Gertie when I bought her

Looking to your right as you come in Gertie's main entrance door, the bedroom is over the cab. You climb into bed using the ladder with carpeted steps that you see here. There's a handle in the ceiling (not visible) just where you can grab it to help yourself into or out of bed—very convenient. The queen-sized bed has a wide, shallow storage compartment at its head, a fluorescent reading light above it and a fan at its foot (not visible) that's controlled by a switch near the head of the bed. Another switch turns on small floor-level guide lights by the bathroom, so you can see where you're going when you get up in the middle of the night.

The big vent/skylight you see above the bed is 26" square. It lets in lots of light during the day and can be opened at night for a view of the stars. It also serves as an emergency escape hatch. There are windows around three sides of the bedroom (you can see them in the exterior picture at the top of the page), but they let in too much heat/cold, so Judie and Gary have them blocked with Reflectix, a quilted, foil-backed insulating material. You can't see them in this picture because they're hidden behind the curtains that run around the bedroom.

The lower part of the picture shows the passenger's seat (behind the ladder) and part of the cab. Most of the cab is hidden, however, by a privacy curtain that pulls around to cover the windshield and both side windows. There's another privacy curtain you can draw across the sleeping area. The main entrance door is just off the right side of this picture.

As you walk in the entrance, the bathroom is straight ahead of you. You can see the small Thetford "Aqua Magic" toilet on the right; it flushes with just a few ounces of water. Above it is a medicine cabinet with a latching door so that it won't fly open when you're traveling. (All of Gertie's cabinets and drawers latch this way.)

To the left is the shower stall. The shelf you see there is mounted with Velcro; Judie and Gary added it because they actually use the shower as storage space—in order to save water, they normally take sponge baths or use campground shower facilities. The shelf is removable, though, and the shower works fine; I used it every day while I was staying in Gertie.

In addition to the window you see here, the bathroom has an overhead vent (with exhaust fan) that also serves as a skylight, plus two incandescent ceiling lights. Although this picture doesn't show it very well, it's really a bright and cheerful little room.

Turning a little to the left, you can see the bathroom sink, which is actually in the shower stall. It's only about half the width of a normal sink, but is fine for washing your hands. The faucets have a diverter (where the drain control would normally be) that switches the water to the showerhead mounted in the corner above the sink. The showerhead has a cutoff valve so that you can get wet, turn off the water, lather up and then turn it on again to rinse off.

The white cylinder above the sink is a combination toothbrush holder and paper cup dispenser. Oh, and the toilet paper dispenser is barely visible under the sink. It's covered on top so that it won't get soggy while you're taking a shower! To the left you can just see a bit of the inverter cabinet next to Gertie's main entrance door.

This is right where you walk in (on the curb side); the entrance door is just out of sight to the left. The cabinet below holds the 2,000-watt DC-to-AC inverter. The pint-sized microwave oven sits on top of the inverter cabinet. To the right you can see past the wardrobe and refrigerator, all the way to the back of the coach. (There's no larger version of this picture available.)

Walking a little further back, you come to the kitchen, which is opposite the wardrobe and refrigerator. The four-burner Magic Chef gas stove includes a decent-sized oven. A clever metal range cover folds back (as shown here) to form a splash guard, or unfolds to provide an additional work surface if you're not using the burners. On the far left you can barely see a 5" high clear shield between the stove and the streetside (driver's side) couch, placed there to prevent cooking spatters from harming the upholstery.

The stove hood has an exhaust fan and also serves as a spice cabinet. On the right you can see the counter extension, a drop leaf that folds down against the cabinets when not in use. All in all, the counter space is excellent for a rig of this size. The kitchen, like the rest of Gertie, also has lots of cupboards and drawers. (I'll list storage space in detail at the end of this page.)

Here's another view of the double-basin kitchen sink, with the beautiful new high-rise Moen faucet that Judie put in. The drain rack at right is sitting in the counter extension.

If you turn to the right and face the front of the coach, you can see the refrigerator and the two-door wardrobe with drawers. This picture shows the old gas-fired Dometic fridge, which never worked right. But Gertie now boasts a 6.3 cu. ft. Norcold DE-461 refrigerator, which runs on either AC or propane.

The fridge has a large storage cupboard below it. Beyond the wardrobe are the curbside entrance door and the passenger's seat, and in the foreground you can see part of the streetside couch, with the kitchen barely visible on the left. (One corner of the table is visible at right.)

Looking at the ceiling, by the way, you can see (from nearest to farthest away) a corner of the old "swamp" (evaporative) cooler (this picture was taken before it was replaced by an air conditioner), the smoke detector, one of the incandescent light fixtures, a Fan-Tastic vent/fan, the fluorescent fixture in the entrance hallway...and if you look closely, the handle on the ceiling near the bed. (Click to see the large picture if you really want to get all the details.)

Finally, here's the rear of the coach, and here I am eating granola with blueberries. The three large windows in the rear offer an attractive wraparound view. (The various items you see on the windowsill are Gary and Judie's.) The overhead light comes from the vent over the table, which also serves as a skylight. As in the bathroom, lots of light from skylights and fixtures makes the interior look larger than it really is. There's also a fluorescent light over the table, and over each couch is an incandescent fixture with a diffuse center light flanked by two aimable spotlights for reading. (You can see one of these fixtures over my head.)

The table is extended (that is, I've added a leaf to make it longer), so you can't see the Olympian catalytic heater on the end wall below it. The cat heater works like a fireplace; it has no fan, but produces a nice radiant heat that warms your feet and legs on chilly mornings. Unlike a kerosene heater it produces no carbon monoxide, but it does consume a little oxygen, so you need to leave one or more vents open a crack when using it.

The table can be dropped and the couches reconfigured to form a king-sized bed. I doubt I'll ever do this, but for families it's useful—the parents sleep in the rear bed and the kids in the overcab bed. Under each couch is a huge storage compartment—also accessible from outside.