Travels With Miranda

This morning, I invited longdog2 to come visit before I left. This afternoon worked best for her and she arrived around 3 and left at about 6:30. I had fun showing her  the rig, then we went for a walk around the RV park.

I’m really enjoying having a home that I can keep almost ‘company ready’ all the time so that when I get company with a few hours’ notice, there is no panic involved.

That’s definitely the best benefit of being organized and decluttered at long last; it’s easy to stay on top of the housekeeping.

WHEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fighting the dust on the beach was a losing battle. I gave up, satisfying myself with a daily cursory sweep of the broom and passing of a Swiffer cloth over surfaces.

Since I’ll be getting a shower tonight, it seemed such a shame to go to bed in a dirty rig. So as soon as the laundry was done, I set to work with the shop vac, a bucket of sudsy water, and Pledge Future.

The rig was otherwise spotless, so there was a minimum amount of moving stuff out of the way needed to vacuum and wash the rig from the ceiling down to the floors and then add the Future to make them shiny.

Soon as I finish my deliciously icy cold beer, I am heading for the shower. I don’t plan to get out of it until I look like a prune!

Okay, so I sort of lied this morning in that I am thinking about departure, but not in an, “OMG THERE’S SO MUCH TO DO!” mode, rather in a “Let’s see if I can make this departure thing even easier” mode.

I’m going around the rig and putting things where they belong. Whatever else is out is stuff that I would put on the bed in the back or in one of the sinks when I travel. I eliminated the sink storage by adding storage near the bathroom vanity and with a new kitchen cabinet.

The study isn’t too bad, really. I rearranged my overhead cabinets (AGAIN) to eliminate the basket on the desk and the computers go into their cases and storage place on travel day. All that was left were the keyboard, which is destined to always travel on the bed, and the garbage bucket, which fits neatly on one corner of the desk and usually remains there during travel:

Why bother coming up with a way to secure it? It’s light, so if it moves, no big deal, it won’t damage anything. But what if I forget to empty it before I take off? Why not eliminate having to think about it?

All it took was a cup hook:

Incidentally, this garbage bucket is a good example of a multi-use item since I use it to hold my cleaning solution when I wash the cabinets or the floors.

Getting the inside ready for departure is at most a 10-minute deal now and I think I can cut that down even further with added tweaks.

The next challenge is the kitchen cubbies. I put some non-skid material under them, but still have to figure out a way to keep the drawers from opening without running the unit or making it fiddly. At this point, I’m thinking bungee cords, which is not ideal, but I’m tired of having to turn the unit around to face the wall when I travel, especially since I usually forget to do that and have a mess on my hands when I arrive. I tried to eliminate them from the kitchen, but they are just too useful and so I am left with finding a better way to make them work in travel mode.

A good home is never done…

Friday was a much needed down day for me. The most exciting thing I did was drive into Port Lavaca to pick up my mail and some avocados.

I also checked out all the car washes and decided that none were convenient enough to get into with the rig for me to spend money at them. I really want a nice big wash area that I can pull in and out of without having to unhook. I’ll keep my eye out for such a place as I head out on the road, really needing to remove the salt spray from both vehicles and to buff out any rusty spots. Moya is also asking me for a wax job, so I really want to find a place where I can wash at my leisure.

When I got in, I spent the bulk of the rest of the day watching the DVDs that my friend had sent while cross-stitching and going for strolls along the beach to enjoy the crazy beautiful weather. What a tough life I lead!

I have a weekend-long project to do, so my last couple of days on the beach will be sedate. I am sort of thinking of going to the saloon for a beer and dinner tonight, but am not particularly stuck on the idea.

The weather is slowly growing less pleasant as heavy clouds are rolling in and the wind is picking up, so Monday will definitely be a good day to get back on the road.

I play to roll out between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. I’ll be getting gas here on the beach as a final gesture of goodwill to the community. I did the math and it will be only $10 more for a fill here than in town, so it’s not a huge extra expense for me, plus the gas station is super convenient as you can pull in then circle around the building.

I will be detouring into Port Lavaca to get propane since I am completely out on board, do not want to have the fridge off for long, and the Port Lavaca propane place is super easy to get in and out of with a long rig even if the entrance is rutty.

After that, it will be about three hours to Van Ormy, just outside of San Antonio (I’ll be doing a post about the RV park once I’ve had a chance to check it out). I can check in as of 1PM and want to pull in as close to that as I can to get my full 22 hours on FHU!

Some of the chores planned for Monday afternoon and evening and Tuesday morning:

- hose down my black tank from inside with my high pressure hose attachment;

- vacuum the entire rig (the dust from the beach as been an insurmountable foe);

- reshine the floors as the the sand I’ve been tracking in despite a mat has been very hard on them;

- give my batteries a good soak on shore power (I’ve been getting a full charge by late afternoon all week, so I’m not desperate for charging right now, thankfully!) and recharge anything that needs to be recharged.

Late Tuesday morning, I will move into the no service area.

I don’t have much to do to leave on Monday, so I won’t even think about departure until then beyond making sure there’s plenty of room in the back of the truck for the propane tank.

I’m ready, not eager, to go.

I awoke to a very grey and heavy sky, a good day to go for a drive, even a short one into town, to charge the laptop in the truck. My PayPal transfer had finally landed in my inbox, so a Walmart run was definitely in order. The couple of times I’ve gone into town lately with L as well as with S&B, I was able to duck into Walmart for a few things, but I was due for a proper grocery.

Another thing on my Walmart list was motor oil, but I decided to wait to get some and just go get an oil change even though the budget is super tight. I forgot that US prices for such things are reasonable, so an oil change wound up being just $33. Woohoo! They even vacuumed the cab for that price, a nice perk.

I picked up something interesting in the produce aisle, so I now have to Google “How to cook cactus but first, how the hell do I get rid of the spines on the dang thing?!” I will report back on this.

The beach gang is heading down to the saloon for happy hour tonight, so that will be a fun mid-week activity. I may learn how to play shuffle board….