Home With a Bigger (Golden) Egg

[Wanderer]

Just home from a huge marathon! Almost 10,000 kms, from our home in the Fraser Valley, BC to 75 kms SW of Montreal Quebec to pick up our new-to-us bigger egg and tow it back home, in a ten day weather window. A friend and I took nine days for the return trip, driving at least 1000 kms and as much as sixteen hours daily, except for the ninth day, when we drove only about 880 kms from Canmore, Alberta, to home. An interesting but extremely tiring exercise, in which we encountered snow, icy roads many hours of zero and minus temperatures, and one road closure delay and back tracking to a motel to await road re-opening after a serious accident that involved the deaths of five people and left us jammed in a huge stationary semi trailer stream in minus three temps. The Tacoma guzzled over two thousand dollars in gas, running at 90 to 103 KPH on the Trans Canada Highway system. My fifth and last, definitely my last Trans Canada drive. The truck used no oil, and gave not a hint of trouble at any point. I brought home our new egg, a 2007 Casita Freedom De Lxe, which towed like a dream in all conditions, which included very high winds on the prairies of Sask. We will spend the time between now and spring "making it ours." A Canada goose has laid us a golden egg.

[jwcolby54]

Wow, what a trip! (from the 70's)

Sounds like a blast though.

[frank_a]

Congratulations! What, no camera?!?

Frank

[wdfetn]

did not realize Canada was so wide that 10000 kilometer was more than 6000 American miles

[theresa p]

10,000kms and stories to tell!! your trip sounds like a good movie.
and it is great that your new "egg" towed like a dream....

congratulations. enjoy making it your own.

[David B.]

Congratulations. I guess now is the time to change your trailer type from Trillium to Casita, and of coarse, enter pictures to your album.
HAPPY TRAILS
Dave & Paula

[Mike Magee]

That was a TREK.

[Ice-breaker]

Originally Posted by Wanderer

Just home from a huge marathon! Almost 10,000 kms, from our home in the Fraser Valley, BC to 75 kms SW of Montreal Quebec to pick up our new-to-us bigger egg and tow it back home, in a ten day weather window. A friend and I took nine days for the return trip, driving at least 1000 kms and as much as sixteen hours daily, except for the ninth day, when we drove only about 880 kms from Canmore, Alberta, to home. An interesting but extremely tiring exercise, in which we encountered snow, icy roads many hours of zero and minus temperatures, and one road closure delay and back tracking to a motel to await road re-opening after a serious accident that involved the deaths of five people and left us jammed in a huge stationary semi trailer stream in minus three temps. The Tacoma guzzled over two thousand dollars in gas, running at 90 to 103 KPH on the Trans Canada Highway system. My fifth and last, definitely my last Trans Canada drive. The truck used no oil, and gave not a hint of trouble at any point. I brought home our new egg, a 2007 Casita Freedom De Lxe, which towed like a dream in all conditions, which included very high winds on the prairies of Sask. We will spend the time between now and spring "making it ours." A Canada goose has laid us a golden egg.

Congratulations on the new trailer. You must have gotten quite a deal on it to justify $2000 for fuel plus 10 days meals and accommodations plus possible vacation time to drive out and pick it up. I wonder if you had looked into shipping it, which would surely have been quite a lot cheaper overall?

[Wanderer]

Yes, it was expensive, but late model Casita 17s are rare in BC- any Casita, for that matter. I considered shipping, but the trailer wasn't sitting in a driveway in Montreal , it was in a tiny hamlet in south West Quebec, and I'd have to have flown to Montreal to organize shipping and a dozen other things, including Quebec licensing, transfer. . . and so on. It was go pay the owner, pick it up or let it go. . . and I couldn't let it go! The makings of a novel? That book has been written- by an American French Canadian: ON THE ROAD, Jack Kerouac. If I have mis-spelled his name, forgive me.

[Ian G.]

Congratulations on your "new" Freedom Deluxe.
I glad you made the long journey safely.
I know what you mean about Casita's being hard to find in western Canada, we also towed ours home in a snow storm but luckily the trip was only 200km, no where near your lengthy expedition.
You will love the Casita, I know we sure love ours.

