Sunday, May 31, 2009

Coronado Drip Caps.


It was lovely this morning, not too hot and a slight breeze so it was great to be outside.

MaeMae and I went to get Jay, who had called to say he was ready!! When we got there, it was obvious that he had been partying last night, as there were beer cans strewn all over his yard. He didn't even come to the door, even though MaeMae went across the street to play with Muffy in her fenced yard for a while. I knew that Jay wouldn't be fit to be around, so MaeMae and I just came home. He had been very hyper yesterday, and I was glad when he left early. All that talk about feeling so much better when he didn't drink.

Ray and I mostly worked on the yard, he mowed, and I trimmed a bush that was sprawling over the new walkway, and bagged up a bunch of water bottles and other trash out of the Coronado.
Then we got the Coronado drip caps primed, painted and put up in a safe place. The baggage door hinge is not salvageable, and I cannot find one at any of the stores, so I had to look online. Finally found one at a boat dealer.
I found the time to list some things on eBay, and bake some pork chops, apples, zucchini and spuds, in the convection/ toaster oven.
Oh Boy, did I have four-legged audience for that!
Patches and Mime were on the porch for a while, and they were very good and didn't chew on the plants, or knock any down.

Just a quiet, laid back, warm day.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Kew Gardens, London. Coronado Countertop.

MaeMae and I drove down to Jay's, but he took his sweet time about getting ready, we had to wait while he watered all his trees, and plants, and got the hose all wound up. Ray was already here, and working on the Coronado drip caps when we got back here.
Jay and I went up into my attic and got down any more pieces of thick foam board insulation that we could find. While we were up there, we also brought down a convection/toaster oven. I bought it to put in one of the RV's, but it was so heavy that I didn't think it would be practical. I had avoided putting it in my kitchen, until now, as it isn't white. But the beautiful white Farberware one that I bought a few weeks ago, isn't practical for me. It has a pre-set temperature setting, which seems to vary, according to my oven thermometer, and the shelf is not adjustable. If I warmed up anything I would have to put foil on it, to stop it from burning. Another white one I have doesn't have a timer, and I tend to get involved and forget about it, until the smoke alarms reminds me! On another white one, the mode setting knob seems to have gone wrong. The little lightweight white one I bought the other day, is for the Mirage. So I bit the bullet and put this black/brushed chrome one in the kitchen until I find a nice white one. I use a toaster oven and my little white microwave a lot more than my big convection/ microwave which is built-in, out of this picture, to the left.
Then Jay and I riveted some more reinforcements to the under belly, but it was too nice to be inside the Coronado trailer.
When we had taken the kitchen cabinets out, and dismantled the sink unit, we found that this part of the counter top was made of some kind of Masonite. I don't know if this was original, as I don't remember what was in there when I owned this trailer in the late 60's/early 70's, and then again in the late 80's. Yes, I have owned it twice before! But it was obvious that this Masonite was going to fall apart, so we cut the new counter top out of plywood so that it would be accurate. Then, as with a lot of things, we stored it in Pugsy, my 68 Venture motor home.
A couple of the drip caps had been stubborn about coming off the trailer, and the whole thing was built with straight slot screws!! But we got them off, so that Ray could continue. Needless to say, original or not, we are going back with Phillips head screws, anywhere that doesn't show. But we will re-use all the straight slot ones, where it does.
Back in the days when we would go into London, while I was living with my grandparents during the war, one place we would visit would be Kew Gardens. They had ducks, geese and even swans on the lake. One time we went with a wildlife association, and they told us about all the different types of ducks. I was too young to remember all the names, but I remember feeding them.
Kew Gardens Royal Botanical Gardens even has a palace, too, and lots of aviaries, and rain forest type glass pavilions. Kind of like Moody Gardens at Galveston, TX, only on a much larger scale.
Not everything is bigger in TX!
If you are interested, here is a lot of information about Kew Gardens, London.
Gee, this should have been a tiny URL:
http://search.aol.com/aol/imageDetails?s_it=imageDetails&q=Kew+Gardens%2C+England&img=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hort.wisc.edu%2Fmastergardener%2FFeatures%2Fbotgardens%2FKew%2FKew-general.jpg&site=&host=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hort.wisc.edu%2Fmastergardener%2FFeatures%2Fbotgardens%2FKew%2FKew%2520Gardens.htm&width=143&height=64&thumbUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fimages-partners-tbn.google.com%2Fimages%3Fq%3Dtbn%3Ajw3nGnKAN9AsRM%3Awww.hort.wisc.edu%2Fmastergardener%2FFeatures%2Fbotgardens%2FKew%2FKew-general.jpg&b=image%3Fq%3DKew%2BGardens%252C%2BEngland%26page%3D2%26oreq%3D17f3d27b2d6649ab&imgHeight=357&imgWidth=800&imgTitle=%3Cb%3EKew%3C%2Fb%3E+Gardens+contains+a+diverse+mix+...&imgSize=111359&hostName=www.hort.wisc.edu2C+England&img=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hort.wisc.edu%2Fmastergardener%2FFeatures%2Fbotgardens%2FKew%2FKew-general.jpg&site=&host=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hort.wisc.edu%2Fmastergardener%2FFeatures%2Fbotgardens%2FKew%2FKew%2520Gardens.htm&width=143&height=64&thumbUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fimages-partners-tbn.google.com%2Fimages%3Fq%3Dtbn%3Ajw3nGnKAN9AsRM%3Awww.hort.wisc.edu%2Fmastergardener%2FFeatures%2Fbotgardens%2FKew%2FKew-general.jpg&b=image%3Fq%3DKew%2BGardens%252C%2BEngland%26page%3D2%26oreq%3D17f3d27b2d6649ab&imgHeight=357&imgWidth=800&imgTitle=%3Cb%3EKew%3C%2Fb%3E+Gardens+contains+a+diverse+mix+...&imgSize=111359&hostName=www.hort.wisc.edu
It is getting hotter, so had to use the AC today.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Hampton Court Palace. Shopping. Stent.


