Springtime in Maine can be an iffy proposition. Some years we get a very wet Spring and then sometimes we get a more dry weather pattern. These last 4 days or so have been really nice with temps getting into the low to mid 60s and mostly sunny. Even better ... the long range forecast shows more of the same! But then again ... sometimes we get a lovely May only to be followed by a wet and grey June. Isn't life just like a box of chocolates?
With all this nice weather I have been really busy working on the shed project and trying to get that '40 Ford safely back on the road. I have been splitting my time on both those projects which means both are getting done ... but slowly.
Peggy has continued to be the official shed project photographer. Here are a few more progress photos ...
Finishing framing the walls (it was pretty cold that morning!) ...
Notice the interesting ladder installation for my temporary roof peak as rain was forecast for that evening.
Then it was on to siding ...
Then roof framing ...
I still have a few days work to complete before the roofing material starts to be installed ... but we're getting there!
I'll try and get a few pics of the Ford for the Blog before she heads down the road for a summer of fun cruising. Speaking of such things -- it is time to get the Chevelle out of storage and do a little cruising ourselves.
So much to do -- so little time -- and only so much energy!
Cut and Nail .... Take a Break .... Cut and Nail some more.
Since Peggy just had to take some pictures of me performing manual labor ... I thought I would go ahead and post proof of my efforts.
I finished the platform and floor a few days ago and got started on the walls today. First there was one wall ...then there were two ...
and then there were three ...
which is where I stopped for today.
Thanks to my son Eric for the loan of his chop saw and to Peggy for holding the walls in place until I got them braced!
Tomorrow I will try and get the front wall up and tie them all together with the top plate before the threatened rain arrives.
Another week gone by. Spring is starting to arrive here in Maine ... but ever so slowly. The high temps are still in the 50s with an occasional rise into the 60s and a bit of rain every few days. The trees are starting to bud out and the grass is beginning to green up a bit but we still have a ways to go before short pants weather.
I have managed to kick whatever sickness I had and just in time. Miss Taylor Anne has been feeling pretty miserable these last few days so G'Ma and G'Pa have been helping to take care of her to allow Stacy and Kaj to get back to work. She was pretty miserable on Thursday but was feeling much better yesterday. Nothing more pathetic than a sick little one ... except maybe a sick G'Pa!
I did get Winne cleaned up and over to her storage spot this past week. She can rest up now for a month or so before I bring her home for a wax job and a few more maintenance items. Now I can move on to other projects.
I got a start on my shed construction project over the past few days. I completed the foundation framing and installed the flooring material yesterday -- just in time to get a tarp over it before last evening's showers. Hopefully the weather will cooperate enough this week so I can frame up the walls. So far -- so good. I haven't had to change the design to accommodate something I forgot to figure in ... which is usually the case!
I'll shift gears today and move on to playing hot rod mechanic. You may recall that I did some work on a fellow's '68 Mustang and '34 Ford Streetrod a couple of years ago. Well it seems he recently purchased a '40 Ford this past winter and wants some engine "dress-up" work done and perhaps a swap-over to a dual carburetor setup. Since it's going to rain a good part of today anyway thus keeping me from my shed project ... I guess I'll spend a few hours playing mechanic on a hot rod! Not only do I get to play with a 'cool' car using parts purchased by somebody else - I may earn some cash to help defray the cost of the new shed -- or maybe buy some new go-fast goody for the Chevelle!
One of my biggest problems being "retired" is choosing among my many "projects." As long as nobody is in a real big hurry - it will all get done -- eventually.
Anybody out there not heard of the goings on in Boston this past week? Probably not. It has been pretty unavoidable. If you weren't seeing it happen pretty much live on TV and via the internet ... then you were probably hearing about it from everybody else who was. All the descriptors have been used and abused. "Tragedy" has certainly been used a lot. But these same words have been used to describe other things this week as well. It was "tragic" to some that the Senate refused to take another bite out of our freedoms relating to purchasing a weapon. It was "tragic" to others when the President angrily and publicly attacked Senators for disagreeing with his position on gun control. It certainly borders on "tragic" that our President and his Democrat cohorts believe that their deficit spending is not yet a problem.
