Back to Work.............

So, I bet your all wondering what we did for Thanksgiving, right ?

O.K, maybe not,but I'll tell you anyway.

We spent Thanksgiving day proper (one of my favorite, by the way) with my dad in Sarasota, about an hour and half drive from here.

The festivities really began however, on Wendsday with a trip to Busch Gardens. We went with my two cousins who live in Tampa Chucky and Craig. The three of us, and my other cousin Mathew and my cousins Janet and Joanne all grew up together and were very close in age. In fact, several of us were even born in the same year only a month apart. When we were kids the families would gather for holidays and reunions and we would all play together. We had some great times exploring the crik behind our house or playing at the park. It has been years since I last seen them and we had a wonderul time riding the coasters and catching up.

Moss and I are both extreme roller coaster enthusists, and Busch Gardens did not dissapoint.They also had an excellent bird show and an exhibit with two unrelesable eagles, a Golden and a Bald.

Thanksgiving day was spent with my dad and stepmom, Kathy and their friend, Marge.We had all the usual things, corn, potatoes, stuffing, and for moss and I a Tofurkey .

As much fun as our mini vacation was it feels great to get back to work, and there is a lot of progress to report......

We got most of the wall studds in and now we'll put a layer of plywood up all around. Anywhere the wall is showing, where there is not a bench or some other furniture, we will put the tounge and groove going horizontaly.

We also decided to bring the wall halfway up the windows in some places. This will add an additional layer of insulation and wamth. The problem we had was how to hide the insulation and wood so that it will not be visible through the window.

We put our thinking caps on.....

Maybe we could cover the windows on the outside with some sheet metal painted the color of the bus ? Wood trim was another possibility, though a bit more expensive.

We finally decided we would tint the windows, some areas would be "limo black", and some just a light grey.

So, off to the store we went to buy some tinting paper. Unfortunately, the stuff is not cheap, but we gritted our teeth and purchased 50 dollars worth , enough to do a few windows anyway.

As we were about to put it on Greg came by and had an idea .

"Why not just spray paint it black", he suggested.

My first reaction was no way, it would look cheap and well,..like we spray painted our windows. A little later though we got to thinking.

Maybe Greg was right.

It's so funny the way he suggests things. Moss and I will be in there drilling, hammering and sawing, trying to figure it all out and in will walk Greg . He'll look around , make a few suggestions then move on.

The thing is, his suggestions are always so simple and inexpensive I often do not beleive they will work !

I am just so used to a consumer culture that tells me if it isn'nt more expensive and more complicated than it must not be as good. Greg is teaching us differently.

Point in case , the fresh water tank.

Normally one buys a water pump to move the water through the lines from the tank, a one hundred and sixty dollar item. Greg, on the other hand, suggests we just presurize the tank with an air pump. We may have to go do it a few times, but it would sure save us some money.

Hmmm.........

Another example, our refrigerator. Usually, motorhomes are equiped with propane fridges, that is pretty much the standard, and that is what we were planning also. A small propane fridge costs at least three hundred dollars.

Greg however, suggested we use an electric fridge and just give it its own dedicated batteries. I thought for CERTAIN that it would drain the batteries dry in hours, but it turns out it will not, as the refridgerator is not always on. In fact we will hardly even notice the drain on our batteries.

How much ?

Only one hundred dollars, instead of three hundred for a proprane one. I could give you at least five other similar examples relating to how his ideas have saved us money.

Anyway, back to the paint..........we got to thinking, maybe it wont look that bad, and at 98 cents a can, as oposed to twelve dollars for six feet, how could we afford NOT to give it a try ?

So I sprayed a small bit on the inside window then quickly ran around front to see how it looked while Moss held up the tinting stuff in another window. I compared.

The result ??

There was virtually no difference ! The 98 cent can of spray paint looked just as good as the twelve dollar- a six foot -roll of tinting paper.

Back to the store to exchange the paper for a few cans of spray paint..........