Month: April 2011

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Amusing Traditions

I was puttering around the rig a few minutes ago when there was a very loud banging on my door. Jody never knocks like that, so I peered out the window and saw no one. “Great,” I thought, “I’m now a target for hooligans.”

Then something caught my eye, so I cracked open the door to find this:

Interesting…

Any other day of the year I’d be worried that was a bomb, what with it sitting on my propane tank, but I was suddenly reminded of what today is.

So, I brought the bundle inside and gingerly unwrapped it. The top layer was a package of Lindor chocolate eggs (yum!) and under that was this:

YUM! Best Easter gift ever!

The two-bite tomatoes are already all gone. 😀

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Seeking a White Elephant

As I chip away at freshening up Miranda’s exterior, I’ve come to accept that part of the job is going to be re-striping her. That’s RV parlance for removing all the decals and putting on new ones. Funny that that should sound like such a small job, but it’s a real bitch. Frankly, I don’t get why RV graphics aren’t just painted on. I’m not convinced that the hassle of apply vinyl neatly is any less than that of programming a graphic into a spray painter.

Today, I began the onerous task of de-striping the rig. Most of the teal stuff comes off easily with a high pressure spray, but the rest won’t be so easy. The goal here is to get a completely white rig that I will then buff to a smooth and hopefully uniform finish. I have a couple of ideas for how I will be re-striping, but that’s not a priority right now.

peeling stripes on the front end

part of the teal came off easily with a stream of high pressure water

bottom stripes are all gone, but notice the grey line: that’s adhesive. It’ll take a buffer to get rid of that.

While I had the hose out, I also took the time to Poli Ox the bottom half of the rig, which was the most stained and battered. This was just a light pass with a soft cloth. I will be doing a thorough going over the rig with a buffer later.

I considered these lines to be stains; no amount of elbow grease would lighten them

black lines are GONE!!! Poli Ox is awesome!

top half was scrubbed with a vehicle detergent and rinsed with high pressure water; bottom half was lightly rubbed with Poli Ox and rinsed with a gentle mist

The most onerous part of the afternoon was picking up all the bits of striping that blew into the yard. I’m sure I didn’t get it all and that I’ll be picking up pieces into the fall!

This once over with the Polix Ox helped me set some spending priorities. The first is going to be resealing all my seams. That’s going to be a job and a half since it will involve removing all the aluminum capping, scraping it and the rig clean, and then applying the Dicor.

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Impressive Turnout!

I arrived at the advanced voting location about ten minutes before the polls were set to open. There was already an impressive lineup, and it just got longer and longer and longer. It took forty minutes for me to get out of there.

One man said to me “What a wait for a real waste of time. It hardly seems worthwhile. ” I curtly replied “Sir, there are millions of women around the world who wish they could do this. I’ll stay here all day if I have to.” He actually looked ashamed and quickly turned away.

The Elections Canada staff aren’t well experienced and are only trained for specific scenarios. This gang had absolutely no idea how special ballot voting works and were not comfortable (or authorized to?) making their own decisions. The easiest thing was for me to register as a new voter and vote for a Lethbridge riding. Having no attachment to any one riding and being fairly sure that I’ll be switching to Alberta residency I was okay with that. I had no ID with a Lethbridge address, of course, but was told I’d be treated as someone who just moved here who hadn’t gotten everything changed over yet, which is actually much more fact than fiction.

Once that was all squared away I was able to cast my ballot for the local NDP candidate.

I can’t wait for the results on Monday; for the first time in history there is a chance that the NDP will sweep through Quebec. It almost makes me wish I was still voting in Pontiac. Almost. 🙂

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Friends and RVs

Jody needed to run an errand in Calgary today so I came along for the ride. We stopped in Mossleigh to visit Donna. She is working at Aspen Crossing this summer and gave us a tour of the place. It combines a campground, a superb gift shop, a restaurant (great Sunday brunch apparently), cabins, and more. I was particularly impressed by the tour of the caboose that was converted into a luxury cabin that would be a great motorhome layout! Donna is very enthusiastic about camphosting in the nearly new campground (this year will be the second in operation). It was so, so, so good to see her and Ken, but I didn’t get to visit with Midnight.

