Well the relatively nice weather has continued through the week. I managed to get the motorhome transmission fluid and filter changed, the exterior washed, and the carpet shampooed over the past few days so it is just about ready to go back into storage for a few weeks. But first I need to get the annual state required safety inspection done which is scheduled for this Wednesday. Since I will be taking the rig to the motorhome dealer where I bought it for the inspection, I hope to get a couple of other minor issues taken care of at the same time. Since the motorhome pre-storage work is almost done I've started on my next project. About 20 years ago I used pressure treated landscape timbers to form a border around the flower beds up next to the house. Well after 20 years the wood has rotted and is in pretty sorry shape so I removed the timbers and loaded them into the truck for disposal later this week. My plan is to replace the timbers with stacked brick "Estate Edgers" so I started laying out the scheme for the perimeter. Now that I have a basic plan for how the new bricks are going to be installed - I'll pick up some materials and go to brick laying next week. Peggy has decided that the two beautiful (my description - not hers) bushes that have been on each side of our front steps for as long as we have lived here do not fit into her plans for the new landscape. So - after carefully trimming these bushes for the last 29 years - today I grabbed the pruning shears, my sawzall, and a shovel and one of the bushes is now also in the back of my truck and the other will be tomorrow. It's a sad - sad day but alas they say that change can be good for the soul. Ya'all will have to stay tuned to see how the landscape project turns out.
Peggy and I have spent the past week taking care of routine doctor appointments, accomplishing various post trip motorhome maintenance chores, and enjoying Easter with family and friend (Stacy's "friend" Kaj). After attending church on Easter Sunday we had the gang over for BBQ Ribs, potato salad, and bunny cake interspersed with watching the Masters golf tourney. Not what some might call "traditional" - but we had a great meal and a fun visit with all.The weather has been relatively nice the last few days. A little windy - but lots of sun and generally spring-like. As previously mentioned I have been working on getting some motorhome maintenance done . Although we probably won't be heading anywhere real soon - I wanted to get the work done now and move the rig back to storage rather than have it parked in the driveway all summer. After completing the sewer hose storage modification last week (it did turn out just as planned by-the-way) I moved on to some "normal" maintenance items like changing the engine oil. Since the rig now has about 47,000 miles on it I decided it was time to change the fuel filter (easy job) and the spark pugs (not necessarily so easy). By the way - what happened to buying spark plugs for $1.25 each? These new modern platinum or iridium coated spark plugs certainly do last a lot longer than in the old days but when did they start costing $8.00 each? I guess the good news is that you don't have to replace them annually like in the "old" days. My last remaining maintenance item is to change the transmission fluid. This is another maintenance item that doesn't need to be accomplished too often but I've probably pushed the limit by waiting until now. But when did transmission fluid start costing $12 a quart!! I really like the Allison transmission that is in our rig but the recommended fluid is a 100% synthetic type that must have some gold or platinum additive! Like I said - I really like the Allison transmission in the rig and it does handle some pretty tough work pushing that 20,000 pound vehicle around the country on some pretty hot and cold days - so I reckon I'll bite the bullet and pay what it costs to keep the tranny happy.Never a dull moment here in Topsham, Maine - working on the non-moveable house and preparing the rolling house for it's next job carrying the Maineiacs in Motion to their next adventure.
