Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Time keeps marching on
It doesn't seem like a lot has happened, at least to write about here, but I know there has been a lot going on. As of Sunday afternoon it looks like our weather has finally (maybe) taken a turn for spring like conditions. Yesterday was beautiful with high temps up into the mid 60s(F.) I finally got my lawn mowed again and it sure needed it.
We are also getting things moved into the new RV. It is going slower than I expected but we are not just moving everything that came out of the Sea Breeze over. There is not quite as much inside storage with the new one and that is probably good as I have a tendency to try to take too much along. All right, I am kind of a pack rat. I bought some more clear plastic storage boxes yesterday and am starting to fill them with things we will store in the rear outside accessed compartment. The main bed has been made and most dishes and cookware is in place. We have been finding that there are some things missing, like the directions for the TV, the radio antennae for the home theater unit and the rack to use in the microwave/convection oven to cook in convection mode. They have been ordered by the RV dealer & should be here before long. I hope we can go on our maiden trip with it fairly soon, probably just someplace fairly close for a night or two to see if there are other things that we really need to take along.
Pat is at her volunteer job at the hospital right now. Tuesdays from 07:00 to noon she works the volunteer desk in the Day Surgery area. We will probably eat lunch there at the cafeteria when she finishes today, then we plan to visit the county courthouse to pick up our marriage license. They are good for 60 days and cost $60, which must be paid in cash. They take checks for auto licenses but not for marriage licenses. I wonder why not?
We are also getting things moved into the new RV. It is going slower than I expected but we are not just moving everything that came out of the Sea Breeze over. There is not quite as much inside storage with the new one and that is probably good as I have a tendency to try to take too much along. All right, I am kind of a pack rat. I bought some more clear plastic storage boxes yesterday and am starting to fill them with things we will store in the rear outside accessed compartment. The main bed has been made and most dishes and cookware is in place. We have been finding that there are some things missing, like the directions for the TV, the radio antennae for the home theater unit and the rack to use in the microwave/convection oven to cook in convection mode. They have been ordered by the RV dealer & should be here before long. I hope we can go on our maiden trip with it fairly soon, probably just someplace fairly close for a night or two to see if there are other things that we really need to take along.
Pat is at her volunteer job at the hospital right now. Tuesdays from 07:00 to noon she works the volunteer desk in the Day Surgery area. We will probably eat lunch there at the cafeteria when she finishes today, then we plan to visit the county courthouse to pick up our marriage license. They are good for 60 days and cost $60, which must be paid in cash. They take checks for auto licenses but not for marriage licenses. I wonder why not?
Labels: Pat and I, RVing, Weather, Wedding
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Annie is at rest
My two sons and I along with a few friends from church held a short commitment service today at 12:30 and interred Annie's ashes into the new burying ground at our St. Paul's Episcopal Church here in Mt. Vernon. Annie knew the church was in the early planning stage for this space at the time she died. She had said that she would like to be buried there but neither of us realized it would be so soon. I wanted to wait until the space was finished which didn't happen until late last year. Then I didn't want another family burial in the winter. Now the trees are budding out, some of the flowers are in bloom and the weather even kind of cooperated. Her earthly remains are now at rest where she wanted them to be.
We did buy the new RV. We picked it up late Friday afternoon but since Pat hasn't been feeling well we haven't yet moved much into it. I hope this afternoon to get started on that and move some of the mountain of things from my living room floor into it's place there. But I also know now that I do not need everything that was along before. I'll let Pat take charge of the kitchen things and pretty much determine what goes and what doesn't. As long as we have a way to make coffee!
We did buy the new RV. We picked it up late Friday afternoon but since Pat hasn't been feeling well we haven't yet moved much into it. I hope this afternoon to get started on that and move some of the mountain of things from my living room floor into it's place there. But I also know now that I do not need everything that was along before. I'll let Pat take charge of the kitchen things and pretty much determine what goes and what doesn't. As long as we have a way to make coffee!
