Gypsy Von Shasta

I found and purchased my flooring, which is exciting. This has been one of the toughest decisions for me, and now that its made, I will have a direction for the other choices.

We’re going with a Gypsy Inspired Decor

It would just be ludicrous not to share this with you.

Dear Austin, Texas

This is for you!! Please buy. I SO wish I could buy it.

Love,
Gypsy

I won’t believe almost 8 months have passed since the birth of the Gypsy Caravan idea. Ask me back in November and I would’ve told ya Id’ve hit the road to work my internet job via Air card by this Summer. Now, the summertime is closing down.

My lack of an escape plan has me feeling a bit restless. I think my house is going to have a For Sale sign in the yard any day now, but something is dragging that out, and I can’t tell how I feel about it. I prefer to act quickly when I get an idea - and selling a home doesn’t move fast enough for me. I’m liable to change my mind 18 different ways between now and the day it sells.

With no idea what life plans are, I’m merely getting geared up to take the camper down to Texas for the Austin City Limits music festival - first weekend in October. I’ll be waiting for the next epiphany. Meanwhile, I got a truck in time for the Texas trip. Here he is… His name is Grubby Carl and he is a rebel.

In celebration of her upcoming voyage, here’s my ACL line up … please Enjoy this Blitzen Trapper video!

Wanna see something exciting?

approx $30 plus $10 shipping From Tweety’s. Yeaya!

Actually, that’s not really exciting, its just normal stuff that the camper needs, so whatev. What is Actually exciting is that Rob and I are making up a song with Bregan. She is going to use it as the song for a video commercial for her new stationery line that she is launching via Etsy. This is all in the works and so I can’t share with you yet, but we are shaping up a full song. It’s pretty close to done, and so all we need next is the recording. Its gonna be fun.

We took her out. The camper. She’s not exactly where I envisioned her being on the journey to vintage shasta camper renovation when we first met in December of 2008….. but officially she has been camping with us.

As noted, my Dad has busted himself working on this thing to get it structurally sound. I sure hope that its been fun for him, because he has logged many hours. He and my super cute mom took my brother’s little boys (age 7 and 3) on a camping trip to the Pisgah National Forest here in Mortimer, North Carolina. They played in the river, ate delicious camp food and as my nephew Davey said “chillaxed”. I guess its okay that he said that, he’s 7 and he doesn’t have reasoning skills yet.

So, the camper has mattresses, it has walls, it has straight angles. It doesn’t have a lot more than that, but its such an improvement and they were so happy to have it for the summer trip. I went up to stay with them one night. I ate the hottest pepper I’ve ever put my mouth on, and over corn and burgers, I made my parents and the kids perform for the video camera.

This is my Dad. The man is over 60 and he has a catalog of poetry that he can recite. Poetry that he learned as a kid, some because he had to for school, some because he is just so awesome that he used to dedicate himself to memorizing poetry that he loved. My Dad is so dreamy.

The poem is The Village Blacksmith by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I can’t wait for more adventures with my Gypsy Caravan.

Hi Friends.
Today I wanted to share a progress from the camper renovation. We are still slowly making our way out of the improvements to the structure, but we are just about there. My Dad emailed me with this news.

I got the Left front corner of the camper skin finished, the front end framing done, the window installed and I removed all of the broken glass in the windows.  I have attached the photos (see Picasa).  I put a board behind where the front clearance lights go, so we could attach some new ones.  Can you see the detail of how I fixed that place where the front profile was longer than the original?  You should also be able to see the plates I installed on the holes from the old plumbing.  I took the insulation pictures after dark.  They look pretty bleak.  Next time, tomorrow or Saturday, I plan to fasten the floor in place and then I have to put in the ceiling panel.  The right front wall needs some help also.

I’ve collected a few photos below.

Whoa! Remember how scary it was when the front wall was peeled back and the floor was um….. absent. Look where we are now!? We laid down plywood and rebuilt strut work to support the window. This is where we will build cabinets for the kitchen and also a potty area.

This top corner lost some of its shape until we built this framing back in and screwed everybody back together.

Also, the back corner is back together and ready for new insulation.

New insulation like this. YAY!! It’s going up. That means next comes paneling, then paint then FINALLY our pictures will get a little less renovation nerd and more decor dork. I can’t wait….

I spoke to an old friend today who during the fall is a school teacher in the Bronx….. but only so he can travel West all Summer long and hike about in Canyons and Desert Hills. He’s a great friend that I taught at a summer camp with back in 2001. We were just babies.

He’s making plans to come down this way and hike Looking Glass Rock on his way back from the Cross Country Travels. I’m looking forward to it.

Meanwhile, I’m about to embark on a little GypSetter Traveling myself. Where I will be stationed in Los Angeles for over 2 weeks busting out the tail end of a heinous work project. But, I get to go see Nouvelle Vague (a music fav). I’m also gonna fly over to Las Vegas for one of the weekends, for a birthday bash. Then on my way back to NC, I’m stopping off in Austin, Texas to hang with my brother for Independance Day.

Nouvelle Vague - This is Not a Love Song

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Nouvelle Vague - Heart of Glass

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Nouvelle Vague - Dancin’ With Myself

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Hah! Rob and I had another singer/songwriter night in Greensboro this weekend. This is the final product of a 24 hour session. Rob had emailed a rough outline of this riff that he made up earlier in the week, and we put the melody and some of the lyrics down before I got to Gboro… but just like last time, we finished it up together and got as comfortable with it as we could!