1979 Nomad Travel Trailer and The Start of The Grand Adventure

*


So, here she is as we found her. And by we, I mean, my wife. After being thwarted on her long-dreamed of trip to Japan for some serious yogini training when the earthquake and tsunami hit, she shifted gears and decided that she wanted a little vintage travel trailer to explore the world in. So she hit Ebay and Cragislist and scoured the left coast from tip to top, and a couple of weeks later the two of us were driving five hours south to sunny San Diego to meet a lady in a parking lot.

The woman was in love at first sight, and I knew it. The rig had a lot going for it, I'll be the first to admit. She was only 13 feet long and came in at a svelte 1500 lbs dry. This was really the whole enchilada, because we had to be able to tow her with our little four-banger Toyota Tacoma, and she had to fit in our narrow driveway with our truck and my work car.

So far, so good.

She was relatively clean, and registered out of state, but registered. Clean title. She had a reefer and a stove top and an oven, water heater, toilet, shower, sink, the works. I poked around and did my best to be the rational one, pointing out that the ceiling sagged and showed signs of serious water damage. Ditto with the back wall. I knew there was a lot worse stuff we couldn't see, and what we could see scared the living shit out of me.

We poked around some more. There were bungie cords tying every other item off, another danger sign to me. The trailer end power cord was duct-taped in the middle where there had been a little road-rash incident.

And I knew nothing about what I was doing, or looking at. Less than nothing. I completely neglected to look underneath her, or to climb up on a ladder and check out the roof. Didn't test any of the systems, look for leaks, nada.

The woman heard me out on all my doomsaying, then nodded and said, "I still want to buy her."


And that's what we did.



*


This blog is going to be our restoration diary and our road trip journal. It's mostly for our own amusement, but you're welcome to tag along. We'll let you in on where we're going and where we've been, and we'll post lots of pictures of what we've done to the Nomad to bring her back to life.

She's already brought us back to life in a big way, so I figure we owe her the same in return.


*

Keep checking back, and feel free to share your own stories, too.


*


namaste.



***