The shower floor isn't cured yet from the latest attempt to reseal it. We went to the campground showers. Apparently Jim's shower had good pressure while mine was less than a 5 year old's pee stream.
Naturally, it's raining, but is now at the 45 degree mark. Yay for somethings, I guess. We're going to drive into Seattle for the hell of it. We think, based on weather forecasts, tomorrow may be the best day for the Space Needle. I'd hate to go up there and not see anything because of the rain, clouds and fog, or combination thereof. I looked at the Space Needle restaurant menu online and it's VERY expensive. If you eat there, they pay for the $16 per person fee for the elevator ride. That brings down the price substantially. Check out their menu here.
We're back from a trip into Seattle. It's an interesting city. They have cable trams but they aren't on tracks. I guess they're actually steered. Interesting. Lots of old buildings mixed with new. We had lunch at a Red Robin (We'd never eaten at one before) which was located right on the water - Elliott Bay. The interstate was interesting. Several tunnels, some of which houses sat over, provided a "Gateway to the Pacific" as a carved sign above noted. So many bridges we drove under were lined with trees and rich overall with foliage. I'm not sure if it was for cars or pedestrians. There were so many of them. We spent a couple of hours walking around the water's edge before we made our way to the Space Needle. We just wanted to see it for now, knowing that eventually we'll be in it. Jim said it looked smaller than expected. When we got home he found it is 25 feet shorter than the St. Louis Arch.
Downtown Seattle is so rich with business. New apartment/condos/lofts are under construction. I'm amazed there's room to build these monstrosities. As best we can tell, they probably knock down the 1-2 story buildings.
There's a sightseeing pass, called a GoSeattle Card. A coupe of years back we used something similar for Las Vegas. Basically, pay 1 price, see as many of the supported attractions as possible within 1 day, 2 days, etc. depending on the number of days you purchase. We went to the place that sells them downtown, but their price was higher. The online has an awesome price. We'll buy it on line and then take the voucher to them as a "will call". Jim picked out all the things we want to do (there's a lot of neat stuff here), added the prices and discovered the card is quite the bargain.
I've made meatloaf. 3 small ones actually. They take a long time to bake; by the time we get to eat tonight it will probably be 9pm. A late start to dinner.
I've named the neverending tub repair "Caulkenstein". You see, Caulkenstein is still not dry. Caulkenstein has a life of its own. It dictates to us when, how, and where.
I have a few pictures from today, but it's bed time. We have a big day at the Space Needle and surrounding area.
12-9-08 Tuesday (Another Breakdown)
The shower still leaks. We're going to Camping World to buy something that will hopefully do the trick. The problem with sealers and such is they have to be flexible. The shower floor pan (tub) flexes while driving or when showering.
As for the slide, a mechanic is on site here at the RV park. We called to confirm that he could adjust it properly, but first Jim wants to take a crack at it. We'll try that later or tomorrow. Of course it's been raining all day so far (12:30pm).
Speaking of rain.... on the way here, several times we were blinded by the sun. Wow, sunny skies. We get here, and it's icky. I will say that the temperature last night was 42 and has been staying the same. Yay! Now, I've got to go walk the dog.... in the rain.
I'm back; luckily it's barely raining right now. I say luckily because he couldn't find a suitable spot to crap. In dog world, it's important that the surrounding area smell just right. Most of us have crapped in the same toilet for years.
It's now 6:50pm, and we're back from today's activities. Camping World was a 45 minute drive. They didn't carry the Fleetwood wheel molding we need so they referred us elsewhere. The other place needs the VIN to look it up so we'll have to call them tomorrow.
Speaking of highways, oh I wasn't but just pretend, it will be best for both of us... speaking of highways, there are some odd signs here in Washington. "Litter and it will hurt" was interesting in a S&M sort of way. These signs are all over. I envision throwing something out of my window and suddenly a high powered laser slices off my hand. They're right; it would hurt. Another favorite is the NUMEROUS "No parking" signs along the interstate. Do they have a problem with people parking on the interstate and what, walking to work? Duh. I saw a cop either pulled someone over OR was giving him a ticket for parking. I'm not sure which.
