Mobile Scout Camping Adventure #2 - Cheney State Park

At last--the winter cover's come off Sweet Melissa and we're geared up for 2017 camping season!

You may remember that we took our 1961 Mobile Scout vintage camper on a test run to Salina KOA last November. After that successful camping trial, we had to say goodbye to camping as winter weather set in. But it's beautiful here in the Sunflower State once again, and we had our first excursion of the season on Mother's Day weekend.

Flooding at Cheney State Park

Didn't go too far this time--just about thirty miles west of the homestead to Cheney State Park. Some last minute drama as recent epic rainfall caused east shore camping areas at Cheney Lake to be flooded. We were determined to camp, nonetheless, and left home Saturday morning with Sweet Melissa in tow.

When we reached the lake we found, with the help of a buddy who had already set up camp, two west shore loops with open campsites. We chose the North Loop and couldn't have had a better camping experience.

Cheney State Park Campsite

Did I mention we decided to take our two senior citizen dogs along? They're as new to camping as we are, so we wondered how they'd like the experience. No reason to worry! Happy and Daisy hung out at the campground, took long walks with us and generally took to camping like they'd grown up at a KOA.

So now some particulars about our camping experience. Why did we enjoy Cheney State Park? It was PEACEFUL, a prairie park with a fifteen-square-mile reservoir, hiking trails and super-friendly camp hosts.

The Ninnescah Sailing Association calls this lake home, so a stroll through the sailboat marina was also fascinating. There's a boat launch/marina for powered boats on the other side of the lake. The Hubs got to watch some impressively speedy boats skipping across the waves.

He also got to share what he knows about restoring vintage campers with several groups who just had to stop and ask 'Did you restore that camper yourselves?' Lots of fun conversation, and we even found another vintage camper just around the
curve from our campsite!

Happy Hubby & '61 Mobile Scout

How did Sweet Melissa do as our home away from home for Mother's Day weekend? She was marvelous! We tweaked some routines and learned some shortcuts that will come in handy on future trips. She towed like a dream, even with a wild, Kansas crosswind bumping against her.

One of this blogger's favorite parts of camping so far is cooking outdoors. I also found that using our recently-purchased three-in-one toaster oven, grill and coffee maker was a nice option early in the morning. We're learning to use ingredients for multiple meals, to save room in our small fridge.

We really didn't have any complaints, other than not having another day to stay and relax at the lake. God bless the folks who camped around us in rigs that made our baby look like a children's playhouse. They seemed to be having a good time, too! We decided there's more than one way to camp, and we're glad we have the freedom to enjoy ours.

More than anything, we enjoyed the community of campers. People stopping, waving, even working together to secure an awning while the owner was off at work. It was what we've been hoping it would be when we finally got to start camping.

We've got the fever now and plan to creatively include our vintage trailer in most future travel. We're scheming our next camping vacation as I write, so watch for Sweet Melissa at campsite near you!

 

Of Vintage Camper Shows and First Journeys

It's been an amazing week for Sweet Melissa's rehab team! The Hubs and I pressed forward to finish the final details as the day of Stone Barn Farm's Vintage Camper Show in Dexter, Kansas drew near. Burned some serious midnight oil doing things like last minute paint touch up, getting an official weight certificate from the public scale, cleaning the camper one more time, purchasing a spare tire and deciding how to stage the Mobile Scout for the show.

Early Saturday morning we pulled out of the driveway and rolled down I-35 and US-160 to Dexter, KS, by way of Oxford to pick up a fellow camper and sister-in-law. Sweet Melissa pulled straight and true at 65 mph, in spite of some serious crosswind. So glad to know she'll be easy to tow to the campground!

It was the Field of Dreams for the two of us, being greeted by the sight of a field full of canned ham campers.This little beauty, for example, was outfitted as a food trailer. Pretty eye-catching, don't you think?

And this gorgeous trio of trailers was glamped to the max by some savvy women who'd come down to camp the night before. We gained a lot of inspiration by talking to the owners and feasting our eyes on their accomplishments. 

 Equally inspiring were these classics, including a clever little 1930s teardrop, whose owner also creates custom teardrops to suit his customers' needs. God bless Yankee ingenuity!

