RamblingDog
New member
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2014
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I began my interest in vandwelling about2 years ago. We were living in CO and I was vending dog shows at the time. I was planning a MAJOR 8-week trip to vend a series of shows: Denver; Albuquerque; Las Cruces; Tucson; San Diego; Simi Valley; Stockton; Las Vegas; Grand Junction and home. Not only was I vending, but I had a pup and her mom along. Was finishing the pup in in show and debuting her in a couple of sports. Roughly a 3-month undertaking while hubby stayed home with the other 4 dogs. Your blogs were so very insightful, useful and often a Godsend.
Call me crazy, but I bought a 1994 Dodge B250 maxi-van with 137k miles on her for $1500 (I know, rear-wheel-drive in CO; what did this FL-grown girl know?), named her Babs the Barkmobile, took her home, loaded her up and left 2 days later. We had a few trials (overheating in AZ made us miss a show, which we made up for by spending a week at the Grand Canyon). A little bit of lonliness and feeling generally disconnected, but I kind of felt that way in our isolated CO home anyway. Overall it was an amazing trip I'd do again in a heartbeat.
Tragedy struck with last year's horrible floods in CO and we were stuck in that miserable little town living off porto-potties and air-dropped foodstuff few a few months. We lost nearly everything; but we have all the dogs! (And our health; and help from a LOT of great friends).
Now we're back in FL and I just started my own mobile grooming business, which will give me some time to travel and show/compete throughout the SE with my dogs. As a result of the new business, I needed Babs -- formerly the big, ugly, red(ish) stalker-mobile -- to be presentable to tow my groom trailer. A fresh white paint job and you can't tell she's a classic!
The long and short of it? Not sure I could ever go 100% vandweller because of my dogs, but I'm finally getting around to settling down to convert Babs to a livable alternative to hotel rooms where I have to constantly check for pills, needles etc on floor (dogs) and bed bugs (all of us). Here's the kicker. I have a lot of zeal and a reasonable amount of intelligence, but very little knowledge of how to do a lot of what I want to do. Hubby's an accountant and not a very hands-on kind of guy. Plus, like my trip out west, this is something I want to be able to say I did. I've already had the A/C converted and a couple of other things; and there's still some mechanical work to do too, but she and I have been through a lot, so she's staying.
SOOOOOOOO, I'll be here perusing the forums and learning and asking a LOT of questions (the generator on my groom trailer has already been one heck of a learning curve). Anyway, that's me. I'm sure you'll meet my K9 crew as I go along.
Thanks for reading.
Wags,
Christy
Call me crazy, but I bought a 1994 Dodge B250 maxi-van with 137k miles on her for $1500 (I know, rear-wheel-drive in CO; what did this FL-grown girl know?), named her Babs the Barkmobile, took her home, loaded her up and left 2 days later. We had a few trials (overheating in AZ made us miss a show, which we made up for by spending a week at the Grand Canyon). A little bit of lonliness and feeling generally disconnected, but I kind of felt that way in our isolated CO home anyway. Overall it was an amazing trip I'd do again in a heartbeat.
Tragedy struck with last year's horrible floods in CO and we were stuck in that miserable little town living off porto-potties and air-dropped foodstuff few a few months. We lost nearly everything; but we have all the dogs! (And our health; and help from a LOT of great friends).
Now we're back in FL and I just started my own mobile grooming business, which will give me some time to travel and show/compete throughout the SE with my dogs. As a result of the new business, I needed Babs -- formerly the big, ugly, red(ish) stalker-mobile -- to be presentable to tow my groom trailer. A fresh white paint job and you can't tell she's a classic!
The long and short of it? Not sure I could ever go 100% vandweller because of my dogs, but I'm finally getting around to settling down to convert Babs to a livable alternative to hotel rooms where I have to constantly check for pills, needles etc on floor (dogs) and bed bugs (all of us). Here's the kicker. I have a lot of zeal and a reasonable amount of intelligence, but very little knowledge of how to do a lot of what I want to do. Hubby's an accountant and not a very hands-on kind of guy. Plus, like my trip out west, this is something I want to be able to say I did. I've already had the A/C converted and a couple of other things; and there's still some mechanical work to do too, but she and I have been through a lot, so she's staying.
SOOOOOOOO, I'll be here perusing the forums and learning and asking a LOT of questions (the generator on my groom trailer has already been one heck of a learning curve). Anyway, that's me. I'm sure you'll meet my K9 crew as I go along.
Thanks for reading.
Wags,
Christy