I must admit I had a little break down in Camping World. The almost in tears sniffling kind of breakdown. Jim was looking at the self-leveling caulk they sell, but it's only available in white. Our tub is beige/almond/bisque (whatever fancy name they're using nowadays) and he had already used white during the first several repair attempts. He even caulked right over the chrome drain ring. Bountiful RV also used white. Anyway, he said, "they only have white". I replied, "I don't care if you use concrete." There were probably some expletives mixed in there. He looked at me strangely (his lazy eye does that (just kidding)), so I began the teary rant about how we moved from a beautiful home into a 97 RV that's falling apart. Customer and employees gathered around, joined hands and chanted weird stuff. I think it was something to make me leave. I remained in a quiet, saddened mood for about an hour. It took a long time for me to snap out of it and figure, who cares, we're seein' the country. Unfortunately, I really care though. I just want nice. I'm waiting for someone to pat me on the back and give words of endearment. crickets
We're going to skip adjusting the slide ourselves. We'll call a professional even though the last "professional" didn't do something right.
So Pearl commented on yesterday's entry, suggesting the use of Mobile Money Pit for the RV name. That's not a good acronym so it will stay as TURD for now until other suggestions roll in. Perhaps a contest? 1st prize, remaining portion of the wheel skirt with Dasher's paw print on it. 2nd prize, vial of water from leaking tub. 3rd place, you're a loser, you don't get shit, unless you want some from the bottom of Jim's shoe.
Here are the pictures of the RV park:
Oh, and Washington's license plates read "The Evergeen State" and it is very true. It was nice to see green grass and trees this time of year.
As for the slide, a mechanic is on site here at the RV park. We called to confirm that he could adjust it properly, but first Jim wants to take a crack at it. We'll try that later or tomorrow. Of course it's been raining all day so far (12:30pm).
Speaking of rain.... on the way here, several times we were blinded by the sun. Wow, sunny skies. We get here, and it's icky. I will say that the temperature last night was 42 and has been staying the same. Yay! Now, I've got to go walk the dog.... in the rain.
I'm back; luckily it's barely raining right now. I say luckily because he couldn't find a suitable spot to crap. In dog world, it's important that the surrounding area smell just right. Most of us have crapped in the same toilet for years.
It's now 6:50pm, and we're back from today's activities. Camping World was a 45 minute drive. They didn't carry the Fleetwood wheel molding we need so they referred us elsewhere. The other place needs the VIN to look it up so we'll have to call them tomorrow.
Speaking of highways, oh I wasn't but just pretend, it will be best for both of us... speaking of highways, there are some odd signs here in Washington. "Litter and it will hurt" was interesting in a S&M sort of way. These signs are all over. I envision throwing something out of my window and suddenly a high powered laser slices off my hand. They're right; it would hurt. Another favorite is the NUMEROUS "No parking" signs along the interstate. Do they have a problem with people parking on the interstate and what, walking to work? Duh. I saw a cop either pulled someone over OR was giving him a ticket for parking. I'm not sure which.
I must admit I had a little break down in Camping World. The almost in tears sniffling kind of breakdown. Jim was looking at the self-leveling caulk they sell, but it's only available in white. Our tub is beige/almond/bisque (whatever fancy name they're using nowadays) and he had already used white during the first several repair attempts. He even caulked right over the chrome drain ring. Bountiful RV also used white. Anyway, he said, "they only have white". I replied, "I don't care if you use concrete." There were probably some expletives mixed in there. He looked at me strangely (his lazy eye does that (just kidding)), so I began the teary rant about how we moved from a beautiful home into a 97 RV that's falling apart. Customer and employees gathered around, joined hands and chanted weird stuff. I think it was something to make me leave. I remained in a quiet, saddened mood for about an hour. It took a long time for me to snap out of it and figure, who cares, we're seein' the country. Unfortunately, I really care though. I just want nice. I'm waiting for someone to pat me on the back and give words of endearment. crickets
We're going to skip adjusting the slide ourselves. We'll call a professional even though the last "professional" didn't do something right.
