Well, according to our Facebook page, we were already on the road for our summer in Oregon this time last year! This year we have delayed a little. After all, we are retired, we have nothing but time right?!? Plus, there is still snow in the north! Anyway, we have spent the last couple of weeks getting things ready to either travel or be stored for the summer. We spent time checking the irrigation system in the yard and garden. We raised up some sprinkler heads and re-adjusted the coverage area of others. Making sure that everything we wanted to water would be getting water (and in the right quantities) was the goal.
Back when we landscaped the place, we put in a decorative grass called Monkey Grass. Now come to find out there are two different varieties of this stuff. One stays in a nice clump (like a mini-Pampas grass). The other takes off and overruns a garden like Bermuda grass on steroids. Unfortunately we had what appears to be a mixture of both. I wanted flower beds not a grass pad so we took to trying to remove all of the offending Monkey Grass. That was a major chore!! Those things shot out runners in all directions and were actually choking out some of the flowers and shrubs. We succeeded in removing a vast majority of the grass and replaced it with another type of decorative grass. This is a wider blade clump that isn't supposed to send out runners. We'll see how that goes.
While running to Home Depot for gardening supplies we came upon this car in the parking lot. Thought it was an odd thing to have in the parking lot of a hardware store but unique nonetheless. Turns out that Houston has an annual Art Car Parade and Show and Yoda here was part of the entries. We saw it featured later on the evening news and saw that there are also two very large ears that are added when the car is in show mode. Portlanders have nothing on Houstonians for weird!
What is amazing is that when we came back here in February, most everything you see in the photo above was under water. The flooding of the Bayou and the Trinity river came up to just below our site. The waters have receded and spring is blossoming out all over. (So is the pollen!!)
A significant part of our preparations includes some TLC to our home/transportation. Besides the usual checking of tire pressures and engine fluids, there is the checking of bolts and connections to insure that things that may have come loose get snugged up again. Then there is the cleaning... To wash and wax the coach, I take my time (primarily so as not to exhaust myself but also because I'm a perfectionist). It takes 5-6 days for me to thoroughly inspect, clean, and polish "The Beast". We also opened the underside bay doors and cleaned and inspected them. Barb helped frequently but took it upon herself to better organize our storage areas and to vacuum the accumulated dirt. She inventoried what we had onboard, determined if we really needed it or not, organized like task items and put the stuff we seldom use deep in the middle and the stuff we use more frequently to the outside. In the process she freed up some space and we actually have some open spots now! My task is to try not to expand into the new open space. :)
The car is not forgotten in this frenzy. It too gets washed and waxed. It gets cleaned inside and out and the tow bar is cleaned and re-attached.
We also have spent time packing up the interior of the Casita and Spa. Both have gotten a thorough cleaning and things have been put away and stored until we need them again. There are a few things on our list that must wait until just before departure but we are just about ready. We have decided not to workamp this summer and will spend our time touring the upper mid-West. Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Ohio are on the travel plans. We will come back through Kentucky to check up on our son, then meander back towards Texas to park the coach for the late Fall and Winter. Hopefully there will be more posts this summer (compared to last summer) with details of our travels.
