RVing - Trip Preparations and Chelsea off to daycare this week

Oh boy... 28 days and counting!

Right now I am starting to assemble summer type clothing to bring out to the rig.  That is REALLY optimistic, right?   I have some capris I need to shorten or take in, some tops to sort through and pack and then take out some of the heavy winter type clothing that we keep in the rig all year round.  We will have some cooler weather clothes of course for evenings and early mornings.  But I think the huge Iceman Sorrel snow boots and heavy winter parka, chopper mitts, and earmuffs can stay at home?

I am packing sandals, moccasins and then a pair of rubber flipflops for public showers if we use them at a campground.  We do like showering in our own rig, but if water conservation becomes a concern in some areas, or distance between filling our freshwater tank, and if there are public ones, we will do what we have to do.  And the rubber flipflops are necessary for that.

Steve and I bought some New Balance hiking/walking shoes too.  Better than the beat up old Nike's I had been wearing when camping, and Steve needed a new pair too.  Now we *MATCH* ... oh gosh, I said I would never ever ever dress us alike!  

My mom and dad used to wear matching Ski-doo snowmobile jackets, then moved on to matching Arctic Cat sweaters and jackets, and they would go out in public like that.... no doubt a style of the 70's.  But as a young teen, I swore I would NEVER do that!    Coming back to bite me in the butt?

The other day, my childhood buddy, Cella, was scanning in some old photos and shared this one with me.

It's our family (yes I am that tall Marcia Brady center parted stringy straight haired teen in the back left corner next to Mom). I remember that day, and mom had us all pose while the photo was taken with her 126 instamatic cartridge camera, and sent the cartidge off to Rex Photo in New York for processing.  Using a coupon from their mailers, she opted for the Holiday Card Special.  By the clothing in the photo, I am thinking this is 1975.  I remember that dress well, and dug out another photo of how short we managed to wear our dresses back then.  

This is 8th grade at the middle school. (Polariod pic, sorry its fuzzy)  The dress was silky polyester, the shoes were patent leather clogs with a back heel strap.  Funny thing too, that boy in the picture was my boyfriend at the time, and now my older brother dates his older sister! 

Speaking of pictures... Steveio once bought me this print way back when we were dating.  It's called April Storm by Robert Duncan.   It reminds me of myself, and Steve could see that too when I mentioned it to him once by seeing it on a calendar.  He bought me the print and had it framed for a Christmas Present.  

It's hung over our fireplaces in both of our homes since 1995.  With the pine walls of this house, the surrounding area exposed to UV sunlight has darkened on the pine, but behind the print is a lighter area.   So we plan to take it down and have it reframed to a shorter size and mount it in the motorhome in the near future.  His friend owns a framing shop and will do it for us.   It can only be 21 inches tall so it fits between the headboard and the upper cabinets that it will be fastened to, over the mirror that is there now.  That way we can take it with us when we fulltime, and also give the wall a chance to darken to a matching color on the pine wood in the house. I will lose some of the matting and some of the print, but it will go nicely in here, and the color of the wood is almost an exact match! 

I don't like changing clothes with the big mirror right there anyhow, and sometimes if someone is sitting in the front of the rig, and can see to the back, even if you dash around the corner of the bedroom to change if you didn't slide the door shut.  So the mirror can get blocked out, just as well. 

Steve is still looking at types of hoses for his PoopEater device (mascerator)   The good rubber 1 inch hose will run him about $50 or more for the lengths he wants to have.  But if we go with cheaper plastic sump pump hose, it would be under $15.  For how often or how rare we will use it, we don't know yet.  So I said let's start out cheap, and then go better quality if he feels we need it and use it more often?  We can always buy rubber hose on the road somewhere.  Such a dilemma for a man to decide on cheap poop or rubber poop hose?  hahahahahahha


Been suffering a flu bug last week that started up, and now settled in my lungs and my head.  Dosing with Claritin D in the mornings, Nyqul at night, and using up boxes of kleenix and bags of cough drops.  YUCK!

Was vacuuming out my keyboard on the laptop the other day, and the K key came loose!  It gets crumby and dog haired in between the keys.  Trying to put a key button back on a Dell is not as easy as snapping it into place.  I even looked up the directions as there are two tiny intersecting nylon pieces that are under each key.  Of course one of the tiny pivot point axles snapped off and now the key won't stay in place.  I ordered a new aftermarket keyboard from Ebay that should be here today.  My last Dell with through three keyboards, so I am sure to be able to change it out myself.  Hope it comes soon, typing without a K means I have to wiggle the little rubber nub to make it work.  LOL


Little Chelsea is off to her big day care again today.   It only took a 20 minutes drop off time with her mommy there till she felt comfortable and off to play with the other 1 year olds.   I took her on Monday for her first day, and she was a little weepy each time I would pop outta the room, but I hung close and filling out paperwork, and checking on her.  After an hour and a half, she was ready to be with the other little ones.   She has been here in my home since Erin went to work at 6 weeks, so she never went to a day care before.  It will be 2 days a week till we leave for vacation, then it will be full time weeks for her there.  Here are a few pics of her getting settled in.  I popped them off on the cell phone fast and emailed them to her mommy who was busy at work doing a store inventory at 6am .

So it's been quiet around here without my little buddy, but I am adjusting.  Slowly.


Been reading a good book recommended by Al over on  Travel with The Bayfield Bunch   it's called "The Cowman's Wife" by Mary Kidder Rak,  and it's set at the Fort Rucker Ranch House in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona near Douglas.  He has written about it a few times on his blog, but here is the post where they actually found it and walked around the old ranch location.  In Search of Old Fort Rucker     I am finding the book fascinating so I am reading it slowly, savoring each page.  I am also jotting down little flags on the GPS in case we get out that way and want to do some 4X4 running around in the Toad.  That is our Geo Tracker we tow behind the motorhome (a towed car is called a "toad" in RV terminology)

Sitting here in my snowy little log house, on the river, and watching a couple snowmobiles whiz by.  Our river is a race course once it's frozen over with enough ice to support the machines.  We used to snowmobile too when the kids lived at home, and could spend hours out in the wintery weather.  

Now, just thinking of the desert

 and the sunshine and 

Tshirt weather 

is taking up all my attention 

and daydreams....

28 days to go

.