Still not too hot, but AC was needed in the van.

Jay came up with an emergency. Even though I have a sign that says "LACK OF ORGANIZATION ON YOUR PART DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN EMERGENCY ON MY PART", I took him into town to pay his power and water bills. We really had a lot to do today, and I didn't need to take the time off. Ray was stripping the several layers of paint off the drip caps, and even found a new color on these, light blue, we hadn't come across that color before!. Rhonnie was setting the pavers in place.

By the time we had gone to Jay's bank and paid his bills, it was getting too late to start any work, so we went on into the next town, got the usual weekly things, and some more foam board insulation for the Coronado and some parts for Jay's fence. Stopped at the 99c. Store which has gone up to 99.9 cents!!

Last Wednesday I said that I would tell you about Hampton Court Palace. There are several Royal Palaces around Britain: http://www.hrp.org.uk/ But I am talking about Hampton Court: http://www.hrp.org.uk/HamptonCourtPalace/planyourvisit/toptenthingstoseeanddo.aspx I wasn't very old, and it was The Maze that fascinated me. The enormity of the palace and all it's trappings didn't interest me very much, at that time.

""If you’re at all interested in Tudor history or just like grand and stunning old-English palaces and estates then you must go to Hampton Court Palace. Once lived in by Henry VIII (please do start singing I’m Henry the 8th I am…) and William and Mary hosts some of the most impressive landscaped gardens and 1/2 Tudor and 1/2 Baroque architecture you will find in England. Hampton Court Palace is one of the Historic Royal Palaces you can tour (the others sponsored by HRP is the Tower of London, Banqueting House, Kensington Palace and Kew Palace).
Hampton Court Palace is fairly easy to get to from London–just take the train to Hampton Court station from Waterloo. This is probably one of the easiest heritage sites to visit outside of London.
Hampton Court Palace (back & front)
My favourite part of Hampton Court was actually the gardens. You will walk through a field of daffiodils, fondly called the Wilderness, on your way to the English Garden Maze. The gardens will lead you to the back of the Palace where you’ll start to see open fields with tree-lined walkways and then big candy-drop trees (I have no idea what they are actually called so please correct us on the proper tree name) that line the paths to the back of the Barogue part of the Palace which is called the Great Fountain Garden. Make sure you check out the 20th century garden–when I was there no one went in it because the entrance is against the side wall and it looked closed off. On the opposite side there is the Privy Garden, the Knot Garden and the Pond Garden. These are perfect to wander through when it is spring and summer.

Once you have finished the gardens, go on inside to the actual Palace. You can either enter from the back or the front. I wasn’t that impressed with the inside because it is decorated in the dark and drab Tudor style. Make sure you pick up
an audio guide if you want to hear about each room and the history. The rooms to visit are spread out over the ground and first floors where you’ll see the Tudor kitchens, and the various apartments for William III, Mary and Henry VIII. """

Claudia is having a stent put in her new liver, today. It is just an Out Patient procedure.

Jay and I didn't get any work done today.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Coronado Kitchen Cabinets Out.

The weather has been co-operating, and it hasn't been too hot.

Yesterday, we had the second part of the floor installed in the bedroom. Then Jay and I removed the cook stove, and started to remove part of the kitchen cabinets in the 47 Coronado.


<> Today, we removed the sink, faucet, plumbing, cabinet, trim, and cut off part of the wall, as it was messed up, and the floor under it needed to be replaced. Then we washed the underbelly, and left it to dry.


