Bella's Maiden Voyage With The SOTF

Where do I begin....Bella made her maiden voyage with the Sisters On The Fly (SOTF) in February along with my sister sister-in-law Donna Pritchett Smith.  See, if you join SOTF, you call each other sister so-n-so.  So my sister sister-in-law Donna is really my sister sister-in-law x 2 Donna.  Donna married my brother and I married Donna's brother. Ha  Anyway, we both joined SOTF and so far have been on our first trip to Pigeon Forge, TN to an event called Saddle Up.  If you would like to hear the shenanigans of our trip, you should check out the blog that sister sister-in-law x 2 has created at sisnlawx2.blogspot.com.  It's a hoot!!! 

Our flamingos were having a party.  They loved the rain we had every night.

Since I created this blog to talk about Bella and show you some of her photos, I will gladly let Donna tell the other stories.  She is the writer...not me.  Below and above are some pictures that were taken of the outside of Bella at Saddle Up, Pigeon Forge, TN.  She was part of the SOTF tour of trailers.  She looked stunning!  I even had a traveling reporter from Our State magazine offer to do a story on her.  Hopefully her editor will think the story is worthy and we will be featured in their wonderful magazine.  I can't imagine anything more exciting to happen on her first voyage.  She handled great, parked her with ease (my first time backing into a camping spot), and she made it back home in one piece.  Well except the lights were blinking again and a small leak in the rear window.  Need new rubber flashing above the window.  Wonder where I can find that.  I will say that the bumpy roads have caused the wire to come loose in another running light.  No worry, I have taken all of the covers off and it should not happen again.  Problem solved.

Old linens and suit cases were used for display and decoration.  Donna did a fantastic job.

The pictures below are of her interior.  What a change.  I am in love with her!

Her table was set for guest and she was just so cozy.  Notice the original gas light above the table.

This is a view from the doorway looking into the back where my cozy bed kept me very warm and the bunk above held our luggage and train cases.  Notice the fur on the bed.  Donna wore that for our group picture.

This is the retro refrigerator my sweet husband gave me for Valentines Day.  Doesn't it look great in Bella?  This was the closet I turned into storage above and refrigerator below and below the refrigerator is the porta potty.  Got to have one of them.  Nicely hidden behind the lace curtain.  The cabinet to the left of the original light is where the old refrigerator was located.

See the lace curtain under the refrigerator....porta-potty.  She is full of antiques and vintage finds collected over the years.  One of my favorite things is the antique picture I bought at an estate sale.  And look how the rug I found at Walmart (on sale) matches.

Cindy Smith Pritchett (L) Donna Pritchett Smith (R)

And last but not least, a picture of sister sister-in-law x 2 Donna Pritchett Smith and myself.

Some of the Sisters On The Fly ...see Donna in the middle with my fur.  LOL

And I would be amiss if I didn't introduce you to our mascot!!!

I hope you enjoyed reading a little about our adventure and looking at the final pictures of Bella.  Well, not quite final.  I have yet to put up her awning I made.  We will be going to Kentucky in April and I will be sure to take pictures of her new awning if not before and post them for you to see. 

Finally....some help!!!

I finally broke down and hired a carpenter to make my cabinet over the sink.  I have a trip planned with the Sisters On The Fly Feb. 21st in TN.  There are 40 sisters going and most will be taking their campers.  There will be a tour on Saturday of our campers, so everything has to look good.  I am so excited to be a part of the tour.  I will be posting pictures on facebook and my blog.

Expensive Repairs.....UGH

Part of my Christmas presents from my husband were to take Bella to the RV Dealership and get some repairs done that I didn't feel comfortable doing.  In other words, I didn't want to blow myself and the neighborhood up. Ha  So I took Bella and had a new Air Vent installed on top, propane lines checked, and running lights checked.  The 40.00 vent cost 250.00 (119.00 a hr. labor), blowing out the propane lines and installing cut off gauges to the 2 tanks and checking the running lights to see why they kept flickering (which ended up being the ground wire) was 348.00.  I don't know if I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I had the running lights checked for 50.00 and they were working fine on our Oct. camping trip but they started flickering on the way home.  For anybody out there that has a problem like this, simply remove all your covers on your lights to make sure the wires have not slipped loose therefore causing the ground to not connect.  Your wires ground off the tin on your travel trailer.  At least that is what the technician told me. I should know this since I installed all 8 of them and the back lights. This probably happened when I went across a bridge that the good ole NCDOT was working on in Durham, NC and thought we were going to go airborne.

