A work week.

This was more of a work week. 

I need to step up the pace as I have things to do on and in the RV before we go to Pismo Beach next weekend followed by our trip to Florida the 1^st week in October, (non RV trip). When we return from that trip, I only have 3 days to finish everything before the start of the desert trip.

This week I ordered 4 new shocks from Amazon for the RV as the last time they were replaced was 2010. I had pulled one and there really wasn't much “shock” left. They had been checked last year when all of the under carriage was replaced and I was told at the time that they still had some “life left in them”. Of course, the mechanic didn't know at the time that we were planning to drive to the East coast of Florida.

Replacing the shocks is not a hard job if you don't mind laying on your back with a wrench in your hand for an hour. Job done!

The next thing was to replace the bathroom ceiling fan with a Fantastic fan that my friend Budd gave me. Originally, I started to replace the fan blade last summer on our trip to Lynden, WA but every blade I bought blew air in not out. I now have 3 or 4 fan blades, all wrong, and one new fan motor because I thought I could run the motor in reverse to use the fan blades I had already bought. WRONG!!! The motor ran for 10 minutes then quit.

I was about to order a Fantastic fan from Amazon but during a conversation with Budd he reminded me that he had one which was removed from the bedroom of his RV when an AC unit was installed in the opening. Perfect!

So today I removed the old fan and vent and replaced it with the Fantastic fan. It really went in fairly quickly after about 10 trips up and down the ladder to check the fit. Even the old screw holes lined up ok. I still need to put in the ceiling trim piece inside but I need to remove some of the edge on one side as the roof of the RV slopes in that area.

I used a butyl rubber strip under the fan flange on the roof to make sure I have a good seal to keep out water and then I used Dicor Self Leveling caulk over all the screws and around the flange. I will recheck the caulk tomorrow to make sure I have no problem areas.

Some before and after from today's project.

 

Fantastic fan and trim piece.

 Old vent cover. Really dirty because the Max Air cover made it hard to clean.

 

 Old vent and all caulk removed.

 New fan with self leveling caulk applied.

Thanks Budd for the fan.

Back home from Wisconsin trip.

Another trip to Wisconsin done. This one was only 5 days to attend an All School reunion for Dorchester High School. About 200+ people came to the afternoon social time with a very nice sit-down meal at 4 PM.

Saw lots of people I know. Talked to some I hadn't seen in years. Had a really good time.

Also met some of my cousins from the Goessl side of the family on Friday after a mass for their mother at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Medford. Was really nice to visit with Joyce, Betty, Margaret, and Norb for a few hours. It isn't something we get to do very often.

Also visited my aunt Beatrice who is one of only two remaining sisters of my mother. I try to visit her whenever I am in Wisconsin.

I have a “thing” for cemeteries. To me they are pure history. I walked 2 this trip looking for particular people. I was successful on all counts. I love walking the rows, reading names, and remembering something about the people, friends, neighbors, relatives. I take photos of the headstones and eventually these photos will be added to my genealogy files along with photos of the people represented.

On Sunday my sister Judy, husband Art and I were treated to a tour of the Dorchester Historical Center by Jim Jantsch who is the force behind the center. It contains all things Dorchester. All of it donated. I suspect Jim started the center as a place to store all of the things his mother collected. Jim has also written a book called “Dorchester.” It is a complete history of Dorchester and it's people.

Two of the people on the tour were our next door farm neighbors Sharon and Arlene and two neighbors across the highway, Jeanette and Greta. I once worked for Jeanette and Greta's family during the summer and lived in their house. It was good to see them again after all these years.

I drove to Milwaukee on Monday (Labor Day) and had lots of traffic between Wisconsin Dells and Madison. My rental car this time was the same as last month, a Chevy Spark. Blue this time, not yellow. It got 41.5 MPG. Not bad.