Automotive Repairs

Meric is a do-it-yourself kind of guy when it comes to automotive maintenance and repairs. Living in a trailer makes that a bit of a challenge. We don't have a garage or driveway to work in and most campgrounds aren't too thrilled about people changing their oil and stuff like that on the campsite. So how can you do your own automotive work while living in a trailer? Well being in the military makes the answer easy, take it to the automotive bay. On most military posts they have automotive bays where you can take you vehicle to have work done on it or a place to do it yourself. At only $1.75 per 1/2 hour you can rent a bay area which includes lifts, access to all of the tools and help/advice from the mechanics who work there.

This past Saturday Meric and I took advantage of the automotive bay. Meric had just gotten a "power pack bundle" from Banks. (Banks is a company that specializes in upgrades for your vehicles.) The bundle included: air intake, exhaust (including high flow muffler), inter cooler and down pipes, tuner, speed brake. All of this is to help make his truck more efficient while towing our trailer. After a quick safety video, Meric and I checked out some tools and went to work. We were going to start by changing the air intake and the exhaust. Meric had looked at the instructions for the air intake and decided any idiot could do it, so that was my job. Following the instruction booklet (the pictures helped) I was able to switch out the old air intake for the new one on my own.

the new air intake that I installed

Meric started on the exhaust but quickly ran into trouble with a couple of rusted bolts that just wouldn't come off. Being at the automotive bay was great because Meric had access to so many different options to try and get the bolts off. Unfortunately, one of the guys that was helping broke one of bolts. Which led to more time being spent in trying to get the rest of the broken one out, but without any success. We did change out the exhaust but we will need to figure out what to do with the broken bolt at another time. For those that are worried the exhaust system is still functional without the bolt and there isn't an exhaust leak.

Meric's new exhaust tip

Broken bolt top right corner

We still have a lot of work to do before the new system is completely installed on Meric's truck but the automotive bay makes it easier. It is nice to have a place we can go to work on our vehicles.

4th of July

Cabin in the memorial

For the 4th of July, Meric and I decided to do some more sightseeing. This time we went to visit Abraham Lincoln's birth place. I knew that Lincoln was from Illinois, but I didn't realize that he was born in Kentucky until we moved here. Lincoln's birth place is actually only 30 minutes down the road from us. Our first stop was Sinking Spring Farm. This is the site of Abraham's family farm at the time of his birth. There is a memorial building which houses a cabin from the era of Lincoln's birth. (The actual cabin he lived in no longer exsists.) The 56 steps up to the memorial represent the 56 years of Lincoln's life. There is also the sinking spring, a walking trail, a gift shop that shows a video about Lincoln's life in Kentucky, and cabins that you can rent for an "authentic" experience.

56 steps to the memorial

Sinking spring

Next we headed down the road to visit the sight of Lincoln's boyhood home. Abraham's family moved from Sinking Spring to Knob Creek when he was only 2 or 3. The site has a log cabin, a small garden to  demonstrate the crops that were grown there, and a picnic area.

Cabin at Knob Creek

After our presidential sightseeing, we headed home to bbq some steaks and watch 1776. When it got dark we watched the fireworks show that was going on close by.

Playing Tourist in Kentucky



 

It doesn't look a thing like the real Stonehenge

Today Meric and I decided to play tourist and visit some near by attractions. Our first stop was Kentucky Stonehenge. It is located on private property (right next to the person's house) but they allow people to walk around it. In reading about this stonehenge I couldn't find any explanation as to why it was built. After seeing it in person, I think it was built because the owner has the space and enjoys building things with stone. The house was surrounded with interesting stone features and a very cool looking outdoor stone fireplace.

One of the many stone cannons on "Cannonhill"

Our next stop was the very exciting Dinosaur World. Okay so I admit this one was cheesy for two adults to do, but I felt like a little bit of cheese. It was a dinosaur museum and a walking trail that had life size dinosaur replicas along the way. It was actually not too bad and we had fun walking around taking pictures with the dinosaurs.

The last stop of the day was the National Corvette Museum. There were so many beautiful cars! They had a 1953 model (the very first) and several other classic, new and rare corvettes. The museum was huge and we both learned a lot about this classic car.