[Wanderer]

Ian, thank you for the kind words. Like you, I also have a small egg- a 1980 Trillium, nearly redone, with lots of oak faced cabinets, and it has more storage than the Casita, we believe! The Trillium is a never-ending project, but always usable. On the home stretch, I've replaced the hinges and bonded 5/16" plates into the door surround. My final door project will be to set the door in place and work inside and out via a ladder and the emergency exit. I cannot abide that misaligned saggy look. I will be posting it for sale in a week or two, and have a possible new owner lined up, but I still want to do the door before I say goodbye!

Back to the Casita again, re storage. My wife and I spent twenty years on small sail boats (21' and 26') and VW campers, so we are used to living in small spaces, and we have the Tacoma with a rigid folding tray lid for all the usual trailer stuff like B-B-Q and blocks and jacks and you name it, but we need to do something about food storage and personal stuff. I added one of those add-a-draw kits from Camping World, to the Trillium, and it comes in very handy for shower quarters and a million other little things, and I've shortened the hanging space to make a locker beneath, for cameras and my lap top and chargers etc, and am now thinking of the Casita, wanting to make this beautiful, well equipped little trailer a home away from home, thus my interest in what you might have done. I was a shop and English teacher, ( the English part doesn't help here, I know!) and rebuilt both my sail boat interiors, so modifying and constructing comes fairly easily, but I don't want to chop into the Casita as I did to the Trillium and the sail boats. However, I don't want to go back to daily baggage packing either!
Presently, we are airing and drying and cleaning our Casita, as, coming from the East, it was really shut up for at least six months in each year, and the previous owner did not use it for the at least a year. It is smelling very different already, I didn't get the TV dog when I bought the Febreze, but the product is doing a great job of removing odours. Somewhere between 2007 and 20012, an owner painted over the photo-print oak cabinet faces, so my wife has decided that the paint has to be removed, ( easy, I think, since finger nails have shown,) so that will be the only tedious job in the future, one door at a time, and will give me small manageable units of work! The trailer is in super shape and well outfitted, with options beyond the De Luxe standard outfitting making our little Trillium look like a Motel Super eight in comparison to the Best Western Casita!

We wil have to meet one day/year- our son lives in Calgary, up in the NW section, and we will probably go to Calgary, then Drumheller and down the Columbia valley, doing the dams, before continuing on to the Oregon coast next summer.A last thought: Somebody south of the line has a Casita 17, I believe, and he has (continually) added incredible woodcraft storage and comfort ideas to his trailer and has shared those ideas and projects with us. Do you by chance know of him and his posts?

[Ian G.]

Yes Kenneth we will have to meet. I can agree that our Boler and the mods I have done result in a LOT more storage in the Boler than the Casita, our belief is that you only take what will fit. Our Casita came with every option offered (we were very lucky) so this year I didn't do many mods. I did replace the bezels on all the cabinet door latches ((they all work much better now and won't break), replaced the kitchen faucet with a pull out spray head, and redid the plumbing under the sink so the "P" trap was against the side cabinet and opened up the area under the sink for more storage. Before next season I plan on doing the fast grey mod, a battery sliding shelf, Modify the front closet to have the clothes hanging in the lower part and full width shelves in the upper half.

At this time we are planning on keeping both our trailers, one trip we hope to make next summer is to attend the Oregon gathering, maybe this is in your plans also.

p.s. we live in N.W. Calgary

[Donna D.]

Congratulations Kenneth. Yeah, I echo Ian... try to make the Oregon Gathering then I can meetcha too!

[Wanderer]

If it is a Trillium meet, I will not be there as my Trillium will be sold. It had better be! Ian, of course, drop the hanging section DOWN, not put in an awkward to access lower shelf! Brilliant. I will do that also. My wife would go for the new faucet with spray head. . . What is the fast grey water mod????? I will do the P trap mod also; we MUST have more storage space. Maybe I will get a couple of those Camping World Add a Draws, if the depth will fit. Keep thinking Ian. Think I'm going to toss out the cook top and replace it, mine is battered and I believe all the two burners are now staggered. Son Adam lives in Tuscany Springs. Know it? Yes, Donna, we've had that projected meet on for some time!

[Ian G.]