But the senseless murder of 4 people and the maiming of hundreds more ... now that is indeed tragic. The rest is just something less.
My - oh - My ... another week gone by. I recon it's time to update this blog on what's been happening to us and what's on my weak little mind this AM.
First off - we are both fine. Well - Peggy is fine and I am still trying to rid myself of whatever virus I picked up down in Gettysburg. The sore throat and waves of low grade fever just won't go away! Do you suppose I should break down and see a Doc to get the antibiotics? Nah ...
In spite of all that ... I have spent my non-napping time slowly getting Winne ready to store for a few months. The inside cleaning is done ... leaving the outside cleaning and engine oil changing on the list before Winne travels over to her storage spot for awhile. I'll wait for a little warmer weather before attempting the wax job and transmission fluid change.
Peggy has kept herself busy by attempting (with minimal success) to nurse me back to health, and finish her preparations for the big Baby E. baby shower this weekend. The gals ought to have a fun time doing whatever it is they do at those things. All I know is that Baby E. should be well outfitted as she enters this world!
I have managed to get my income taxes for 2012 paid. I'm so happy to have paid "my fair share." And I should feel fortunate to have only paid as little as I did for it looks like "my fair share" will be continuing to increase next year. The present federal administration is always looking for ways to get me to increase my "share" ... and the State of Maine certainly needs more $$ to keep up its standing as one of the most "progressive" states around. Did you know that over 25% of all Mainers have their healthcare paid for through "MaineCare" - the Maine version of Medicaid? And that's with the Maine Governor not yet agreeing to accept even more folks on these roles under the "Affordable" Care Act (AKA Obamacare)! If we expand coverage -- MaineCare will be covering over 1/3 of all Mainers. "What a wonderful thing" you might say! Well it might be - if we could afford it! The State of Maine is already billions in debt to Maine Hospitals having not paid them for past MaineCare coverage, and can't meet its obligations for funding schools and government employee pensions -- but we can pick up more folks' healthcare costs - yessiree!
I also got my property taxes paid the other day. That's another subject for another day ... suffice it to say ... that is heading higher as well!
I doubt that the increase in taxes (all of 'em - sales, income, property, ...) is fully taken into account under the present calculation of CPI -- or under the proposed new concept of "chained" CPI, so it looks like I better find a source other than my Social Security benefit for those cost increases!
I have also been planning one of my spring/summer projects ... a new storage shed for our outdoor equipment (like the lawnmower, snowblower, generator, garden tools, etc.). I have pretty much decided on where I want it, how big I want it, and how much it's going to cost. Now I have to draw it all up and venture over to the Town Hall to get a permit. That's right! I must ask the Town for permission to build a 8' by 10' storage shed on my own property! Don'tcha think we have given "Government" just a little bit too much authority over our lives? I wonder if I must ask what color schemes are acceptable?
Next week I start my spring round of doctor appointments. First it will be off to the eye doc for an exam and a new pair of glasses -- then I will be off to the dentist for a cleaning and lecture on how I should be a better flosser. I sure hope I get feeling better before those appointments - I would sure hate to pass along whatever I have to those guys!
In and around all that stuff I've been looking into a replacement hot water heater for the house. Our present HWH is a 30 gallon oil fired unit that we had installed in 1995. It has worked very well all these years but we were told by the fellow performing the annual furnace/HWH inspections last December that the HWH burner section is in bad shape and the heater needs replacement. I found the receipt for the 1995 replacement the other day and it cost around a thousand dollars back then. I got a lesson in inflation these last few days as two independent estimates for replacing the heater with the same exact model came in at over double the 1995 price! We're still looking at options. I like the idea of installing a tankless gas fired unit. Unfortunately we don't have natural gas lines running down our street yet - which means we would have to have a propane bottle sitting outside - an idea that Peggy dislikes - a lot!
SO that's what we're doing. How about you?
I know ... 2 blog posts in 2 days ... pretty amazing huh!
Stats
Now that we are home it's time for the traditional post-trip statistics. These stats are not always good things ... but they are what they are!
Number of nights on-the-road ... 69 (a pretty average amount for us).