Meric really wants one now!

1953 (the first model)

Tonight we enjoyed skydivers and a fireworks show put on by the campground. It was really cool and very convenient to just sit outside and watch the show so close to our house (trailer).

1 of the 3 skydivers

On a side note, I knew that we live close to the time zone line where it changes from EST to CST but today I learned exactly how close. From where we live right now, if we drive ten minutes south of us we are in CST. TEN MINUTES down the road an we would only have a two hour time difference from everyone back in Washington instead of the three hours we have now. I have never lived this close to a time zone line and find it kinda weird.

Long Time No Blog...

Time seems to really fly by when you are traveling cross country and getting settled in a new state. At the end of May, Meric and I left North Carolina and headed to Kentucky. It was our first time to haul the trailer further than across the campground and we were nervous. I was nervous for Meric hauling our 5th wheel and Meric was nervous for me hauling our cargo trailer. Turns out neither of us had to worry because we made it to Kentucky just fine and in one day. During our trip I was impressed by the people who would graciously let us merge and one guy at a gas station who helped Meric back out of a tight spot. (backing up the trailer is definitely a two person job!) Our first night we camped at the KOA just south of Louisville. After a long day of hauling trailers it was nice to sleep in our own bed. The KOA is also where we were going to be storing the trailers while we traveled to Spokane.

It took us about 2 1/2 days to travel to Spokane. We really enjoyed our time there and in Ridgefield but as always it never seems long enough to do everything and see everyone. On the way back to Kentucky we had a wonderful treat of visiting with AJ and Jessica and holding baby Reagan. (Yes I am still bragging that I got to see and hold her first!) You know you have a long way to go if South Dakota is on the way!

We stayed our first few nights in Kentucky at the KOA and then moved to our current campground. We are staying at the Glendale Campground and really like to so far. It is a family owned and run campground and they seem like a real nice family. A lot of the people here are full-timers too. It seems more like a little community than a campground. Our spot is really close to the spots on either side of us, but the owner said that they only fill them when they are really busy. There is a pool and a lake on the property as well as a couple of large grassy fields. It is a nice campground and we like it here except that it is a bit of a drive to get to Fort Knox, about 40 minutes.

Tweaking the Trailer: Bathroom Edition

When you live in a trailer one thing you need to do is maximize minimal space. The bathroom is one space that definitely needs to be maximized. In our trailer we have a bath and a half but we are using the "half" as a utitlity closet and that leaves us with just one bathroom. Here are some modifications we made to make our space more useful.

Shower: In our bathroom we have a shower only and no tub. (Yes some trailers have bathtubs.) We only have two small shelves to put our shampoo, conditioner, soap, etc.  That is not enough space for everything and our shower head is not one you can put a shower caddy over.

Our solution was to add a soap dispenser and hook. This way I have plenty of room for shampoo, conditioner, and soap. I also can use the top as an extra shelf for my razor and face soap.

Towels: Without a linen closet, we don't have a lot of space for towels. Also with a small washer/dryer, I can only wash a maximum of 3 bath towels at once. Our solution was to get microfiber bath towels. Microfiber towels are very thin but very absorbent. They are actually bigger than regular bath towels. It is a little different using the microfiber towels but I really am liking all of their benefits. Not only are they light and compact but they dry very quickly and don't get the musty smell that used towels get.

4 regular bath towels vs. 4 microfiber bath towels

Storage: In our bathroom we have a cabinet under the sink and a medicine cabinet for storage. The cabinets are actually pretty deep, which is nice, but not nearly enough. Putting shelves in is not an option because the space is so tight we would constantly be running into them. Our solution is a shoe organizer. The shoe organizer sits flush against the wall and the pockets are plenty big enough to hold all of our bathroom stuff. So far it is working great and I don't even have all of the pockets filled. We also got a toilet paper holder that stores extra rolls so we can have extra rolls handy if we need it.

Hook: Originally the wall behind the sink had the hand towel ring on it and only a hand towel ring. We thought it was a waste of space and moved the hand towel next to the sink. We put in a hook so that we could hang our bathrobes on the wall instead.

And that is how we are maximizing our minimal bathroom.

