New floor

This weekend was really busy for me, it was on the cold side and windy so I wasn't in any rush to do any outside work on the RV so I changed gears and worked on my 3D printer. I did clean the inside of the RV for a bit and tested the seating for a few minutes.
I have to do a search for a possible nest of hornets. I keep finding the suckers in between the windows and under the cushions. I think there may be a nest in either the walls or the roof. I will find them one way or another when the weather warms up.
On Sunday the weather warmed up quite a bit and I was motivated. First thing in the morning I went to my favorite home building center and bought some supplies for the day. My goal was to patch the floor in the bathroom, fix the water tank hatch and cover the large hole left by the water heater.
The floor patch was strait forward and simple and only took me an hour to do. I opted to remove all the damaged wood and cover the remainder with new half inch ply.
The hole where the water heater previously lived was where I got a little creative. I have not had any luck with finding replacement siding for the rig so I figured I would keep the hole and use it as an access to the vanity plumbing. Now all I needed was a cover. The water heater was no good so I cut off the hatch and replaced it where it once was. It was a perfect fit of course.
The water tank hatch which is below the water heater access panel was in need of serious repair. Whoever fixed it before me did a complete hack job. I had to cut a new piece of MDF to the correct dimensions and fit the old molding to it, which is so bad that none of the corners connect. I also installed a new lock because there was none.
I was also playing with the idea of mounting the water pump in the water heater hatch along with a filter.
That is still in the works.

Fixed the Locks

I had one problem with the RV that needed some attention and I successfully fixed it last night. The problem was that I had no keys for the locks on the entire RV. I had a couple of Chrysler products in the past and they all had the same type of keys, one pentagon shaped key for the ignition and one oval key for the doors and trunk. Well, when I got the keys to my RV I noticed that there was no oval key for the van doors and no other keys to the RV portion of the vehicle which include the door and all the exterior hatches. Luckily all the hatches are unlocked so I can access the various bits and pieces. This is not a problem because the locks used are just the very common type used in cabinets. The door presented a problem because the lock is built into the door lock set. So I pulled it out and carefully adjusted the tumblers to fit a key that I have. So now I can lock the RV. As for the van doors, I could buy a new set with keys and replace the old ones or, and this is what I did, just leave it alone. I have a key to the RV door and I can just unlock the van doors from the inside. It will stay this way until it annoys me enough to change it.
I also fixed the hood. The problem here was it didn't latch down with the lock it just caught the safety catch. It was a little dark last night when I got to this but I was determined to fix it. I slowly raised and lowered the hood so I could get a look at the mating of the latch and catch. I couldn't see anything because there was an anti theft plate around the catch so I removed it and tossed it in the woods*. Then I repeated the raising and lowering again. What I saw was the catch sliding into the latch but it was way off to the back of the catch. So much so that it wouldn't let the catch swing into position. And there is no adjustment for this. I suspected that the van had hit something and pushed the radiator support in about an inch. Why should the front be different from the back, apparently this RV was used in a demolition derby.
At one point I was getting frustrated with it and wasn't paying attention and I let the hood slip out of my hands and WHAM! it slammed down. And locked. There, another problem fixed, all I have to do is slam the hood. Again I will leave this be until it annoys me enough to fix it properly.

Further Planning

I started to put together a list of food to pack and things that will purchased along the way. I have put a lot of thought into this and I have come up with a base list of food that fit a certain criteria. It must keep for a reasonable amount of time without refrigeration, is inexpensive and is readily available around the US.
Of course I will be relying heavily on the great overlord Walmart. They are known to be RV friendly.with ample parking for rigs. I always thought that they should have expanded to include an RV park on their property complete with black water dump and RV repair. Unfortunately, the Wally-Marts up in the New England area have posted no overnight parking signs in the parking lots. I don't think they enforce it because I see RV's of all shapes and sizes in the summer parked there. Why would they want to loose that business? Someone in upper management has their head firmly up their buttocks.
So, I believe I will have no problem with acquiring cheap food during my trip. So here is a list of food so far.

Stuff That will keep:

Ramen Noodles

Peanut Butter

Spam

Canned Corn

Canned Peas

Baked Beans

Spam

Canned Soup & Chowda

Spam

Anything Else Canned that tickles my fancy.

Pickles

Tortilla Chips

I'm still working on it but I think I'm at a good start. I will buy fresh fruit and veggies along the way. Of course I will have an ample water supply for drinking as well as other refreshments.

My goal is to not exceed my budget of twenty dollars a day. That gives me a hundred and forty dollars for weekly groceries and I don't think I will go over sixty. But I set twenty as my number.

I have plenty of storage space in the old girl so space will not be a problem. I was going to remove the old fridge because it does not work but I think I will keep it as a cooler and stick a bag or two of ice on the top shelf to keep things cold.

Places I want to go.

