Making Progress

Before I describe the progress I’ve been making, I want to share some of the emails I got regarding the “gusher” blog-post:

My cousin Richard said, “Liked today's pictures.  Now you do not have to drive way to yellowstone to see that park.”

My neighbor Don Martin said, “KATHY: WE WHO ARE YOUR NEIGHBORS IN THE PARK WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU FOR YOUR CREATION OF A MINIATURE "OLD FAITHFUL GEYSER" THAT YOU PUT FORTH FOR OUR ENTERTAINMENT! PLEASE GIVE US ADVANCE NOTICE OF YOUR NEXT EVENT SO WE CAN GET FRONT ROW SEATS!”

My friend Dianne wrote on my Facebook wall: “I'm still laughing after reading your blog!  You are too funny.  The parking did end up perfect though.  :)"

You can also see the comments my sister-in-law Rose made on the blog under that post. In short, she thought it was hilarious.

As you can tell, I LIVE TO ENTERTAIN!

Yesterday and today, I’ve been making some progress on my camper and buying some things I still need in order to do what I want to do.

First, I had to put the stabilizer jacks down. At the recommendation of the Camping World tech, I had bought some grease in a can to spray on the jacks – they were quite rusty and hard to move. Since the jacks were in the up position, the part I needed to grease was almost completely covered. On the first jack, I turned it down manually and then sprayed the grease on the insides after I got it opened up.

When I got to the second jack, I realized I’d forgotten the blocks that need to go under them so I went back to the first one, turned it up enough to get the block under it, and put it back down. The grease made a big difference in how hard I had to work to turn it up and down.

At the second jack, I got smart and put the little red tube that was taped on the side of the can into the nozzle, slid it inside the jack and sprayed the track before letting the jack down. It worked great! Much easier than the first one. The rest were just as easy.

After the stabilizing jacks were in place, I opened the steps and went to get in the camper. I realized I needed some kind of rug to keep from tracking all of the sand and dirt on my clean camper floor. I slipped out of my shoes on the steps before going in, but knew I couldn’t do that all day long or I would end up on my backside tripping over my shoes.

Realizing it might be time for a trip to Wal*Mart to pick up a rug, I realized I also needed some kind of box to hold my hitch-related and camper-setup stuff: spring bars, sway bar, pry bar, lighted triangles (do I ever wish I’d used them during that day of all days - gusher Thursday), chocks, blocks, re-chargeable drill, socket with adapters for raising and lowering stabilizer jacks, jack cover for the A-Frame jack, leather gloves, and (spray) grease in a can. I also went to Ace Hardware and got the socket and adaptors I needed so I could use my re-chargeable drill to turn the jacks up and down.

My shopping trip was a success: I found the box I needed and a terrific rug to put just inside the camper door. I spent most of yesterday re-organizing my pickup truck bed.

Today, using 4-inch PVC pipe, I started fashioning a place to store the sewer hose. Normally, the back bumper is used for this, but the inside of mine is rusted and has sharp edges. Needless to say, holes in sewer pipe can present problems I would rather not think about. I’ll be fastening the PVC pipe to the bottom of the bumper.

I was originally going to put a permanent cap on one end, but decided to go to Home Depot to get another removable cap and a hacksaw, since mine has disappeared.

When I started to assemble the PVC pipe, I realized that the screw-on caps did not slip over the pipe as I thought they would, but needed a couple to attach to the pipe. Back to Home Depot where I bought a couple of couplers.

Tomorrow, I’ll go into more detail about how it all goes together and will include some pictures of the process. I’m also planning to install my new fire extinguisher and the carbon monoxide detector.

Until next time…