The Camper, and Alex

NOTE:

If you don't want to read all about my day with the camper, just read the first paragraph, then skip down to the second section.


Section 1: Camper

Whoa what a busy day!

I woke up this morning at 7 a.m. I wasn't supposed to be awake then, I just randomly woke up. So I laid in bed thinking. I started thinking about camping and all that. I got the idea, like last year, of using the camper. Last year I got discouraged when I saw how bad the canvas is. But that is only in one corner. I decided I want to try again. So this morning I got the game plan together:

Phase I - Take the tarp off and clean it.
Phase II - Patch the area where siding is coming off (in that one corner) then wash the outside.
Phase III - Move the camper to a level area.
Phase IV - Open the camper (it's the pop-up type) and inspect the canvas.
Phase V - Clean the inside.

I figured it would take today and tomorrow, but I didn't fully realize how much work was going to be involved O_O


Phase I:

Taking the tarp off and cleaning it was probably the easiest thing I did today lol. It's pretty self-explanatory so I won't bother going into detail here :P

Phase II:

My idea for patching the area where the siding is coming off was to staple it back on with a staple gun, then put duct tape over it. Well, the wood behind the siding is in bad shape, so it wasn't even catching the staples. I couldn't wash the top since the bad corner is on the low side of the camper and all the water would have run right into that hole. The sides of the camper really weren't too bad. All I had to do was go around it with a broom and knock all the spiders off lol.


Phase III:

I knew this one would be the most challenging. Obviously we need a vehicle with a hitch to move the camper. The only two people who we could have used were my brother and my mom. My brother is on vacation, and Mom was out today. I had already pretty much planned on doing Phase III tomorrow anyway, so it wasn't a big deal. However, we were still going to take the camper off the blocks it sits on (it doesn't sit on the trailer's tires) so it would be ready to go tomorrow.

Well....

When we took it off the blocks we discovered both tires were flat. We have a small air pump that we use to inflate the mower's tires with, so we got that and inflated one tire. The second one though didn't inflate. Dad said the tire was off the seal or something like that. We even took it to the gas station to use the air compressor, but it didn't work.

We have another trailer that we used to haul our tractor and push mower around in when we used to mow several yards in the area. The tires are a bit smaller than the ones on the camper trailer, but they would work. The tires looked good, so we decided to try it. Dad tried to get one of the tires off, but it was rusted so badly it would hardly turn even. Discouraged, Dad just said the other tire would be the same.

Well we couldn't move the camper, then the whole day would have been a complete waste. It was already after 6 by this point. Dad was ready to quit, and I was pretty pissed off. I told Dad to try to get the other tire off.

Guess what?

It came right off!!!!

So we put it on the camper and put some air in it. By this time it's after 7. There wasn't anything else we could do today, so we put the tarp back on top of it. Tomorrow I'll bring Mom's 4Runner down and we'll move it if all goes according to plan.


Section 2: Alex


After we got all the tools and things put away, I went to sit out on our stoop. Alex was playing hockey at his house earlier and still had the net but he wasn't out when I went and sat on the stoop. After awhile, he rode past on his bike. Then a bit later he skated up to our driveway and asked me why a State Police car went down the road. Obviously I wouldn't have any idea. Then he skated down the sidewalk and talked for a little bit.

Then we saw two people walking up the road. He said he thought it was some girl and his "ex-girlfriend." (this would have been the girl I've mentioned on my old blog. They never went on any dates or saw each other outside of school so I don't call that a girlfriend, but that's what he said). As they got closer he could tell that that was definitely who that was. So we went back over to his house to "hide" lol. As he was leaving he said he'd be back in a few minutes.

After they passed our houses, he came back over and asked if I wanted to come over. Of course I did! I stood around while he was skating around his driveway and we talked some more. Then it was getting darkish so he was going to stop skating. He asked if I wanted to go sit out on the porch. If you'll remember from two years ago, his porch is where a lot of the "action" took place nearly every night :P.

So we sat out there for awhile. We just talked. He said if I needed help with the camper tomorrow to let him know because he doesn't "have anything better to do." So during church I may ask him if he wants to come over (my mom will be in church tomorrow; sitting with us). Anyway, we just sat out there talking for awhile. It was about a 11:15 by the time I left.


So today has been a great day on two fronts! I can't wait until tomorrow :D





(this post is too long. I'm not even wasting time proofreading it :P)