Cabinet Door Project.

While we were stationary in Reedsville John was working on a cabinet door project in the living room of the motor home; we have been debating what to do with these doors since we took delivery of the mothership in 2006. There were glass panels in these doors when we purchased the unit but we did not want to display china or knickknacks in these two cabinets,  we needed storage space; the view that the glass panels allowed was less than desirable.

 

The original glass panels, nice but not practical for us; we wanted storage above the TV and we use the tall cabinet as a food pantry.

 

We made our first attempt to obscure visibility through the glass by attaching a fogged vinyl sheet to the back of each glass panel. This was relatively quick and easy but this still allowed a clouded view of what was in the cabinet; when we started full-timing we quickly decided that we wanted an opaque covering for these panels.

We thought that an imitation wood covering would be best but we were unable to locate a covering that came close to matching the cherry interior of the mothership. Sandy looked for a vinyl covering that matched the colors of the woodwork and walls; when she found something she was happy with she cut pieces that were attached to the outside of the glass panels.

 

This covering was an improvement.

 

 

The opaque covering was a definite improvement over the fogged vinyl as it obscured what was in the cabinets. Sandy was not totally happy with this covering so when it started to peel off we knew it was time to replace it. This time we decided to remove the glass panels and replace them with plywood panels.

Back in Wisconsin we knew we would have enough down time to replace the glass panels and put them in our storage unit. We made several stops at home improvement stores but were unable to find cherry plywood in the quarter-inch thickness that would fit into the doors; we purchased birch plywood and cherry stain to do the job.

John cut the birch plywood to fit the doors using the 6 inch circular-saw that he carries in our motorhome tool chest. The panels were hand sanded and stained, the color match was close enough to proceed with finishing. After three hand rubbed coats of  satin polyurethane, the panels were secured in the doors with a clear adhesive caulk.

 

The panels after being stained; there is one extra long panel due to the size of the sheet they were cut from, we used the two that matched the best.

 

Checking the color.

 

The panels are not an identical match for the raised panels of the factory made doors but they are close enough for us and are a certain improvement over the original glass panels. We hope this fix lasts until we are ready to part with our home-on-wheels at some point in the future.

 

A close match that is practical for our use.

Update From Reedsville.

We are steadily chipping away at our to do list, this is good as we will be leaving here in about a week. We have had the mothership in for it’s service and we got our problem with the CRV taken care of but most of our time has been spent catching up with family and friends and sitting by the campfire with Oscar and the group here at the campground. The weather is changing now as autumn takes over with cool nights and warm days, this is an enjoyable time of year to be in Wisconsin as the trees change color and the crops come off the fields.

 

Looking at Reedsville from a nearby hill.

 

The Collins wildlife area is starting to show color.

 

 

 

 

 

John saw his old friend in Collins, the 1996 S10 that we sold earlier  this year when we left on our adventure.

 

 

The Bridgestone tires on our CRV were replaced with Goodyear’s last week; the original tires were worn out with a total of 22,000 driving and towing miles on them. Honda split the cost with us saying that they “may have received a bad batch of tires”; considering what we read on the internet this may be an understatement but we were happy with the resolution that was offered considering many people (not all are tow vehicles), were not offered anything despite having tires that were replaced with as few as 14,000 miles on them.

 

We may have stayed here to long, spiders have built a web on the mothership.

 

That’s not Sandy in the CRV, Halloween came early to Rainbow’s End.

 

The campground is full this weekend as there is an early Halloween celebration today, this is about the last big weekend of the year as Norm will be closing for the winter months on October 17th. Next weekend is Norm’s birthday celebration so we will eat some pork chops that he grills for the occasion. Most of the gang from the campground will be leaving for their fall outing, this year they will be in Florence County in northern Wisconsin; we will not be going as it is our last week here and we still have several things to do before we pack up and say goodbye to the family.

 

Ann, Judy and Sandy had some help setting up for Halloween.

 

Norm put up some of his decorations.

 

Activities included memory games for the younger group.

 

Temporary Tattoos were available.

 

Pin the nose on the pumpkin.

 

There was a good turnout for the activities.

 

Nancy had the crafts table.

 

Sandy helped with the ball toss.

 

Broom and balloon races.