Even our hostess for the camper show got into the act, bringing out her Serro Scotty as a 'before' showing before she starts her rebuild.

Our neighbors for the show are bringing this classy canned ham back to life and added plenty of color and fun to the day.

Also had a great time looking at the campers brought to sell at the show. The white and tan Winnebago sold that afternoon! Can't wait to see it prettied up later on down the road.

This is a good time to tell you that Sweet Melissa won an award! She took second in the show, right behind Krickett, this spiffy Comet from Fort Scott, KS. What a beauty!

One more camper photo to share, a sister Mobile Scout. She's a 1962 10' model, cute as a bug and owned by a fellow Wichitan. The Hubs had a great time swapping camper lore and repair tips with the owners.

All in all, a fantastic first outing for Sweet Melissa. Fourteen months of crazy, grubby, knuckle-scraping work and we're overwhelmed by how well she turned out. Would we do it again...hmmm, maybe. But it's going to be awhile before we take on that big a project again!

Here are just a few more pics of the second place princess in all her glory. I've added BEFORE photos for comparison. A little better, don't you think?

Dinette Before!

 Dinette After!

Before!

After! 

Thanks for hanging in with us as we stumbled, fumbled and prayed our way through her rehab. We've got a bit of fine tuning to do, now that she's been road tested (better clearance lights, adding sway control), but for the most part, she's ready for the campground. Stay tuned for our camping adventures!

The Heart of Vintage Camper Renewal--Details, Details, Details

Do you know that I possess a legal pad that once held twelve pages of details to be completed on our 1961 Mobile Scout? For the past fourteen months, we've been slogging through the list like a mule-drawn plow through wet clay. Remove water-damaged birch paneling...check! Replace all galvanized screws on camper's exterior with chrome-plated ones...check! And so forth.

But now that the end is in sight, we're actually getting to focus on details that have some emotional reward (I know, weirdness, but when you've put this much effort into a project, there has to be something fun once in awhile!)

Hideous Before

For instance, my favorite project in the past couple of weeks was peeling away horrendous, melted on self-adhesive, plastic-coated paper that lined the top, bottom and sides of every cabinet and drawer and replacing it with removable shelf liner. Just kidding, the peeling off part was horrendous, an inch at a time or less, with a razor blade and not without injury. But the reward! I was able to actually move some of the dishes and utensils I've had gathering dust upstairs since July 2015 into those shiny, sanitized, cabinets!

Beautiful After

Old Mobile Scout Clearance Light

New Mobile Scout LED Rear Light Set

 Hubs had his own reward epiphany in the form of replacing the vintage but badly clouded, scratched and not terribly illuminating lights on Sweet Melissa with LED versions that guarantee she'll be seen in the darkest rainstorm. Hooked the wiring harness to the truck tonight for a test run and he's over the moon happy with the visibility and overall shininess!


To be able to see progress in such visible ways has fired us up once again to keep going on this vision quest. We also have the added bonus of making a whole new set of friends at Harbor Freight as we race toward the final details! Safety chains...check! Sway control kit...check!

To close for the night, here's a quiz for all you trivia addicts--what size mattress do you buy for a fifty-five year old travel trailer? Anyone? We learned that it requires a 'three-quarter size' mattress, also known as an 'antique' or 'short full' mattress, 75" long x 48" wide. Now you know.

The mattress has been ordered, by the way, should be here soon, one more detail checked off the list. We really are going to park that vintage Mobile Scout trailer in a campground in 2016, honest. It's on my list.

Mobile Scout Camper Progress-Lights, Windows, Air Conditioning!

Even with his crazy, crazy work schedule, the Hubs has been able to sneak in some time over the past few weeks refurbing the Mobile Scout. Awesome additions have been made!

Air Conditioning!

He had cleverly finished the new a/c cabinet and we'd been watching the end of summer sales (really? in early July?) Lo and behold, we snagged a Heuer 5000 btu unit at a steep discount. Did a trial run on a 100 plus degree day, should be perfect for our needs. "Hallelujah!" is all this Kansas camper has to say.

Lights! 