While we were doing this Rhonnie was grading the place out in front for the new brick pathway. This has always been a mud spot, and a nuisance when we needed to walk in front of the house from the workshop to the storeroom, which is at the back of the RVport.

We found out that we needed another length of strong screws for the floor installation, and some more paint stripper, so another quick trip into town again, today.



Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Locks! No, the Ones on Rivers.

I was looking at some RVer's blogs, yesterday, and this one had pictures of the C&O Canal, DC.
http://www.mytripjournal.com/ann-ken&m=0

It brought back some memories of my childhood in London, England. I lived with my grandparents during the war (WWII). They were very frugal, and liked to enjoy natural things. One of our favourite pastimes was to walk the tow paths on the locks of the River Thames. Of course these are a lot farther upstream than the mighty River Thames that flows through London. Sometimes I would even help the sluice gatekeepers. It was either a wheel or other times it was a big beam that had to be walked, to open the gates. We would do different sections on each trip.




Other times we would go farther downstream and we would go to
Hampton Court Palace, but that will be for a different day.








Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Shopping for Material Again. Historic Sign.

Another day that wasn't too hot, but when Jay and I went into the next town and after the van had been sitting in parking lots, we needed to use the AC.
We went to get 24 red paving stones, plywood, several bags of concrete mix, and screws at Lowes. Then coffee, creamer, fish food and silver Rustoleum Hammered paint at WalMart. I just like WalMart's Great Value brand Colombian coffee, regular and unleaded. The minivan toted all that like a trooper, even with the AC on. It just has a 3 liter motor! By the time we got back and got everything unloaded at the different places, it was too late to start on anything.

Ray had been left behind to work on trying to get the drip caps off the Coronado. They had several layers of different color paint on them, some latex, some oil based, and we didn't want to put stripper on them so close to the aluminum of the trailer. Normally I would just go buy new drip caps, but these are different, and I want to keep it as original as I can.

The "Las Vegas Sign" is now registered as a Historic Place!
"I'm not sure the National Park Service has recovered from the idea of having this sign in the National Register of Historic Places.
It's one of the few landmarks on the Strip that has lasted 50 years," says county commissioner Rory Reid. "In fact, I think it's one of the few things in the valley, other than people, older than 50 years. "
The sign cost four thousand dollars when it was erected in 1959.
But it's priceless now, featured in countless movies, TV shows, and family vacation photos.
"The Las Vegas strip has been designated the only nighttime scenic byway in America," says Reid. "And it's been called the jewel of the desert. Well, if this street is the jewel, this sign is the crown jewel." http://www.ktnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=10404574

I have been letting Mime and Patches into the house sometimes. Like when Bobcat was on the porch, or when MaeMae was gone yesterday. This afternoon they are all in the house, and Mime hasn't attacked Bobcat or MaeMae yet! Maybe she has got over her attacking mode! Patches is asleep under the dining table and doesn't want to be disturbed.

Have a safe day.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Memorial Day.Mae Mae went to Houston to see her Mom.

At 7.30AM I gave MaeMae a bath, and fluff-brush-dried her to make her all fluffy and pretty. She is going to Houston to see her "Mom", Claudia, with Leo and Jay. I trimmed up her face and top-knot a little. I wish I had taken a picture before she left at 8.35.

I have already heard the sirens of EMS vehicles going down the road behind my house to one of the marinas down there. The Three-Day Weekend Warriors are at it again, foolin' around on the lake. I can smell different BBQ's and their fixins'. But today is not so much a holiday as a Day Of Remembrance.
Our family is fortunate. We haven't lost a family member in battle since my grandmother's brother got killed in WW1. My father survived the RAF,(Royal Air Force), my stepfather (British Army), came back shell-shocked in WWII. My oldest son, (British Army) was in the Falkland Islands Fiasco, and is now fine in England. My ex made it through Nam, (US Army), but it did have a bad effect on him. My late DH, (US Army) made it through Korea. But today is for remembering those who have fallen.