 

Pinecone toss game.

 

The ever popular piñata.

 

Everyone waits for the piñata to break.

 

 

Tonight is trick or treat and there is an adult Halloween party later, we plan to attend the campfire at Gene and Ann’s. Tomorrow we will have breakfast with the gang before they leave for Florence, we have had fun here and will miss their company until we return to Rainbow’s End next July.

Labor Day Weekend.

We had another good week here and a great Labor Day Weekend.  Monday John changed oil in the CRV, we then drove to Chilton where we did some shopping and stopped to see Sandy’s father, KoKo enjoys her visit with grandpa and Mickie.

On Tuesday we were back in Chilton so John could have blood drawn at the lab prior to our annual physicals. We visited the doctor on Thursday and officially noted that John had lost 15 pounds during the past year, John didn’t tell the doctor that he has gained about 5 pounds in the past month since arriving back in Wisconsin but that’s alright as we have had a lot of fun visiting with everyone and going out to eat. After our physicals we met Sandy’s Father and Mickie for lunch at a Mexican Restaurant in Kiel.  

Wednesday was visiting day, we drove to Waupaca to have lunch with John’s uncle Frank and then back to Chilton for supper with Sandy’s brother Mike and wife Pat. It was nice to see uncle Frank, he has called us several times to check on our adventure; after lunch Frank drove us into Hartman Creek State Park for a walk and a visit to a bench that was dedicated in memory of Frank’s late wife Maxine; we had a nice visit and he made a great lunch for us. Back in Chilton we had another good meal and visit with Mike and Pat, we will see them again next weekend.

Friday we visited with Terry who has a site here for his trailer, we have known Terry for a long time as he has taken a number of fall trips to Upper Michigan with a group of mutual friends. Sandy and John also began to gather some things together that we will be putting in our storage unit, mostly these are items that we have not been using so we will get them out of our way and lighten our load a little. Friday evening we went out for a fish fry with friends Oscar & Mary, Todd & Judy, and Todd’s mother Nancy (who is also Oscar’s sister). After the fish fry we stopped at Terry’s site for a campfire, the cool weather here got everyone a little closer to the fire pit.

Saturday we had our weekly cleaning day. In the afternoon there was a crazy hat parade through the campground. The crazy hat parade is made up of people who have seasonal sites and golf carts at the campground, they don their hats and tour the park tossing candy to the kids; one cart also made an occasional stop to dispense shots of adult beverages for those interested parties who were old enough to partake.

Saturday evening we had a nice visit and went out for dinner with John and Heather; John and John worked together at the Sheriff’s Department so it was great to see them and we were so happy to learn that John should be retired by the end of this month, sounds like another celebration is in order! Oscar also stopped to say hello to John, Oscar was Sheriff while John and John were working. John is one of those guys that makes going to work fun, he is a true friend and a great partner who will be missed by the department; most of the stories about the exploits of John and John can only be told to adult audiences.  After John and Heather headed for home we were off to the campfire at Gene and Ann’s site, it was a late end to another great day.

 

Gene and Ann lead the Crazy Hat Parade.

 

Todd and Judy wave while enjoying the parade.

 

Oscar and Mary.

 

Sunday was a busy day here at the park, we put the agility course together and KoKo demonstrated her skills to an appreciative audience, she seemed to enjoy showing off for the other dogs. Later, the bigger boys in the park took their Radio Controlled Boats to the pond and had some fun racing around the water, a couple of lucky young bystanders were able to try their luck at the controls of one of Gene’s boats. During the afternoon we were back at Gene’s site for a Wii Bowling Tournament; we bowled 2 games but John and Sandy finished near the bottom of the group, we need to set some time aside for practice. The evening was quiet, John stayed in to watch the NASCAR race and Sandy went back to Gene and Ann’s site for a campfire, the group at the fire was tired so it broke up early and Sandy was back before the race ended.

 

KoKo takes a spin through the agility course for the group.

 

Oscar was the first boat on the water, Gene watches.

 

Gene makes a tight turn.

 

Oscar and Gene having fun.

 

Todd and Armand join the crowd.

 

Armand’s black boat is pretty sporty.

 

A nice group watched the boats.

 

Gene had a second boat that was pretty fast.