One of the decisions we made at the beginning was to replace all exterior lights with LED. We've stuck to that pretty faithfully, except for the original tag light.

But here's the fun thing...after seeing how much it would cost to purchase custom taillight flanges, the Hubs decided to do a little Kansas engineering that involved, you guessed it, tin cans! Thanks to a #5 can of pork & beans and his brilliant strategy, we now have taillights that match our classic canned ham camper. (Buy the beans at Walmart, you'll have the can AND the beans for about five bucks!) I think they're perfect! What do you think?

Mechanical Stuff

While painting the wheels, the Hubs also decided it would be wise to repack the bearings with grease and make sure everything wheel-and-axle-wise was in good running condition. So grateful for his cautious soul. By the way, the painted wheels make all the difference in the '61 Mobile Scout's profile, don't you think?

Something else that made a big difference in the Mobile Scout's curb appeal was to take the time to wash the windows. Who knew that removing a couple of decades' worth of grime would make Sweet Melissa sparkle?

Painting Science Tips from the Hubs! 

One more awesome hurdle cleared in the past couple of weeks was to paint the front above the shiny diamond plate we'd installed earlier. Hubs says the secret to great painting is to purchase a Wagner HVLP paint sprayer (be sure you buy one that is 4.1 fluid ounces per minute output or greater).

This will allow you to spray all types of paint up to and including enamels or epoxies. He also wants me to tell you to be sure to experiment with how much you thin your paint. The correct mixture of paint and thinner makes all the difference in a smooth paint surface. One more painting science tip: we used Zinsser Bullseye Cover Stain Primer. It adhered to the aluminum surface perfectly and gave us a good base coat for the color applied later.

Seriously, we're going to have our vintage camper ready for fall camping season, in fact, we bought insulated chairs for sitting out in the campground on those cool autumn nights. Can't wait to use them!

Cleaning and Painting Chores on the '61 Mobile Scout
This rainy weekend (more than six inches of rain in two days!) has moved us farther along on with the 1961 Mobile Scout rehab project. The Hubs, the creative side of this rehab team, has been unleashing his artistic genius as he adds the swoops and flourishes he envisioned when we brought Sweet Melissa home one year ago tomorrow. What do you think? Cool, right?

 

The street side painting will be just as fun, once completed. He's also added a nice touch with diamond plate on the front end.

 

Meanwhile, inside the canned ham camper, I managed to remove, with the help of a product suggested by my best buddy, the major rust stains on the 55-year-old Formica on counter and dinette top. Thanks Judy and Mold Armor!

All in all a productive weekend, more progress tomorrow if the monsoons don't return!

By the Light of the Silvery Moon....

A quick update by moonlight to show our readers the flooring that has been skillfully installed tonight by The Hubs. He's a keeper, for sure! It just goes to show, as we race toward our 23rd anniversary this weekend, that there's nothing quite like having a guy around who knows how to do stuff.

Here's the evidence! For the technically-minded, he used the leftover 1/8" birch paneling as underlayment, secured it to the trailer floor with staples, prepped the birch with Tec Multipurpose Primer, waited until it dried a bit and then applied the vinyl flooring.

We are thrilled with the result--adds a whole new layer of coziness to the canned ham.

That campground is getting closer every day!

The Golden Glow Returns!

A marathon day of canned ham camper refurb has produced impressive results, at least in my humble opinion. As you might have guessed by the title, the golden glow of amber shellac has returned, as every inch of birch inside our 1961 Mobile Scout camper has now received three coats of shiny awesomeness. Looks cozy, don't you think?

Another major project nearly completed is the reconfigured a/c, fridge and storage closet. Isn't the Hubs clever?

You may have also noticed in these random pics that Sweet Melissa's bedroom area has been reassembled and awaits a mattress. And I don't want to miss the big step in terms of personalizing our camper to our tastes. The Hubs primed and painted the door!! I think the color is amazing, and it really helped us finalize our color scheme.

 One more fun pic before I go...first meal together in our quickly coming together camper!

We laid out the flooring tonight and will be installing that soon. Then it's nuts and bolts stuff again, and a paint job, before Sweet Melissa is ready to roll. Thankful for a long day of working together and can't wait to see her when she's finished.