[From Craig] So here we sit on Easter eve, huddled around our fireplace.  It's starting to rain in California's Santa Cruz Mountains, a pretty rare thing this year. The temperature hasn't reached our traditional threshhold for having a fire: 50F. OTOH, we've gotten to the point that when we want a fire, such details don't matter as much as they used to.

Why isn't Easter eve of any significance among holiday traditions? As the story goes, Christ's followers must have been pretty unhappy on the original Easter eve, which may explain why nothing special is done for its reprisal. The Easter story is obviously among the best "great new morning" stories in literature.

Hopefully, you and yours are happy and well this evening and tomorrow and thereafter...

Card

I enjoyed myself this evening designing a card for Craig and I to give to other RVers we might want to keep in touch with. I used one of the pictures of us that was taken in Death Valley in January. Neither of us was having a good hair day, but I think we look relaxed and happy in a National park. I tried to keep it simple.

I did have some printer problems however, probably because one of the inks is running a bit low, and am looking forward to trying to print it on my new Epson wireless printer after it arrives tomorrow. 

We have more than two weeks before we leave, so I'm sure to get it right by then.

A couple of my followers have commented on "how organized" I am.  It's really not true.  I only seem organized because I have so much time to plan and dream between trips.  When we are full-timing, I'm sure I will be quite disorganized. That's why I need lists!

Do you have a card? Who do you give them to?

Little fixes for Little RV Problems

First an answer as to why we don't just put the house on the market "as is." Almost all of the projects, other than painting, we have taken on have been necessary repairs. California has strict inspection and certain things have to be fixed, or money has to be left in escrow to fix them. Market conditions have been tough. Realtors tell me buyers want a house that is move-in ready. It is far too big to be a fixer-upper, but it was in a condition that required a great deal of fixing up. In many ways it is a wonderful house in a wonderful location. But there are also some really "outdated" cosmetic features that we are not replacing, like the burnt orange shower and avocado green floor, that a new buyer is going to look at as a future expense. Some of the repairs are in my opinion not necessary. For example Craig is going to replace the overhead fan in the lower bathroom because "it is old and rattles and it has bothered him ever since we moved in here".

We know we will not get top dollar, but we feel we will get a better price if it is in reasonably good condition even if it is a bit out dated.

Now, onto the subject of the RV.

Shortly after buying the Alfa I said it was a bit like having a "play house". I have enjoyed doing little things to make it more functional without making major changes.  

On our last trip, we kept having problems with things falling out of the  freezer when we opened it after driving.  I looked at refrigerator bars, and came up with several ideas of my own using springs and dowels or PVC pipe.  

But then a much simpler solution came to mind. I cut lengths of foam type pipe wrap that are just longer than the width of the freezer. They don't weigh anything, are easy to move around, and didn't cost me anything because we had the pipe wrap from some project in the past.  Even if I had had to buy it, it is very inexpensive. We will see if it works on our next trip. If it doesn't I have a few other ideas.

We also had a few close calls with things falling from the refrigerator itself when the door was opened. I have been stopping at the local thrift store from time to time and found a couple of wire baskets for 50 cents each. They should help. The refrigerator shelves do have a small edge, but it doesn't do much. The wire baskets will allow air circulation and can be washed as needed.

Stick-em-up hooks! I love them, and have installed them in closets, on the bedroom wall, and in the bathroom. I like them because you can take them off without damaging the surface, and
you don't have to make a hole to put them up in the first place.

I had a problem finding a good place to store the pizza pick.  The only cabinet it fit into is over the fridge and that one is very hard to reach. Craig likes to make "breakfast" pizzas, and uses the pick often. I drilled a hole in the end of the handle, screwed in a large "eye" and put a large hook on the wall next to the table.

The pick now takes up virtually no space, and is easy to get to.  I hung it low and close to the wall so that it would be out of sight most of the time, and contact with the floor and wall will prevent it from swinging back and forth while we are moving.  

After hanging it up, I wasn't happy with the fact that the bottom edge is on the floor, so I made a little edge cover by cutting off the bottom section of an unused, heavy plastic document pouch. It can be wiped or washed as needed.

Big hooks, little hooks, all removable but strong. These three are part of a solution to having my favorite and frequently used spices close at hand when I cook. I first put the spices in several plastic storage containers over the stove, but then moved them to one of the large cabinets quite near the cooking space. This was still not as convenient as I would like. At the house I have built in spice racks in the doors of one cabinet. I thought of designing some for the Alfa and making them out of wood like the ones in the house. Which I may still do because I like the look of wood better than what I came up with.

But then I found these plastic baskets from Walmart.

Each set of three baskets cost less than $2. Each of the lower two baskets will hold five short spice bottles. I left space for the shelf, and each of the top baskets will hold five taller bottles. So now 30 of my favorite spices will be easier to get to. Less-often-used spices can still be in a box overhead. The kitchen cabinets are incredibly deep, and the intrusion of this size basket does not interfere with anything else.

