Igor, parked for lunch on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, Quebec.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Heading to Ottawa for September 18th.

Monday, September 2, 2024

Finished Igor's bed, and took Sadie out for some birthday treats!

There was some rain in the forecast so I didn't get the fourth and final window done in Igor the motorhome. Instead, it was time to complete the upper bed!

First, I had to install the mattress underlay which prevents condensation and potential mold growth under the mattress by providing air flow.

There are specialty products for this purpose, but they are hard to come by and very expensive... costing upwards of $200 CAD here in Canada. So instead, I searched for an alternative. I came up with a floor drainage tile that would do the job perfectly! Here is the link...



Anything that provides for airflow will do the job. But there are very similar tiles available that do not, so you have to be careful which ones you buy.

Installing the mattress underlay.

Once that was done, it was time to cut the mattress. Igor has an oddly shaped bed area, and part of it slides out to extend the bed frame, and slides back into place when the bed is not being used. Many owners of the Airstream B-190 have a two piece mattress, or even a tri fold mattress to get the mattress out of the way when the bed is not extended. Shorter people under 5'8" or so can sleep sideways without the need to extend the bed frame at all. That of course doesn't work for me as I am six feet.

Measure twice, cut once!

So what we decided to do was to cut out a section of the mattress. We unzipped and pulled back the mattress cover and measured out about an 8" piece and cut it out of the middle. With the cover zipped back up, there was enough give that the lower part of the mattress could fold back up over itself, and it worked out perfectly.

Cutting the mattress. 
I had read that a serrated bread knife works the best, and it did the job perfectly.

The finished product.

Installed, with the bed frame extended.

And with the bed frame put back in place.

Next job is to make the bed! This involves some contortionist calisthenics, known on the Airstream owners group as the B-190 gymnastics. There isn't a lot of room between the mattress and the roof of the vehicle, so it's a bit difficult to move around up there. Yes, it's a good core workout to make the bed!

Bed made.

And bed made, folded up for travel.

Next job was to install the new curtains that Ruth made. She had bought some black out curtains and cut and sewed them to fit Igor's windows.

Curtains installed.
Even with it being full daylight outside, I had to turn a light on to take this picture.

The workday stopped at noon though, because we had promised granddaughter Sadie that we would take her out for her 11th birthday activity. She didn't want to do anything special, other than to go for lunch and an ice cream treat and spend the afternoon with her grandma and grandpa.

There's a pub in Wolfville where she has been before and she really likes the chicken wings there. So that's where we went for lunch.

I had the fish and chips! It was really good and I was stuffed.
Ruth had a brisket burger and chips. Also good. And Sadie enjoyed her wings.

Next stop is for ice cream. Sadie has some food allergies to deal with, and she eats both gluten and dairy free. So how does one have an ice cream cone?

Everything made from scratch!

Ruth had the salted caramel with a gluten free waffle cone.
Sadie in the background, hamming it up for the camera.

Sadie had a chocolaty dairy free treat on a gluten free waffle cone.

This dairy and gluten free stuff doesn't come cheap though... with tax, $8.45 CAD ($6.25 USD) for each cone. They really enjoyed them though. I passed on that... still stuffed from the fish and chips!

Sadie and grandpa. We went for a walk around Wolfville.

Lindsey made a big family dinner, and a lot of Sadie's Nova Scotia relatives showed up to help celebrate. 

Ruth made Sadie's favorite... black forest cupcakes for dessert.

After dinner, I took the kids across the street to the farm. They do a corn maze every fall, and it's actually ready, although not officially open to the public yet. They don't mind locals going over and having some fun after hours though.

Cameron and Sadie above, and their cousins Myla and Brodie below.

Off into the corn maze.

Corn field at dusk.

Slept fine in the new bed, although it was pretty warm and the temperature inside Igor never went below 23C (73F).  We hadn't counted on that, and the new silk duvet was actually a bit warm. Fall is definitely in the air though, and it will be cooler tonight.

The only major thing left to do it that one last window. It's drizzling this morning, but supposed to be clearer this afternoon, so we'll see. We could put off our departure for a day because it's supposed to be nice tomorrow. We'll see. After being parked up for almost a month, we're really starting to feel the need to travel!

2 comments:

  1. Beautiful photo of the cornfield during the "golden hour"! Looks like a fun b-day for Sadie, and the ice cream cones look amazing! Good job on the mattress; looks like a pretty comfy bed up there. Getting up to pee in the middle of the night could be interesting, tho. ;-)

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    Replies
    1. I like that photo of the cornfield as well.

      Sadie had a great birthday that was drawn out over several days. Those ice creams were delicious. I think it is the first time that I have ever had a waffle cone because most places only have the ones that contain gluten so it was a nice treat for me as well.

      The bed it pretty comfy and we are happy with the way that it turned out but you are right, getting up in the night to go pee is an exercise in itself, lol!

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