Sheets, blankets and afghans

I hear so many complaints about inadequate storage space in small RVs.  The Casita and other molded fiberglass trailers, especially, have less storage area than many other campers the same size due to their rounded profiles.

I think adequate storage is a matter of perspective, though.  We pack the same whether we are planning to be gone one week or six weeks, so if we decide not to go home, we can extend our trips as long as we like.

Bath towels and wash cloths

Instead of taking a lot of clothing, we plan instead to do laundry once a week.  Rather than take a lot of weather-specific clothing, we count on layering to make our clothes multi-purpose.  For instance, except in summer, we take thermal vests, thermal underwear, a mix of long and short sleeved shirts, jeans and a couple of shorts each.  Shorts and short sleeved shirts become comfortable cool

Kitchen towels, shaving kit, small hair dryer, cell phone charger

weather hiking clothes with the addition of thermal underwear.  And jeans and long sleeved shirts become cold weather clothing with thermal undershirts and vests.  And instead of hauling around a lot of outerwear, we take jackets with zip in fleece liners.  They can be worn as wind breakers, rain jackets, fleece sweaters, or all together if the weather gets really cold.

Underwear

By planning our clothing this way, our two jackets fit easily into the small closet, and all of our shirts and pants fit into two nice-sized storage baskets.

I pack food for a week’s worth of meals, with a few additional cans of chili, soup and hearty snacks.  When we are traveling, we use instant potatoes instead of trying to find space for fresh potatoes.  I also use dehydrated garlic instead of garlic bulbs (which will really stink up a trailer).  I try to

Underwear

balance good taste and nutrition with how much storage space I have available.   If there’s a conflict, I’ll often choose what fits the space best.

The main concession we make to the small storage compartments is using hand towels instead of bath towels.  That way I can pack 10 towels and 10 washcloths.  Since we both have short hair, that works well for us.  And after making the mental adjustment, we don’t miss the big bath towels.

Pictures explain our system better than a lot of text would.  The key to making our system work is thinking like backpackers.  We take everything that is essential, and not much that is not.  And wherever possible, we try to make items perform more than one function.

Not having the microwave gives us a lot more pantry storage

More pantry storage under the small dinette bed. Cans of vegetables are in one drawer, soups, chili, and such are in another, packaged foods in another, with beans, tomato sauce, etc. in another. Dog food is on the right.

Essential dishes fit in one small cupboard

Silverware drawer with cooking essentials

Cleaning supplies in small cabinet underneath furnace

One large pot/pan and 3 small nesting pots. One pot is used as a mixing bowl.

Aluminum foil, plastic wrap and bags, tatting supplies, plastic box of toiletries, flashlight and tire gauge and 20 amp adapter in top cabinet over refrigerator.

Miscellaneous storage under dinette seat. Books also go here.

Tools and small hiking pack under the other dinette seat.

Clothes baskets under rear bed. Someday I'll redo the flooring and cover up the hole for the post of the original dinette table.

Our multi-purpose jackets along with purse, flip flops, toilet paper and odds and ends in the closet.

The previous owner installed a small basket in the bathroom, held by two stick-on hooks. We use it to hold shampoo while showering.

Today has been a day for people surprises!  I’ve given three tours of the Casita, met some wonderful local women (one gave me a beautiful coffee cup), and — Ron met a long-lost cousin!

Winter color

Ron had gone to the bath house to do laundry.  While he was there a guy came up and they started talking,  “Where are you from?”  The talked of places and people they knew, then the guy asked Ron if he knew a certain woman.

“That’s my Mom’s sister,”  Ron replied.

“That’s my mother-in-law!”  the guy exclaimed.

So soon he and his wife were at our campsite catching up on family news.  They are camping here because

More color

they have a new grandchild in Augusta.  Since there are tons of family visiting the new baby, they decided to bring their camper here so everyone would have more breathing room.

Today has been chilly.  Not that cold, but a brisk wind makes campfires and jackets feel good.  And the campground is starting to fill up today with weekend campers.

I normally don’t like to go to the same campground twice, as there are so many new places that I haven’t seen yet.  But this is one that we will

The Casita hidden in the trees

Picnic pavilion

Playground

View from our rear window

definitely plan to return to.

We’re planning to go into town for dinner tonight.  I am hankering for Chinese. 

Bend in the trail

Warning!  This post will be incredibly boring unless you are a hard core nature lover.  And maybe even if you are!

