Finish the Winter in NSB

Feb 2 to 28   and Mar 1 to 21  We set to work getting the bedroom floor done.  First there was the remainder of the carpet to get up and then clean the floor.  The nice discovery was that the existing vinyl was solid in the hall, and about 12" into the bedroom.  That meant we could leave that exposed and get a cap for the top of the stairs.  We pulled the mattress out and got all we needed to lay down an underlayment, then the flooring.  We selected a stone pattern since we couldn't find a wood grain that looked even close to what we had.  It took a full 2 days to get the flooring down and there were a few lessons we learned along the way.  Using the vinyl tile that snaps together works well when you can lay a floor out wall to wall.  Since we had to break the flooring under the bed because the hydraulic mechanism is mounted to the floor and we had to work around it.  So we did screw the tiles to the floor in a few places to hold it steady.  But after 2 days we had the floor down.

We had to order some quarter round trim that will curve around the bend in the bedroom so we will finish the trim probably in California.  But for now the floor in done and we love it, and it is so much easier to clean.

nice to find the vinyl floor under the carpet

see the same floor bathroom and hall

Dark walnut header for the new bathroom door

Now there were a few other projects to do.  The replacement door for the bathroom needed to be installed.  We purchased a magnetic accordion door for the bathroom when we were in Lodi and it is way past time to get it out of pass thru storage and installed.  We cut a notch in the valance to fit the mounting hardware for the new door.  We got some walnut spray paint and painted the header for the door to match the wood valance.  mounted the new door and we love how it looks.  That was another full day project. So we replaced the solid wood door that weighed in at 38 lbs for a fabric door weighing in at about 7 lbs.  Danny figures that gives him 30 lbs of tools to acquire.

Project 2:
We mounted a magnet to the wall and bedroom door so the door stays open when we want it to,

Nice new magnetic door stop

Project 3:
We bought rugs for the living room.  Butters legs were giving her some grief and watching her walk on the vinyl floor we thought it might be aggravating her joints.  We found a nice rug at Walmart and then found runner at Lowes.  Now we have 13 ft. of runner from the door to the big rug and a 5'X8' rug in front of the fireplace.  Butters limping and gimping improved overnight.

Project 4:
After 2 weeks of talking about it we decided to change our RV king bed to a Queen.  There are several reasons for this.  First reason, the mattress is shot,  a spring popped out the side and hooked me in the leg.  It was getting hard to sleep.  The size of the bed required me to alter the bottom sheet and move the pockets in about 8 inch to keep the sheets fitted.  So after much debate and measuring we took a drive to Orlando and went to Ikea.  We decided on a new mattress and arranged for delivery, which cost a whopping $29.00.  If we had bought a bed that is rolled up we would have taken it with us but we picked a thicker bed with an additional layer of springs so we had to have it delivered.  Wednesday we picked up some heavy plastic to cover the bed board and headed home to cut down the platform.  We cut the board down 5" on both sides and Danny removed the shelf from his side.  I was cutting the plastic when the delivery truck arrived, so I got a few staples in and then moved into the corner as the guys brought the new bed in and stripped off the covering and placed it on the platform.  They grabbed up the old mattress and were gone in about 10 mins.  We have our new bed, and new down comforter, and new sheets, and a really great thing, 5 extra inches on both sides of the bed!  They sad part of this saga is that Butter really can't get up on this bed.  She has slowed down a lot and even getting up on the old bed was getting hard for her, the new bed is about 6 inches thicker and she won't even try.  The strange blue thing on the bed is a floor mat that I found for butter.  It has a texture that makes it easier for her to walk and it is usually on the floor.

There were a few Wednesday dinners with the group at the park, we managed to have 2 outdoor potlucks, but the rest had to be at local restraurants as the weather was just not great for evenings outside.

There weren't too many movies as the month progressed, it seemed that we had too many things we wanted to get done before heading out, so we stayed busy.

The brakes?  Yes we did deal with them.  After asking around, and around some more, we located a local guy that agreed to come to the park and take a look.  He liked how high up the rig sits and decided that working on it in site was the best idea.  Two days later he came over and jacked up one wheel to take a look at what he needed to get parts wise.  Well when he got the wheel off, then the brake drum and the parts just sort of fell off, melted springs, fried electrical actuator.  It was ugly.  The nice thing is he found a local supplier that had our brakes in stock and he purchased the whole package all pre-assembled.  Al found a friend to come help him and in about 4 hours they had all 4 brakes replaced and the bearings replaced lubed.  Now we would need to take it easy and brake them in but we now had brakes and that is a big deal moving down the road with 8 tons of 5th wheel.   The sad part of the story is we had planned to stop in Grants Pass on our western trip this summer and get independent suspension and disk brakes put on the rig.  That is a whole other story.  Late in the month we called the dealer in Grants Pass and they sent us an estimate and a worksheet to determine the specifics.  The estimate was considerably higher then Elkhart Indiana, so now we are thinking about heading out from Seattle to return to Indiana and get this job done.  The trick is of course to make the appointment in May to get it done in Sept or Oct.

One other event from February:  DAYTONA!!  It was a beautiful day, we had a great time and the race was really exciting. except of course laps 120 to about 180.  Then it got very exciting, again.

We had a passel of Dr. appointments to end the winter and at this point it looks good for another year.

My son Robert was in touch in March to let us know that he was bringing Riley and Robin down to Ocala for spring break and if we were still around maybe we could hook up.  This was a great opportunity so we then set our departure for March 21st at which time we would take a short hop to Wildwood, Fl and spend 3 days.  This also gave us the chance to catch up with Dick and Marilyn, friends and neighbors from last year who were in the area as they prepared to pack up and move out of their 5th wheel.  Health issues have forced them to give up the road but they are still trying to figure out if winter in Florida might still be in their future.

We did get in touch with our Dive Master and he had a scheduled trip to Blue Grotto for a dive.  Well we were up and out early that Sunday morning and about 30 miles from our destination, bang! Blow out on the right front tire.  WE called Good Sam and had a trunk enroute, then called Keith to let him know we probably would not make it to the Grotto.  About 2 hrs later the tire was changed and we were heading back home.  Monday we found a place to replace the tire and we replaced one other tire that had some funky wear on it from back in Oregon and we discovered the loose hub on the right front.  So new tires on the front and we will install the TPMS on the truck tires now.

On Mar 21st we say our farewells for about 7 months and head out of Gold Rock.  We will return.