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
My Sea Breeze RV has gone to the dealer's lot
After four days of hard work to unload it, Pat & I took my Sea Breeze motor home to Valley RV this afternoon. It is being traded in on the new Trail-Lite 31 SL motor home, along with my Mazda Miata. I don't expect to actually pickup the new rig until next week as there are still a couple of details to work out. It has happened pretty fast from first seeing it on the Internet on the Valley RV web site a week ago Sunday night to now with the Sea Breeze gone. And you wouldn't believe how my living room looks. I didn't realize how much stuff we had in that RV!
One thing that hasn't yet been done is to inter Annie's ashes in the new burying ground at our church. I wanted to wait until the space was finished which didn't happen until late Nov or Dec, then I really didn't want to do it in the winter. We were all set for this Sunday, March 18th, until B's Navy ship got scheduled for emergency yard work in San Diego for four weeks or so. We moved the date to April 1st but I wasn't very happy about using that date. It turns out that the ship couldn't get a yard date that soon so he is back and I just found out today that we can still go for this Sunday. We will do that at 12:30 local time.
We are moving closer to the wedding date of April 28th. We have asked folks to please let us know if they are coming so we have an idea how many to plan for and we seem to get a couple of contacts or so a day. Our simple little see the judge and get married original plan has turned into something a lot larger. But it will be fun and we are looking forward to sharing it with many friends and family. Now if we can only get the sun to shine that day!
One thing that hasn't yet been done is to inter Annie's ashes in the new burying ground at our church. I wanted to wait until the space was finished which didn't happen until late Nov or Dec, then I really didn't want to do it in the winter. We were all set for this Sunday, March 18th, until B's Navy ship got scheduled for emergency yard work in San Diego for four weeks or so. We moved the date to April 1st but I wasn't very happy about using that date. It turns out that the ship couldn't get a yard date that soon so he is back and I just found out today that we can still go for this Sunday. We will do that at 12:30 local time.
We are moving closer to the wedding date of April 28th. We have asked folks to please let us know if they are coming so we have an idea how many to plan for and we seem to get a couple of contacts or so a day. Our simple little see the judge and get married original plan has turned into something a lot larger. But it will be fun and we are looking forward to sharing it with many friends and family. Now if we can only get the sun to shine that day!
Sunday, March 11, 2007
It looks like it will be ours
We drove the Trail-Lite 31' RV we have been looking at yesterday and it feels good. I wanted to sell my Miata before buying a new RV and it looks like that will happen soon, too. Then we just need to setup the financing on the new RV as we think we can do better on interest rates than what they can find through the dealer. Here are a few more photos of the rig:
This is a view from the left rear outside that shows clearly how the slide out works and how much space it adds to the inside. It doesn't look like a lot from here but that extra 18" by 12' or so adds quite a bit of very useful space. The slide out operates hydraulically so it is really fairly easy to make it work.
Another view of the interior showing the doors of the storage units beside the TV in the entertainment center closed. We think this will be better use of that space for us than having another large bed up there.
We are about ready to head out on our test drive yesterday in this third photo. The hood is open over the engine as the battery was too low on charge to start the engine & we were waiting for a jumper battery. Pat is sitting in the passenger seat and I tried to get her to turn & look at the camera but she is kind of bashful. You can see the wood covering over part of the dashboard. This is just decorative but is kind of attractive and goes well with the wood finish inside the rig.
Now I have to get the Sea Breeze emptied out. One challenge will be the 70 or so gallons of gasoline that I really don't want to just give away. The tank on the new rig is a bit smaller at 55 gal. but I want to transfer fuel to it to get it full and perhaps top off the tank in the Saturn, too. The dealer says the solar panels and their controller are not really worth anything on the trade in, so I will remove them and install two of the panels & the controller on this new rig. I know I can sell the third 90w panel to another RVer. We are also keeping the cell phone antennae that was just installed last winter while I was in Bullhead City, AZ. I found it can make the difference between the phone or my air-card for the computer being able to connect or not. I sure have a lot going on at the moment!
This is a view from the left rear outside that shows clearly how the slide out works and how much space it adds to the inside. It doesn't look like a lot from here but that extra 18" by 12' or so adds quite a bit of very useful space. The slide out operates hydraulically so it is really fairly easy to make it work.
Another view of the interior showing the doors of the storage units beside the TV in the entertainment center closed. We think this will be better use of that space for us than having another large bed up there.