We stayed overnight in 16 different places including 2 freebees (Camping World in Calera, AL and the CT Welcome Center) and "our spot" at the Patterson Gulf Shores RV Resort @ the Rainbow Plantation. We now have stayed overnight in 222 different RV parks, 4 friends/relatives driveways, 1 casino parking lot, and 1 rest area in our 9 year RVing career. That's a lot of different scenery to wake up to!
Winne traveled 4,316 incident free miles. She now has over 99,000 miles and has never stranded us! We have had a few "issues" over those years and miles ... but she has always gotten us where we were headed in the morning. Now that we are home I will need to get busy and perform all the necessary maintenance chores to keep her running for another 99,000 miles. Mostly just the standard stuff but I think it's time for another transmission fluid change as well. That job can get a bit pricey at $10 a quart but we need to keep that Allison Tranny happy!
In all those 99,000 miles - I figure Winne has been towing a vehicle behind her for right about 96,000 miles. The Vue has been towed around 85,000 miles and we pulled Stacy's Saturn SL-1 for about 10,000 miles before we bought the Vue. Winne hasn't towed my truck much - but we could add about another 1,000 miles of towing my Silverado 4X4. Winne's Chevy 8.1 Liter engine has worked pretty hard over the years!
Then there is the trip costs. On the good side ... my workkamping stint at the Patterson RV Resort, combined with the 2 freebee nights kept our average nightly parking costs pretty low (for us) at around $18 per night! Also relatively good news - our average per gallon gasoline price was $3.45 -- and I budgeted $3.50. On the not so good side ... Winne only averaged around 7 mpg instead of the normal 7.2. I'm pretty sure I traveled into the wind on many more days than with a tail wind!
The winner for the most expensive gas was Bushnell, Florida at $3.83 and for the least expensive - a tie between Wytheville, VA and Montgomery, AL at $3.16.
Additional Stuff
I really liked using our new Rand McNally RVND 7200 GPS gadget. I like the bigger screen, I like the info on what lane I need to be in when exiting, I like the RV specific POI (Points of Interest), and I even got used to the "Speed Warning" feature! I especially liked the suction cup mounting feature. In order to mount the rather big gadget on the dash I first had to install a circular plastic disc to the dash using its adhesive tape. I then used the GPS's suction cup device to attach to the plastic disc. I mounted the disc in 0 degree weather in January and then suction cupped the GPS device ... it stayed right where I placed it through 4316 miles and lots of bumps in the road. I really like it when stuff works the way it's supposed to!
I noticed that in all our travels this winter that we got 4G internet coverage from our Verizon Wireless gadget more times than 3G coverage. I'm really glad to see the 4G coverage expanding. Unfortunately we still don't have it here in Topsham, Maine! 4G is available north of us a few miles and south of us a few miles ... but not here! Now that the 2 year contract on our 4G modem has expired and therefore we can cancel this service without penalty, we decided to go back to getting our internet via cable modem while at home. We still plan on using the wireless gadget while on the road ... but it will be nice not having a 5 gigabyte download limit each month as well as faster speeds while we are home. Even better news ... it's cheaper!!
When we leave to travel for several months we cancel our cable service and have to turn in all the "leased" cable system equipment. This is kind of a pain but it has its advantages. Each time we come home and restart our service - we are new customers - so we get the new customer deals. Like discounted service fees for 6 months and 3 free months of HBO. This really makes no sense to me ... but if they are silly enough to do it ... I'm just silly enough to take advantage of their insanity!
Have a great day everybody!
Home Again!
Yep - once again we have successfully navigated America's highways and have made it home safely. Since I'm really behind on this blog I'll write this entry backwards - in time ...
We both awoke around 4:00 AM on Wednesday after a pretty decent nights sleep (having gone to bed around 9:00 PM). As you will find out in the paragraph below ... we spent the night at the I-84 Exit 2 Welcome Center in Connecticut.
This was a new experience for us. We spent the night in the parking lot of the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut back in 2005 - but other than that we have always stayed in facilities made for RV camping or at a friends/relatives home. I must say it worked out pretty well. This Rest Area / Welcome Center has separate parking areas for RVs and commercial trucks so the noise from trucks coming and going was pretty minimal. In fact -- it was pretty darn quiet last night! When I ventured outside in the AM (it was around 27 degrees I might add) there were a total of 6 RVs here ... so we weren't alone. Except for not putting our leveling/stabilizing jacks down and not extending our slides -- we had all the comforts we normally enjoy. Plenty of heat, satellite TV, and pretty fast internet speeds ... what else could you need?