We went for another LONG walk today.  Aside from being a little achy, I feel more relaxed and stress-free than I have in a long time.

Rather than try to say something fascinating about a walk in brown Georgia woods in the winter, I’ll just post photos of things that intrigued me.

Fern

Ferns on fallen log

Half-eaten wild ginger leaves

Wild ginger leaf

This old stump looked like some kind of mythical sea creature to me

Convoluted tree base

Odd stump

Graceful old stump

Twin trees

Two more twin trees. They were everywhere. I've never seen so many anyplace else.

See-through tree. It had an eerie look to it.

Winged branches

We started our day with a hearty bacon, eggs and grits breakfast, cooked on the camp stove out on the picnic table.

Greenbrier leaves sport a welcome spot of color in the brown woods

Our neighbors in the next site were leaving today, so we visited with them for a while.  The only other campers close by are partially screened from view.  But not from earshot!  They are not soft spoken and don’t mind broadcasting their personal business!

Ron, Sunny and I took a long walk today.  It felt so good to stretch our legs, climb hills and fill our lungs with crisp, clean air.  I had hoped to get some interesting photos, but basically everything looked like Georgia woods in the winter to me.  Hope you enjoy them anyway.

We’re planning to do steaks on the grill in a little while and light a campfire.  The perfect end to a rich, satisfying day doing –  not much!

This moss was so green that it made me think of Ireland.

More moss

Amanitas

I didn't bring my mushroom books, so have no idea what this is.

Small shelf fungi on a stump

I love the form of this old tree trunk.

Coots and a waterbird. Sorry, I don't know the ID of the waterbird.

Today was sunshiny and in the high 60′s!  Gorgeous camping weather!

When I took my coffee outside this morning, I was entertained by two Canada geese at the swimming beach directly in front of our campsite.  They were near the water’s edge, and spent much of the time bottoms up, beaks working the sandy bottom.  Then they would raise their head, swallow something, and go back to digging in the sand.

Shells litter the beach, exposed by the receding water level. They give a pretty good clue to what the geese were eating.

Little coots would swim by the geese within inches, with the geese taking no notice of them.  But after the geese left, a swarm of the little coots moved in to mine the disturbed sandy area.

Unfortunately my camera was inside the Casita at the time.

We spent the afternoon shopping in Augusta.  I was trying to find a replacement glass tabletop for the oval one we have in the Casita.   I love the glass table.  But I want a smaller top for it.  We didn’t find glass tabletops anywhere,  but we did find a glass company that could order one for us.  The only problem is that it wouldn’t be

Mussel shell

delivered until next week.  Since we’re leaving Sunday, that wouldn’t work.  So I’ll just order one online when we get home.

We met our reclusive neighbors in the next site today.  We had wondered why they were always gone.  Today we learned that their son was killed by a drunk driver here two years ago and they are down from up north for the trial.  They are camping because they have three little Pomeranians and it would be very difficult to find a motel that would allow them.

Our campsite neighbor with his three little Pomeranian dogs

The two little blond Pomeranians are shy, but the little black one came over and introduced himself to me.  A very friendly, very sweet little guy!

We were planning to have a campfire this evening, but I was tired when we got back from town and still have dinner to cook.  So we’ll save the campfire for tomorrow.

Sunny paying rapt attention to the honking of geese as they take flight

Just had to include this photo!

The Casita and blue skies!

The Casita perched on a hill in the fog

Even though it’s foggy and soggy again today, it is beautiful here.

I’ll let the pictures tell the story.  The photos are all clickable if you’d like to see more detail.

But I must admit I will be very happy to see sunshine again! 

Coots

Coots coming ashore

These two coots were far away from the group. Maybe they're a scouting party?

Ghostly island

Holly berries

Mossy tree

Although the raindrops came out a little blurry, this was a beautiful sight.

More beautiful raindrops

Red berries

Sweetgum balls

Remnants of a ring and a bulbous base mean this is probably a deadly amanita.

Petersburg COE campsite on a gray day

Even though it’s a chilly, gray day, it’s beautiful here at Petersburg COE campground.  The warm weather that was predicted to arrive here Sunday has moved back two days.  It’s supposed to arrive Tuesday now.

A foggy and drizzly drive

The day started out foggy and drizzly and stayed that way all day.  It made the 3-1/2 hour drive seem a lot longer than it actually was.