We are about ready to head out on our test drive yesterday in this third photo. The hood is open over the engine as the battery was too low on charge to start the engine & we were waiting for a jumper battery. Pat is sitting in the passenger seat and I tried to get her to turn & look at the camera but she is kind of bashful. You can see the wood covering over part of the dashboard. This is just decorative but is kind of attractive and goes well with the wood finish inside the rig.
Now I have to get the Sea Breeze emptied out. One challenge will be the 70 or so gallons of gasoline that I really don't want to just give away. The tank on the new rig is a bit smaller at 55 gal. but I want to transfer fuel to it to get it full and perhaps top off the tank in the Saturn, too. The dealer says the solar panels and their controller are not really worth anything on the trade in, so I will remove them and install two of the panels & the controller on this new rig. I know I can sell the third 90w panel to another RVer. We are also keeping the cell phone antennae that was just installed last winter while I was in Bullhead City, AZ. I found it can make the difference between the phone or my air-card for the computer being able to connect or not. I sure have a lot going on at the moment!
Labels: Pat and I, Photos, RVing
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Cats, RVs and more
I thought it might be good to post a couple of photos of Pat's two cats, Molly and Peewee. These are not the greatest of photos but you can have a better idea of what these two look like.
This is Molly. She is about the same age as Huggy- both will be 9 in May.
Here is Peewee. She is 4 and is usually very active but I managed to catch her in a relaxed pose. She is a nearly perfect tuxedo cat, with the left and right sides almost a perfect mirror opposite of each other.
We have had Huggy over to Pat's house a couple of times and need to do it more often. Somehow time just seems to slip by. This week Pat is working some every day, either at her volunteer job at the hospital (today) or at the school district office where they have needed some extra help with special projects. This has given me some extra time to spend at my house going through things and I am making some progress at that. I also had a little time to go looking at RVs.
We have decided to trade my Sea Breeze RV for one that we pick out that will become Pat & Dick's RV and I think we have found the one we want. I had thought about looking for a unit that is a little smaller than my present one and the one we are looking at fits the bill perfectly. It is new but a 2005 model, so the price is lower than a 2007 unit would be. The brand and model number is a Trail-Lite 31SL. It isn't a lot smaller at 31' and it does have one slide out, so the actual living space is probably a bit larger than the Sea Breeze. But it fits us pretty well. I took some photos of it yesterday morning and in the late afternoon after Pat got home from work and we had our mocha, we went to the dealer so she could see it. I have three photos of it to post today:
This first photo is of the main living area looking forward. It is a Class C motorhome, which means that it is built on a cut-away van chassis. You can see the driver/passenger seats along with the dashboard up forward. These units have a space above the driver/passenger seats that often has a large bed but these can be awkward to get into. The one we are looking at has an entertainment center built up there. It contains a 24" TV with a theater sound system and storage for DVDs, books, etc. There is enough space for one person to sleep in front of it and I suppose that could be called the Dog House. I had better behave.
The upholstery material is a gray suede material that looks good and I guess will wear pretty well. The wood work is real wood without any pressed board.
Here is a view showing the kitchen area and looking down the hallway to the bedroom at the rear of the coach. Like most RVs the counter space is pretty limited but we are thinking of putting a flip-up extension to the left of the sink. The stove has three burners plus an oven and there is a microwave/convection oven combination unit above the vent hood. The fridge is just past them and has wood covers over the doors that match the other wood in the rig. The door you can see that is past the fridge goes into the shower and there is an identical one across the hall that goes into a small room with the toilet and wash basin. The doors are regular solid core household type doors. You can just see part of the bed through the last doorway. It is a queen size island bed with space to move around it on three sides. It doesn't have as much storage space under it as the one in my Sea Breeze has, at least from the inside, but there is a large storage space beneath the head half of the bed that is accessible from both sides outside the rig. Pat seems to approve of the kitchen so that is the main thing.
