Author: Rae

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Running Around and Not Getting Much Done

I went out this morning to look for a tailgate handle for my Ranger. The scrap yard could have had a used one for me in a couple of days for $35 plus tax. The Ford dealership in Richelieu could have had a new one in the same amount of time for $75 plus tax. I bought a new handle on eBay from a surplus supplier for $19.75 including shipping and taxes. It’ll be a few more days, but why spend the extra money?

The dealership also did not have touch up paint but directed me to a place that could get me some. I decided to wait for that.

The post title says ‘much done’ implying that I did have some success with my errands today. I had casually mentioned the other day that I have been wanting to get a good pepper mill for ages but they are way out of my price range. Well, my step-mother learned that the kitchen supply store Ares is having an amazing deal on Peugeot mills (THE name in pepper mills) this week, $40 down from $70. Too good a deal to pass up so I got one this morning!

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Why Would a Full-Time RVer Want or Need to Go Camping in the Toad?

The title of this post comes from a very good comment/question by Kathe in reply to my post about converting the truck for camping.

Before I try to articulate an answer, I think that the best house-bound analogy I could make is, if you own a home, why would you want a cottage? Or an RV, for that matter?

For me, using my RV as a homebase and exploring in the toad means cheaper excursions because of needing less gas, access to rougher roads, and not having to break camp when I’m coming back to the same location. A toad I can sleep in also means saving money on accommodation and that I don’t have to rely on others for a bed. Finally, I will be reducing wear and tear on my aging RV.

Some examples:

-When I hiked the Chilkoot Trail, I stayed with a cousin who has a tiny house with little privacy. There wasn’t really any good place to pitch a tent in the yard, but I could have slept more comfortably in my parking spot while having access to the bathroom. Moreover, why do the round trip in the rig ($500 in fuel) when I had free hookups in Dawson and cat sitters?

-If I had had a toad I could sleep in, I would have probably taken off for a few days and left the RV in Hinton instead of driving the Ice Fields Parkway

-There was no way I was taking Miranda on the Dempster Highway to Inuvik or the Pacific Rim Highway to Tofino.

I am also thinking ahead to the next few winters, when I plan to spend several months in the American Southwest. Having a toad I can sleep in means that I will be able to plot a fairly U-shaped journey in the RV that will be as fuel efficient as possible, leave the RV in a few set locations, and then take off exploring for three or four days at a time. I am also thinking of leaving the RV on my lot next summer and taking off for Yellowknife in the toad.

In summary, having a toad I can camp in will reduce the limited mobility that comes from having a big RV while still allowing me to have a nice mobile home. In short, I’m going to get a taste of the best of both worlds.

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Converting My Pickup Truck Into a Camper

My mother is like MacGyver. I am not being facetious but stating a fact. She sees a problem, looks at what she has available to her, and comes up with a solution. This is why I was adamant about not putting any money into converted the bed of my pickup truck into a camper until she’d put in her two cents about the project.

Before we could do much brainstorming today, we had to measure the truck bed. Can you believe that this was the moment when my tailgate handle decided to break?!  We lost nearly a half hour trying to get the tailgate down! My mother says there is a scrap yard nearby and to try there for a new handle before going to the Ford dealership in Richelieu.

First off the window coverings. She noticed that all the windows have a lip around the frame. Please keep in mind that the following picture is a prototype. I am going to go buy sheets or other material to replace the drop cloth. 🙂

Can you see what she did there? She cut a length of elastic long enough to run around the window and hold the coverings in place. Brilliant.

Next, a bed base. We were going to build something with legs and then she had a better idea. I wanted to store bins under the bed, right? Hmm. Her neighbour moved back home to France and she collected some wine crates from him. Two each at the head and foot, one in the middle in conjunction with the wheel to hold a sheet of plywood:

As for the sheet of plywood, she had a scrap piece that was exactly the size we needed! When I want to reclaim my truck bed to haul stuff, I can stack my crates and stand up the plywood.

But before we could come up with dimensions for the bed, I needed a mattress. She has two folding foam mattresses that are perfect length and width. The only problem, she bought them at Costco and Costco has a big stock turnover. After lunch, my step-mother went out to see if they might still have some. Yup!!! And with a cover that is more to my liking than theirs!

The mattress has several seams in it, so it folds into a thick block. Notice the head? This is the most brilliant part of the design. There is a small piece of foam that folds up to act as a pillow. I like two pillows at night and only bought one of for the truck, so now I have the height I want. Plus, it makes the mattress the exact length I need to fit in the truck bed; the air mattress had been a little too long.

My mother then handed me a small pail that fits under the bed to act as a chamber pot. Bedroom and bathroom done!

This will be sufficient for me to go camping next weekend. But we still have two more projects. The first will be to set up some sort of recliner and surface next to the bunk. I will be sitting on my butt on the floor; there isn’t enough height to sit up straight. So that means that I can forget working on transcription in the truck bed unless I get a taller canopy, which is probably not going to happen.

