All We Want for Christmas (and birthdays & other gifting occasions)

Dear families/friends/millionaires,

We know we can be hard to shop for. Our hobbies are unusual and involve skill toys—poi and specialty hula hoops—that you can't find on the shelf at Target. Geeky, tech items can be difficult to select when you don't know what we need. Buying us books seems like an easy option, but what if we already own multiple copies or borrowed it and hated it? And clothing is rarely a good idea (just ask Rachel about living with Old Ladies Buy My Clothes Syndrome).

Instead, we would like to offer up a suggestion: Buy us parts. You don't even have to buy us specific parts, although we'd be glad to give you a list of what we need for replacing the lift system and mending other parts of the camper. You can just send us money on occasion to put towards the items we need. (There's a handy little donation button to the left.) Otherwise, we'll have to survive off of ramen and pasta dinners for the rest of the year.

Remember how, as we were growing up, you always told us that you wanted us to be happy in life? Turning this Apache Ramada into a gypsy caravan makes us happy. Sweaty, covered in grease, and having to make up repair processes as we go along, yes.* But also happy. Having a little help now and then will make us even happier. (And mean fewer ramen meals.) In return, we promise to call & write on occasion, and keep you updated on our progress with the geek caravan project.

Love,
Rachel & Kyro



*Yes, Mom, even me who hated getting dirty as a child. —R.

An... Apache Caravan?

We are now the proud owners of a circa 1973 Apache Ramada hard-body camper!

Yes. We know it is not a vardo. But we have plans.

A few weekends ago we drove out to Quinlan, TX to view a hunter travel trailer Kyro found on Craig's List. Very tiny, but cute, complete with water and propane hook ups. The owner built it off of an old Coleman camper whose canvas sides rotted out, by keeping the base & the roof and replacing the walls with board. In the end, we opted to not purchase it, but decided that the idea was good enough to borrow. Not having to learn how to install electrical wires or propane lines? Win.

Last Wednesday, Kyro discovered our current camper (Craig's List, again). In his words, it's "funky and needs some work." A little bit of an understatement, but I think it'll turn out awesome in the end. And worth it, since we wanted something off of the ground for when we go camping Memorial Day weekend in the middle of a poison ivy-infested pecan grove. And then for another camp out at the end of June at Lake Texoma.

Right now, we're just concerned about getting it cleaned up enough to spend five days camping in, and in good enough condition to be usable. (I found a newspaper dating back to 1988, so it definitely needs some care.) After that, let the caravan conversion begin!

Getting Hitched!

At least, his truck is: