Leaving North Carolina? No, we had a good time here, but we are looking forward to more riding as we make our way west. Some loose plans.
This feeling of dread is for my aching back and shoulders: today is the day that we are going to clean the slime and grub off this motorhome. It really is awful - in all our travels, I've never seen the Aspect look this dirty. We knew we were going to need something to cut through the slime that came from the big tree over our site - the hope is all that crap stuck to every surface of the motorhome hasn't stained our pretty paint. Joan ordered some Meguiars Automotive Cleaner and another container of Meguiars Wax... the cleaner is supposed to cut through grime while conditioning the paint. It may be hype, but I'm willing to give it a try.
The plan of attack: Joan is going to help me. I usually do all the exterior cleaning except the windows, which she does. I haven't been up to look at the roof, but looking at the surfaces you can see, it makes my heart hurt.
We got our extending ladder out, set it up, and...
It is even worse than I thought. That is not a clean area in the photo above, that is a reflection from the wet roof. Joan handed me up the bucket with the cleaner, a scrub brush, and the hose. It is far too slippery for this old guy to get up on the roof, so I will have to clean it from the ladder... which means achy neck, shoulders, and back. Does the Meguiars Cleaner work?
The results from the first bit of heavy scrubbing... it is coming off. But, it is going to take a lot of scrubbing (you can see the foam from the Meguiars in the lower left). The roof is supposed to be cream colored; fiberglass. The full-body paint goes up to the roof and wraps just over the top. The only way to get this done from the ladder is to take it "a bite at a time."
While I was doing the roof, Joan was scrubbing on the cab/front cap, the sides, and the rear cap. She was also handing me up fresh buckets with cleaner in them and helping me move the ladder and hose (saving me from going up and down the ladder so many times. Now, if you ask her, she will tell you that she cleaned at least 75% of the coach, while I did the remaining 25%. And, in terms of square footage, this is true. But, in terms of effort expended, the roof was the hardest part of this job, with that horizontal surface sitting right under that tree. (And people wonder why I don't like "camping" in the trees? We are RVers, not "campers.")
I tried to stay ahead of where she was cleaning so all that nasty stuff running off the roof didn't grub up what she had cleaned. In the end, we worked together well and got the job done...
The coach looks great. The large opening skylite in the forward part of the motorhome was absolutely opaque with slime - it is clear again! Same with the skylite over the shower. And the roof vents. And the pretty paint on the rest of the coach is sparkling! (see the photo above)
The roof...
No, the roof is not splotchy - that is the sun/shade filtering through the trees; it is all that lovely cream color once again. The smart thing to do would be hurry up and pack up and get the Hell out of here before it rains again... but, we are booked in here until Monday. And there is a good possibility that we may get to see friends Herb and Wilma who will be traveling in the area - tomorrow... if Mother Nature doesn't ruin that plan. They will be about 80 miles away from where we are, so we'll try to meet in the middle. But, yes, the remnants of Hurricane Debby are making their way into North Carolina; it remains to be seen if the wind and rain will get this far west. The weather weasels are calling for that, but I do not trust them (Can you blame me?).
Right now, the sun is shining... it would have been a lovely day for a ride. With both of us working on this project, we spent on the far side of 4 hours hard at it to get the coach done. No breaks. Actual manual labor. Yeah, we are too old for this crap. When we finished, Joan said she was in need of something to eat... I misunderstood her, thinking she wanted to go out to eat and said, "I do not have the strength to get those bikes out, much less safely ride 'em." Fortunately, she was in 100% agreement with me. After we have a chance to re-hydrate and sit for a bit, I will get the griddle going and get us some burgers. Assuming my achy hands can hold a spatula.
My Honey is a champ - our usual division of labor (you do the inside stuff, I do the outside stuff) got put aside to get this done. The way the weather has been going, I have no doubt we'll get rained on a couple more times before Monday. We'll get it cleaned up again... at some point. But, for now - we be lookin' good!
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Some ibuprofen and a nice shower. It's now 9:55 pm. The weather weasels were predicting a clear night.
The rain just started and it's pounding. Of course. 10:03 and the rain
is easing up a bit... um, no it's not. Pulled up weather radar - yep, a
cell moving right over the top of us. Joan said, "Don't sweat it."
I said, "Can you rub some pain cream on my shoulders?"
The rain is heavy enough that the cable TV went out again (still watching some of the Olympics). The TV came back on, but with the heavy rain pounding on the roof, we can't hear it.
4 comments:
I often complain and put off getting the car washed because "It will just rain and get dusty again tomorrow". Then Alice reminds me that we would be starting with new and fresh dirt rather than adding even more layers of sediment. When you are out on the super slab again and not stuck under the infamous NC grime-producing trees, a truck wash may be useful even if it costs some bucks. I firmly believe in paying younger and more spry folks to do the manual labor for me these days. It took a long time -- and lots of really sore days -- to adopt that mindset. I'm still suffering a bit from lawn mowing yesterday evening. Lately, the second day tends to hurt more than the next one. Oh, yay!
I need to change guitar strings on the Emerald tonight then get in some recreational playing time. I left the old and mostly dead set on for my sweaty hot weather gig on Saturday, knowing that a fresh set would be ruined in one afternoon. Why throw good money after bad?
We have had a commercial service that comes around to the RV parks do our coaches in the past... we'll still use them to get it waxed, but I like to wash it myself - gives me a chance to look it over, plus I am more careful and don't use a pressure washer (had one place spray that right into our refrigerator vent on a previous coach!).
Putting new strings on a guitar is always a treat!
I put on D'Addario XS strings last night, new to me. But folks say such good things about them that I bought a pack to try. So far, so good after an hour of fingerpicking. They feel light and slinky - almost too slinky. We'll see how they last. Bluegrass jam tonight will put a couple of hours of heavy strumming play on them.
The strumming should break 'em in nicely. I have tried other string brands over the years, but I always come back to the Elixir's for my acoustic guitars. I think Emeralds come with D'Addario strings on them... at the first string change I usually do a light set-up and put on the Elixirs. Slinky, huh? I may have to try a set when we get home.
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