My mother’s initial idea was that I would set up my temporary office in the cab, behind the driver’s seat. But there was no obvious way to do that. Then she came up with the obvious solution. Transcription is comparable to driving. So she’s going to make me a little table for the passenger seat and I will sit there if I ever have to transcribe while living in the toad. I don’t plan to put in long days there; it will be an available solution if I ever take off for an extended period of time.

I do plan to eventually get a 12V and 120V electrical system into the truck and would like to buy a canopy shelter for cooking and daily living for when I go stay at a campground for several days, but once I get the window coverings, I’ll be good to go next weekend. I can’t wait!

As we were finishing up, she saw her neighbor, who does automotive body work, so she asked him to come back to give me an estimate on dealing with Moya’s rust spots. He says that I would ideally need to do a full body paint job ($3,000, so forget it!), but that if I’m willing to accept some spots with uneven colour and finish, I could get away with having only the driver’s side rear wing (truck bed) redone, which will add a couple of years to my truck. He quoted me $500, which sounds reasonable, so we made tentative plans to have that done in late August or early September. I will be getting some paint from Ford to do the touch ups where there is no rust yet. I don’t need to have a perfect paint job, but with the little amount of mileage on my truck, there is a good chance that it will rust out before it fails mechanically. So it’s worth putting some money and time into the finish to get it to hold out a bit.

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Projects of the Feline Variety

There has been a lot of concern in comments and emails about my cats living in my mother’s garage while Miranda is in the shop. I don’t know if I should be happy about the amount of concern my readers have for my babies or be insulted that anyone would think I am capable of putting them in any sort of danger.

In the last 37 years, my mother has had cats for all but at most a month. She loves cats and understands them. She has an outdoor cat to reduce the amount of dander in the house because her partner is severely allergic. Moreover, they have nice furniture and Tabitha has claws. So two cats living full time in the house is simply out of the question.

The garage is very cool and there is a window that has been left open. We set up a perch by it. So the cats can look out and see the birds and other critters in the yard while getting fresh air.

To make sure that they have plenty of light and a day/night cycle, my mother installed a lamp on a timer. She also made toys for them and set up plenty of cubbies for hiding at different heights.

With all three of us making a concerted effort to go into the garage at least six times total per day, they have had plenty of human interaction for the last two weeks and would have been fine for another one. But now that we know that the repairs could take longer and that we would be working on my truck, my mother hatched a plan to give the cats and I more together time while opening up their world a tad.

So before starting on the truck projects this morning, my mother and I completed a project that she had been meaning to do for the last 10 years. It’ll benefit the cats and then she will still be able to use the item when she works in the garage. We made a giant screen for the garage door:

So now, they can watch people pass by on the street, get even more fresh air, and I can chat with them when I’m working on the truck. Hanging out in the garage with them is going to be so much more pleasant now, too.

Next up, progress on the truck!

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Prato Pizzeria, Montreal

When I got in from errands today, my mother asked me what I had planned for dinner because she was in the mood for thin crust pizza and there was a well-reviewed restaurant in Montreal she wanted to try out.

So off we all went to downtown Montreal to Prato Pizzeria, located on the iconic Saint-Laurent Boulevard, known as ‘La Main’ (as in the English word main, not the French word hand!). The restaurant is nestled between chic boutiques, European-style cafés, big name fast food joints, and is just a couple of doors from the world famous Schwartz Deli.

Pizzerias like Prato are a dying breed because of environmental laws forbidding charcoal ovens. All existing restaurants are grand-fathered in. This restaurant was listed as one of the top three places to eat pizza in Montreal.

We ordered a pitcher of beer since it was super hot out and we had parked several blocks from the restaurant so we were feeling rather parched! A pitcher contains six small glasses of beer, so we had two each. We started off with the arugula salad, which had cherry tomatoes, Parmesan shavings, and a nice lemon vinaigrette. Very tasty!

They shared a pizza that had olives and anchovies (shudders) while I ordered my usual for this type of pizza joint, a Margherita, with Parmesan, bocconcini, tomato sauce, and fresh basil. The pizzas are considered to be sized for one person and are served on a paper-lined baking sheet:

This was pizza perfection. The edge of the crust was crunchy, the base was flexible, the edges were charred, the tomato sauce was smooth, the cheese was stretchy, and the basil was piquant. Yuuuuuum. I wouldn’t have been able to eat the whole thing, but had no leftovers since they took one slice to try it out.

For dessert, my mother and I each had an espresso (macchiato for me) and their Skor-chocolate mousse (excellent) while my step-mother tried the tiramisu (very good). The coffee was particularly good, being extremely strong and flavourful without being bitter.

We all agreed that the next time we’re craving good pizza, we’re going back to Prato!

On the way back to the car, we stopped at a Viennese-style bakery for bread and pastries for the morning. I don’t eat sugar first thing anymore, so I opted for a plain croissant even though the chocolatines were calling my name!