So Pearl commented on yesterday's entry, suggesting the use of Mobile Money Pit for the RV name. That's not a good acronym so it will stay as TURD for now until other suggestions roll in. Perhaps a contest? 1st prize, remaining portion of the wheel skirt with Dasher's paw print on it. 2nd prize, vial of water from leaking tub. 3rd place, you're a loser, you don't get shit, unless you want some from the bottom of Jim's shoe.
Here are the pictures of the RV park:
That's our RV.
Scooby reindeer
The ass-end of Scooby which faces our RV. It looks like he's in crap position, mocking our rolling TURD RV.
HUGE trees here. Jim says probably Redwoods?
I thought this was interesting all covered in green moss.
We're at the top of the hill. Here's a view down the hill.
Oh, and Washington's license plates read "The Evergeen State" and it is very true. It was nice to see green grass and trees this time of year.
12-8-08 Monday (Slide into Seattle)
Today was travel to Seattle day. We like to call it, "Travel to Seattle Day". Ingenious, no? Anyway, as we retracted the slide, it was jambing a little and stuck out about an inch. We couldn't get the slide to come in all the way. I even asked it nicely. Somehow, it managed to scrape some of the rubber coating into a ball on top of the slide roof. We put it back out. We trimmed what peeled and tried again. It's so out of whack we couldn't get it to go in all the way. I think some of the weatherstrip is damaged now from it coming in all crooked. We tried so many different things. In the meantime, Jim stepped in shit. Life just isn't complete without a little shit on the sneakers. Anyway, finally, he made some adjustments enough to get it closed all the way. We secured it with the tether straps and began the journey.
We're behind our schedule. We'll now arrive after dark. I hate that because we have to use lanterns and flashlights to setup. Sometimes it's so dark we can't see the site numbers.
We stop off at a rest area. Jim walks the dog and steps in shit. Yes, again. This time on his boots.
Next rest area stop, we decide to have lunch. As I get the food set up, Jim smokes a cigarette while walking around the RV and notices that on the driver's side, the wheel skirting is broken off. We can't find any impact damage. It looks like it came loose, and then broke in half. Now it's real attractive looking.
Why must we leave RV parts in different states? Why? We left paint at a gas station pump pole in Missouri. We left our awning in Arizona. We've left hydraulic jack fluid in many a state. Now, we've left our wheel skirt in Washington.
We've named the RV "Rolling T.U.R.D. (Torn Up Road Demon)".
Here's some photos from the day's drive.
In the photo above, the frost made everything pretty.
In the photo above: Should we pass? We did, successfully.
We arrived at "Blue Sky RV Park" in Issaquah, Washington (outside Seattle) in the dark. There's about 30 of those nylon inflatable Christmas things around the park. It's really nice to look at. You know, the ones with the fan running inside it, and they're lit up from within? Really impressive. It was too dark to take pictures of the park, I'll take some tomorrow. The park is also terraced so all of the sites are staggered up and down. The highway is very close but since the park is heavily wooded and up higher, we can barely hear it. Yay, a nice park so far.
We grabbed the lantern and it won't work. I recently replaced a bulb in it. One of the 8 batteries leaked. We'll deal with that later. We set up, and here I am. Sigh.
12-7-08 Sunday (Gangrene in Idaho)
Today we're going to Idaho for cigarettes. Oh the things we smokers do (aside from hacking and coughing). We're discovered Washington is expensive on cigarettes. I did some Internet searching and found a chart that says what the state tax is per pack. Washington adds $2.02 per pack, whereas Idaho is 57 cents. It's only a 25 minute drive so we'll stock up. Yes, yes, I know it would be better to stop smoking but definitely not easier.