Anyway, my mistakes can save you plenty.  Just ask me anything. Ha.  Things that I thought would be too complicated to do I charged ahead and did them and succeeded.  However, when the weather started getting too cold and raining to work on the outside, I resorted to the other guy doing the work.  Live and Learn.....

As soon as the weather gets nice I am going to set Bella up with her new awning I made and put all her goodies in her and take some pictures.  

P.S.   Bet my husband didn't know he would have to spend sooooo much on me this Christmas.  I also like my Kindle Fire.  Thank you Honey!

First Camping Trip a Success

I know it has been a month since our first camping trip but I have been very busy with my craft shows.  We had a wonderful time when we went camping.  Bella handled great! She is just so cute.  My suburban is bigger than she is.  When I leave the curtains open, I can see straight through her and what is behind me with my rear view mirror.  We didn't arrive at the campsite until after dark.  We were meeting up with friends and that's who I had back her in.  Still not very good backing  her up.  I need to practice backing up.

My Grandsons form L- R, John Eric and Rayson

My 2 daughters and my 2 grandsons and a little girl my daughter kept this summer went with me.  The kids had so much fun.  There were a few things I forgot (rug, broom, fly swatter).  Oh, and fire wood.  My mother lives about 4 miles from where we were camping at Kerr Lake so I was able to borrow all of these items and picked up wood and twigs from her woods.

 

John Eric, Ellen and Rayson contemplating the cold water.

The only damage Bella suffered was 2 knocked out screens and one bent curtain rod.  All things fixable. I haven't had time to fix them yet nor have I had time to finish up the trim on the inside and build the cabinet over the stove.  I will post some pictures as soon as I figure out how to get them from facebook to here.

I will also be setting Bella up for Halloween.  I will be sure to take pictures so that you can see her with her awning.  I designed and sewed her awning to match her polka dots.  It looks really cute if I should say so myself.  Ha.  I am still making things for crafts shows, so I need to stay on track with that and try to finish Bella before it gets too cold.

Oh My Aching Feet

I have finished Bella!  I started this morning running around and picking up her new running lights, trim for her awning and more paint.  It is now 1:00 am and I have just taken my shower and have sat down for the first time since I had my morning coffee.  As soon as my grandsons get out of school tomorrow, we will be hitting the road for our first camping trip!  I am praying that Bella does well on her 2 hour trip tomorrow. 

FINAL COUNTDOWN

Oh my gosh....I am going camping this weekend and Bella is not finished!  Yikes!!  Well, it has been raining cats and dogs and I can't really do anything much with the rain.  So I took advantage of the situation and made her awning.  It turned out pretty good.  Now I can't wait to see it on her!  I have 2 more pieces of paneling to hang on the ceiling and I will be finished with all the paneling.  I will be putting up the rest of the trim tomorrow and painting that.  Then I have to hang the bunk bed back up (another million screws).  Oh, and hang the rest of the cabinet doors.  The cabinet over the sink along with the back splash will have to wait until I get back from camping.  I am only one person....not wonder woman. 

I will post pictures, but not until I get her to the lake and all set up.  Steve promised to spray paint the rims for me before my trip.  We'll see.  I am pretty much a control freak, so I will probably paint them if he will just do the muscle work of scraping off the rust.  And maybe I can talk him into cleaning my propane tanks so I can paint them.

I have covered all the cushions that go at the table, but have not covered the cushions for the back couch/bed.  I think I will just wrap them in a blanket or something until I decide which material I am going to use.  I hung all the curtains and put the cushions in the front, since that is finished and my grandson, John Eric and I slept in the camper Friday night.  It was a lot of fun, but I have 2 words...memory foam.  I will definitely be making a trip to Target before Friday.  I have a 2 hour drive ahead of me to get to the Kerr Lake on Friday and I haven't even practiced pulling Bella with my Suburban.  I drove her home with my daughters Durango which is a lot smaller than the Suburban.  I have always heard that God watches over "idiots" and "small children". Ha  Well I sure hope he is watching over me on this trip.  I know he has been right there with me during this whole process!  Thank you God!

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Rain, rain, go away!  I want to finish Bella!  Have been working on the inside some.  Cutting paneling and putting it up.  Also painted some.  Should have waited to paint after I hung all the paneling.   Everywhere I hit the wall or ceiling with the paneling or nail gun I will have to paint again.  Oh well, story of my life.  Have my first camping trip planned for Sept. 20th-23rd.  I will be taking my grandsons (John Eric 6 and Rayson 5).  They have been patiently waiting since Steve bought me Bella the end of May.

Rayson celebrating his 5th birthday and John Eric looking on.  I love these boys!