In Cypress Hills for instance we didnot get around to do as much exploring as we wanted to because of extended heavy rain. (Makes for a good reason to go back though!) Having a couple of extra days will most likely ensure that you can do most of what you came for. So time management on my part still needs some improvement, but I am confident that I will get there.
and yes.... I had my cake and ate it too! Divine and world renown chocolate cake from Zum's Eatery and Mercantile in Waterton Lake! ( https://zums.ca )
Wishing you a good summer with hopefully some new things to explore close to home or further away!
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