 

We had some periodic rain here today so it was a quiet end to the weekend. There were a number of sites full for the weekend and those people packed up and left during the morning and early afternoon. We got out for a walk this afternoon and said our goodbyes to some of the regulars who were going home for the week. We had a fun weekend and look forward to next weekend but we hope to cut back a little on our new habit of dinning out; as stated above we have really enjoyed getting together with everyone and we are having a blast here, hell, we can work off a little weight when we leave here.

Full Timing Review.

During the past 233 days we have spoken with a number of people about our “full time” RV lifestyle, we talked to other full-timers, work campers, snowbirds, vacationers and people who would like to try this lifestyle at some point. Some people have doubts or reasons why full timing would not be right for them and several promised to read our blog but asked us to review our initial impressions of this new lifestyle. This seems like a good time to do a review as we are currently back in our old hometown to visit family, friends and attend to required doctor visits etc.

People who have an interest in full timing but do not take the step seem to fall into two categories: They don’t want to part with their property and/or possessions, or, They have children, grandchildren, parents, or someone else who “needs” them. There are many other reasons why people don’t take the full time step, including but certainly not limited to, financial issues, a sense of being involved in and belonging to the community, and a fear of loneliness while away from family. We promised that we would address some of these points in our review; we are not qualified to give financial advice so we will not address that issue.

First, do we miss our sticks and bricks house and all the “stuff” that was inside it? At this time our answer would be no; we are comfortable living in the mothership and for the most part do not miss the things we sold or left behind. When we purchased this motor home we had already decided to try full timing and had a list of items we needed or wanted to take along, a big part of our motor home selection process involved determining if it could carry the things we wanted to take with us. Our selection process was documented in two previous blogs (No Checkbook allowed &   The Price is Right).

There are a couple things we do miss about our old hometown and the sticks and bricks house; at times John misses his workshop while Sandy misses the familiar surroundings of Chilton. When something needs repair or improvement John misses his workshop where he had access to his woodworking tools and a nice environment to work in but the need for the shop has been very limited and he has managed without it. The extra room we had in the house might be nice at times but overall we are comfortable in the mothership. Sandy enjoys walking early in the morning; before he retired John would be at work by 6:00AM and Sandy would have an hour or so to walk in Chilton before she got ready for work, she has not always felt comfortable walking outside of the campgrounds in the unfamiliar areas we have stayed in. Some of the parks have been large enough to have several miles of roads or trails to walk without venturing outside of the property into a city or rural area.

It is difficult for us to address the statement that someone can’t full time because a family member needs them at home. Several people indicate that they see their children or grandchildren everyday and that the kids “need” them; it appears to us that the kids rely on the parent or grandparent too much.

Depending on the situation it would seem that the needs of an elderly parent could be difficult for a full timer; in Sandy’s case she has three brothers who live in Chilton and they were able to assist their father when he was ill earlier this year; this is not always the case and depending on the situation and available resources it may be a difficult situation for a full timer to deal with. It was not easy for Sandy to be a thousand miles away while her father was ill and this resulted in our return to Wisconsin a month earlier than we had planned.

Full time RVing is not for everyone and if family bonds make it difficult for someone to be away for long periods of time they may be much happier as trip takers or extended travelers than as full timers. John spent a lot of time helping his parents before they passed, if they were still alive it is apparent to us that full timing would be difficult or impossible for us to enjoy as he was their only child living in state.

Overall we have enjoyed our first 233 days of full timing, but we have had our moments. The majority of campgrounds we have stayed in were great but at times there are noisy neighbors or other situations that we did not enjoy; for the most part these were cases of inconsiderate people and we simply moved on.

For us the positives of this lifestyle outweigh the negatives by a bunch. We have enjoyed the travel and experiences we have had in the first eight months and we would miss the freedom to travel to places we have dreamed about and our ability to stay as long as we like. We have met so many interesting and nice people and we are making friendships with others (both full timers and trippers), who have the same interests and appreciation for the freedom that an RV provides.  We have rough plans for next year and have discussed possible routes for the year after that so we do not plan to change our lifestyle in the near future but we will never say never. It is hard to predict the future and we may find a situation where a home base may appeal to us, for now we are very comfortable and happy with our mobile existence.