Today was a special day at our house. What's so special you say? Was it "tax day?" Nope - not tax day. How about a birthday or anniversary? Nope - neither of those! Today was "Snow Gone Day." Yup that's right - by breaking up the resident snowbanks on a relatively warm day I managed to get all the snow banks in the yard melted today! I probably shouldn't get so excited as a potential for a small amount of wet snow is forecast for tomorrow night - but today was a pretty special day nonetheless.On Monday Peggy and I had a goof off day which started as a trip down to Freeport to visit good ol LL Bean. I managed to break the frame on my favorite sunglasses while we were in NJ and since they were purchased at LL Bean - we stopped in to see if they would replace them for free - and they did! Well not exactly. It seems they no longer carry the model that I purchased about 4 years ago and the pair I liked the best were even more expensive (go figure) - but they did give me a credit for what I originally paid against the purchase of the new ones. All this without a receipt! You certainly do pay more when you buy from LL - but you can't beat the return policy.After leaving Freeport we decided to head down to Scarborough and visit LL Bean's new competition in Maine - Cabela's. Wow - what a huge store! They certainly have just about anything you might be looking for in the hunting and fishing areas and a whole lot more. I enjoyed looking at the "antique" guns and some of the camping gear but we managed to escape the store without buying a thing. But we weren't able to escape the new Famous Dave's BBQ Joint that is located next to Cabela's. Although we have driven by several other Famous Dave's down south - this was the first time we have tried the food. Not bad!Besides working on the snow banks today I also started a motorhome "improvement" project I have been considering. I carry two sewer hoses in the rig - one that will reach about 8 feet and one that will reach about 20 feet. I prefer to use the 8 footer whenever I can since it's easier to work with - but sometimes the sewer hookup is just too far away and the 20 footer is necessary (or in the case of the Raccoon Valley Escapee Park near Knoxville - sometimes I have had to hook both together!). I carry the hoses in two plastic bins in the "basement" storage compartments but have never really liked the idea. It kinda limits what else I might want to carry in that compartment with a sewer hose! Sooo - borrowing on a couple of ideas I have seen others use I decided to manufacture a couple of storage tubes out of PVC drain pipe and mount them under the rig. The first tube is about 6 foot long (it will hold the 8 foot hose when it is collapsed) and is mounted transversely with the access end right at the wet bay (where the sewer hook-up is located). The second tube is about 10 foot long ( it will hold the 20 footer when collapsed) and is located behind the storage compartments under the living room slide-out. It can be easily accessed when the slide-out is in the out position. The really cool thing is that you really can't see either one from the motorhome exterior unless you really look close and know what you're looking for! Today I managed to buy the material, get the tubes manufactured, and completed the trial fit. Tomorrow I will complete the installation and then take great pride in my work! Now I will have more room in the storage compartment to carry more stuff! I Wonder what I can put in there? Shhh - don't tell Peggy!
Now that we have returned from our Winter Warmup Trip I guess I will revert to my couple times per week blog entries - just to keep those who might care up to date on what we are up to here in Maine - "The Way Life Should Be."First off - my toe is recovering from its trauma very well - it went from really painful prior to the doctors work to only slightly irritated afterwards - to pretty much normal now. It's nice when one can rid ones self from pain that easily. It usually doesn't work out that way!Except for today which is a pretty decent day - the weather here has been pretty rainy/overcast ever since we got home. The good news is that the remaining snow/ice banks have been rapidly disappearing. We are supposed to get some more rain tomorrow and Tuesday so I expect any remaining snow/ice to be gone by mid next week. I managed to get out in the yard today and start the spring yard cleanup chore. I picked up about 5 large trash bags full of sticks, branches, acorns, pine cones and other assorted winter tree-trash and then called it a day (the NASCAR race was about to start). It will take a few more days of raking and pick-up for the yard to start looking decent. I'm thinking more and more about removing more of the trees in the backyard. A few of them are looking pretty sad anyway and the lawn would probably benefit from some more sun. I guess it can't hurt to get a couple of estimates - the trees I'm talking about are much taller than I'm comfortable playing Paul Bunyan with!We have pretty much taken all the stuff out of the motorhome that needs to come out for now. I do have some motorhome maintenance work to get done so I'll have to work that in around the yard work. I picked up a "rebuild Kit" for my tow bar while we were at the FMCA convention in Perry last month. The kit consisted of all the teflon washers and crush nuts you need to take the unit apart, replace all the wearable sliding surfaces (teflon washers), and put it back together again (replacement nuts to replace the "use once" crush nuts that hold each bolt in place). Since the weather was pretty crummy the last few days I disassembled the tow bar, cleaned and inspected all the parts, re-painted the painted parts, and reassembled using the new parts. She is just like new now and ready for another couple of years of towing. I purchased the tow bar back in 2004 after buying the motorhome. It was used and had one towing season on it. Since then I have towed one vehicle or another about 45,000 miles. Considering this use - it's actually in pretty good shape with very little wear other than on the wearable parts I just replaced.Peggy has been keeping pretty busy also getting stuff moved from one house to the other and restocking the shelves here in the non-moveable house. Now she gets to start preparing for her VBS training workshop in early May.I guess we are back into full swing doing what we do here in Maine in the spring!
Well – we made it back safe and mostly sound. After spending Monday night in Sturbridge we made the final 200 or so miles back to Maine on Tuesday. We had a pretty nice partly sunny travel day and we included a side trip to Auburn to dump and flush our waste tanks – that will prevent having to deal with them over the next several weeks while we figure out when the next trip might be.
