Almost Ready to Travel Again, Finally!

We’ve been here a long time, but we’ve taken care of a lot of things.

The truck has a new 40 gallon auxiliary fuel tank that feeds diesel into the main tank 5 gallons at a time at the push of a button.

We also had a new brush guard installed on the front.

We sorted and repacked our stuff so we could fit everything in the shorter available truck bed. The old step ladder wouldn’t fit, so I got this new 12 foot telescoping step ladder, very pricey, but very nice.

It made the job of washing and waxing the trailer almost fun.

We removed the old bumper hitch luggage carrier and instead I installed a rack for our portable gray water tank and a round carrier for sewer hoses. With the hollow square bumper below it we can now carry three sewer hoses. The elbow and “Y” fittings go in a small tote that will fit in our pass through cubby. (The white thing in the hanging plastic bag is our outdoor temperature sensor, wrapped in a paper towel. We deploy that at each stop where it will be out of the sun. The towel is to absorb any condensation.)

We also got a replacement door for our fresh water fill. The old door was missing the knob. They sent us the whole box, but I didn’t want to unseal the existing one. The knob assembly looked like it might break if you tried to remove it, but the little door was easy to take off from the back. Of course I couldn’t get at the back of the old one but I managed to cut off the old door and the new one was easy to put on from the front.

Inside the trailer we got a new mattress. If it looks like one side of the bed is higher than the other, it is. That’s because the new mattress with our latex mattress topper is perfect for me, but Bud felt like he was sleeping in a hole. We took the topper off and Bud was happy with just the mattress, but I woke up with a backache. So I cut the topper in half. Matey must not have liked the height change across the foot of the bed where he sleeps, so I took some of the spare latex and made him a cushion for the floor next to my bed where he ended up. Last night he slept on the floor in front of the cushion, there’s no pleasing everyone!

Bud had been using my seat cushion from the truck to make his chair higher, so I used some of the latex to make him his own seat cushion and a little lumbar pillow. I think they all came out pretty good and the only casualty was my left thumb; I managed to run Jamie’s sewing machine needle through it. She’s going to give me a tetanus shot tomorrow.

So I have been pretty busy. I also had a root canal on one of my teeth ( I have to wait until we’re back in November to get the crown, for now the tooth is just built up with composite.) And I got new prescription sunglasses which I’ve been without for a couple of years.

Most importantly, Bud has learned to walk with two straight legs the same length! We took a short hike on a mostly level trail at the top of Hot Springs Mountain. He took the walking stick (which he is holding in his left hand with the repaired carpel tunnel) but didn’t need it. He’s now driving again, and, most wonderfully, cooking!

Yep, we’re almost ready to travel.