Sunday, April 27, 2008

 

Now Is The Winter Of Our Discount Tent


Winter has settled on South Dakota....HARD! As I look out one of our two windows across the wilderness that is known as the RV park, I think back to a happier time...one when I wore knee length pants traveled the country in search of someone new to drink beer with.

My hearing date has come and gone, still no resolution. "One more test" they said. Geeze, you'd think they could go by any of the 5 other tests I've had. But that's our government. We look forward to September 15th, when we finally are paroled from this prison able to leave here. Having only been "on the road" for little more than 4 years, it's hard to imagine how difficult it is to set in one place for this long. It's amazing how the rambling bug gets under yer skin in so short a time. We plan to head to Arizona next winter. Neither of us have ever been. Should be a very welcome change!

Just to show ya how lax I am in posting here, the weather has broke and it looks like we are headed into spring. Looking out one of our windows, I can see little Robins...FAT little Robins kicking the rocks out back. One of them looked up and made eye contact with me & I swear it was trying to tell me about how I should be getting some seed out there. I've never flipped off a bird before....it felt gooood! Now I know I've been cooped up in here too long. (See what I did there?..."cooped up". See I was talking about bir....oh never mind).

We are scarcely a week away from the start of the season. I've been cutting the last of our rocks, trying to stockpile a bunch of rough shapes for us to grind this summer. The grinding isn't very noisy, so hopefully we can continue to do this during the season. Now comes a fairly big job, converting our rock shop back into a motel office.


After the transformation, I'll be putting my shoulder to the RV wheel and finishing our interior renovations. We have decided to change the motif from nautical to somewhat of a Mediterranean/Tuscan design. One thing we have agreed that we DON'T want is any of those little fat chefs or loads of tacky plastic grapes.Both of the last bastions of original parts of this coach have bit the dust. Around the time we got here last year, I was noticing a small hairline crack traveling across the ceiling, coming from behind the convection/microwave. I drilled a small hole in it's path and put a rivet in it, thinking that would stop it. BUT NooOOooo...It jumped around the rivet and kept traveling. It was only about 4" long, but I knew it would soon make it's way towards the door faster than fart in a phone booth. (For all you youngsters, there was a time before we all had celly's when telephones were in these little boxes...Oh, just Google it!)

Anyway, with the decision to redo the decor, I decided that this would be a good a time as any for a ceiling overhaul. We found some sheets of panel with a nice beige/green/lattice/vine type of pattern. We cut these sheets and got them installed before winter came in and I thought they really made a big difference in the overall looks of the coach. I finished the ceiling out in both rooms with a very small oak trim I found at Lowes. I'll take some pix in the near future.

The other holdout was the bath tub. LeAnna really hated it. Not on the same level as the old propane oven mind you, but with equal fervor. I was at a loss as to what to do about the tub, as it was a built in fiberglass model that was part of the walls, floor, and sink cabinet. I got rid of the sink bit when I did the first bathroom overhaul. I was looking on eBay for possible solutions when I ran across a shower pan that was the exact same dimensions as the old tub! And a really great thing about it was that it was only $100. Sooo, after it arrived I began to de-tub the coach.

I ran out of weather before I got the old tub completely cut out, so I have that to look forward to this year. I'll be redoing the plumbing in the tub and adding a new shower faucet and head as well. Getting the bathroom back up to snuff is the most major job remaining, but there are a few others lurking in the wings that I'd really like to cross off the list before we leave here.

We are really in a holding pattern (STILL!) until this S.S. thing is decided. If I get approved, we will be putting a fairly large chunk of the back pay into some bells and whistles for the coach. If I'm denied, then we will just have to work a bit longer and pick & choose what gets done when. At least after a decision is made, it will be over! I'm so sick of holding my breath waiting for this whole thing. (See that? That's irony! Ya see I can't really hold my breath an......ok ok, I'll stop).

So, I guess that gets this sorry excuse for a blog up to date for now. I'm hoping the next post interval won't be measured in months!

Until we meet again, I'll leave you with these words of wisdom from my good pal Mark Twain...

Few things are harder to put up with than a good example.

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