Thursday Departure!

It has been a very busy week here. We both finished our Christmas shopping, Craig got the drywall repair done, and I got the hall painted before he installed the framing and two new pre-hung doors.

Sanding

Checking and wiping after first coat of stain
The color will be darker after a second coat of stain and two coats of Polyurethane

He is replacing several older white doors with new stained birch doors.  All of the other doors in the house are stained wood.  After we get back he will be finish installing the two for a sliding door closet downstairs and then stain some new framing and baseboard wood.  Everything seems to take so long!

Today (Wednesday) Craig did all the pre-trip stuff like checking tire pressure and water in the batteries while I hauled our stuff from the house to the Alfa in our DR Power Wagon. 

 I have been going all out for several days getting everything packed and loaded.   We do not leave much of anything in her between trips, so it is a complete repack each time.  I figure if we need it in the Alfa, we probably need it in the house too and I don't want to start buying duplicate stuff!  

It is now slightly after nine in the evening.  We are relaxing in front of a cozy fire and will probably get to bed fairly early.  There is still lots to do in the morning. After bringing the Alfa down to the front drive we will put in some fresh water (we drained it this afternoon) and load the refrigerator.  I still have some clothes to put in along with all the bathroom stuff.  

In the morning, Craig has to see to the house, turning off the water, draining the irrigation system, setting the furnace thermostat down to 50*, and turning off the automatic back up generator. Because we live in the mountains, a winter storm can knock out our power for days.  If we were here we would run the generator, but that gets expensive. The only thing that needs power when we are gone is the garage refrigerator. We emptied the kitchen fridge, except for the orange juice and things I need to make travel sandwiches.  We will shut it off and prop open the door before we leave. What we are not taking along has been shifted to the garage fridge. I put some ice cubes in a bag in the freezer and will see if they have melted and refroze while we were gone.  If they do I will know that we have had a long power outage and will dump the few things from the freezer. 

[From Craig] As part of cleaning out the refrigerator before leaving, Merikay and I each ate a large bowl of ice cream Wednesday night. I got the Tillamook Marion berry Pie while she had their Caramel Butter Pecan. I must say that MB Pie is among the finest tastes produced by mankind, right up with Floating Island desserts at certain Parisian restaurants.

(From Merikay)  I must have walked up and down the back hill a dozen times today and didn't have any lunch.  I'm sure I burned off the calories from the ice cream in advance!

Some RVers like to pull out very early in the morning when leaving on a long trip.  We like to take our time, get everything in order and miss the morning rush hour traffic. If we are on the road by 10:30 we will be doing fine.  We have a long day of driving ahead of us, but we are both looking forward to it!

See Ya!