Time to Hit the Road!

Ha! Barb was not even home three full days and I was in trouble. Apparently, you are not supposed to post pictures of your wife's legs while she is on a beach! (See last post) Who knew? And why would you take a picture of your legs if you cared if I posted it? She said the only reason she took it was to send it to her friend Melanie who had sent her a similar picture, never thinking I would get my hands on it! Well, I did, and the rest is history. 

All is forgiven now and she has been busy putting the final touches on the camper, installing the sink, and trim. For my part, I hooked up the waterlines and the plumbing for the sink. 

We borrowed Kevin's skidsteer for a few days to clear some trees and debris from our recent windstorm. I have about a dozen slash piles ready to burn should we get any more snow this winter.  We will have wood for years once we get this split and stacked into the woodshed. 

We also took down one tree that I have had my eye on for over a year now. It was a split tree originally, we lost half of it sometime ago and should the other half go, there was a possibility that it would hit the house and/or our propane tank. We needed it to fall away from both of those. I was fairly confident that we could do that but hooked up a series of straps to the truck with the other end high in the tree just in case. The plan worked perfectly and it missed both with plenty of room to spare. 

I also began a new project that I wanted to get a start on before we hit the road. I am replacing the carpet in the boat with a marine vinyl. This is turning out to be much more involved than I thought; having to remove trolling motor, lights and all the accessories, then removing the old carpet, clean up the wood and fit the new vinyl. We had bought what we thought was enough vinyl while in Wisconsin last summer, but it ends up with overlap for fitting and waste, I do not have nearly enough. Another 20' has been ordered and should be waiting for us when we return. 

I have a few of larger pieces done, the rest will have to wait until we get back. 

My biggest surprise of the week came one day when I went to the mailbox and had a package from our RV friends Jim and Diana in Michigan! Inside the package was this John Deere t-shirt! Apparently, he was at Costco and saw these shirts and knowing that I was a fellow John Deere owner, he bought me one! Thanks Jim!

I was able to put the 3D printer to use a couple times this week. First when Barb needed a new heater grate for the camper. When she up the trim in, the old vent no longer fit. No problem, Jim to the rescue! A couple hours later I had one printed out. Then again when I was working on the boat flooring. I needed a notched trowel to apply the glue and rather than driving to town to buy one, I just printed one out!

While all of that kept us busy for a couple of days, the majority of the week was filled with getting things ready for our next adventure. We had one week until we were on the road again and it could not come too soon! Our mild winter has left us, now we are experiencing temps in the single digits, even below 0 with winds that eat right through your outerwear.  Filling propane tanks, packing clothes, and finally putting the camper on the truck. Not a fun job, but not horrible either. 

Just in time too as our high Friday was below 0. The problem was, so was much of the country. If all goes well, our plan is to head Southwest into Wyoming for day 1, Salt Lake at the end of day 2, Hildale Utah on day 3 and finally the Grand Canyon (South Rim), day 4,5 &6. We have yet to visit the Gand Canyon, so we are super pumped for that! So, stay tuned, our next post should come to you from Arizona!

I will leave you with this picture of Zoey and I watching the news early one morning this week. Oh, how we will miss out fireplace and couch!