Alaska Ready? Almost….

Our tire pressure monitoring system arrived last week.  Decided I needed to have some tire valve extenders which came in on Tuesday.  As Arny and I were looking things over, we discovered that the driver-side back duels had both the inside and outside tire stem too close together.  They should be opposite each other like the “1” and the “7” are on a clock.  If I added the tire sensor, that would put too much weight on one area of the tire and effect the drive and the life of the tire.  A call to America’s Tire, which is what Discount Tire is called in California, and they will quickly fix it on Friday.  (As most of you know, we just got these tires due to a blowout and recall back in El Paso in early April)  Friday afternoon or Saturday morning will be monitor installation day.

Anytime you park for so many weeks, you always have things out in the kitchen…and our kitchen is small.  Before we left Florida I redid the pantry, and we both like the results of that. 

This latest fix was much easier.  I got this paper towel holder from Amazon, and installed it on the valance over the sink.  Previous to that we had stored it where the Kleenex box is above the valance….now we have a safe place (away from stove flames) for both of these paper products.

This is our bathroom sink area.  To the left would be the pantry, to the right is the bedroom.

    

I got these stainless cups to hold our toothbrushes, and during travel can easily fit in the medicine cabinet above.  And I got this corner shelf to hold other items to keep the counter top free of clutter, and they can ride along like they are without falling out.  Those lights above the sink, by-the-way, are LED lights.

Also installed these stainless drink holders next to each chair.  There were plastic ones there when we bought the motorhome last year, and one was already broken and I removed them months ago.  They fold up along the wall very easily, and if only the bottom one is out, a coffee mug will sit on it (nor recommended while driving of course).

So our little “living area” is now complete…solid floor below us, comfortable chairs, portable folding tables to hold our computers, a place to put our coffee mugs in the morning (you can see mine along the wall to the right of the empty chair), and a bashful wife (actually she was trying to catch a few Zzzzzz’s) to go with it all.  So the answer is….we are “NEARLY” ready for our trip to Alaska…and we are headed out from here on Sunday evening, planning to travel a whole 14 miles to the Thunder Valley Casino for the night, and then three days of long miles to get into Canada Thursday morning.

Had lunch with my girl today who came over to visit us all last night, and will leave tomorrow.  This was at Panera Breads after we ran a few late morning errands.

We picked up a pack of four Tri-tips from Raley’s Grocery Store on Sunday, and Arny barbecued them all up this evening.  I made my favorite salad (if you want to call Cool Whip, Pimento Cheese, Mandarin Oranges, Crushed Pineapple, Maraschino Cherries, and Marshmallows a salad), Marcia made a Green Salad, Arny also cooked up some corn-on-the-cobb, and also some chicken breasts for Stephanie who shies away from red meat. One of the tri-tips went right into our freezer, cut and put into baggies, which should provide five meals for us.  Friday we plan on left overs, where Arny will convert some of the tri-tips into fajitas, or some other main dish, and there is enough for a few other meals for them and for mom and dad next door.  Oh, and that lovely 92+ year old is taking everyone out to dinner on Saturday…her back is doing so much better, it is nice to have her be able to sit at the table with us all again.

So is everyone excited about heading out to Alaska????  By the looks of it, yes.  But looks can be deceiving…Bubba is jumping for joy and Skruffy is barking her little head off not because I said “Alaska”, but because I said “Peanut Butter Time”. 

You see…every night they both take a Glucosamine-Chondroitin-MSM pill for hip and joint health.  I use to have to crush it up in Peanut Butter for Bubba to take, now I can just put a good dab of Peanut Butter on the pill and give it to them, and they think it is a treat.  After that, they also get a DentaStix, and then it is night night time for both.  Unfortunately, Bubba will go though major withdrawal when we leave because he hates to leave his buddy Uncle Arny.  (He is not so happy about leaving his Uncle Mike’s house in Florida when we head out either…but with Uncle Arny there is no competition from other dogs and grandchildren, so Arny has the edge as “Uncles Go”.)   And this is a secret now…..I think both Uncles (Arny and Mike) and both Aunt Sandy’s (they both married a Sandy to make it easy on Bubba’s memory) go through Bubba Withdrawals too.  As for Skruffy…well everyone knows she is a Daddy’s Dog, turning into a Mama’s dog now and then, but definitely a Daddy’s Dog.