No more house, no more washing machine...

Yesterday was our last day with the house. We did our final walk through just after noon, handed over our keys and are officially done with it. Being done with the house has been a long time coming so I really am not sad to not have to go back there. I did get a little sentimental when I looked into the back yard though. I loved having a deck and we had a lot of fun playing with the dogs in the yard, shooting cans with the BB gun when Mom, Lissy, Kelli and Kenna came to visit, etc. Now we are on to new and exciting adventures and it is pretty cool having a campground as a yard.

After the walk through, Meric and I went out to lunch. We went to Red Robin, one of our favorite places, and cashed in on Meric's birthday burger. Then we came home and took the dogs to the dog park and t walk along the trail here at the campground. There are several small ponds along the trail and it was a pretty hot day so we let the dogs play in the water. We went a little way off the trail, took off their leashes and let them go crazy. Emmy, my little water dog, was the first to go all in and start swimming around. Jasper didn't go in as deep but he did find a nice spot to lay down in the water. Lucy loved bouncing around and splashing while chasing after Emmy. Meric had seen Emmy and Jasper swim before, but not Lucy so we weren't sure if she could. Watching her play it seemed like she wasn't so sure herself. At one point I threw a pinecone in the pond so that Emmy could chase it. They all went in after it and the water was a little bit deeper than what Lucy though it would be. She bounded in and went completely under. After a few second she popped back up with the funniest look on her face and swam back to us. I really wish I had my video camera at that moment. It was a great day and it was nice to just let the dogs play.

No more house though means that I had to get rid of my washer and dryer. Our friend, Tremayne, had said that he wanted them long ago, but he was letting me keep them so that I could use them for as long as we wanted them. Meric and I bought a washer/dryer for the trailer but we hadn't had time yet to hook it up. I got it on sale for a great deal, but I got the kind that needs to have the dryer vented. That meant that we needed to drill a hole in the wall of the trailer and put in the vent. Yep that is right, a hole in the wall of our brand new trailer.

Meric started by drilling a small hole through the trailer wall. It served as the center point for the bigger hole he needed to drill. Then he drilled through the inside and then through the outside. The holes lined up and we were left with one big hole.


 

Lucy peeking through the hole



Meric holding the drilled out hole

 



Finished

Then he put on the vent cover, hooked up the hoses and now I have a washer dryer again. I have to do smaller loads of laundry but so far it is working good and it is nice to have a washer/dryer at home again.







Beach Day!

Amist all the craziness of moving into the trailer and getting the house ready for final inspection, we took a bit of a vacation. Our friends Ashely and Josh planned their wedding on a Thursday on the beach. That is a 5 hour drive on a weekday. A few months ago I was super excited to go to their wedding and the beach, but as the time got closer I started to stress. Usually when Meric and I go out of town, we just leave the dogs at home and have somebody come by the house a couple of times a day to let them in or out. However, in the trailer they can't just be let out. They need to be put on leashes and walked to the dog park 2-3 times a day. With my big and energetic beasties that is no easy task. We still have the house, but I didn't really want to leave the dogs there. Since we moved into the trailer the dogs only went to back to the house once. It is just easier to clean up the dog hair if more isn't being left and also I wanted the yard to get the chance to recover from having the dogs there for 2 years. So the only other option was to take them with us. Not a big deal except that a lot of hotels have pet restrictions. There aren't too many places that let you have 3 dogs over 50 lbs and then let you leave them alone in the room. With everything going on with the move it wasn't until the Saturday before the wedding that I started looking around for a room. I called a couple of places, got their voice mail, and left messages. On Monday one place called back. The owner sounded really nice and told me it was only a $15 fee when I told him we had 3 dogs. I cringed a little when he asked what kind they were and I told him they were all over 50 lbs. His reply of "oh thats no problem" was music to my ears. He told me they weren't a fancy place, just a ma and pop type motel.



My lesson in why not to grab a retractable leash



When Meric called Wednesday to let me know he was coming home from work I took the dogs out for one last walk and then "planned" to pack the car for the trip. I say "planned" because when I took the dogs out (all on retractable leashes) at one point a little dog came running toward us and Lucy took off to greet the dog. Holding 3 leashes I instinctively reach out and grabbed the leash instead of pushing the button on the leash to stop her. After getting the dogs under control I realized that my hand hurt. Meric came home to no dinner ready, no car packed and my hand in cold water. Meric did a little bit of wound care and we ate dinner, packed the car and hit the road.

