Going Bohemian

This morning I was up before the butt crack of dawn to drive Mike over to Erik's house to catch their 7:30 a.m. flight to Austin. From Erik's house, Mae was going to drive them to the airport. I don't know what Mae has planned for this period of time while they're gone, but I suspect we'll both go completely Bohemian before the weekend is over. They (Erik and Mae) are still getting organized after their move, but I had a chance to see how far they've progressed, and they are getting moved in slowly but surely. Their rooms are large enough to hold their belongings nicely, and so they are beginning to look very comfortable in their new place.

But to get back to Erik and Mike, I heard from them around noon Portland time. They were in Dallas awaiting their status on an oversold flight to Austin. Since I haven't heard from them again, I'm thinking they must have gotten on their flight. As for me, I came back home and went back to bed. It was far too early for anyone wanting to adopt a temporary Bohemian lifestyle.

After I woke up, or maybe I should more accurately say after Smitty woke me up, I sat and did embroidery for several hours, finishing up The Orchard for the Gardener's Journal quilt:

I still need to do the snail, and then I'll be ready to piece this block and the last one I completed.

After that, I did all the top-stitching and embellishing for the 5th block of the Folk Art Cats quilt. As I explained in previous posts, this one spills out into the block beside it with the cat's front feet leaping after the bird. This one is so Smitty it makes me laugh.

Here are the two blocks side by side:

And here are the other three blocks I have completed:

Aside from that, I haven't done a darned thing I haven't felt like doing today. I'm luxuriating in having the house to myself while my husband is doing something other than being in the hospital. I found it hard to do anything at home while he was hospitalized, and so ended up spending nearly all my free time keeping him company. Now that he's off doing fun stuff, I can be lazy and self-indulgent to my heart's content. Funny how that works.

Oh yes, and when I went out to get the mail a little bit ago, I remembered the camper he left parked in the driveway. I can show you some better pictures of it now. This is the dining area that makes down into a bed. RV's are notorious for having garish interiors, but this one isn't half bad. There are drawers under each of the bench seats for storage. The Catio can go in the window next to the table, although that would mean allowing cats to walk across the table, a generally a forbidden activity. The window to the rear won't work because there is a ladder in the way.

Here is the small kitchen area. There is an oven and a 3-burner stove with a small microwave above. I probably won't do a lot of cooking here because storage space is at a minimum. The camper will be for short weekend trips, and so most of the food will be prepared at home and then just heated up while we're in the camper. Still, it's not a bad little kitchen. If you're standing there at the sink and turn directly around, the refrigerator/freezer is right there.

Here's the bathroom. We'll need to add a shower curtain. You can see where the shower head is at the extreme right of the image. The towel bar is directly opposite, and so a shower curtain will keep the towels from getting wet. I'm a little confused about how one is supposed to keep the wooden frame around the mirror from getting wet, but maybe just drying it off right after showering will be enough. The door slides to the left, and there is already a shower curtain there to keep the wooden door dry. Obviously, this shower is not meant to be one where you can luxuriate for 20-30 minutes like I would if I were at home. But, hey, it has a flushable toilet, which is a requirement for this camper.

There is a queen sized bed above the cab. We liked this particular model because we can sit up in the bed. Many of the campers have too low a profile for that. The window on the right of the image is a more likely place for the Catio. There is a small cupboard on each side of the bed on the wall, as you can see, but there is also a small opening in the "floor" where shoes and stuff can go.

Here's the other side of the bed. You can see there is a small TV there that is mounted on an arm so that it can pull out and be seen from the kitchen/dining area. Also, that window being an escape hatch doesn't open in a way that allows the Catio to be mounted there. This is my side of the bed, so the cats can walk all over Mike during the night. Ha!

And I'm showing you this picture of the outside because I wanted you to see the slide. This is something completely new to me where campers are concerned. That is where the dining area is, and it really gives the interior a more roomy feel.

So, it's a far cry from the 34-foot fifth wheel we use for our serious traveling, but for short trips to the lake with our boat, or to the coast with our ATV's, it's going to be great. It will involve a bit of a shift in thinking about what we can carry along, but it's a step up from the die-hard tent campers we were before we got our first fifth wheel. We still have quite a bit of that original camping equipment up in our attic, and I suspect some of that will find a new home in the camper. So...let the fun begin! That's going to be a while here in cold, wet Oregon. Definitely, we'll be ready to go when summer comes around again. This is strictly a fair-weather affair. It'll be nice for the kids too because they'll be able to borrow it if they want to.

And that's about it from me for today. Tomorrow I might do some housework. I have to go to physical therapy tomorrow, and so I might as well fit in my housework ahead of time. That will leave me the rest of the weekend to be a wild woman. Wild. Yeah. As wild as one can be at my age while sporting a bum knee. I'll probably do something really crazy though like stay up past midnight...if I can stay awake that long. Or maybe I'll do something really scandalous like having cereal for dinner. One never knows, but when the cat's away....