A plus for these over wood is that I can see the bottle labels thru the slots. Building something out of wood like this could be difficult.  Maybe I can find a natural wood color spray paint...

What do you think these are? Can you guess their purpose?






They are small plastic cubes that I bought at Tap Plastics and  stuck down on the sink top in the bathroom with Craft Tack Reusable Putty. It is similar to museum wax. I have since learned it also comes in white, and if I can find it, I will replace the yellow stuff I used here.  

We put everything from the bathroom away before driving the coach. But we like to leave the soap dispenser out to wash  our hands when we are traveling, and have been just putting it into the sink. 

The little cubes and the base of the faucet hold this clear bin in place. Since the bin is not stuck down, I can lift it up to clean under and around it.  I removed the two suction cups on the back of it because they didn't work in this location.  It will keep the soap dispenser and my sunscreen from flying around the bathroom.

Pictures! We all love to have pictures of our family and of the places we have been.  But where to put them in a motor home? 

For Christmas, my Grandsons' Au Pair gave me a cute strip collage frame with pictures of the boys. As I looked around the Alfa for the best place to hang it I notice the ends of the slide were much like long narrow frames. The collage frame was just a bit wide for this space, but the pictures fit just fine without the frame. Using the Craft Tack, I put up some of the pictures she had given me, then I printed pictures from some of our trips. They are small, only three inches wide, but as I look down the line I remember each place and each day. 

There are a couple of other places around the Alfa that I will fill with small images as we travel.  With the Craft Tack no damage is being done to the walls and the pictures can easily be removed to make room for new ones. I will be using the collage frame in the bedroom. 

Do you display many pictures in your RV?  How and where?

Getting Ready for Our Next Trip

Within a week of returning from our trip in January, we decided our next trip would be in April to Casa Grande, Arizona, for the National Alfa Rally. We are still in the learning phase of using and owning an RV. Do you ever stop learning? Craig has found the Alfa forum very interesting, and hopefully has learned how to fix a few things without ever having them break!  He is looking forward to meeting some of the people he has been chatting with on the forum. 

After that we are going to visit my brother in Surprise Arizona for a day, and then go on to the Grand Canyon.

To get there, we will be driving across country we have traveled before, so it will be a couple of long driving days without much stopping. Not that that is bad. I like just riding and driving along in the Alfa. We plan to do our first Walmart boondocking. 

Our daughter bought us the Rand McNally navigation system for Christmas, and one feature is that you can have it show all the Walmarts, Sam's Clubs and Rest Stops on your route with notations of which allow overnight parking. I'm not exactly sure where we will stop, but I know what the alternatives are.

We have worked very hard on house project for over two months. I had a wish list of things I hope to see finished before we went out again. Many of them have been completed. Some things were done that were not on the list, but the one big project, the bathroom downstairs, will not be finished. That makes me sad because with that rolling over into the month after we get back, it is unlikely we will get the house on the market this summer. Craig gets really mad at me when I say that. He is far more optimistic than I am. I really wanted to have it ready by early summer because I think this house will show best in the summer months. People will appreciate the wonderful decks and cool family room more on a hot day than in the winter. There are also many more accidents on the nearby highway in rainy winter weather. It's funny how people tend to forget about that during the summer months. For me a classic example comes from Craig himself. Years ago, when we lived in Wisconsin, he was offered a job in Texas in July. He said no because Texas was too hot. He took the job in October or November, and I sat alone with a country house for sale in rural Wisconsin through the winter. 

I'm at loose ends right now. I don't have a project that I can work on that will make me feel like I am contributing to the goal of getting the house done. Just about everything I need to do involves Craig, and I don't want to take him away from working on those %*@x  bathrooms. Somehow I thought two months would be enough time to do one, but we have had some set backs.  

Next week I will be shopping and packing for our trip. I'm not sure what groceries to take because the week of the Rally will include a number of dinners, lunches and even one breakfast.  No sense in carting around food we won't need for a week.  I figure on shopping in Williams before we go up to the Canyon.

We finished our taxes yesterday, and now I have the use of the dining room table back. It is my trip-packing "staging spot." I have a long printed list and will be filling the table with things for the trip.  I know that if I put something in the Alfa, I will probably need it in the house, so most loading is done on the last day. I don't leave much of anything in the Alfa for the same reason. As I pack I try to think like we are leaving for our full time life. If I'm not putting something in that I will want to take along then, I am either leaving room or really evaluating if I will actually need it. I think this time when we get home instead of rushing around putting things away, I will put most of it back on the table and evaluate what we left behind. It would be a good time to fill some large boxes with things we can get rid of.  

One nice thing about having my list on the computer is that I can reprint it and make changes or additions with each trip.  In addition to what to pack, I list where in the Alfa everything is put. If I decide there is a better place, I simply correct the list. By the time we are full time, I should have a master list!  Of course it will continue to change, but I can try. 

My next post will be about a few little innovations I have done in the Alfa. Little fixes for little problems!

What My Doctor Said ...

I think this will be the end of this post line! 

Basically my doctor was no more help than any other. She listened and she was understanding about the pain I had experienced, but she could not give me a cause nor a real solution.