The slide out area contains the dinette and sofa. I have never had a rig with a slide out and have some concerns about them but understand that the newer ones have resolved most of the problems of the early units. Also this unit does not have any of the heavy things such as the fridge in the slide out. And the rig is equipped with hydrolic jacks to level it before you extend the slide. They sure do add more space to the inside of the rig. For those not familiar with them you can sort of see the slide out area by looking behind the dinette seat and at the area enclosed by the wood "frame" that goes up and then comes forward. It is an area that mechanically slides out of the rig about 18" when it is parked, extending the inside living space. The dinette and sofa also make into sleeping areas so there is room for grandkids.
We haven't signed on the line yet to purchase this unit but are strongly leaning that way. It looks like it would work well for our needs. I think what I am most happy about is that it is sounding like Pat will do some traveling with me in an RV, something that I really enjoy doing and I hope that she will like it as well as I do.
This is Molly. She is about the same age as Huggy- both will be 9 in May.
Here is Peewee. She is 4 and is usually very active but I managed to catch her in a relaxed pose. She is a nearly perfect tuxedo cat, with the left and right sides almost a perfect mirror opposite of each other.
We have had Huggy over to Pat's house a couple of times and need to do it more often. Somehow time just seems to slip by. This week Pat is working some every day, either at her volunteer job at the hospital (today) or at the school district office where they have needed some extra help with special projects. This has given me some extra time to spend at my house going through things and I am making some progress at that. I also had a little time to go looking at RVs.
We have decided to trade my Sea Breeze RV for one that we pick out that will become Pat & Dick's RV and I think we have found the one we want. I had thought about looking for a unit that is a little smaller than my present one and the one we are looking at fits the bill perfectly. It is new but a 2005 model, so the price is lower than a 2007 unit would be. The brand and model number is a Trail-Lite 31SL. It isn't a lot smaller at 31' and it does have one slide out, so the actual living space is probably a bit larger than the Sea Breeze. But it fits us pretty well. I took some photos of it yesterday morning and in the late afternoon after Pat got home from work and we had our mocha, we went to the dealer so she could see it. I have three photos of it to post today:
This first photo is of the main living area looking forward. It is a Class C motorhome, which means that it is built on a cut-away van chassis. You can see the driver/passenger seats along with the dashboard up forward. These units have a space above the driver/passenger seats that often has a large bed but these can be awkward to get into. The one we are looking at has an entertainment center built up there. It contains a 24" TV with a theater sound system and storage for DVDs, books, etc. There is enough space for one person to sleep in front of it and I suppose that could be called the Dog House. I had better behave.
The upholstery material is a gray suede material that looks good and I guess will wear pretty well. The wood work is real wood without any pressed board.
Here is a view showing the kitchen area and looking down the hallway to the bedroom at the rear of the coach. Like most RVs the counter space is pretty limited but we are thinking of putting a flip-up extension to the left of the sink. The stove has three burners plus an oven and there is a microwave/convection oven combination unit above the vent hood. The fridge is just past them and has wood covers over the doors that match the other wood in the rig. The door you can see that is past the fridge goes into the shower and there is an identical one across the hall that goes into a small room with the toilet and wash basin. The doors are regular solid core household type doors. You can just see part of the bed through the last doorway. It is a queen size island bed with space to move around it on three sides. It doesn't have as much storage space under it as the one in my Sea Breeze has, at least from the inside, but there is a large storage space beneath the head half of the bed that is accessible from both sides outside the rig. Pat seems to approve of the kitchen so that is the main thing.
The slide out area contains the dinette and sofa. I have never had a rig with a slide out and have some concerns about them but understand that the newer ones have resolved most of the problems of the early units. Also this unit does not have any of the heavy things such as the fridge in the slide out. And the rig is equipped with hydrolic jacks to level it before you extend the slide. They sure do add more space to the inside of the rig. For those not familiar with them you can sort of see the slide out area by looking behind the dinette seat and at the area enclosed by the wood "frame" that goes up and then comes forward. It is an area that mechanically slides out of the rig about 18" when it is parked, extending the inside living space. The dinette and sofa also make into sleeping areas so there is room for grandkids.
We haven't signed on the line yet to purchase this unit but are strongly leaning that way. It looks like it would work well for our needs. I think what I am most happy about is that it is sounding like Pat will do some traveling with me in an RV, something that I really enjoy doing and I hope that she will like it as well as I do.
Labels: Our cats, Photos, RVing
