5 Year Retrospective - Year One

Johnson City, Texas - December 2009

Hi all, Dianne here.  December 2013 marks our five-year anniversary of hitting the road full time in our RV.  There have been a lot of changes since then (different dogs, new home base, new friends) and several things that have stood the test of time (our RV, Charlie the Cat, old friends).  Also many lessons learned!  I thought it might be fun to take a trip down memory lane and pick out some favorite places, photos, and highlights of our five-year journey and our new life.  We'll start at the beginning, and this blog entry will cover Year One.



Note:  I'm new at Google maps, and can't figure out how to make the left panel disappear.  To see the route under the panel, you can move the map to the left away from underneath it. 
This first year our home was still on the market and so we made loops back and forth from Indiana to keep the house ready for showings.  We started out by heading north from Pendleton, Indiana to Elkhart (Bradd & Hall) to have our old analog TVs switched out and the cabinetry altered.  When we finally left Elkhart on December 6, 2008 it was 13 degrees!   We headed south and made haste for Charleston, South Carolina.

One of our favorite camp sites that first year was site 26 at Edisto Island State Park.  We were there in December, so there were no gnat troubles and we were able to get a great site between the marsh and the beach.  

 We took daily walks with Jasper and Chaplin (the "Travelin' Whippets") on the beach and marveled at just how nice it was to be able to be outside in December in t-shirts and shorts!

Favorite food:

Po Pigs Bo-B-Q - Carolina Style

Our very first Christmas away from home and family was spent strolling around Savannah, Georgia with Jasper and Chaplin.  

We then spent a month at Markham Park in Sunrise, Florida (outside Fort Lauderdale) in order to get our Motosat Datastorm system installed.  The campground was in a city park and the sites were grassy and spacious.  What made it really nice, though, was "Barkham at Markham" dog park.   We quickly became "regulars" at the park and both dogs loved it.

Chaplin the "Chick Magnet"

While at Markham Park, we took day trips to the Miami Metro Zoo (awesome!), South Beach,
 and also several trips to Everglades National Park.

One of the most memorable experiences that first year was the 15-mile bike trip at Shark Valley in Everglades National Park.  This was before we had bicycles of our own and I hadn't ridden a bike for years.  Before we even got to the point where we were riding around lethargic alligators laying in the roadway, I lost control of my bike, ran into an elderly tourist, and took a hard fall on my knee.  There is still a knot on my knee, a permanent souvenir of that day.  If you want to read all the gory details, here's a link to that blog entry:
Shark Valley Bike Trip  It was truly a day to remember!


Worst camp site of the year award:  KOA in the Florida Keys:  

  Best camp site of the year award:  Site #10 at Franklin Locks COE park near Fort Myers, Florida:

Jasper, Chaplin, and Lemon Tree

We spent a week with our friends the Gemmers in Fort Myers...

Chuck & Cindy

Jay & Nancy

...and a weekend with our friends Jay and Nancy at their then-condo in Naples.

We spent a week at Fort Wilderness Campground at Disney World.  Amanda and Kaia flew down from Indiana to join us there (Robyn was performing on a cruise ship that year and couldn't come).  

Kaia, my Punkie Pie

After they flew home, it was time for us to make our way north in time for yard maintenance at our house in Indiana.

On the way, we stopped at another favorite that year, St. George Island in the Florida Panhandle:

With stops at Lake Lanier in Georgia and Chattanooga, Tennessee, we finally made it back home to spend several weeks in Indiana at state parks, driving back and forth to our house for yard work.  We didn't stay there because I didn't want to have to keep it constantly clean for realtor showings and also, it no longer felt like home.  

We were asked by the local garden club to place our home on the annual garden tour that summer.  We readily agreed, since it would bring foot traffic to our house.   By that point it was nearing a year and a half on the market.  (Lesson learned:  Don't try to sell your home at the bottom of the worst housing market in a generation).

If you have too much time on your hands, here's the Entire Garden Tour blog entry.

Trip number two that year sent us toward New Orleans for a wedding, then to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to change residences, then back to Indiana for yet more yard work:

We drove the Natchez Trace from Nashville, Tennessee all the way to Natchez, Mississippi.  

The wedding in New Orleans took place at the famous St. Louis cathedral, then a jazz band led the wedding party from the ceremony to the French Quarter reception.

We danced through the streets waving white scarves behind the band and the bride and groom.  The bride (Jennifer) had been a fixture at our home since grade school, and we wouldn't have missed her wedding for the world, even if it weren't an awesome New Orleans affair.

Chateax aux Arc Winery near Altus, Arkansas

Then it was back to Indiana via Arkansas and  a side trip to Sioux Falls, South Dakota for driver's licenses and vehicle registrations.  Lesson learned: There have been wineries near Altus, Arkansas since 1880 -- our first winery tours, and good ones, too!

August was a very busy month that year.  I drove a U-Haul to Florida to help our daughter and granddaughter move, then flew back just in time for our annual kayak trip at Turkey Run State Park with the Gemmers, Patterns, and our other camping friends.

The best news of late summer was that our house finally sold that August.  We spent the rest of the summer  selling almost all of our furniture. 