My Potassium levels were a bit low, but still within "normal" range. She prescribed a Potassium supplement. My Magnesium levels were not tested in the ER, but she had tested them in January and they were OK then. We discussed the use of the Magnesium oil, and she was OK with it.  I will have additional blood work in a week to check these two minerals again.

She gave me a prescription for Valium to be used as a muscle relaxant if I should have another occurrence similar to last Tuesday's. Its good to have it as an emergency treatment that will ease the cramps and keep me from having to call 911 again. 

We agreed that increased  hydration and stretching were both good and I should be sure to do.

Just to be on the safe side, she is ordering a Vascular Study on my legs.  We don't think there is a problem, but it is an elimination of a potential cause. She said the pulse was not strong and my feet were very cold.

If I learn anything else that might be of interest to others who have leg cramps from time to time, I'll be sure to share.

But other than that, I am returning to post about RV travel,  food, and getting ready for full timing!

Finding a product

From time to time Craig likes to write a post.  He doesn't want to start his own blog yet.  Perhaps he will when we are traveling. 

[From Craig] Seems to me that there is something out of order about our national marketplace. Here we are, more computerized and connected and surveyed and with supposedly better access to information than has ever been the case, and I can't even find out where to buy my favorite snack!

There's a brand of snacks called Boulder Canyon that seems pretty successful with potato chips, but also makes wonderful "Rice and Adzuki Bean" chips. In our area, Costco used to sell them but you can't rely on them to sell anything other than paper products from one visit to the next. Trader Joe's had their own version but their product turnover may be even faster than Costco. Our larger Whole Foods stores had them, but no more.

So here I sit hankering for this product, and I go on-line to find them. Of course I can buy them directly online, but at 5 ounces per bag, shipping small quantities of such things around the country seems wasteful. So I find Boulder Canyon's website and, lo and behold, they have a "find a store in your area for your favorite product" page! Just what the WWW should have in 2013...

I find the rice and bean chips and tell them where I live. Quicker than rabbit songs, they return a page of local stores, all of which are Nob Hill stores, which is a subsidiary of Raley's.  I go to the closest one but it doesn't have the chips. I call several other nearby stores, but their people check and say they don't have them.

I am quite depressed that my fellow Americans haven't jumped on the bandwagon for these absolutely wonderful chips, and made them something that every supermarket stocks. I already order more oddball things online than I care to think about because local stores don't carry them. Do I have to add rice and bean chips to the list?

Before my snack desire overcomes my reluctance, Merikay and I are shopping a nearby Nob Hill store (one of those I called) when I discover a BIG display of Boulder Canyon Rice and Bean chips.  Both of the two available flavors! Turns out that this store has more snacks than almost any other supermarket I've ever seen, and they distribute them among several sections according to no category scheme I can see. The failure of their people who searched for me isn't their fault, it's due to bad store organization.

Readers who like good-tasting, lower-fat snacks can help me here. As you roam around the country (especially if you should pass through Scotts Valley, CA) look for these two products and see if you don't agree they're really good: Natural Salt flavor and Chipotle Cheese flavor. Or ask at any supermarket you stop at, and maybe we can get a real grass-roots movement going.

Encouraging Call from Doctor's Office, and Insurance Question

I know my doctor will be out of her office for the first part of the week, but apparently she is still in communication with them.  I got a call today to change my appointment time because the doctor would "like to spend more time with me."  Now when was the last time you've heard that!  I remember once I went in for an appointment with a different doctor and had a list of questions. I had made the appointment because I had felt rushed in the past and was told I had to make a special appointment to ask questions.  As it turned out after I had asked just a few, I was told my allotted appointment time was up, and I would need another if I still wanted to ask questions.  Believe me, that was the last time I went there! This was not at Kaiser by the way, there the doctors always gave me as much time as I needed and answered all of my questions.

Speaking of medical issues, I'd like to ask the American, over 65, fulltimers what kind of health insurance they have. In addition to Medicare do you have an Advantage plan, or a Supplemental?  If it is an Advantage plan, does it cover you where ever you are at the same copay as your home office, or do you have to go back to your home base for most issues other than emergencies?

I signed us up for the Supplemental plan offered thru the AARP that is with United Health Care.  So far the coverage has been great.  I can go to any doctor who accepts Medicare, and any Hospital.  When Craig cut his head we went to an ER and he was covered 100%.  If we had gotten an Advantage plan it would have been with Kaiser, and I know it cost $100 copay for an ER visit, unless you are admitted.  We don't have any copay with the Supplemental, but our premium is higher than the Advantage plans. 

When we do go fulltime, I will probably try to get a doctor in San Diego for both of us because that is where our daughter lives and we are likely to visit there at least once a year. Once we sell the house we have no real reason to return to the Bay Area since we do not have family here at all.

If you feel this question is to personal or intrusive.  Please ignore my question.  

I heard from my sister that "Obamacare" is gutting the Advantage plans, but I also read that Republicans like Ryan want to gut Medicare.  Can they do that?