Lost 2 RV's, and Gained a Van, All In One Day

It was cold again this morning, so I was back to layering on clothes. But I didn't wear my working jeans, as I knew the folks were coming to get the Merry Miler. They were so excited about it, that I knew that they would arrive.

The cream passe partout on the raw edge of the paneled "Sight Glass" for the vertical water tank...................>

I put the newly painted water heater door back on the Merry Miler, and did some tidying up in the workshop. Jay managed to get some of the dark stripes compounded, and waxed, to make it look better. Shay gave it a once over with the shop vac. There was no way the windshield drape that I have for my B+ would work in it, as it is a Ford and mine is a Chevy. It seems that the Ford windows are taller. There was no time to make it, so I found some of those Reflectix windshield covers, and made enough to go around all three front windows. At least that would keep the sun out, and they would have some privacy if they went camping, until I could make it.

When they got here, they were ecstatic about it, and said that the pictures didn't do it justice.

It took a while to show them everything, and how it all worked. I gave them a new white hose, water pressure regulator, and one of those little hose crook things, so that the hose doesn't crimp. Showed them that the fridge and AC were cold, water pump pumped, started the genny, all that good stuff. The wife is a seamstress, so she took the fabric and will make the windshield drape. So I was in and out, up and down..... my poor old knees. Now, this is a 1-ton van, with 16.5" wheels, so it is higher up than a regular van. But I didn't even get a chance to take some Aleve after they finally left with it, as I had to feed the puppies.

The guy, Joe, that wanted to trade the van in on the Class C, had emailed that he was coming today, too. He wasn't going to be here for a while, so that gave Jay and me time to go into town to the bank, and the auto parts store for some stuff I needed. I ran Jay home, grabbed a quick sandwich, and tried to lie down to rest my back and knees. But, no, that didn't happen. Joe called from 10 freeway exits away, so I went out there to it, armed with a step stool and two pillows to put behind my back, and started it up. My feet won't hardly touch the pedals in that stick shift Class C !! Fords seem a little colder natured than some, and I like to get them warmed up before I show them. Joe had already seen, and driven it before, but I wanted to make sure it would start, as I had to put a battery charger on it yesterday, as someone had left a door open.

Joe arrived with the white Chevy van. Now, I don't need a van, but I need something air conditioned to drive, that will haul stuff, and I wanted that Class C out of here in the worst way ! I looked it over, and it is a nice conversion van, not camper van, done by Explorer. It has a button you push to make the rear couch into a bed. I will have to take that couch out, if I want to haul any 4' x8' sheets of lumber. Or I can push the button and make it into a bed, and carry a moving pad, so as not to ruin the velour, and carry stuff on top of the bed. It has 4 captains chairs. Powder blue velour seats, hurray ! Not leather. Power driver's seat, power locks and windows, front and rear AC. It had little oak nooks and crannies built-in, like cup holders, ice chest, drop down drink tables, magazine racks, oak closet pole across the back, and oak things, like a bar, built into the doors. Nice powder blue cellular blinds and velour drapes. It has the table that goes in the middle of the captain's chairs, but the pole was missing, no biggie, I have one ! It had had a TV in the console, and all the antenna stuff is already in there, so might put one back in. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a hitch.

I drove it down the road, first checking that the tranny didn't slip, by putting it in gear, forward and reverse, and revving it a little with my foot on the brake. It didn't slip. I wanted to check the brakes before I drove it anyway. It drives well, but I could tell that it needs shocks. I had already done the "proctology test", and stuck my finger up the tail pipe, to see if it was clean or oily. Joe had told me that one power window didn't work, so Jim, the mechanic, will have to have it for a while to fix that, and the shocks, before I want to drive it.

Joe and I did all our paperwork, and I showed him where everything was, and explained how it all worked. More up and down, and in and out. My aching back and knees. By the time he left, it was time to feed the pups, cat, kittens, and me.

Tomorow, if we have time, I am going to have Jay take out all the oak parts, before it goes to Jim's, so that they can be re-finished. I might even let May come back to work long enough to do that, as it is her forte. It will look extra super, by the time I am through with it, as it will be for sale, one day, when I find my station wagon.

With all that going on today, when I fed the pups, I forgot to give them their last dose of the de-worming medicine. Mashing the powder in a tiny bit of canned cat food in four little dishes, worked like a charm yesterday. It was so easy, they just ate it all up, even though they were caged separately. Now I am waiting for them to be hungry again, so that I can give it to them for the last time.

So that was my back breaking day.

Getting Merry Miler Ready

Today started out cold, so I didn't put the kittens on the screen porch until the afternoon when it had warmed up.


The pups seem to be a lot quieter, less ravenous, and more content, since they got de-wormed with this new medicine.


They are supposed to pick up the Merry Miler in the morning. As there are still things to do to it, Jay and I got right on it. I moved it to where we could plug it in, to charge the batteries, and turned on the fridge.

We got the rest of the drapery tie backs in, top picture.


I never could find any brown passe partout to cover the raw paneling edge of the sight glass for the water tank, so I had to use some cream that I had.


We installed some snaps and tie downs, to keep the bunk ladder in it's new place. I washed the plastic shower curtain. That seemed to rejuvenate it, and put it back up. I never could find a "Drylon" one the right color.


