August 22, 2003 - Nacogdoches, TX - 5

Life in a hotel room really isn't all that bad.  Particularly when it's in the high 90's and low 100's outside with the humidity up there too.  But then again..........

Might as well talk about some really important stuff.  The things in life that matter more than how the motorhome may be progressing, what the weather might be like, and stuff like that.  On July 13 this year, son Rick and his wife Lynn presented us with our third granddaughter, their first baby.  They sent pictures, which I promptly "lost" somewhere on this confuser, and then when they sent the one of Lynn with our granddaughter, I managed to "find" the others as well.  World, we'd like to introduce Alexandria Carys Jenkins to you.  And Lynn's smile says it all.  They live in Sacramento, CA, and we're looking forward to seeing them in the spring.

Remember the "before" pictures of the storage bays?  Well, guess what.  These are "before" shots as well.  Before we drag it all out again in NH, sort through it to separate the "nice to have" from the "need to have" stuff, and then stuff the stuff back in there again.  Probably do it several times before we get it "right," but we'll get there eventually.  A friend from Warm Beach, WA, Patrick, gave us a slide mechanism he didn't need so we'll in all likelihood use it in that bay that is currently housing the little red witches hat.  Put tools on it.  The box I had in the truck wouldn't fit here, so not sure what we'll do just yet.  Probably worry about it so the problem will go away, right?

The blue tarp is hiding the stuff we'll stuff into the U-Haul trailer to drag back to NH and re-sort.  Going to have a humongous garage sale/goodwill donation, that's for sure.  The little red mini-van is on its last legs, but it's a freebie on loan to us, and we're sure grateful.  Made another run to Wal-Mart yesterday in it because we learned we're going to be here until at least Tuesday of next week, and I suspect it'll be later than that.  But at least by Tuesday we should be able to live in the coach at night again and move out of the hotel.

Got a couple of "before" shots here.  The blank space by the fire extinguisher, behind the passenger seat,  is where there used to be a little table that is being expanded to hold the computer stuff, and that little drawer/shelf between the couch and kitchen counter is where Barb will get her file drawers.  Probably loose the armrest of the couch in the process.

Ohmigawd, looky there at all them wires!  That's Texan for "stay away from here, Dave".  They lifted the panel in order to lay the tile around the top of the stairs.  And then you can see Barb's drawers.  Well, yes, and the file cabinet besides.  They don't have the drawer faces on yet, but we've seen them in the shop and they look pretty good.  Not sure what that blue pixilated stuff is on the white vacuum cleaner.  Just noticed it.  Hummmm.  Always something making me scratch my head.  Maybe that's why I've no hair on top any more.........

Those little "crosses" are what they use to gauge the distance between the tiles.  The next step will be to glue the tile to the plywood, and then put the grout between the tiles.  After letting it sit for 24 hours, then we can use it again.  I was impressed with the work Mike was doing to cut the intricate notches needed around the steering column and brake/accelerator pedals. Not only did he have to cut the shape, he had to cut it thinner to accommodate the flange.  Used a thing that looked like a Dremel tool on steroids.  He'd shave some off, then give it a try, and then shave off a bit more and try again.  Enjoyed watching him work at it.

I took the clutter picture just to make us feel good, knowing that we're not the only ones who can clutter up a counter.  And there's Mike, carefully fitting in some more tile.

Hummmm.  There's some more of that blue pixilation stuff again.  That's going to take up some of my nap time if I let it, as I try to figure out what did that and why it's there.  Seems to only appear on really bright stuff.  Anyway, please don't flush the toilet!  Actually, it's electric, so don't worry about it.  That's mostly our furniture piled alongside the coach, and some that belongs to somebody else that must be getting some floor covering work done too.  And then the tile cutting saw.  I was impressed they put cardboard down to catch any spatter from the water cooled blade.  I'd seen this big mattress box laying around next to our stuff and wondered what the deal was.  Then today I found out.  No wonder the floor is always so clean.

The computer station with its lamp.  Looks more like a nice little table with a cabinet underneath, doesn't it.  Please say "Yes" because that's what we wanted it to look like.  It'll hold the printer, scanner, external hard drive, CD burner, 4 port USB hub and the surge protector.  It'll get some holes in the side for the cables that will attach to the laptop, which will be sitting on my lap when I'm using it.  At least that's what we designed it for.  Well, actually, Dwayne, standing there with Barb designed it for us.  He's the team lead, foreman, BOSS, or whatever.  His card says "Interior Refurbishing."

That's Richard.  And when I complimented him on his handiwork, he gave credit to Mike for teaching him.  Richard impressed me by doing some of the tile cutting freehand, and getting the inside corner cuts perfectly square in the process.  I really like watching people do things I'd loose fingers trying to do.

Dwayne says his crew should be done by Tuesday, and then it'll be Gary's turn for his crew to attack the list we gave them.  At the rate things are going, we may just cool our heels here at the factory and head north after Labor Day holiday is over.  Not sure I much want to share the roadways with people on a holiday like that.  We'll see.