This past weekend, Senior Management treated me for my birthday. She made a spectacular breakfast Saturday Morning & scheduled the rest of the day just for the two of us. It was my first day off in 18 and a welcome change from daily life. Sunday morning was spent with family & then we all went to an RV show.
The RV show was something. I thought would be good to attend to find ideas for the jPod build. Most of the RVs were monsters. Multi-roomed, wired, plumbed, & equipped with more modern conveniences than I have at home (I have added some pictures to the end of this post). After spending so much time looking at the jPod, I found myself peering into the storage area under a fifth-wheel and thinking to myself, “that looks comfortable”. When I finally realized what I was thinking, I had to laugh at myself. I still think that the storage bay under that RV is about the size of the jPod.
My favorite comment came from a woman who was exiting a $381,ooo motor home. She looked at her husband and said “I couldn’t live like that!” I was curious what was so awful about the motor home so I toured it too. I now think that she was talking about something else or she is crazy. That was a nice rig.
Basically, I had a lot of fun but didn’t gain as many ideas for the jPod as I would have liked (some cabinet ideas & outside table designs). We did tour six modern Airstream trailers. They are ultra modern. I liked the lighting, custom cabinets & layouts of these. I was most excited about these because the Airstream shares a history with teardrop trailers.
I think the nicest design feature I found in any of the hundreds of RVs was in a $500,000 motor-home that was so large, I almost checked to see if it had any moons circling it. This rig had 5 flat screen TVs, granite counter tops, a shower area that is bigger than mine at home, leather interior, a TV on the outside, a washer & dryer, and much much more. Yet, a casual observer would have found me fixated on the back wall of the Master Suite’s closet. To me, the back wall of that closet presented a great idea. The manufacturer had lined the closet with Aromatic Cedar. So upon opening the door, one is greeted with the smell of Cedar (or Pencils -depending on who you are).
After doing some research into aromatic cedar, I have discovered some desirable qualities for this wood.
- It smells good. It brings up images of blanket chests & comfort.
- The smell repels some insects. Cedar is particularly good at keeping moths out of blankets, sweaters, clothing, etc.
- It looks beautiful without any finish. In fact, if it is finished, the finish will usually evolve into something awful because the aromatic cedar gives off a gas which eats most finishes (Read more…).
Conclusion: I like the idea of putting Aromatic Cedar in the jPod but ultimately I won’t do it. I have found some studies indicate that the fumes from Cedar can cause a pretty big list of medical phenomena (Read more…). The space avaliable in a motor home is acceptable for aromatic cedar. The space in the jPod is not. This is really too bad because it would smell nice. Maybe the smell of leather would be better.
One more activity for Sunday: I used my Dutch Oven for the first time to make a stew. It is amazing and I have had spectacular lunches at work all week. I am now an Iron Chef…of sorts. I loosely based my stew on this recipe. If you watch the recipe video, you’ll have to tolerate a man who thinks he is funny. He has no humor but his cooking is good.