A long time ago, a saw/read a helpful tip about keeping furniture slipcovers in place. Wedge a dowel rod between the seat bottom and seat back. This keeps the slipcover from uhhhh slipping. It's a slipcover so maybe it's supposed to slip? I think not, though. Anyway, we fixed that up. I took a picture for the blog and then decided it would be fun to give you a tour of the photo. So here it is:
Thanks to Liz, for enlightening me on a new equality campaign. Read about it here.
We made it to and obviously from Idaho. Nothing all that interesting. We were amused (it takes so little) at this car lot called "Go Green". It was closed.... forever. We're guessing, people in Idaho didn't want to go green? Perhaps they would have done better if they had electric tractors and threw in a free sack of potatoes? Maybe they didn't pay their electric bill? I thought that maybe it sounded to much like "Gangrene".
Tomorrow is a travel day to Seattle, where it will be foggy, cold, rainy and probably windy. Such as life.
After we got home from Idaho, we went back out to a Harbor Freight. I forgot to take my camera on this short trip. Of course it's when I really needed it. As we pass a residential neighborhood, I saw what looked like a house with several planter toilets in front of it. We looped back around and it was funny, but totally stupid. 5 or 6 toilet bowls with plants coming out, some had broken tanks, were lined up in front of their house. I'd want to move.
A long time ago, a saw/read a helpful tip about keeping furniture slipcovers in place. Wedge a dowel rod between the seat bottom and seat back. This keeps the slipcover from uhhhh slipping. It's a slipcover so maybe it's supposed to slip? I think not, though. Anyway, we fixed that up. I took a picture for the blog and then decided it would be fun to give you a tour of the photo. So here it is:
- Black and Decker coffee maker. Freed up lots of counter space. The yellow bungees are used to secure the pot for travel.
- The newly recovered dinette.
- This is a storage spot behind the couch. The top middle part lifts for storing a small ironing board. Behind the couch (can't be seen) are 2 more storage areas. One has an outlet in it.
- Icky pitted brass light fixture. The fixture itself is OK but I'm going to try my trusty Rustoleum on it.
- Standard issue RV night/day shades. The white is light filtering. The green can be pulled down all the way for privacy and room darkening. We may replace all of these with mini blinds.
- Battery operated real wax candles my mom gave to me as a gift. They're realistic and SAFE.
- I recently mounted speakers that we plug into the laptop for movies.
- I love my digital photo frame!
- Clea the cat, guardian of couches.
- The dowel rod is wedged here. 72" long. We actually used an extension pole we had on hand. We were going to buy PVC pipe.
- Another pet bed. Helps protect surfaces from icky body oils.
That concludes today's tour. Please stop by our gift shop. On sale now:
Garret's series of How To Books. Featuring our best seller: Make Your Bed in 60 Easy Steps
Also, buy one Cookie Catastrophe and get a Muffin Massacre for free.
Thanks to Liz, for enlightening me on a new equality campaign. Read about it here.
We made it to and obviously from Idaho. Nothing all that interesting. We were amused (it takes so little) at this car lot called "Go Green". It was closed.... forever. We're guessing, people in Idaho didn't want to go green? Perhaps they would have done better if they had electric tractors and threw in a free sack of potatoes? Maybe they didn't pay their electric bill? I thought that maybe it sounded to much like "Gangrene".
Tomorrow is a travel day to Seattle, where it will be foggy, cold, rainy and probably windy. Such as life.
After we got home from Idaho, we went back out to a Harbor Freight. I forgot to take my camera on this short trip. Of course it's when I really needed it. As we pass a residential neighborhood, I saw what looked like a house with several planter toilets in front of it. We looped back around and it was funny, but totally stupid. 5 or 6 toilet bowls with plants coming out, some had broken tanks, were lined up in front of their house. I'd want to move.
