Interruption of Western Travelogue

I’m sure you have been enjoying our journey through Washington and Idaho.  We did so many things while we were out west that I still have several weeks worth of posts to share.  But we have been in Ohio to spend time with friends and family for the holidays, so I thought I would take the rest of December to write about our current doings.  Then, I can return to the west and complete our trip back to Ohio.  So please, pardon this interruption of the western travelogue.

We got back to Ohio on November 6 for all the usual appointments and things to take care of.  Tom and I scheduled dentist, eye doctor, and physician visits.  We sorted through boxes of mail.  I got all the Christmas cards written and sent.  We did our Christmas shopping.

As I mentioned, Tom and I “hosted” Thanksgiving.  It was a wonderful day with lots of good food and plenty of time for family.  On second thought, is there really ever enough time for family?  We ate, we laughed, we caught up.  We even had enough time for a game of UNO.

Some of the things we have done in the last six weeks will be separate blog posts.  But a lot of the things we do around the holidays are things we do every year.  Holiday traditions.  We have been with John and Jackie two or three times a week.  We have also seen my parents two or three times a week.  All of that has been wonderful, except for watching the Browns games – those are just painful no matter how much we love the people we are watching the games with!

Tom fixing the slide seal

Several repairs were needed for the RV and we have been working our way through those.  One of the rubber seals on the slides got caught and came off its track.  While the slide was pulled in, Tom climbed on top and put the seal back on the track.  It took some muscle and caused a few blisters, but it is working perfectly again.

We also had a small gas leak.  This has been going on for a long time and, at first, we just thought it was the way the RV smelled when the furnace was on.  It wasn’t enough to set off the propane alarm.  But the smell seemed to be getting stronger.  Tom isolated the strongest smell to under the kitchen sink – where the water heater lives.  He put some soapy water on the gas pipes leading to the stove and to the hot water heater.  The connection to the stove immediately bubbled, so we knew where the leak was coming from.  After half an hour under the sink, and with the help of his trusted assistant, Tom got the leak stopped.  It is so nice to come into the RV without smelling propane.

We hired Speedy K’s to clean the carpets and upholstery in the RV.  I wanted them to wash and wax the outside also, but they claimed that 27 degrees was too cold to work outside.  They did a great job with the inside stuff and finished in about an hour.  They really are speedy!

Our final “repair” was getting a new computer.  Bouncing around from coast to coast was very hard on our desktop.  The video card, especially, didn’t like the jostling.  We replaced it once, but it was getting to the point where it had to be reseated every time we moved.  So we bought a laptop that is more suited to moving.  Moving everything from the old computer to the new one was relatively painless because we have been backing things up regularly.

I will continue to write about what we have been doing in Ohio until the end of the month.  Sorry for the interruption, but stay tuned for more of our adventures into the new year.