The Blue Whale - Restoring a 1975 Travco Motorhome

The Blue Whale's 2008 camping season officially ended after the Thanksgiving weekend on Oct 11, 12 & 13th. Just like last year, the last camping trip was at cousin Roger's place, in the Beauce region, about 120 km south of Quebec City.

This post will also be my last for 2008, I will resume posting next spring.

Dad didn't put much work on the motorhome this fall. He instead worked on the Whale's parking spot in his backyard, getting ready for the coming winter. Pretty hard work, as you'll see.

The job started by digging, with a shovel, a small trench 1 to 2 ft deep, about 100ft long, to install a perforated plastic drain tile, in order to dry the soil. Pretty hard job if you ask me. The soil was full of roots and wood chunks to cut and break.

Once the drain tile buried, Dad dug a few inches of dirt and sod on two long strips all the way to the end of the yard, on wich the Whale will eventually ride to its parking spot. The parking itself was dug out, with a simple shovel and an axe among the roots. Dad even had to move another tree.

Then Dad laid a geotextile fabric, and covered it with a good mesure of 3/4in gravel, all hand shoveled and carried from the street with his wheelbarrow. I managed to help him a bit one afternoon, but Dad did most of this work by hand, ALONE. Even at 73, Dad's pretty hard to follow!

Here are a few picture of the work site:










Finally, Dad rented a vibrating plate compactor to make sure everything is well settled. After a few days - a few weeks I should say - of dugging, hacking and shovelling, Dad easily backed the Whale in its new parking spot. No more tight manoeuvering around trees and limbs, and risking getting stuck.




Considering the save-a-tree marathon of last spring, making this parking spot was definitely the most physically demanding motorhome-related job Dad ever did since he owns the Whale.

Over the last few days Dad installed the Blue Whale's winter shelter. Snow is just a few days away.
Next spring, Dad will propably start working on the genset and the genset compartment. Also a few minor repairs: there still is an intermittent electrical problem with the wipers, and the speedometer quit working again. I will also write about the stabilizer jacks Dad installed on the back of the motorhome last month.

Fall means the end of the camping season over here, but the beginning of our cottage and snowmobile season. Different weather, different toys: here's a picture of our family cottage, and what could be called "Baby Blue Whale"!



See ya next spring!