It felt so good to get set up and establish our little home-for-a-week.  We took a short walk to get a quick overview of the scenery, then Ron took off to buy a couple of grocery items that he had forgotten.

I snugged in my bed, propped up on pillows, enjoying the scenery outside the windows, and surfed my favorite discussion boards.

The swimming beach a few yards from our campsite

Where the swimming beach goes

The Paige Bridges print that Gail gave me is now hanging in the Casita!

Tomorrow will probably be a very laid back day, too, due to so-so weather.  But when the sun comes out, we’ll start exploring in earnest!

Here’s an updated look at the weather forecast for the Augusta area.  We’ll be camping the whole week, from Sunday until Sunday.  It looks like we will have some rain, so we’ll take books and tatting along with our laptops to keep us entertained.  It also looks like the evenings will be good camp fire weather.

We got the camper dewinterized and the water system sanitized yesterday.  I’m still working on the liners for my storage baskets.

I also repainted the stove cover in the Casita yesterday.  It had some scuffs and some rust starting to develop.

I’d like to get all the packing finished today except for the food.  Then we can go grocery shopping tomorrow.  That way we should have a leisurely departure Sunday morning.

Look at these temperatures that are predicted for the Augusta, GA area next week!  How’s that for bitter winter weather! 

We’re going camping!  Leaving Sunday.  We’ll be camping at the Petersburg Corps of Engineers campground 25 miles north of Augusta.  It’s on the huge Strom Thurmond lake that divides northern Georgia and South Carolina.

So tomorrow we’ll dewinterize the trailer and start packing it… and hope an unexpected cold front doesn’t pop up and spoil everything!

The new glass table with baskets for storage under the rear twin bed

I had planned to build a drop leaf table for the Casita.  But the more I thought of a large expanse of solid wood tabletop and how cramped it would make the area look, I decided against wood.

Then, in searching online for small tables, I found a couple of glass topped ones that I liked.  Best of all,  I loved the idea of how open they would make the space look.

Here the table is slid to the side so we can easily walk past it.

But after pricing them, I wasn’t sure it was such a great idea.  So I headed to the thrift store on a hunting expedition.  I looked in every nook, but didn’t find anything that I liked.  But just as I was leaving, I saw a cute little plant stand and thought I might be able to modify it to make it work.

So I took it home, took it apart and cleaned it.  I gave the metal a couple of coats of spray paint to freshen it up, and discarded the 12″ wood top.

Here the tabletop is placed out of the way on top of a cushion, giving us even more space.

We had thrown out some old wicker furniture a couple of years ago, but I held on to the glass table tops, thinking I might could use them for something else some day.  I’m so glad I did.  The small, oval tabletop is a perfect fit in the Casita!  Best of all, it’s solid as a rock.

I love the small footprint of the table.  When we are not using it, I can slide it to the side to give us walking room.  Or I can completely remove the top and lay it on one of the dinette cushions, giving us even more space to access the storage baskets.  In transit, the glass top will travel on the bed, wedged in with pillows.  And the table base will be wedged between the wall carpet and the mattress to keep it from sliding around.

My beautiful storage baskets!

The wood color of the table base doesn’t match anything else, but I really like it, so I am leaving it as it.

I feel that we have succeeded in making our little 17′ trailer into a camper with the convenience and amenities of a much larger RV.

I also replaced the plastic drawers under the rear bed with pretty baskets.  That was a project!  Those of you who have suffered through descriptions of earlier projects know what’s coming, right? 

I found the baskets at Hobby Lobby.  The bases were the perfect size to fit the underbed cubby hole.  However, they had rounded “treasure chest” tops, so they needed some modification to work.

First I used my Dremel to cut through the fat globs of solder that secured the hinges, chain and latch to the basket frame.  After I figured out where not to stand to keep hot metal sparks from flying up my sleeve, the job wasn’t bad.  Just tedious.

Next I ground down all the sharp solder edges until they were smooth and rounded.  Then I rubbed black paint on them to tone down the shiny silver of the solder and to cover the small gouges I put in the surrounding metal so it wouldn’t rust.

Then it was time to make the muslin lining.  EXCEPT there are dozens of very tiny, very sharp little wires protruding into the basket…. and they poked right through the muslin.

So I am going to have to build 1/4″ plywood liners for the baskets.

But that’s a project for another day!