My Texas friends might recognize the secretary, since it's now in our little coach house in Texas.  

We also held yet another garage sale at the little house our daughter had just moved from, to get rid of many of her things and what was left of ours.  Since we owned that little house, we were able to park our motor home in the driveway.   We actually thought at that time that we'd spend our summers there at the little house and travel in the winter months.

The last of a zillion garage sales

In September we traveled a little bit east to Celina, Ohio to attend Nick Russell's Gypsy Journal Rally. From there we drove straight to Coffeyville, Kansas to spend two-and-a-half months workcamping at the Amazon fulfillment center there.  

  We took this job (our one-and-only workcamping experience) before we knew that our house would sell.  Here I am soaking my feet in Epsom Salts after work.  Roger and I worked separate shifts because of our dogs, and he met me at the door with a foot bath and a glass of wine.  Whatta guy!! If you want to know what that job was like, read this blog entry:  Dianne's Perspective.

When our stint was over, we made haste to get south before bad weather struck.  A quick stop in Arlington, Texas to see Roger's cousin and her family gave us our first real taste of Texas.  Then we went on to spend our second Christmas on the road in Kerrville, Texas at Buckhorn Lake RV Resort.  The opening photo was taken on an organized trip from Buckhorn to have dinner and see the Christmas lights in nearby Johnson City.  They truly were the most awesome Christmas lights I've ever seen.  

The final photo for this Year One Retrospective was taken the day after Christmas at our very first visit to our favorite winery, Grape Creek, outside Fredericksburg, Texas.  (Note how slim we still were from our Amazon job.)  Here's to you and yours for a very Merry Christmas!

Cheers!

Roger is working on his own "best and worst" blog entry retrospective and I'll do Year Two when time permits.  This blog is our virtual scrapbook, and it's fun to look back.  

The pet pictures of the year are a compilation of a few of my favorites from Year One, with captions:

My Three Sons

Charlie playing in front of barely-filled-in US map

Naptime for My Three Sons

Hey, Dad's eating Steak!

Ice Cream in Key West

We sure miss you, Jasper and Chaplin....

He Begged Me Not To Do It!

Hi all, Dianne here.  When we decided to make the side trip to Indiana to get minor irritating things* in our motor home repaired at the Newmar factory, we started thinking about the inside remodeling we'd wanted to do for some time.  We had planned to make the trek north next summer for the interior re-do at Bradd and Hall in Elkhart.  Since we were headed to Newmar in Nappanee (just outside Elkhart), it made sense to go ahead with the interior re-do while there and save the expense of the trip next year.  The money would have to come out of savings anyway, so why not?

*Here are a few of the irritating things that were starting to drive us nuts, and that we couldn't wait a year to fix:

1.  Retractable step had acquired a mind of its own and would or would not work on a whim...

2.  One side of the pocket door between the bedroom and bathroom was permanently off the track, and the hardware broken and unrepairable (by us)...  (Meaning no privacy if one of us was already in bed)

3.  Electrical circuit in our bedroom also acquired a mind of its own and usually did not work, (and, yes, we tried new fuses), meaning our closets and bedroom were in the dark 90% of the time.

There are a few other minor things, plus routine maintenance, that needed attention.  

We still love our motor home.  We are not ever tempted to replace it with a newer model -- it is just the right size, has everything we want, and besides that, it's paid for!   

We travel with two dogs and a cat.  This means lots of pet hair to contend with.  We also prefer state parks and natural settings (translation:  dust and dirt) to manicured RV resorts.  This makes for a lot of vacuuming and time-consuming cleaning.  

The worst part of the cleaning routine is the fabric sofa:  

It is prime real estate for window viewing, so there is no way to keep the dogs and cat off of it.  The back cushions were getting smooshed from Bandido wanting to lay on them, so we left them in Texas.  It is permanently covered with a slipcover and dog throws that can be laundered.  It is a pain to vacuum, and takes as long to keep clean as the entire rest of the inside.  It will soon be gone, replaced with a computer desk and ultraleather recliner.  The carpet will also soon be gone, replaced with easy-to-clean hard flooring.

When we purchased the motor home (used) in 2006, the original recliner was the only furniture that showed wear.  We removed it and ever since have used a variety of furniture in its place.  Currently it is our small Lazy-Boy recliner

which we had saved from our home in Indiana.  It is comfortable and matches the decor, but it doesn't swivel and is cumbersome, and it also is nubby, dust-catching fabric.  It will be replaced with an ultraleather recliner to match the other one.

The title of this blog is not about the remodel -- Roger wanted it as much as I did.  The title refers to the wheels that started turning in my brain as I envisioned our new space and what I could do to make it even better.  Roger has been through this many times before, in every home that we've lived in over the past 41 years.  He knows that it will mean living in chaos, a preoccupied (sometimes tired and cranky) wife, and a lack of regular meals.  He also knows it's fruitless to try to dissuade me.

All the hardware and light fixtures in our coach were shiny brass finish (not real brass), which did nothing to enhance the pretty, solid-maple cabinetry.

Some of the light fixtures had started to tarnish and were looking pretty bad.  I didn't mind the style of them, just the finish, so I thought...why not spray paint them oil-rubbed bronze??