Peggy even got to see the sunrise!
The Rest Area also had a RV dump station so we were able to dump and flush our waste tanks before heading out in the morning - joining all the 6:30 AM commuter and truck traffic to navigate our way around Hartford and then continuing on to Maine. I don't think the temp got much above 35 yesterday - but it was otherwise a nice sunny day and we finished our 300 mile trip just like the previous 4,300 miles ... without incident ... just the way we like it!
Tuesday morning we said our goodbyes to the NJ Evringhams and left the Gettysburg Campground right around 9:00 AM and right around 29 degrees. Brrr. There may not be snow here - but it certainly could! We traveled over to I-81 and then north to Scranton before turning East on I-84 towards NY. At this point we had a decision to make. Do we spend $50-$60 for a one night stay at an average RV Park in NY ... or do we continue on to Connecticut where there are no RV parks (well - there are a few but they are far between and typically not open this time of year!). The "go to Connecticut option" included an overnight stay at the I-84 Exit 2 Welcome Center near Danbury, CT where they allow overnight stays. I had heard from other Rvers that this was a decent place to stay, and the price was certainly right ... so it was off to CT we went - pulling in around 4:30 PM. We had plenty of water in our fresh water tank, a full tank of propane, fully charged batteries, a working inverter, and a generator to charge the batteries if they got depleted - what more could you need. We were all set for the night.
Since this Blog entry needs to cover several days I'll cover our stay in Gettysburg as one big event. We arrived in Gettysburg on Friday having driven some 250 or so miles north and west from Williamsburg, VA. Now 250 miles doesn't sound that bad except for the fact that we had to navigate our way around Washington, DC! Not even Congress can do that without injury! But we made it without incident.
Shortly after we arrived the NJ Evringhams (Brian, Nicky, Alyssa, and Emily) also arrived and moved in to their 3 room cottage next door. The log "cottage" was pretty darn nice with a large main room (queen size bed, easy chair, TV, dining room table, and mini kitchen), a second bedroom with 2 sets of bunk beds, and a full bathroom. Our kids know how to camp!
Saturday was a pretty nice day with a high around 60 degrees and we spent most of the day at the campground as the kids participated in several Easter activities including an egg decorating contest, Easter egg hunt, crafts for kids, bingo ... you name it ... they had it!
Sunday was rainy so we didn't get to do much outside but we did spend several hours at the Gettysburg National Battlefield Visitors Center and Museum. We watched the half hour video narrated by Morgan Freeman and then went up the escalators to see the Cyclorama. Wow! The Cyclorama is a painting - painted in the 1880s - that is around 30 feet tall and over 350 feet in circumference - depicting the battle of Gettysburg in a 360 degree cylinder. Peggy and I visited this new visitors center back in 2006 shortly after it opened but the Cyclorama was still being restored and we didn't get to see it. Viewing the Cyclorama is worth the price of admission all by itself!
We finished our visit with a walkthrough of the Battlefield Museum which is pretty impressive on it's own!
As can happen sometimes - Brian needed help with directions when his smartphone failed.
Monday was Gettysburg Battlefield Day. We had purchased the self guided auto tour CD on Sunday so off we went to tour stop #1 (Peggy and I had one from our previous visit but as it always seems - we left it at home since we had no intention of visiting Gettysburg when we left!). After several windy and chilly hours later and several stops along the way -
including a trip to Little Round Top and the site of the stand of the 20th Maine ...
who were holding off the 15th Alabama ...
we completed our battlefield tour.
I wonder what stories this tree could tell?
All-in-All I think we had a successful time in Gettyburg. We all got to visit, the kids had a fun early spring vacation, and we all learned a bit about the sacrifices made here by many in the summer of 1863.
So that brings the 2013 Winter Escape Trip to a close. Well almost ... I still have the trip statistics to publish and I know you all are waiting to see those!
Next time ... First I need some rest.
