Into the desert...

October 8th, 2017 Day 2: Susanville, California to Mina, Nevada (250 miles)

On Sunday morning I set off for nevada. Some people might consider these drives across the desert regions of America boring, but not me! I love all aspects of changing scenery when I am on a road trip. Be it the lush green forests of Oregon or the arid red dirt and rocks of New Mexico, I find myself feeling truly inspired by the symmetrical patterns and variety that nature reveals in all of its forms as I drive.

 I am also a sucker for old dilapidated sheds, houses and historical buildings which is why I prefer to travel on my own rather than in a caravan with others as I tend to have so many "Stop the car!" moments where I just have to get a photo that it would probably drive anyone traveling with me crazy. Most of these stops also involve getting into chats with admirers of the Hudson as was the case when I doubled back to admire this lovely old church in Doyle. The guy who has been restoring it drove past and was tickled pink to see us parked outside and also stopped for a chat and took some photos.

From Doyle I drove past Reno on the I-80 when suddenly all traffic was being redirected off the highway in a detour that took me so far off the beaten track that I was hoping I wouldn't run out of gas as Doc Hudson only has a 150-mile maximum range.  The GPS kept saying "turn around when possible" and seemed to have no recalculated course for me to follow and there were no signs telling me how to get back to my route.

 So I just continued on the 439 south to Silver Springs where I thankfully found a gas station and a very helpful Nevada Highway Patrolman Trooper Rick O'Dough who not only owned a 1962 shasta but gave me directions to the 95 with the recommendation to fill up again in Hawthorn as it would be 100 miles to the next gas station in Tonopah. I thanked him profusely for the tip and  set off again.

I arrived in Mina at as the sun was setting behind the mountains and pulled into the Sunrise Valley RV Park, and took my leftover pizza to the nearby gazebo where some other RV'ers were also having pizza and introduced myself. People are always genuinely surprised when they find out I am traveling on my own.  You meet so many more people when you travel solo than you would if you were with someone else as you tend to stick together when you're with others whereas I have to be more outgoing and open to meeting strangers if I want to talk to anyone at all while I'm on the road! 

I find that most people are very kind and intrigued and, touch wood, I have never felt uncomfortable with anyone yet, but I always do have my trusty wasp spray on hand if I ever did get into a bad situation.  I would never want to let fear of danger stop me from living life the way I do or feel that I am in more danger just because I am a woman on my own. I trust in the inherent goodness of most people and have been blessed to find that true for me so far.

Loving the road tripping life!

I AM THE ROAD TRIPPING QUEEN!

Gosh it has been a while hasn't it?
And I realize that I have a LOT to fill you all in on since last I wrote. So many awesome road trips, so many adventures and, as is often the case, I've been so busy being out there on the road collecting other people's stories for my Vintage Trailer Magazine that I have neglected my own blog a bit. Sorry about that! I promise to fill you in on where I have been and what I have been doing now that "Rosie" has been tucked away for the winter and I have some home time for a change.

I have only recently come back from a mega 4,000 mile trip from Oregon to New Mexico where I attended the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta with my Sisters on the Fly.
This is one of those things that has been on my bucket list for such a long time and I have to say, it far exceeded my very high expectations. To be surrounded by 500 hot air balloons as they inflate and take flight is truly a sight to behold that I can only describe as total sensory overload.  But I'm getting ahead of myself now with lots to fill in before we get there...
Lets start at the beginning of this road trip.

After having spent the previous day packing everything I would need for the next 3 weeks on the road into the trailer and the Hudson, I left Oregon at around 10.30 a.m on Saturday the 7th October and drove 330 miles to Susanville, California where I stayed at the same RV park I had stayed at on my way to Reno for Hot August Nights: Susanville RV Park. I wrote in my journal at the end of each day and kept records of the roads I drove, each time I filled up with gas, and how much I spent on gas, food and accommodation on each day. I had planned each day's drive to be progressively less than the previous one to allow for the chronic fatigue and difficulty seeing out of my left eye that I have been battling since I got Bell's Palsy in August. Although it still is affecting me slightly, I am one of the lucky ones as some people never recover from the facial paralysis that this nasty illness causes. I was fortunate that the worst of it only lasted about two months for me.

The day Bell's Palsy struck - it was really scary!

Determined as I am,  I was not about to let the lingering symptoms of this darned thing prevent me from pursuing my road tripping dreams. I ended my diary entry on that first day with the words:
"I AM THE ROAD TRIPPING QUEEN".

I ended up having to make what was supposed to be the Sept/Oct issue of Vintage Trailer Magazine the Nov/Dec issue #36 as typing on the computer was virtually impossible during this time.

Yesterday was a wonderful moment when that magazine was delivered and I got to sit and read it from cover to cover for the first time. I love that moment as much as any of my customers as working on it over a period of time in separate pieces never gives the same feeling as when you have that hard copy of glossy paper magazine in your hands! It is always my favorite day. I'm like a proud mama holding her newborn baby for the first time every time.  Although this one took a while coming I think it is one of my best issues yet. Isn't she beautiful?

