French, aka Drench, Creek Gathering - April 15-17, 2011

This gathering happened almost 2 months ago now and was our teardrop's maiden voyage. Normally I post pictures right away but... I didn't take any. "Why?", you might ask. The reason for this is that it rained almost our entire trip, save the ride to and from the campground. Wait, the word "rained" seems a little tame. Torrential downpour is a little more appropriate. It rained so much that now the campground is affectionately known by those that attended as Drench Creek.

The first night there was a good fire. My cousins came to visit so we hung back from the group a little. It's a good thing because the group was feeling frisky after being indoors all winter and was ready to get rowdy. Park rangers came buy quite a few times.



After that we were all about hunkering down and braving the storm. Apparently there were tornado warnings all around the state of Pennsylvania that day. The weather got so bad that some Tear Jerkers decided to head home early. Campsites were flooded, easy-ups blew away, tent poles snapped. Not to forget, it was about 40 degrees.

Paul still had a good time :)

And here is the lovely crown of feathers and Peeps for the winner of the chicken wing cook-off. Congrats to Wayne for winning the Throwdown and Orville for coming in a close second.





People came in all different levels of preparedness. Wayne had his smoke house.

Jeremy and I had the Woodland Shelter and a tarp (they did the trick though!)

On Saturday night, Jenn blessed the wings for the cook-off and she, Lew, and Rose gave all of the wings the an official tasting.




Wayne was the big winner...

Sunday morning was all about drying off and packing up.

As you can see, we made the best out of our soaked situation. You can't say Tear Jerkers don't know how to have fun!

Good Friends, Good Works

Our friends Rose and Orville came to stay with us for the weekend and put in some hours working on the trailer. Orville is the Tearjerkers Chesapeake Chapter Director. We installed cedar siding to the interior, sealed it all up from the exterior, and insulated.

Orville was the cut man and I fit and secured the cedar to the interior framing. This was a huge help, without a cut man I would have had to crawl in and out for every board.

The cedar is a closet lining material. It is very light, has tongue and groove, which makes it really easy to follow the curve, and comes in packages of six 8' boards. It comes in at about $1 per square foot. There is an aromatic version of this cedar which is darker and has more aroma, but it comes only in random lengths up to four feet. We wanted to have as few seams as possible and accomplished having seams only in what will be the back of the closets.

The color was also much more in line with our aesthetic.

Any available seams were taped and corners calked, for strength and to prevent air flow.

Pink fiberglass insulation was installed in all the curved areas, and in the flats rigid foam was used. Every void was filled with either insulation or caulk.

Thank you Rose and Orville for all your help, especially for working with the sloppy and itchy materials. Thank you to our friends Trina and Bill for their support, and the Cranwells for showing up on cue with pizza in hand. We love you all and it makes our trailer even more dear having our friends help in building it.

Louella's "Foamie" Group Build

After we made some progress on our build Saturday morning we headed down to New Church, VA to help some members of our Tear Jerkers chapter with their build. Louella and Rick are building a "foamie". Instead of building with plywood, which makes for a fairly heavy trailer, they opted for rigid foam insulation. They will be pulling the tear with an HHR which doesn't have a big towing capacity.

The group had been building all day so a lot of progress was made before we got there.



The foam for the roof was scored on one side to make bending it over the spars super easy. What a great idea!



When basic construction is finished Louella will cover all the foam surfaces with canvas. This should keep the weather out. I'm really excited to see the finished project.

There were also two ponies on the property, keeping and eye on the build. This is Little Buck.


And this is Queen Bee. Guess what the "B" stands for... :)

Tear Jerkers Snow Fest 2011

This past weekend the Tear Jerkers Liberty Bell chapter had a gathering in a cabin just outside of R.B. Winter State Park in Mifflinburg, PA. Jeremy and I went and had a great time.

The weekend was full of sleeping, eating, drinking, story telling, and more drinking. Oh yeah, and I can't forget snoring!















On Saturday night there was a great bonfire. It was nice to get out in the cold for a few hours.











Sunday morning was the SnowFest event at the state park. Here's the official press release from the park:

Break out of the winter doldrums and experience some winter “adventures” such as.
a snow shoeing hike, cross country skiing (fee for equipment required), ice skating (fee for equipment required) horse drawn wagon rides (fee for ride required) ice rescue demonstration, ice fishing skills, snow mobiling safety and rides for kids, , winter camping equipment and techniques, a food concession ,a silent auction to benefit future snow fests and park events, snow volleyball, broomball, an ice sculpture demonstration, winter search and rescue using dogs and special activities for children include winter story time, nature activities and crafts.

The weekend was great but I was happy to get home and take a nice hot shower! :)