Motorhome Exercise Day and The Green Bean

We have been having rain rain rain for the past 48 hours. But that's OK because we have been dangerously dry here in northern Wisconsin. The rain has also spruced up the grass and we are getting some green color, finally. The trees are just starting to bud out with the tiniest leaves. A sure sign that Spring is on the way. Although, 3 years ago on this day we had a horrible ice storm and tons of snow! 

When I woke up this morning there was a glowing orb of beautiful sunshine gleaming in through the foggy mists in the backyard. It just looked so surreal...

A few minutes later it got a little brighter and I snapped another picture. In this one you can see our finished little patio and the new position of all the fence panels in an arc. I can't wait for this whole backyard to be lush and green again.

Steve was able to borrow the big torque wrench from Nick to make sure that all of the lug nuts are securely torqued on the motorhome. They need to be 475 foot pounds and he actually had most of them that tight as it was with his air compressor and impact wrench. But now with the borrowed torque wrench, he is sure each one is torqued the same. How nice of Nick to lend it to him. When Steve returned it, he added a cash tip and brought him over a piece of freshly baked apple pie from last night.

Next, it was time to go for a little test drive and check out the brake situation. We wanted to be sure that the little bit of brake fluid leaking that we saw last fall was actually from that tiny switch that goes into the side of the master brake cylinder. After changing it, Steve had wiped everything down good to make sure that if there was a new leak, now we could spot it. 

We thought we would go out and do some hard braking while driving around and make sure that everything is working correctly. Brakes are nothing to mess around with on that big of a motorhome. Being able to securely stop in any condition of course.

We decided to toss a picnic lunch and the dog into the motorhome and drive north on the highway. Just 10 miles up is a nice little county park called North Bay Shore Campground. We pulled into an empty campsite, nose first, just to look out at the nice view over the waters of Green Bay. 

There was nobody around, but the campground is open already even though the water is not on. If it had been warmer out (and nicer), I think we would have just paid our fee and stayed there for the night. But it was starting to cloud over and began lightly misting.  We decided to just stay there long enough to make a lunch, relax for a while, and enjoy our little outing. 

The view out the front windshield was somewhat obscured by tree trunks.  This is the same site we were camping on last summer, and then it was all lush and green and you could barely see the water.

Inside, we were cozy, warm and comfortable. I took a picture with the wide angle shot of the front part of the motorhome. Lunch is on the table and we are going to eat, relax, and watch the local news for a weather update.

I simmered up some apple cider in the cute little teapot my mom sent me from Florida.  I added some spices that are for mulling wine or cider. It sure smelled good and it made a wonderful companion to the rest of the apple pie we had for dessert.

Binney was happy to come along. This is the first time we've gone in the motorhome without Finnegan, RIP. She seemed to be looking around for her little travelling buddy. She was sniffing some of the old toys that must still have his scent on them in the toy basket. 

After a while, we drove on home and parked the motorhome back in it's spot along side of the garage. We will continue to load it up with items and get it ready to take on an outing, once the weather turns nicer. This upcoming week looks like every day will only be in the fifties and nights down in the thirties.

Speaking of apple pie, this little stinker came over last night for a couple hours.  We had 6 big green apples and I told her that I didn't know what to do with them.  She said that she had an idea.  She helped bake the pie that we were talking about in the upper portion of this blog post. 

We ate 3 pieces after dinner last night with her, she also brought 2 pieces home for her mommy and daddy. Now with one piece going to the guy who lent us the torque wrench, there were only 2 pieces left for us for lunch today. I guess it's time to bake another pie?

She also had to go out in the garage and check out the new canoe. There is a center seat that has now been dubbed the "Grandkid Seat". She practiced with the paddle on both sides and is eager to take a ride soon. Once the weather warms up we will go.

I am really looking forward to using the canoe this summer. We really missed owning one.  We sold our last one in 2012 when we sold the house on the river. I really enjoyed floating around on lakes and doing a little fishing. Sometimes we've tossed in a line and I would relax back in the middle of the canoe with the cushion and a pillow and read a book or knit. Steve is a more active fishermen, always casting and trolling, casting and trolling.  I catch bigger fish, though. 

This is one of my most favorite photo of him a number of years back when he was fishing from our older red canoe.  Soooo peaceful and relaxed. That is what retirement should be.

 Hoping for many more years of relaxing days like this with our green canoe.

I told Claire that we are going to name the canoe:

"The Green Bean"

 

It kinda looks like one, don't it?

We did take a nap this afternoon and when we woke up, we were blessed with beautiful blue sky and sunshine again! Even with all the rain that we've had over the last 2 days, we only have a little bit of water backed up in the yard. Not like last year. Most of it has soaked in, due to the real dry conditions.

By tomorrow this will probably all be gone