1977 Ideal Travel Trailer Restoration

We bought this wonderful 23 foot 1977 Ideal of Idaho Travel Trailer from Caroline's mom 16 years ago. It was a little rough when we got it so we spruced it up a bit and have been camping in it ever since. We pulled it out a couple of years ago to take on a trip but decided it was just time to restore it because of pretty significant water damage for leaks in the roof over the years. 

I figured I'd put a couple of weeks into it and then be camping again. Unfortunately, the more I dug into it, the more damage I found. It was a solid three months of most of my spare time to replace rotted structure, crumbling interior, and get it water tight. At the same time Caroline was sewing new upholstery and curtains. 

Below shows some of the before and after photos showing the restoration process. 

Bath - The Worst Section

New Bathtub

New Bathtub

Leak Testing and Fixing for about 3 Weeks

This was the most frustrating part

Maiden Voyage - No Leaks!

We used it for almost two seasons before tackling the outside

Finally got the outside painted

Caroline sewed the new awning

Day 5 in Boston

On Saturday we went to Old Sturbridge, which is a old time village that has been recreated complete with working shops and a sawmill. It was very interesting to see what it was like to live back in those days.

Father/Son teaching moment

Mother/Son teaching moment

Is anybody watching? Amelie's about to fall in...

The Blacksmith Shop

I Stand All Amazed - Dallin McAllister

This is Dallin's latest performance for his voice recital. Mom was in tears she was so proud.

Day 4 in Boston

On Friday, we got up and went to breakfast at a well known cafe. The food was great and we had a fun time.

Chase said the funniest thing when he saw this picture. He said, "Hey look, Mom's doing Tai Cheese!" Chase is such a funny kid. I'm actually not sure what Amber is doing here. Maybe it really is Tai Cheese. I may have been about to get a tai cheese chop for taking too many pictures.

Amelie was a bit more interested in the iPhone than the breakfast. Look how she knows just how to use that thing.

Well, looks like Chase has had just about enough.

Chase and Dallin, waiting for food.

Day 3 in Boston

We spent the day in the parks in central Boston. The kids had fun feeding and watching the ducks. We were planning on taking the swan boat tour around the pond but just missed them by a couple of minutes.

Day 2 in Boston

We spent the second day visiting more sites of the revolution. We started at Lexington Green where the "shot heard round the world" was fired and the very first colonists were killed by the king's army. The spot is shown below. Each year on April 19, they re-enact the confrontation.

This is sitting outside the tavern where the minutemen waited for the call to arms against the approaching red coats.

This house was Jonathan Harrington's home which was here in 1775 during the confrontation. Jonathan Harrington was shot that morning by the read coats and crawled to his front porch shown here and died in his wife's arms.