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'81 Sunrader - The Sadie Series - Episode 5


shandamac

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Many thanks go to those wise ones who have given such valuable advice.

All the foam ideas are wonderful. Thank you very, very much! I'm just about finished carpeting the cab (Oh my gosh. Searching for those silly screw heads in stinky shag carpet while crunched up underneath the dash has got to be at the top of my list of hardest things to do....right up there with childbirth. No joke!!!)

Diesel Mike, that Chemex coffee maker IS beautiful! I've added one of those to the "Sadie Project Needs" list, and the Beauty Tips are the bomb!!! She has become one happy little motor-home. Got her first bath last Saturday, and while we were out, we ran a few errands just for kicks and giggles. It amazes me that she fits in a parking space. She seems so much bigger.

Sadie's a charmer. A few nights ago, around 10pm or so....a warm evening....all the windows open.....I was finishing up the carpet around the upper sleeper. The house is pretty much complete other than the dinette seat backs, but the cushions are covered, the painting is done. Now the scent of sweet thyme potpourri and sandle-wood permeates the house, the woodwork, the headliner and new carpet. Anyway, 15 year old Jen came out to tell me goodnight... Now that I think about it, she hadn't really been in the motor-home since I'd brought it home for the first time. She had been embarrassed that I'd brought home such a dirty, smelly, old-fashioned motor-home...and that I even gave it a name...."How lame."

Jen stepped up into the house. "Hi babe!"......"Wow!!! Mom!!!! This is amazing!!!!!"..... "Thanks!!! Now, do you see why I ramble on and on about my motor-home?" She said, "This is so cool!!!" I proceeded to show her what I'd done with this and that. I told her I was just about finished with upper sleeper. I pulled out the wooden supports for the lower sleeper and put the cushions in place. All the while, telling her the "short version" of the story my mom told me... how she and my grandparents traveled from Oklahoma to California in an old camper with a similar layout in the 40's when she was little, and where all the family slept, and that they lived in the camper in the almond orchards in California when there was work, and then would drive it back to Oklahoma when the work ran out.

"Really, mom?" Jen said, "I could live in one of these too", and she lay down on the cushions, surrounded by pretty upholstered pillows and sweet the smells of potpourri and new carpet, said, "I'll just sleep here until you're ready to go in for the night." An hour or so later, she woke up, and I begrudgingly called it an evening.

The next morning, Jen told me she had dreamed that she did live in a motor home and roved around as a traveling Doctor. Very interesting. All I know is that she spent the entire morning outside with me, digging post holes and stretching a new fence around the pool.....with no complaints. Sadie had worked some kind of magic on that child, and if she never leaves the driveway, she's gone above and beyond.

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wow thats great! and to think the biggest "bonding experience" I have had with my dolphin has been with a caulk gun and a tube of silicon... haha jk... thats really cool that she shares your enthusiasm... i am really impressed with the amount of work you have done already... my project is slugging along and i have to work up some "renovation money"

but slow progress is still progress...

i want to see some more pics!

i have seen some really weird toy campers for sale lately...

running the gambit from black primer, gutted-coach rides with 200k miles for 3500.00 all the way to tiki lounges on wheels with custom blue exterior and everything custom "hawaii" inside...

I am starting to really appreciate what the whole allure with the toyota campers is all about....

once you get past the initial hesitation of driving it ... and you really get comfy behind the wheel... this thing drives like no other camp-vehicle i have ever been in...

I was in indiana today and we had to pull over as a black sky suddenly appeared with 70 mph gusts of wind! SIDEWAYS WALL-WAVES OF TORRENTIAL RAIN hit the windows so hard it was like being in an aquarium and trying to see out... as the winds (which have spun SEVERAL local TORNADOS in the last 2 days!) pushed the camper around... we were inside the coach and it started pitching port-starboard, and bow and stern as well... we really thought we were gonna get thrown on our side... so we abandoned the dolphin for a block building and waited ten minutes and the storm passed... but not until it blew down several trees and literally blew two of my friends who are both grown men off of their feet as they scrambled across a yard for cover...

as soon as the storm passed... we jumped in the dolphin and drove back into ohio... it hasnt ran better since i bought it ...

(this 22r with 105,800miles is a quiet little kitten that purrs when you scratch it behind the steering column.)

later as we got back to my house... we found that we were VERY close to another tornado that had been spotted...

I wouldnt recommend driving your toyota into a tornado... but now that i have driven mine near one... and survived inside during one of the craziest rain squalls i have ever seen... I feel pretty confident that i would be ok during most any run of the mill midwestern storm...

so i guess i have done some emotional bonding in my toy motor house as well...

I feel closer to my dolphin than ever...

1983 Toyota Dolphin: $1500.00 + ford f150

i gallon of gas: $3.99

interstate daytripping in a severe thunderstorm with tornado activity...

without even budging the gas guage: ... PRICELESS

:ThumbUp:

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I was in indiana today and we had to pull over as a black sky suddenly appeared with 70 mph gusts of wind! SIDEWAYS WALL-WAVES OF TORRENTIAL RAIN hit the windows so hard it was like being in an aquarium and trying to see out... as the winds (which have spun SEVERAL local TORNADOS in the last 2 days!) pushed the camper around... we were inside the coach and it started pitching port-starboard, and bow and stern as well... we really thought we were gonna get thrown on our side... so we abandoned the dolphin for a block building and waited ten minutes and the storm passed... but not until it blew down several trees and literally blew two of my friends who are both grown men off of their feet as they scrambled across a yard for cover...

JotS,

That's amazing!!!! I bet the sound of the wind and rain pelting the little dolphin was incredible! I'm sure a "dolphin" is a primo companion if you find yourself facing an inland typhoon, but I can imagine it was pretty scary just the same.

Re: Motorhome Bonding

I feel it's perfectly natural to have an emotional bond with something you spend alot of time and energy on, whether it's animal or non-animal. I've really found it to be evident in the restoration process : taking something broken, thrown away and unusable, and nuturing it into something lovely and purposeful. Honestly though, for me, it's souly for selfish reasons. I like being surrounded by beautiful, happy things.

Getting it done as quickly as I can. Garymac says he'll check over the engine and give Sadie a tune up as soon as I'm finish with the inside restoration. A forum member in Michigan has a 1 ton rearend and the 6 lug wheels for sale. I think pretty reasonable, but I haven't found the right moment to discuss price with "Mr. Thrifty". As the Wicked Witch of the West said, "These things need to be handled delicately".

Have the best of days.

shanda

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wow a tuneup by Garymac? now THATS service! i think some of that "Positive vibe merchant" of yours really pays off!

either that or he really likes the green drapes and wants you to hook his camper up!!!

well if you can work up the dough for the floating 1 ton axle... you will have raised the mechanical value of your rig, and more importantly, you will feel way safer and have less worries...

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Hi Shanda,

I'll be sad when your remodeling of Sadie is finished as it's been fun reading all of your adventures in fixing her up! The bonding you wrote about is a real thing with these little Toys...they are VERY SPECIAL. Maybe it's because there aren't a ton of them all over the place. Just a few days ago, I saw one here in Tulsa very similar to ours and I just smiled and waved. Please keep us updated on all the fun you and Sadie will have in the future. (It was nice to know your daughter is bonding with Sadie, after all the next generation has to keep the fun going, too!)

About the updated axle in Michigan...get it as soon as you are able; these are getting harder to find at least around here in Oklahoma. Ours came in today and will be installed on the 16th. (The fellow that will work on it is getting married and going on his honeymoon next week...imagine that, turning down an axle upgrade for that!) Hooray, we'll soon drive it with confidence!

Best wishes!

Dianne

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