Meet Artemis, the 1973 Argosy 24. We call him Artie for short. This is how we found him - abandoned and alone, unwanted. But, this is not a sad story. This is a story of revival, we hope. We are planning on bringing Artie back to life. Follow our story of Artie as we work through the ups and downs of restoring a 1973 Argosy 24.
One day, while I was out getting some metal bent for a camper build that I was working on, I met a man who was lost. He was looking for the machine shop in town to buy a small piece of angle iron. As we talked, he discovered that I am a camper builder and restorationist. Not very long into our rather short conversation, he asked, "Hey, do you want a camper?" To which I asked how much he wanted for it. He said again, "Do you want a camper? It doesn't cost anything. You can have it." I had never been given a camper before. I didn't know quite what to think. I said, "Sure, I'd love to have a camper."
I went up that very evening with the man to a place on the northern outskirts of Nashville, TN to have my first look at the camper. I wasn't sure what I would find. I knew that the area where the Argosy sat was hard hit by the flood of 2010. I got my first look of Artie in the dark by headlight and cellphone light. The exterior was covered in moss and vines. The awning was barely hanging on. The wheels were rim-deep in mud and grass. It was rough, but I could see potential. I then toured the inside which was full of stuff - some windows, snack vending machines, and old blankets, pots, cards, etc. It smelled of mice and rats and I saw a couple snake skins in it as well. (I HATE SNAKES!!) The owner said the windows were his, but that was the rest belonged to me. I offered to take out the windows and vending machines when I came up to take Artie home. As I drove home, I called my wife to let her know what I had found. I see Artie as a diamond in the rough. Sure, he needs work, but don't we all.
It was about a month later before I could travel up to Nashville, TN to pick up Artie. The first time, my wife and I (and our 2 year old) went to get him on December 20, 2014, I noticed that all of his tires were in bad shape and that the bridge I would have to cross on the way out was partially washed out. But, since we didn't have tires or a compressor with us,we knew we would have to leave him there for a while longer. Realizing we would not be able to take Artie home with us that day, we removed the contents of the the camper and neatly stacked the windows, vending machines, and a bicycle near a garage. I had to choke up the courage to pick up some of the windows as some had a snake skin draped across them. Remember, I HATE SNAKES. My wife would hardly touch the windows that had the snake skin on them. She shook and quivered the whole way back from touching the "snake skin" windows. She hates snakes too.
Some of you are probably wondering what our 2 year old did while we cleaned out Artie. She played NASCAR. That is to say, while we worked very nearby (and constantly checking on her), she sat in the driver's seat and pretended to drive. We could see her little head bobbing above the silouhette of the seat as she would stand and drive. Imagine if we drove that way! Wouldn't that be exciting!
After Christmas, on December 30, 2014, my wife and I (and our 3 girls, ages 16, 11, and 2) made another trip up to Nashville. This time we were even more determined to bring Artie home. I took some boards to place over the bad spots in the bridge, a hefty floor jack, an air compressor and various tools and straps.
We spent a couple hours repairing the tires. When I say repairing, what actually was happening is we were putting tubes in the old, dry-rotted tires. I actually found that two of the tires held air just fine. So, I inflated them to 50 psi and left them alone. One tire received a tube and was inflated to 50 psi, with grass stuck in the crevices of dry rot. I prayed we would make it home. The last tire was exceptionally wobbly. So I removed the drum to discover the inner wheel bearing was shattered. So, I decided to take the wheel off and throw it in the camper. Ok, so we would travel home (about 75 miles away through metropolitan Nashville near the beginning of rush hour) with only 3 wheels and ALL of them dry rotted. Are we brave or just crazy?! Or, maybe just too broke to care. Remember, we had just made it through Christmas.
Meanwhile, my parents were on their way down from Kentucky to pay my sisters and I a visit after Christmas. I gave my parents a call before we left to see where they were and fortunately, it turned out that they were very near where we were picking up Artie. So I asked if they could follow us home, just in case we had any trouble. When we left the land where Artie has languished for several years on our way to meet my parents, somewhere along the way we lost one of the towing lights we had attached to the rear. Furthermore, the towing light that remained had ceased working. Needless to say, we kept phone contact with my parents all the way home. We pulled Artie through Nashville, TN and cringed and prayed all the way home. The whole time we only reached 50 MPH twice. Most of the time, I kept the car at 40-45 MPH. Whew, what a trip! 75 miles never seemed so long.
Below are some of the pictures of Artie from his initial resting place and his new home in our driveway. Stay tuned for further updates.
Artie, where we found him.
Notice the washed out bridge that has been partially repaired.
Artie at home.
Beautiful sunset at the end of the day.