Our visit done, Jody and I pushed on to the town of High River where we spent hours climbing into and out of travel trailers, fifth wheels, and a few motorhomes. I’d never spent so much time in a bumper pull trailer before and was astounded by some of the layouts!

Before I get into my discovery of the day, I have to say that I have finally decided on what my next rig is going to be. I’ve vacillated between getting excited about fifth wheels and considering a B+, but I finally came down to earth and made a decision. I want to downsize and I can do that two ways: going smaller or going bigger. So, my next rig would be one of two choices.

The first choice, going smaller would mean going down to a B and seriously reducing my cargo. I’d have to be in the mode that this is my only vehicle and that everything has to be prepped for travel.

The second choice, going bigger would actually be going smaller in terms of over-all rig length without sacrificing my current lifestyle of having an apartment with a car: a toy hauler super C motorhome, such as those made by Haulmark, with a Smart Car in the garage.

So, all that to say that if I’m going down to a B, then I’ve found it. It’s a Libero by Leisure Travel. It has a bed in the back, full bath and kitchen, and the dinette in the front is definitely usable as a desk, plus it has the solid construction of a high-end unit.

One thing I find neat when I look at RVs is that I see ways in which I could improve Miranda but I don’t get a burning desire to replace her yet. What can I say, the old gal is home!

inside of the dining car, which was PM Diefenbaker's 'western car'!

inside of the dining car, which was PM Diefenbaker’s ‘western car’!

Vote for John G. Diefenbaker

Vote for John G. Diefenbaker

letter from Diefenbaker (about a week after my birth!) about the state of the Canadian economy and how disgraceful Parliament was (nothing changes in this country!)

letter from Diefenbaker (about a week after my birth!) about the state of the Canadian economy and how disgraceful Parliament was (nothing changes in this country!)

exterior of Diefenbaker's car

exterior of Diefenbaker’s car

inside of the cozy caboose cabin

inside of the cozy caboose cabin

Donna and Jody in the cabin :)

Donna and Jody in the cabin 🙂

shiny stove

shiny stove

kitchen

kitchen

love the loft: you climb a ladder to an area where they will put a reading chair, then climb up to the bunk!

love the loft: you climb a ladder to an area where they will put a reading chair, then climb up to the bunk!

bathroom sink

bathroom sink

shower stall with gorgeous natural stone

shower stall with gorgeous natural stone

all the door pulls are railway spikes!

all the door pulls are railway spikes!

exterior of the caboose cabin

exterior of the caboose cabin

speeder (Jody is obsessed with these things)

speeder (Jody is obsessed with these things)

caboose that may one day be used as a shuttle

caboose that may one day be used as a shuttle

Jody 'driving' the speeder

Jody ‘driving’ the speeder

I had to take a picture of the interior of this toy hauler: IT IS THE UGLIEST RV I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!

I had to take a picture of the interior of this toy hauler: IT IS THE UGLIEST RV I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!

Jody and I thought that this shoe space was clever!

Jody and I thought that this shoe space was clever!

like the look of the fake stone, but it's not practical

like the look of the fake stone, but it’s not practical

LOVE this livingroom in the top of the fifth wheel!

LOVE this livingroom in the top of the fifth wheel!

garbage can with exterior access could be entrance to kitty litter box!

garbage can with exterior access could be entrance to kitty litter box!

exterior access to the can (sorry, forgot to rotate)

exterior access to the can (sorry, forgot to rotate)

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Differences in Extremes

I finally decided to brave the weather around noon and headed out to do my flier routes. I bundled up with fleece, a heavy coat, gloves, a scarf, and a tuque, only to shed everything but my fleece by the time I’d loaded two packages of fliers into the car!

Being paid to be outside this afternoon almost felt like a privilege; it was so warm and sunny, with no hint of that unpleasant Lethbridge wind. I did my first two routes in record time, had a snack, did two more routes, then headed home for a lunch break. I took that half hour to fill the fresh water tank, then I went back to work.

The last two routes were tough; I was fading fast and past the point of exhaustion by the time I got halfway through the sixth route. But I got them done, including bringing the extras to recycling. Not counting my lunch break, the six routes took me five and a quarter hours to do. If I take off the car loading and recycling depot then they took me five hours. I don’t think I’ll be able to improve on that!