I was an industrial mechanic/technician for a company in New Hampshire for a few years and during that time I flew all over this country, Mexico and Germany. I had a lot of fun as well as frustration just like any other job.
The reason I bring this up is a little place in Lynchburg, Tennessee. I am referring to the Jack Daniels distillery. While I was on a job somewhere in Tennessee I suddenly had some time to kill so I decided to go there and take the tour. On the map It didn't look very far but in practice it was a good three hours away. After the long drive I parked and walked up to the main entrance only to be greeted by a sign reading that the tour was cancelled that day due to problems in the building. I was not pleased. So I made the best of it and asked the locals where I could get some good BBQ.
There is one thing you must be warned about this part of the country, they like to talk. And if you ask about BBQ be sure you have some time because your gonna sit a spell and listen to people banter back and fourth about who has the best BBQ in town. And never, never suggest that you have had great BBQ outside their state. Them's fight'n words.
But really, they are great people and they do love there BBQ. I ended up going to this small hole in the wall a few miles away and had the best BBQ ever.
Anyway, I would like to go back to the Jack Daniels plant and take that stupid tour. So I have made that my first destination.
I plan to drive no more than five hours a day and about four hundred miles give or take. So the drive down to Lynchburg will take about four or five days.
The one thing I will have that I never did when I was driving trucks was the internet. It's available almost anywhere now and I can stay in touch and keep updated on traffic and get locations of the nearest rest stop. It's insane, I wish I had this back then.
The plan is to stay mostly at the rest stops along the way and stray once in a while to do something fun.
Now to plan the nest leg of the trip.

I am sooooo tired

It was such a nice day today that I traveled up to the RV for some quality time.  I had washed the seat covers the night before so I was excited to get the foam covered again and getting the inside of the camper back to normal. To my chagrin I found that I forgot a couple of covers, oh well most of them are clean.
Next on my list is the water tank. I had decided that I was going to fix the tank instead of buying a new one. You would not believe how much RV crap is. I can buy a certified water tank out of mcmaster-Carr for less that the cost of a cheapo water tank from an RV supplier. Hello, not all of us use our rv's for pleasure. I'm going to live in mine.
Anyway, I digest.
Here is the crack that I need to fix.

I thought to myself that this is not a bad crack and I can fix it. The whole point to doing what I'm doing is to reuse and fix what I have, not buy new stuff, that's easy. Any shmederick can buy stuff but it takes talent and skill to fix and re-purpose.
So what I need for the repair is a soldering iron and some filler rod. But since I do not any filler rod I think I can get by with just the weld.
The tank is polyethylene and melts at a temperature of about 240 degrees F. The iron goes up to about 600. Using the iron I melted the crack and blended it back together.

its not pretty but it will hold. And it will be under the new vanity so I don't care.

Now I have to replace the section of floor that the tank sits on and finish the bathroom.

Washing the seat covers

So I'm sitting in the laundrymat washing the seat covers to my RV. I have not been to a laundry in a long time, glad to report that nothing really changes in these sort of places. I had to use the monster 60 pounder to do the covers. They are fairly stiff and have vinyl panels and I have a few of them. But they are in good shape which is lucky, because that's one more thing I will not have to replace.
What is so fascinating about the laundry machine? I can't help but be mesmerized by the osculating action of the drum. The gentle whine of the servo deep inside is lulling me to sleep. I have twelve minutes left then it's off to the dryer. The washer has a small leak and the water is dripping out the front hatch slowly but steadily.
I am the only person in here except for the one employee behind the steel gate in the back. This is just how I remember it. Once in a while someone walks in to get their load out of the machines. Eight minutes left.
Big Bertha is now going into high speed rinse. It's winding up like a jet engine and looking into the glass it kinda looks like a jet. Soon my covers will be a quarter of the volume than when I started. Ok, top speed, not as fast as I though it would go but fast enough. Five minutes.
I am imagining putting everything together in the RV and how it's going to look. It looks good in my head and once this is done I will clean the seating area and get it ready for it's maiden voyage.
I still need to get the numbers off the generator so I can fix the Carb. Oh, it's done.
Alright, I just loaded up the dryer and set it to low so the vinyl won't go away. They looked pretty clean when I pulled them out of the washer and smelled good too. No more mouse smell, not that is was very strong.
This go around will take about twenty minutes so I have time to wax poetic. I don't know what that means but I'm sure I'm doing it. There are no seats on the dryer side of the laundry so I have to stand and wait, I suppose I could just sit in the wash area, there is just one person here.
It was raining when I left work so I didn't think I would stop by the RV tonight but now I'm having second thoughts. I may go over and drop off the covers, heck I may even put some back on. It depends on how late I will be.
Alright, enough boring laundry commentary.

Trip Planning

I'm planning my trip in my off time during this week. I have a lot of places I would like to go and there are more being added as I go along. The more I sit and plan the trip there is a stronger urge to get in and go. I'm now at the point where I'm dreaming about it. I think this is a healthy obsession.
The first leg of the trip will get me out of New England where I grew up. I have never had any feelings of being homesick, I think that is a quality a wandering soul must have. For me everywhere I am feels like home. Even if I have not been someplace in a long time, when I get there it feels like I haven't been gone more than a day.
I have always loved the southwest and have always made comments about how the colors are more vibrant, the sunrise and sunset are remarkable and unforgettable. Whenever I think of New England, I always think gray. The skies don't offer the color pallet that the southwest has. It also feels closed in, like I'm in a giant box. Out west I can see for miles and miles, so much so that you can see the curvature of the earth. The only place in New England you can see that is out on the ocean or high in the mountains.
The southwest also seems more alive. The storms are beautiful and terrifying with spectacular shows of lightning accompanied by thunder you can feel in you gut. I remember one day when I lived in Wichita, KS. The formally blue sky had clouded over and turned red. The clouds were swirling around like a cup of coffee. A few minute later the radios and tv's were broadcasting tornado warnings. While this incredible show was going on above me in the sky I noticed that there was no wind and it was eerily quiet.
There was a tornado sighting but nothing more. About an hour later the blue sky had reemerged and life went on. You just don't get that in good old New England.