I have been dealing with a rather painful ingrown toenail issue for the past several days so I made an appointment with the doctor yesterday to have it looked at. After a great night’s sleep in my way comfy home bed I visited the Doc today and he shot my toe up with a local anesthetic and then he basically cut off a sliver of the right side of my right big toenail. It’s a good thing he made that toe go to sleep first or I’m sure I never would have let him come close to doing what he did! Even though the toe was definitely night-night – watching the procedure was enough to cause some mental pain. Then – to make things a little worse – he decided that I was overdue for a tetanus booster and he had the friendly nurse give me another shot – this time in my right arm. I guess they figured they might as well maximize my pain while I was there anyway! I can’t wait to see if the procedure helped my toe – I’ll find out once the toe wakes up.
OK – here are the trip statistics from the 2009 Winter Warmup Trip:
Miles Driven – 3625 miles – a bit more than last year’s spring trip which was 3440 miles.
Gallons of Gas Used – 533.2 gallons purchased in 12 separate stops.
Gas Mileage – approx 7.0 mpg. If you do the math using the miles and gallons figures above you won’t get 7.0. Since we ran the generator a lot while in Perry, GA at the convention and the generator uses the single main gas tank as well as the motor home engine - you can’t really use total miles divided by total gallons. Based on all the individual fill-ups – I estimate the average mileage at 7.0 mpg. This is about a half mpg worse that I experienced last year on a similar trip. I think the major contributors to the decrease were the fact that I used synthetic motor oil last year and didn’t this year (I used regular oil when I changed the oil last year before putting the rig in storage and didn’t change the oil again before I left. Based on these numbers I will be going back to synthetic oil!), I had a lot of windy travel days this year, and I think it’s time to change the spark plugs (overall motor home mileage is around 47,000 miles).
Nights on-the-road (all in campgrounds except for 4 nights "dry camping" at the convention in Perry, GA) – 42
Places Camped – 16 (Actually only 14 different places as we stayed in the same places twice on the way back in NJ and MA)
Average Price for Gas = $1.839 per gallon. By comparison we averaged $3.87 per gallon during last years spring trip, $2.98 per gallon during the spring 0f 2007, and $2.20 per gallon during the summer of 2005. The lower price of gas was definitely a big help to this trip’s travel budget!
Cheapest Gas – $1.509 (Carneys Point, NJ)
Most Expensive Gas $2.059 (Tie – Topsham, ME and Crestview, FL)
Tolls paid = $ 90.16
States Visited 17
As for our travel plans for the remainder of 2009? Those are still under development but some potentials include:
1. A trip back to NJ in late May to watch the granddaughters annual dance recitals. This will be Emily’s first year so it would be hard to miss that.
2. A trip to Western NY and Eastern Michigan to visit the sites of the Evringham family home places during their trek to the west coast. We may combine trip 1 and trip 2.
After that – who knows – all suggestions are welcome!
It has been over a week since my last post so I thought I had better bring everyone up-to-date on the doings of the Maineiacs. When I left you last week I was starting out on my landscaping project which has kept me pretty busy over the week. With a little help from daughter Stacy I removed the second hedge/bush last Monday (Patriots Day for you non-New Englanders - still a state holiday here in Maine and down there in Massachusetts) and made a trip to the local Solid Waste Facility (da dump) to get rid of the demolition debris. Then - it was off to Home Depot to purchase several hundred pounds of concrete edgers and other related paraphernalia. 
First - do the layout in such a way that both Peggy and I agree. Peggy wants curves - I like straight cause it's easier to mow. As you can see - Peggy wins again. Next it is time to break out the shovels and dig out the trough for the foundation - oh yea - you also have to prepare the foundation at the right depth and make sure everything is level - I haven't had this much fun digging in the dirt since I was a kid! 
After pouring in and leveling some sand material to help form a solid base for the mini-wall - now it is time to start laying some brick. Did I tell you that in order to start actually placing the brick you have to first handle each brick 3 times? First you lift it from the pallet in the store and place it on the rolling cart. Then you lift it from the rolling cart and put it in the truck. Then you remove it from the truck and place it on the ground (near where you are working if you are smart). But I digress ... back to brick laying ... then you pick up each brick and put it in place, check it for level, move some sand around to make it level, and put the brick back in. Sounds like fun doesn't it! Several hours and several ibuprofen later you are done with one section and then you can move on to the next and do it all over again.