Me and the dogs in the ocean

We made good time and arrived at our motel around 10:30 pm. The room itself was pretty small but I loved it because every room had a screened in porch. It was nice to be able to sit outside and not worry about the dogs being on leashes. First thing Thursday morning we headed to the beach. With it being before 11 am and in the "off season" the beach was pretty much deserted. We walked the dogs a little way and then let them off their leashes. They loved the beach! Lucy and Jasper would head toward the water but then run when the waves came in. Emmy on the other hand let those waves hit her and was completely soaked in no time. Lucy and Jasper only got wet when they followed me into the water. At one point, chasing a seagull, Emmy went into the ocean kind of far and had to swim back a little. Meric and I would run up and down the beach letting the dogs chase us back and forth, they loved it! I think Emmy and I agree that we could just live on the ocean forever. Another beautiful thing about the screened in porch was that we didn't have to worry about wet dogs in the room. After the beach we explored town a little. We got fudge at a candy shop (I got Heavenly Goo. Chocolate, peanut butter and carmel. YUM!) and calzones for lunch. We took them back to our room and sat on the porch, eating lunch and enjoying the ocean air.  We then got ready and went to the wedding. It took place on the beach on the site of an old light house. The wedding was nice and I was glad we went because not too many people were there. A lot of people that had said they were coming cancelled at the last minute and I was glad we could be there to support Ashely and Josh. One thing I had worried about with leaving the dogs in the room alone was that they would bark a lot and disturb the other guests. When we got back from the wedding we took the dogs out to go pee. While we were outside, a group of people including the owner came out of one of the rooms and the dogs started barking. We were hushing the dogs when the owner said "oh let them bark". He then asked if we took them to the wedding with us because they didn't make a sound the entire time we were gone. That made me so happy to hear. The rooms weren't super fancy but if we are ever to go back to the Cape Hatteras area, I will definitely stay there again. The porches made it nice to dry off and enjoy the outside with the dogs and the owner's laid back attitude was perfect for a nice vacation. The next morning we hit the beach one more time before eating lunch and heading out.



Earthen fort on Roanoke Island

  

Stage for the play "Lost Colony"


 

One of the bridges on the drive home



On the way home we stopped by Roanoke Island and visitied the Lost Colony. The drive back was beautiful. On the way there it had been mostly dark, so it was nice to see the scenary on the way back. Originally we had planned to drive out Thursday morning and come back Saturday, but then we changed it to Wednesday night to Friday. I am so glad we did for 2 reasons: 1. We were able to meet up with a guy who bought our bedroom set Friday night. The bedroom set was a big item we still needed to sell and he actually paid what we asked for it. 2. On Saturday, the day we originally were going to drive home, tornados tore through the area. The storm's path was pretty much the way we would have been driving home. At the house and trailer we only got a little rain and some strong winds, but not too far from the house was some major damage. Some houses were destroyed and tons of trees knocked down all over the place. (Tiffany would say it was a weird time for people to be cutting down trees!)



Over all it was a great vacation and I was able to relax. There has been so much to do I haven't been able to relax for about 2 months. I wasn't looking forward to having to take time off, but I am so glad we did. I wasn't sure about taking the dogs, but they loved the beach and I enjoyed it more because they were there. We also learned a few things. On the drive down we saw a couple of interesting signs. You know the deer crossing signs? Well they have red wolves crossing and watch out for bears signs. When I think of the beach I don't think of bears and wolves, but apparently they have a lot of them. The other thing we learned was that we don't actually know where the lost colony of Roanoke was before they got lost. We know it was the end of Roanoke Island, but not the exact location. When we went to visit the sight, it was the general area. For some reason I was expecting to see actual ruins or "on this sight this happened" type stuff, but it was more of a "in this area somewhere" and a stage for the play "Lost Colony" that they put on there. They have been putting on the play for decades and it is actually where Andy Griffith got his start. The things you learn.