We checked the house battery, as it runs the fridge when not plugged in, and starts the generator which wasn't co-operating this morning. The house battery is under the front dinette seat, in a vented battery box, see right. There were some corroded connections, and a broken wing nut, even though the battery looked new. As soon as we cleaned them up, and sprayed them with dielectric grease, re-connected the battery, the inside lights brightened up. (This was before the rig was plugged in). Then we put the non-corroding battery spray over all the connections.


HaHa !!! So maybe now the generator will start ? It did, but then died like it was out of gas. I climbed up in the cockpit, and switched it to the back tank so I could see that gas gauge, and it was below 1/4 tank. Well, most generator gas fuel lines are made so that you have to have at least quarter of a tank of gas. This is so that you can't run yourself out of gas with your generator, and get stuck somewhere. Also, as it isn't fed from the bottom of the gas tank, it helps eliminate crud from getting in the genny's carburetor. I had taken off the fuel filter, and blown through it with the compressor, and it did have some dirt in there that blew out. I had forgotten to buy the new water heater cam lock, so we had to run up the road to the RV store to get one, and took a couple of gas cans with us. As soon as we put about 3 gallons of gas in the back tank, the genny started right up. Hurray !


Now this is an older RV, and to use the 110 v. with the generator, you have to "plug it into itself". This means that you have to plug the end of the RV cord into an RV outlet inside the cord storage compartment. This one was a bugger to get to. It was not designed the way I would have wanted it. It is a very narrow compartment, at the bottom of a narrow pantry, and difficult to get the plug through to the inside where it needs to be plugged in, or to the outside to get it to the CG pedestal. So, to make life easier, Jay made the little shelf above there, removable, so that you can have more working space. I priced an automatic switch-over while I was at the RV store, and I will pass on that !


We closed all the water drain valves, as it had been drained for the winter, and put some water in the tank, turned on the water pump, and all was well. The toilet flushed, too.


It was about 3.00 pm, and I was getting antsy, as the water heater cover looked grungy, and really needed wet sanding and painting. I asked Ray if he would come and help. He is good with spray painting. While Ray started on that, I took Jay home, as he had had enough of all the fiddly little jobs we had been doing on the Merry Miler all day. He is ready to get back on building the entertainment center in the White Class B.


The new cam lock is installed, and the water heater cover can be put back on tomorrow, after the paint has dried overnight. I still have to get the windshield drape finished tomorrow.


Ray and I checked some light bulbs on the Class C, and I cleaned up the rear light lenses. The guy that wants to trade me a van & cash for it, could show up tonight or tomorrow.


Ray and I measured how big the windshield drape needs to be. We installed the 'fisheye' mirror on the Merry Miler, and that was enough work for today for Ray, so he went home.


But I still have to worm the puppies, and feed all of us !


Dogs love canned cat food, even though they can't live on it, as it doesn't have the right doggie vitamins. I am going to try getting the medicine down the pups mixed in cat food. It works both ways, a cat can't live on dog food, it doesn't have the taurine in it, that cats need.


Another busy and "no nap day".

More Rain On & Off, Then a Nice Sunny Day

I picked Jay up, and we started on several little jobs. First was to get the workshop back in order. We vacuumed the area where the rag box goes, and Jay got on his knees and screwed the siding back on, that I had unscrewed, to get the kitten out from under the house. We got the rag box back in place, and filled it up with the clean rags. There was one little crack that we filled with some course steel wool, just in case any 'l'il meeces' decided to try to get in. He cut a treated board to stop the kittens from getting under the house again, under the steps, and screwed that in place. He also got the cable hatch back on the Merry Miler with new Butyl tape.

Shay worked for a short while. She cleaned the shower and stove in the Merry Miler, though it wasn't dirty, just dusty. She cleaned the top of the rag box, and she was going to paint it, but it started raining.

Ray started to do some more caulking to the Class C, and it started raining !

Jay and I were working on the tie backs on the side doors of the Merry Miler, but it started raining !

But we did get some done, see above. The kitchen drapes are up, but need longer tie-backs. Back to the sewing machine for me.

I was supposed to meet Kenya at 2.00pm to get the different worm medicine for the pups, and so we gave up on trying to work, with it raining every time we started to do something, and just went into Conroe.

We went to a couple of thrift shops, but I didn't see anything I couldn't live without. I am always keeping my eye out for nautical items, as that is going to be the theme in the White Class B. I have already found white sheets with sailing ships, anchors, and lighthouses on them, and white drapes for the upper windows with lighthouses and anchors on them. The White Class B was all done in burgundy velvet, and it was oppressive. As a lot of the drapes had sunrotted, I have to replace them anyway, but I am trying to lighten the rig up a bit with some navy blue and white. We will be installing solar film on the windows, so that the new drapes won't rot.

Finally got to WalMart, and got more cans of kitty, puppy food, and other things there, met Kenya at Petco nearby, and scurried back home with the medicine.

Now I have to make sure that each pup get it's own dose of this powdered medicine, Panacur.

I thought that would be a breeze ! I made up four little dishes of a little bit of canned food, and mixed each dose up with the food. I put the doors on my 4 kennel cages, like the ones the vets have, and locked a pup and dish in each cage. Oh, No ! They weren't having any of that. None of them wanted to be in there alone, and eat this food that tasted a bit strange !! I had to hand feed it to each of them, and then put them back in the puppy pen, so I would know who had had it, and who hadn't. I have two more days of this...

So that was my rainy day.