The meet in Oregon is for all molded fiberglass trailers (RVs) so your Casita is more than welcome, if you are thinking of going you should reserve a campsit soon, it does fill up fast.
I live in Edgemont, just a few km east of Tuscany.
Make sure you join the Casita Forum. In a nutshell there are 2 problems with the grey water tank in Casitas, first the drain pipe is inserted inside the tank, because the pipe slopes up it will not allow the tank to fully drain and can leave several gallons of water in the tank. The second issue is there is no vent on top of the tank, this again limits the capacity of the tank but more importantly greatly slows the time it takes to dump the grey tank.
Larry Gamble has documented the mod in detail here.
http://www.casitaforum.com/invboard/..._hl__fast+grey
You can also buy all the parts from his company, Little House of Custom, if you like.

[kootenaigirl]

What an exciting adventure, Congratulations. We are in the Kootenay's with our Casita which we also brought home through snow when we picked up from Boise in March. Seems to be a Casita rite of passage in Canada!
You are welcome to stop by and see ours if you are ever passing through. it came with quite a few mods recommended on the Casita forum and we have added a shelf under the sink. Like Ian we still need to shelf the closet and the sliding battery tray would be a nice addition.

[Wanderer]

Thank you, Ian, I will do this mod in the spring, and buy the parts from Larry soon. Meantime I will read his modification. Yes, I already belong to the Casita Forum, joining when I first started looking for a Casita 17 Spirit or Freedom in Canada. I clicked on the friend thing, Ian, and love your avatar! Wanda and I love wine; I love whites and reds, she the whites, Chardonnay her favourite, Yelllowtail the best buy. IN US. We make our own wine in a micro winery regularly, and drink wine with most suppers. Our Casita will carry on the tradition we have established with the Trillium of drinking AUS and US wines and those fabulous Oregon, Calif. and WA. beers when camping in the State Parks! We are both AUS born, she of a CDN mom,(Montreal) and AUS dad, RAAF/RAF pilot administrating/ teaching the navigation to the ferry pilots flying across the Atlantic after the fall of France. I have three allegiances, British parents, AUS born, CDN naturalization. As I drove across those bloody prairies, I was longing for "Home" Canada, just as we always do when our foreign vacations are over; I was raised, calling England "Home" and when we first came to Canada, AUS was "Home." Wanda calls AUS "Going down to AUS," whereas for me, "AUS" will always be home." Just like most Anglo Aussies, and having nothing to do with Peter Allen's song, other than that we both lived in the same little city, went to the same schools, swam for the same swim club and he was in my younger brother's class. A huge difference is that he was gay and died of AIDS, I am straight and didn't!

Back to the business of the forum: Donna, I believe you made some posts re that chap from I believe the Mid West, who shared his fantastic posts re his constant mods and add-ons, for his trailer, which I hope was a Casita 17. Do you remember his name or know how to access his posts? You have a terrific Trillium, and if you have been inside a Casita 17, must have been very conscious of the lack of convenient storage!

[Ian G.]

This may be the Casita mods you are looking for
Casita Modifications - GuysOnlineImages | SmugMug

... and some more
Collection: RV - Casita Mods

Originally Posted by Wanderer

... Wanda and I love wine; I love whites and reds, she the whites, Chardonnay her favourite, Yelllowtail the best buy. IN US. We make our own wine in a micro winery regularly, and drink wine with most suppers. Our Casita will carry on the tradition we have established with the Trillium of drinking AUS and US wines and those fabulous Oregon, Calif. and WA. beers when camping in the State Parks!

The picture below is the wine rack in my Boler ... still trying to figure out if I can do something like this in the Casita.

[Wanderer]

Well, we do have a big frig, and we have a Tacoma!

[Carol H]

Congrats Kenneth on the new trailer! I understand the need to drive to find a Casita in Western Canada .... I had to do a drive for my Scamp as well when I got it as there was only one other registered in the province at the time! Enjoy it!!!

Originally Posted by wdfetn

did not realize Canada was so wide that 10000 kilometer was more than 6000 American miles

well it is the 2nd largest country in the world - but technically its really only 9,206 KM wide coast to coast as the crow flies The US border we share (excluding Alaska portion) is only 5443 km (3,989 miles). Yup its BIG