On Jul 17, 12:19*pm, Frogwatch wrote:
On Jul 17, 12:06*pm, H the K wrote:



Frogwatch wrote:
On Jul 17, 11:49 am, Frogwatch wrote:
My slide-in truck camper based on a design from Glen-L is nearing
completion. *This project has taken far longer than expected and has
not been as much fun as I expected. *For awhile I was trying to build
the framing to boat building standards until I realized this was a
waste of epoxy. *The Glen-L design is from the late 70s and you have
to do some re-thinking for newer materials but seems to work.
The metal siding was more expensive than I expected. *I used actual RV
siding from an RV siding company and cutting it was a serious PITA
resulting in some wicked looking edges. *Fortunately, trim has covered
my most serious flaws. *Unfortunately, there are a few places where my
saber saw slipped and the blade punctured the skin where trim does not
cover it but I will try to seal these with epoxy and touch-up paint.
The windows will be installed this weekend and then the outside will
be finished. *Then the fun starts because my wife insists on doing the
interior her way. *This will mean endlessly looking at samples of
fabric and linoleum till I am ready to pick something at random.
Originally, I thought the camper would be ready for our annual
pilgrimage to Wyoming because the bears mountain lions and now wolves
have become a problem for campers. *There was a story yesterday about
a family camping near Cody being attacked by a mountain lion.

Many years ago (Early 80s) we were camped near Hole-In-the -Wall
(Butch Cassiday's hideout) in the middle of nowhere (southern end of
the Bighorn Mountains) and could hear a mountain lion at night. *My
wife and I (childless then) slept in our friends hard sided slide in
camper. *In the morning, we found mountain lion tracks all over in the
snow around our camp.

Well, you were in its backyard...and it came out to investigate.
Wouldn't you do the same if you hear noises or smelled something strange
in your backyard?

We're still occasionally feeding the critters who walk through the
forest at the edge of our back yard. Foxes, raccoons, the occasional
possum, squirrels, groundhogs, birds, deer. It's getting tougher for
animals every day everywhere. And of course our helping them out a bit
really ****es off some of the posters in rec.boats. That alone makes it
* worthwhile. I've been hoping for years that Reggie would have a stroke
over this.

Raccoons and foxes are just beautiful animals. So far, we haven't
encountered any that are "interested" in people. The deer remain skittish.

Cougars, by the way, are wonderful animals. An atypical example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1tih6dsjCg

Oh, we love the animals there, we just dont want to unwillingly feed
them. *I have lots of bear stories from my earlier camping days, been
there, done that and am now old enough to not want to worry anymore,
expecially with my 12 yr old daughter along.
As far as flying out there, we did that twice and it actually cost a
lot more and was inconvenient. *Renting an RV for this length of time
is bizarro expensive.
Here is the actual plan. *Drive from Tallahassee to Mundelein, Ill
(North Of Chicago) to spend a week with her family, this is two days
of driving. *Drive from Mundelein to Casper via the Black Hills and
spend several days in the Black Hills just cuz its so pretty there,
the Sioux were right. *Spend one month in Casper. *Drive down to
Steamboat for an annual x-ray conference.
From there, I might go to a conference in San Francisco too.
Otherwise, back to FL by mid-August.
While in Casper, I can either work atop the mountain on my laptop
writing techie stuff or go down to the library every 3rd day to use
public wifi to communicate with the office in Tallahassee.
Two years ago, we spent 10 days in Casper, last year 2 weeks, this
year we were going for a month. *Lots to do in the nearby mountains.
Even have some very large lakes to the west for boating.
This always takes up all the time from last week of June till mid
August.

Up till now, the cheapest way to do this was to rent a van for a
month. My wife is the sort of negotiator who makes salesmen cry and
can get amazing deals on such. It is always fun to watch the reaction
of the rental people when we turn in the van, they expect maybe a
thousand miles and see 8500 miles.
Now with my new truck, we will take it.