A KANSAS SUNRISE
The weather turned out to be a big disappointment today with icy winds blowing in across Lake Huron freezing everything in it's path including the ice cubes in our freezer. No motorcycle waxing today because the metal was too cold. I did finish washing the final bug population off the front of the Motorhome though & figured had I picked them off with a tweezers I would have had enough bugs to thicken up a big pot of travel bug stew for supper.
CLEANING UP THE RIG
In last night's blog I had a picture of our Motorhome interior & received some questions. The photo was taken with a wide angle lens just as most real estate pictures are so the interior appears bigger than it really is. Wide angle lenses are commonly used in small spaces to include as much of the subject as possible. None of that furniture you see is secured to anything except the heavy computer desk in the left foreground. Those red chairs are light enough to just pick right up & walk out the door with. The bigger fold up bed in the corner is heavy & sticks like glue to the floor. For traveling we just set that one red chair up on the slide section beside the other chair & that's it...in comes the slide. This whole set up works fine for us & the dogs but would probably not work for most RV travelers simply because most folks like to socialize, play cards, entertain, & yadda yadda yadda. As you all know we are not into any of that stuff so don't need all the extra seating, couches, tables, & stuff. But, first & foremost, we ditched the original furniture simply because it was just tooooooo darn uncomfortable.
RENOVATION DAY IN QUARTZSITE ARIZONA
Maybe in the high end coaches the quality of the furniture is such that it is actually people friendly. Not so in the lower or mid line coaches. We put up with the uncomfortable stuff for our first trip with the coach but the second year out we weren't long in hauling the dinette, tub chair, & sofa bed right out of there & selling it all in Quartzite Arizona. For the next few days all's we had in there was a couple fold up chairs & a small wooden table. From Quartzsite we headed to an RV Park in Casa Grande & while there zipped up to an Ikea store in Tempe/Phoenix in search of new furniture. We spent hours in that store & I have to admit it was probably the only time I ever really enjoyed being on a shopping excursion. I had never been in an Ikea store before & was totally knocked out by the whole Ikea concept. Check out our photos from that day here.... IKEA DAY.
IKEA KNOWS HOW TO DO IT RIGHT!!
I think we sold our rig's furniture for around $400 in Quartzite & refitted the rig at Ikea for about $350. Probably the only time in my life I ever came out ahead on a deal. We bought a fold up bed, two Poang chairs, lamp, foot stool & an assortment of other goodies. It had to all be assembled later so the boxes were easily loaded in our car for the drive back to Casa Grande. Spent the following day assembling everything & we were ready to go.
ASSEMBLING THE STUFF & AL STARTS THE PAINTING
We decided on the interior color while thinking of the southwest & how much we liked the adobe look. While in Casa Grande we went to Wal-Mart & I picked up a clay flowerpot in the garden section & took it over to the paint department where the fella read it with his magical little color scanner. Had him mix us up a quart of paint to match & that was it. Originally had only planned on painting the small section of wall directly behind the chair & lamp but the following summer I took the paint swatch on the lid of the can to our Wal-Mart in Goderich Ontario & had them brew us up some more paint. I then painted the whole slide area plus the kitchen section.
PATAGONIA STATE PARK, ARIZONA
And, what the heck was the Bayfield Bunch doing at a fancy schmancy RV Park like Beaudry's in Tucson, Arizona? Well, it wasn't exactly by choice but we had developed a water leak in our 5ver while at Patagonia State Park near Nogales & that leak needed fixing. No place in Nogales to have it repaired so headed on up to Tucson. Spotted Beaudry's from the Interstate & headed in to have things looked at. It was a minor repair but by the time they were done we were totally dead tired from traveling & decided to just stay in their adjoined RV Park for the night. Ended up staying 3 nights while exploring around the Tucson area before leaving. Nice laundry room, nice pool, nice internet access room, restaurant, etc. But, it just wasn't our cup of tea & the price per night was pretty steep. We stayed at a number of RV Parks in the early days & it didn't take us long to realize we would be further ahead to invest future monies in a solar system. It has turned out to be one of the best RV decisions we have ever made.
POOL & HOT TUB AT BEAUDRY WE NEVER USED
Now, about that haircut picture in last night's blog. That photo was taken before I actually went under surgeon Kelly's scissors. Never thought to take an 'after' photo so at Kelly's request, I attempted to do that this morning.
OK, HERE'S THE 'AFTER' PICTURE
A young fella by the name of Rick showed up this afternoon from Lorne's RV Service here in Bayfield with our new Motorhome kitchen tap assembly. Only took him a matter of minutes to haul out the old cracked one & have the new one up & running with real water coming out. He made it look so easy to do that I thought to myself, well, maybe I could have done that myself. Now, having seen how it was done I think next time I might just have a very good chance of doing that. Hey, anybody out there need some taps changed:))
Also, at this very moment our Hyundai Santa Fe is undergoing a complete ball joint replacement plus 4 new tires with a front end alignment & tire balancing at Huron Tire & Auto in Clinton, Ontario. Should make quite an improvement to it's driving capabilities I suppose although I thought it drove fine before. Oh well, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
I am putting this blog together in late afternoon because tonight I have to spend the first 3 hours of a two part first aid course put on by the Home Care company I drive part time for. Second 3 hour installment will be Thursday night again from 7 to 9. Hey, anybody out there need a broken leg fixed.............................
RENOVATION DAY SUNSET.....QUARTZSITE
GROANER'S CORNER:(( 'You should be ashamed,' the father told his son, Andy, 'When Abraham Lincoln was your age, he used to walk ten miles every day to get to school.' 'Really?' Andy responded. 'Well, when he was your age, he was president.'
Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
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The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...... AL.