To order your copy or to subscribe go to: www.vintagetrailermagazine.com

Springtime in Oregon

Spring is here and the sun is shining and I am so loving being back in my cute little Oregon home with the deer in the back yard, my friendly neighbors, the gym down the road and my sister nearby. Life is good!  Now I can get back to doing what I love most... making more of these:

I'm now back in the Vintage Trailer Magazine Oregon office overlooking the blossoming trees and enjoying the sunshine streaming through my window, although it was a real treat to have a couple of days of snow when I first got back from Australia. Snow in March? Such a surprise when last winter I had been here it had not snowed once all winter! I love snow...

My house backs onto a forest and the deer often come out to nibble on the grass, and I can see them from my kitchen window. This little cutie was staring straight at me the other morning!

Since I've been back I've been really enjoying catching up with my sister and her family and we are both getting very excited about being able to go camping together now that her vintage Shasta Compact "Pheobe" is all restored, registered and ready to hit the road!
Here she is putting her new tags on after our trip to the DMV. Happy days!

Meanwhile, my 1949 Crown "Rosie" been taken in by an Oregon restorer who now has her shiny new skin on from front to back, new checkered flooring down and has replaced all the faulty wiring. He is now rebuilding all her internal cabinetry so she is all set to take me camping this summer. So far I have booked us into eleven events this year starting with Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend in April. It's going to be a busy year for Vintage Trailer Magazine!

It was lovely to catch up with Ann Kruger again last week at the monthly Oregon Sisters on the Fly dinner get together. Ann's sweet little pink and white 1959 Aloha "Dixie" was on the cover of Vintage Trailer Magazine issue #31 recently and she is just as lovely as her trailer is!

I'd better get back to work now as I am putting together the next issue of the magazine now but I will be sure to post more updates soon!

To order subscriptions and back issues of Vintage Trailer Magazine go to: www.vintagetrailermagazine.com 

Vintage Trailer Magazine

It's not very often that you come up with an idea that nobody else has had. I'm pretty proud of the fact that my magazine was the first one in the world made specifically about vintage caravans and trailers. 

I started the magazine back in 2011 after having received lots of positive comments from people about my stories on this blog and in other magazine I was writing for as a freelancer. I love writing and sharing stories, I love vintage style, vintage caravans and traveling and this allowed me to combine all of my passions into one pursuit.

The magazine soon had subscribers from all over the world and got a lot of attention! I tried to cover stories from as many places as the stories were coming in from and began traveling regularly between the places where most of the readers came from: Australia, America and New Zealand which, coincidentally, were places I had spent the most time growing up in as well. I was born in Australia and my mother is Australian, my Dad was born in Canada but grew up in America. We spent several years in New Zealand when I was growing up. I went to college in Los Angeles, got married and had my kids in Australia and my Mum lives in New Zealand, so I consider all of these places home...

Knowing that the word "Caravan" means something completely different in America than it does in Australia, I registered and trademarked the name Vintage Trailer Magazine as well to cater for our American readers.

The next step was finding a U.S. based printer that could reproduce the same high quality and glossy publication that I wanted so that shipping costs to send it to the subscribers wouldn't deter the growing American market and I am pleased to say we were able to do that.

The best part of my job is being able to hook up, get out on the road and see so many amazing things, meet so many lovely people and get lots of photos for future issues. Life is a road trip!

In 2014 I set up a home and office in Oregon, where my sister had lived for the past 18 years and fell in love with the place! So many trees and rivers and mountains and snow... I think it is as close to heaven as I've been! I sold my 1965 Viscount "Vicky" to buy a 1953 Hudson Hornet to use in America and set off on a huge trip to discover more of my new home, from California across the top through Washington, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota and Iowa to Illinois with a 1956 Mercury trailer in tow.

From there I joined up with the Sisters on the Fly Route 66 trip and made some amazing friends who were just as wild and adventurous and brave as I was. I am so thankful to real life sisters Maurrie and Becky for sharing their passions with so many and creating a group where women can be girls, but still be empowered and silly too! This is Becky's trailer on the cover of Vintage Trailer Magazine Issue 26 - that's their Amazing Mum Maizie in the painting. Now she was a wild one!

Every time a new issue comes off the presses I feel as excited as a mother who has just been handed her brand new baby for the very first time. Even though I pore over every detail for the months leading up to print day, whenever I have the actual magazine in my hands, it's like I am seeing it for the very first time... every time! It never gets boring.

I make myself comfy, have a nice cup of hot chocolate or a sweet treat and sit and read it from cover to cover and every story takes on a whole new dimension when it is there on paper in front of me. I read it as if I have never seen it before, and it honestly feels like that! 

How it all comes together is still a bit of a mystery to me, but somehow it does, from the skeleton to the fleshing it, it comes to life in pieces until the day a new magazine is born. And, like a new baby, it's exhausting and it keeps me up at nights many times, but I still love it to bits! 

Here is the latest issue #29 of Vintage Trailer Magazine - out now.

Subscriptions can be ordered at www.vintagetrailermagazine.com