""Memorial Day
For this Memorial Day, we decided to acknowledge the man credited with starting the day, General John A. Logan. From Wikipedia: Memorial Day.
The official birthplace of Memorial Day is Waterloo, New York. The village was credited with being the birthplace because it observed the day on May 5, 1866, and each year thereafter, and because it is likely that the friendship of General John Murray, a distinguished citizen of Waterloo, and General John A Logan, who led the call for the day to be observed each year and helped spread the event nationwide, was a key factor in its growth.
General Logan had been impressed by the way the South honored their dead with a special day and decided the Union needed a similar day. Reportedly, Logan said that it was most fitting; that the ancients, especially the Greeks, had honored their dead, particularly their heroes, by chaplets of laurel and flowers, and that he intended to issue an order designating a day for decorating the grave of every soldier in the land, and if he could he would have made it a holiday.
Logan had been the principal speaker in a citywide memorial observation on April 29, 1866, at a cemetery in Carbondale, Illinois, an event that likely gave him the idea to make it a national holiday. On May 5, 1868, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, a veterans' organization, Logan issued a proclamation that "Decoration Day" be observed nationwide. It was observed for the first time on May 30 of the same year; the date was chosen because it was not the anniversary of a battle. The tombs of fallen Union soldiers were decorated in remembrance of this day. ...
The alternative name of "Memorial Day" was first used in 1882, but did not become more common until after World War II, and was not declared the official name by Federal law until 1967. On June 28, 1968, the United States Congress passed the Uniform Holidays Bill, which moved four holidays from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a convenient three-day weekend. ""
Related links:History Channel: Memorial Day U.S. Memorial Day History

http://dc.about.com/od/specialeventphotos1/ig/Rolling-Thunder-Pictures/er-Pictures/


You have freedom because of those who served for you.

I hope that everyone is having a very safe day.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

First part of floor in Coronado

Another Non Air Conditioning Day, that is fine by me.

Ray is still working on the ceramic floor, as I can hear the water saw cutting the tile from across the street.

MaeMae and I picked up Jay, and we started back on the Coronado bedroom floor. MaeMae 'helped' from her little work bed.
Because the back end of the Coronado tilts up, ever so slightly, we couldn't make our first "break" on the plywood at the 4 foot mark. So we concentrated on that first angled 30".

We got it insulated, there wasn't enough room to put fiberglass in there, so we used 3/4" foam board insulation. The framework is all screwed with self-drilling screws, or carriage bolted to the frame
underneath. There are two outer solid main frame rails, and then a third one in the middle which is an I-Beam.
We had kept the radius corner pieces of the old floor to use as a template for the new one, so with a lot of measuring and re-checking, Jay cut the plywood, and we got it tapped in place, under the walls.

Then the plywood was all screwed down with strong exterior grade screws to the framework. We had put patches of masking tape on the walls to mark the framework, and popped lines with a chalk box, to know where to put the screws.

We knew that first piece with the radius corners would be the most difficult.

Yesterday, Jay had brought a roast here, and I had cooked it in my Presto Chef's Kettle slowly all afternoon. So we celebrated by having roast beef sandwiches. Boy, was it tender.

We feel that we accomplished something today.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Coronado Floor.

Another day that was cooler, so that I didn't have to run the AC. This is getting to be a nice habit.
Bobcat spent most of the day on the screen porch.

Ray is elsewhere today, installing ceramic floor tile. I wouldn't want one, I really got my back hurt, slipping on a ceramic tile floor.

I picked up Jay and we worked on the Coronado floor. It took all kinds of tools to do the drilling, driving and screwing, and we got some of the framework installed. Some of these bolts and screws have to go through the frame, and it is a solid one. We will be installing the plywood floor in 4 foot wide sections. So we have to
make sure there is a joist at the 4 foot mark, just like framing a house.

I see a bunch of RV's, and boats, of different shapes and sizes coming in this lake subdivision for the weekend. Lake Conroe will be busy with the folks chasing around in their boats, so I hope everybody stays safe.

That is about it for today.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Worked on Mirage and Coronado Again

It was a great day today, not too hot. No AC needed until some humidity rolled in. After a few drops of rain, the humidity went away, and it was nice again.

Ray worked on the Mirage doors cabinet again, he had to un-install them to wood putty, sand and re-paint a few boo-boos, where Jay had tried to install the hinges in the wrong place. Then he went to work on installing an outlet on that side of the Mirage, as there wasn't one.

Jay and I worked on the Coronado floor. The underbelly is in great shape for a 62 year old trailer, we can tell that it was better built than the 53 Silver Streak Clipper and the vintage Airstreams that we have worked on. But there were still a few places that we felt should have metal riveted over thin spots, before attaching the joists. We also riveted metal over any of the plumbing holes that another owner had drilled in the underbelly. They had run plumbing lines all over the place for the bathtub they installed under the corner bed, and then the weird place that they had installed the water heater. One line went across a doorway!! The plumbing should all be inside, except for one outlet underneath. Once the floor gets in, it would be too late to cover those holes. We did what we could, and then went into town to two hardware stores to get more rivits, and some special screws.

This is a picture of a 1936 travel trailer, not much older than the one we are working on. How do you like their Add-A-Room?


Golly, even Sitting Bull worried about the future, and making a good life for our children!

Let's try to make this world a good place for our kids, and take the time to read to them every day.