Sunday, December 18, 2016

12/18 Cleaning Day and More

Yes, I am not really on vacation.  I am traveling, but this is how I live, which means that periodically I have to clean things.  I spent some time the last couple of days visiting some other solo RV ladies, but yesterday, I also had to pick up my bike from the repair place.  It is VERY hard to find a place that sells and repairs electric bikes, but I was happy with the one I found in Sarasota. 

If you read my post from last spring, you might remember that I backed into something and bent the pedal arm on my bike since it is the thing that sticks out most behind my motorhome.  I had a new set of pedals and arms sent to me and found a local bike shop in Napa, CA, to put them on, but apparently they did not realize what the strange disk was on the pedal hub and tossed it.  That meant that I could ride the bike without a motor or by using the hand control, but the pedal boost feature that senses when I am going uphill or having trouble pedaling and gives me a tiny bit of motor "oomph" to help out.  I really had been missing that feature, and now it is fixed.  The repair shop also tuned up my bike, tightening spokes, adjusting and oiling my chain, and cleaning all the road grit off of it.  I also bought a new saddle because the old one was cracked.  So, it really looks great.  Will take a photo later!

Anyway, like every other home, motorhomes get dirty, and they get a LOT more dusty than your typical home.  I assume this is because you drive on highways and park in dusty parking lots and campgrounds.  My first task today was stripping my bed and walking over to the campground service building with sheets, towels, and bathmats.  That was one load.  I also had two loads of clothing, and this took a while with only one washer and one dryer.

I have narrow spaces on both sides of my bed to make it easier to make, but they tend to be dumping areas for stuff I don't know what else to do with.  I emptied all the trash, real trash and storage items, and got out my canister vacuum.  I thoroughly vacuumed all of the bedroom, including the fuzzy things that surround my back window.  These tend to collect a lot of dust.  Then I got a wet rag and wiped down all the walls and the tiny window sills.  I also found a dust coating on the three-piece sliding door that closes off my bedroom when I have company.  Washed both sides of that down, as well.

In between loads, I worked my way forward, vacuuming and wiping down some walls.  (Still need to do living room walls.)  I replaced my hall rug with a clean one I have in storage.  I even vacuumed the cab floor area and the mat on the driver's side, which was sandy and dirty.  Remade my bed and put some stuff away in the storage space on the far side of the bed. 

So, now I am sitting and relaxing while my slightly damp t-shirts are hanging all over the place.  I dry them only part-way and then hang them up because I don't like to shrink them. The rest of the stuff I washed is put away and the back part of the motorhome looks neat and clean.  The couch is still full of the stuff I have not yet decided where to put.  The upper storage area over my couch is getting overly full, and I need a better place to store batteries and my potential pest control stuff.

Because I often stay in places a long way from stores, I carry ant traps and gel, mouse traps, and some fly strips. I think I need to put them in a zip lock bag and put them in one of the outside storage bins.  The good news is that I found some batteries I did not know I had, and I also found the camera disk I thought I had accidently thrown away. Living in a motorhome is like having a too-large purse with too many pockets!  Staying organized and not accumulating too much stuff is a challenge for all of us.  My friend Liz had spent a day last week cleaning out some stuff, and ended up with a pile of stuff marked "free" at the edge of her campsite. 

Whew!!!  My last tasks for today involved getting my new printer working. I discovered the wireless capability will not work with my mobile hotspot (Verizon calls them a Jetpack).  So when I went out to pick up my bike yesterday, I stopped and bought a cable to attach it directly to my laptop.  So much for wireless technology!  I also need to decide how this printer is going to ride.  I have been putting it on my back dinette table and then moving it to my bed (in its plastic bag) when I drive.  That is a pain, so I am probably going to cut the box down slightly and put the whole thing on a foam pad I bought and stick it under my dinette table where I think it will be safe.  My other idea was to put it on the foam pad and then strap it to the table, but I think that is not going to be stable enough. 

Now, my last task for the day is to go outside and hook up my sewer hoses before it gets dark so I can dump my tanks.  Not a fun job to do after dark when the bugs are biting!

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