The RV Page

Welcome to my RV page...

I purchased my Tioga long before I had my accident-it's original purpose was to become a mobile wood working workshop. Things did not turn out exactly that way however. [For specifics of design please "click" here or on the photo...]

Diagram of my RV

Things didn't turn out exactly the way I had intended however. I moved into my "new home" near the last part of August '98 as a change of management at my adult care home really made me feel uncomfortable. The third door on the Tioga is "center back." In many ways it has the same amount of room as the Para-medics van... well a bit more :)

For me to move in, the first thing that I felt I should do was get rid of the "booth" that allowed a family to sit and eat. After all-it's just me, and possibly one other... You see the original idea was to re-design the machine for reasonable access, and to sustain one person comfortably.

The Tioga is a Class "C" mobile home. It is a 20 footer and I had an Oil Laboratory that was larger than that for heavens sake! So, what to do? Well, I wanted a TV set in there, wanted space for food stuffs, clothing, my carving tools, BOOKS [though I could not manage to read them all the way through-I had hope that I would one day!], a place to hang umbrellas [this is the Seattle area after all-a rain forrest!], and a place to store tools that any home owner might need... I estimated the "rehab" to take 2-3 weeks tops. Then I could find a new place to locate it-that was assuming that I would be getting my drivers license back.

Well... In Washington State, if you get a TBI, you loose your license until your Dr. signs a paper that says you can... take a drivers test... then the State has a board sit and decide your "case..." While my Dr. [grudgingly it appeared] signed my paper, I've heard nothing from the State and still do not have a license.

There was this other issue... You see, while it's true that I have put 20 years into maintainence work in one form or another, maintainence work requires the ability to "cognate" [problem solve] and it requires "fine motor control..." Both of these abilities sort of disappeared when I hit my head-Carpentry/Cabinet making were skills I learned after leaving the Navy in 1990 and so... were adversely impacted... to say the least... Cognation? Yea, it went too... It's sort of like re-wiring your computer-try it and see how well it works! ;)

The net result was that what I estimated to take 3 weeks, took around 3 months... 4 months if you include what I believe to be more "final" changes... I did what I've been told about-I attempted things I could at one time do, but no longer appeared to be able to do-and DIDN'T GIVE UP! A problem with that is that I cut myself, bruised myself, frustrated myself [resulting in temper tantrums, anger fits, etc...] and generally "climbed a tall mountain..." <G>

In many ways I was a child in a mans' body. Making the Tioga into a home was not just a challenge, it was a MOTIVE-one that I am exceedingly grateful for.

Writing this page is a bit easier than re-building my RV. I believe that may be true because working on this silly-parted together old clunky machine-ties in with things learned long ago. Long ago learning seems to be easier to access than that of more recent times.

If you are still interested, please go on to the next page .

It's on the next page that I'll get into the specifics of my home...