Tarnished Brass

Then I started thinking...if I do the light fixtures, I'll need to do the cabinet handles to match.  And if I do the cabinet handles, I'll need to do the hinges to match.  And if I do the hinges, I'll need to do all the screw heads to match.  You get the idea.  

What came next was two days of grueling work to

remove all the cabinet doors.  Roger is not smiling in the above photo -- believe me, that's a grimace.  I did most of the work myself, but had to enlist his help with some of the stubborn ones.  After blisters and much exhaustion, we realized we had the wrong tools for the job and made a trip to Lowe's in the middle of it for a ratchet screwdriver.  Have you ever been so tired you feel despair just by turning down the wrong aisle in a large store, knowing you'd have to walk all the way back?  That's how I felt.  I was starting to feel like maybe I was too old to start a major project like this was turning out to be.

Here are the links I used to prepare for the job:

Painting Metal Knobs

Repaint Cabinet Hinges

As hinges were removed each screw was deposited into either a "paint" or "no-paint" container, depending upon whether they would be visible.  Special screws for the hooks, towel holders, and doors were kept separate and labeled.

All the hinges, handles, miscellaneous fixtures and screws to be painted were next soaked overnight in a crock pot set on "warm," with Dawn dish detergent and vinegar added to the water.

The next morning it looked like this...

YUCK!!!

Next, each handle, hinge, fixture and screw had to be sanded, rinsed, and dried, then rubbed with tack cloth...

The hard part was over.  All that was left was to prime and paint.  

The screws were a special project all their own.  After sanding, rinsing and drying them, I poked holes in an old wine box and screwed each screw into the box, labeling the special screws and putting them in the middle away from the others...

This turned out to be time well spent, because it was effortless to spray paint the screw heads, handy to store and carry them for reinstallation, and the handle hole in the box made for a handy small wastebasket!  

Here are photos of the priming...

 

The hinges were extra work because I flipped them over and painted both sides to keep them from rusting.  Here's how they look now that they are all reinstalled:  

Now, I know the handles might chip eventually.  If they do, I'll just touch them up or shell out a few hundred dollars for new ones.  

Once the cabinets were put back together, I decided to start on the light fixtures.  Uh-oh....I forgot that these are specially wired to run off 12-Volt DC batteries and I had no idea how to work with that type connection to remove them.  What to do???   Well, here's my solution.  Not ideal, but it worked:

There were only a couple of little boo-boos, and my new best friend Mr. Goo-Gone cleaned it up.

 

I would not recommend doing it this way -- there was some residue on horizontal surfaces, but it cleaned right up.  Here's how they turned out:

Before

After

I wanted all this to be finished before the new furniture and flooring, so it would look nice right away.  

Realizing that our window day/night shades had ten years' worth of wear, I wanted to clean them ahead of time, too.  Here's the link I used:

            How to Clean Day/Night Shades

Not having a bathtub, I had to improvise.  I bought one of those large flat drain covers at the hardware store in Creede and put a few inches of water in the shower along with half cup of Oxy-Clean.  

The smaller shades fit there and after soaking for a half hour, I rinsed them and hung them to dry (between rainstorms in Colorado).  

The larger ones wouldn't fit in the shower.  Again, Roger will tell you that my motto is "Where there's a will, there's a way."   A check of the clearance shelf at Target and I picked up a cheap blow-up wading pool.  When we stopped in Kansas on our way east (where we are today), we had the perfect spot and weather to do the larger shades:  

After they soaked in the Oxy-Clean and were rinsed, I laid them out to dry...

When almost dry, I sprayed them with spray starch and closed the pleats, then let them sit tightly closed to keep the pleats nice and crisp.  This afternoon I rehung them all...

They cleaned up beautifully and look great!

Don't try this if your shades are not fabric.  Mine are fabric, and seem to be very durable.  

In order to get the shades down, it was necessary to remove the valences.  They were also covered in nubby, dust-catching fabrics.  Instead of putting them back up, I contacted Bradd and Hall and asked if they would re-cover them to match the fabric they are going to re-cover our dining room folding chairs in.  We'll drop the wooden valence forms off with the dining room chairs on September 27th.  

Charlie was such a big help!

To save money, I removed all the fabric, padding, and staples from the valence forms to get them ready to drop off in Elkhart.

 I will tell you that I would not want to pay somebody an hourly wage to do this -- each valence took hours to do!  It literally took all day to do each larger one.  There were times that I had unpure thoughts about the fine Amish craftsmanship that had constructed them initially.

One minor change we made to our bedroom valences which we decided not to have recovered:

Unnecessary Dust-Catching Swag

Sleeker Look

These swags were draped over both bedroom valences.  The smaller one was just a matter of prying up staples to remove.  The larger one necessitated  a little glue job to close the seam after it was removed.  Now they let in more light and will be much easier to keep vacuumed.

Whew!  These projects began on September 5 and today (the 19th) I'm finally finished.  When we arrive in Indiana we'll begin boxing up everything that would be in the way of the workers doing the renovation.  The big "reveal" will occur sometime around October 18.  Stay tuned!