12-6-08 Saturday (We Got Screwed)
It's 33 degrees here in Spokane today. Partly cloudy today and raining tomorrow. It's been crappy rainy cloudy weather the whole time so far. I guess it doesn't matter, it's not like I was going to the pool today. It even matters less since there isn't a pool here. I've heard Washington is known for its unsunny skies.
Last night Jim started working on campground spots for Oregon and California. We'll stay amongst some fellow bloggers (Ken, Scott, etc) in San Diego. Jim uses the Internet along with his Atlas to come up with good locations. This morning he found a State Park 25 miles outside of San Francisco. That's about a 30 minute drive, which is perfect. State Parks have been awesome so far. They don't cram spaces together like private parks.
For dinner tonight, I'm going to take a stab at making lasagna. I'll let you know how that comes out. My mom and Laurie make awesome lasagna. If I made it as well as them, I'd be having it every week. Yum.
OK, bitch session activated: So, Jim and I are smoking outside. I look down and see a long-ass sharp ended screw. I bend down to pick it up and I see another, then another, then another, etc, etc. Some are new looking, some rusted. I filled an ashtray with them, from all around our campsite. Oh there's plenty more than what I spotted. I put them into a Ziploc and headed to the office. I gave them to the man at the desk. "These are from site 220 and there's plenty more. Perhaps someone can get one of those magnet things and clean the sites up. I'd hate to get a blow out after we leave." He apologized, we'll see if he takes my suggestion. On the way back, the maintenance guy's dog was strolling the park. She had a harness but no leash. I squat down and wait for the dog to come to me. I allow it to sniff my hand, and then she growls. I walked away.
I come back to the RV and decide to take Dasher for a walk. He didn't make it off the site before crapping. I pick it up, dispose. The leashless dog is not around. I take Dasher do the official dog walk area. I see a small 87ish Pace Arrow with no wheels, and 4 cats on the dash. Ewwww, 4 cats in such a small area. At least our 2 go into the basement to do their eating and crapping. I shake my head, silently. Usually stuff rattles but this time I did it silently.
Dasher craps again like he's never crapped all day. I don't have another bag. Sorry. I shake my head again, slight rattling heard.
We walk back to the RV, the bitch (uh, female dog), approaches Dasher and I'm pretty much dragging him. The maintenance guy is close, I ask if she's friendly. "Oh yeah". I said "well she growled at me." He tells her to behave, she backs away, and I continue to drag Dasher away.
The day isn't over. It's only 10am, so there's room for more stories. I know, I'm so cynical. If I weren't, this would be a blog about flowers and their beauty.
As we were leaving the campground, to do some shopping, 3 employees were picking up screws from our campsite. At least one of them had a fistful of junk. I'm happy that they took action; I can only think the RV tires might be pretty expensive.
I managed to get a can of the spray paint. I think I'll wait until the next campground to spray a couple of handles. It's too damp and rainy here and they'll probably never dry in time.
It's almost 2:30 and it is so dreary out. We have no motivation. It feels like it's very late already.
It's now almost 5 and it's so dark out. I guess that goes hand in hand with the dreary part. I've created my first lasagna monstrosity. I should name it. Anyway, why are the lasagna noodles wider than the pan? Yes, I know they make lasagna pans put why hasn't anyone just come out with NORMAL sized noodles? Are the pasta companies in bed with the pan companies? Just ridiculous.
So the park has all of these solar powered lights around. I'm not sure why anyone thought it looked "nice" to pop it onto a log piece. Washington is cloudy most of the time so I guess these don't work often than they do.
Here are the Golden Arches. From our campsite we can only see the very top of it. I knew you'd want to see more of it so I took the time, for you, to walk 50 feet more, without getting mugged, to take this photo.
Last night Jim started working on campground spots for Oregon and California. We'll stay amongst some fellow bloggers (Ken, Scott, etc) in San Diego. Jim uses the Internet along with his Atlas to come up with good locations. This morning he found a State Park 25 miles outside of San Francisco. That's about a 30 minute drive, which is perfect. State Parks have been awesome so far. They don't cram spaces together like private parks.
For dinner tonight, I'm going to take a stab at making lasagna. I'll let you know how that comes out. My mom and Laurie make awesome lasagna. If I made it as well as them, I'd be having it every week. Yum.
OK, bitch session activated: So, Jim and I are smoking outside. I look down and see a long-ass sharp ended screw. I bend down to pick it up and I see another, then another, then another, etc, etc. Some are new looking, some rusted. I filled an ashtray with them, from all around our campsite. Oh there's plenty more than what I spotted. I put them into a Ziploc and headed to the office. I gave them to the man at the desk. "These are from site 220 and there's plenty more. Perhaps someone can get one of those magnet things and clean the sites up. I'd hate to get a blow out after we leave." He apologized, we'll see if he takes my suggestion. On the way back, the maintenance guy's dog was strolling the park. She had a harness but no leash. I squat down and wait for the dog to come to me. I allow it to sniff my hand, and then she growls. I walked away.
I come back to the RV and decide to take Dasher for a walk. He didn't make it off the site before crapping. I pick it up, dispose. The leashless dog is not around. I take Dasher do the official dog walk area. I see a small 87ish Pace Arrow with no wheels, and 4 cats on the dash. Ewwww, 4 cats in such a small area. At least our 2 go into the basement to do their eating and crapping. I shake my head, silently. Usually stuff rattles but this time I did it silently.
Dasher craps again like he's never crapped all day. I don't have another bag. Sorry. I shake my head again, slight rattling heard.
We walk back to the RV, the bitch (uh, female dog), approaches Dasher and I'm pretty much dragging him. The maintenance guy is close, I ask if she's friendly. "Oh yeah". I said "well she growled at me." He tells her to behave, she backs away, and I continue to drag Dasher away.
The day isn't over. It's only 10am, so there's room for more stories. I know, I'm so cynical. If I weren't, this would be a blog about flowers and their beauty.
As we were leaving the campground, to do some shopping, 3 employees were picking up screws from our campsite. At least one of them had a fistful of junk. I'm happy that they took action; I can only think the RV tires might be pretty expensive.
I managed to get a can of the spray paint. I think I'll wait until the next campground to spray a couple of handles. It's too damp and rainy here and they'll probably never dry in time.
It's almost 2:30 and it is so dreary out. We have no motivation. It feels like it's very late already.
It's now almost 5 and it's so dark out. I guess that goes hand in hand with the dreary part. I've created my first lasagna monstrosity. I should name it. Anyway, why are the lasagna noodles wider than the pan? Yes, I know they make lasagna pans put why hasn't anyone just come out with NORMAL sized noodles? Are the pasta companies in bed with the pan companies? Just ridiculous.
So the park has all of these solar powered lights around. I'm not sure why anyone thought it looked "nice" to pop it onto a log piece. Washington is cloudy most of the time so I guess these don't work often than they do.
Here are the Golden Arches. From our campsite we can only see the very top of it. I knew you'd want to see more of it so I took the time, for you, to walk 50 feet more, without getting mugged, to take this photo.
The lasagna bubbled over and set off the smoke detector several times. I got it out of the oven and put a cookie sheet under it. It came out OK overall, but dry. Jim and I threw our 2 cents in on what it needed more of. The glass dish I baked it in has burnt cheese all over the sides of it. It's not pretty. Have you seen my sink? I can't lay it flat in the bottom to soak. Right now, half of it's soaking. It's quite disastrous looking right now. Next time, it will get a disposable foil pan and a cookie sheet lined in foil under it. Let's hope Dawn Advanced Power will aid me in cleanup. Oh praise thee, O'Mighty Dawn of the Dishes.
The pan came clean! Yay. It actually came off pretty easily. After the big cleanup, we went to Wal-Mart for another weeks groceries. We actually scaled down the menu while we were there, realizing we have gobs of leftovers.
I think this is a good place to end this entry. It's after 11:00 and Wal-Mart sucked the life right outta me.
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