On Our Way!

(Eventually)

Dateline: Durango, Colorado

                        The Goats are rambunctious, the Cats are cuddly, and the Chickens are kinda chickeny.

Oh….. and the Weather is typical Southwest Colorado, Ho-Hum Gorgeous, Bluebird Skies, and White Puffy Clouds.

We are here in Durango, Colorado farm-sitting for Lorelyn and Travis’s merry band of Critter-Cohorts whose main task in life is to try and extricate additional food and snacks from the New Feeders (us!)

Travis and Lorelyn are off to Germany and Austria on vacation. So, this starts our 2024 Mid-Year-Go-West-Before Traveling-East Sojourn. It is a two-day travel from our spot in Texas up to the Four Corners Region and after one full day of that we were still not out of Texas! My Mid-Atlantic up-bringing is always fascinated by that. No driving through a few states in a few hours around here!

We are here for the better part of two weeks which gives me an opportunity to do some work on the Motorhome. Major kitchen renovations are underway, and Jonathan and Drew from Property Brothers keep dropping in and whispering things like “Open Concept” and “Vaulted Ceiling” and before we left Texas, Chip and Joanna stopped by with Joanna mentioning “shiplap” for the walls, but all of these well-intentioned folks have obviously never lived in a motorhome!

Fortunately for us, we are situated only about twelve miles from Durango, so my local supply spot, Home Depot, is not too far away and that is good because I was there three times yesterday!

Here’s what, and (why) we’re doing.

In the motorhome we have a combination microwave and convection oven, which means that it’s a compromise.

            Which also means that it really doesn’t do anything really well, especially the convection oven part. We’ve (Paula) given up on trying to bake a cake, or roast anything of consequence as the unit falls far short of any sort of normal expectations. We looked at getting other combo units and just retrofitting them in, but they are all still compromises and the reviews were sufficiently mixed as to warrant a really good reason to just hop from the frying pan (which works great as we have a propane stove!) into the fryer, so to speak. So, the tape measure came out and the graph paper was employed along with mechanical pencils, compass and protractor, add in a small ruler, and Plans were fashioned for a completely new idea in the Motorhome Kitchen Design Concept arena.

We’re going to try a Ninja Foodi Digital Air-Fry Pro (which is really just a big fancy toaster oven) and a small free-standing microwave.

The reason that we need to be in one place for a while in order to attempt this project is illuminated by the fact that yesterday I went to Home Depot three times. We’ve all heard of that old adage, Measure Twice, Cut Once, and just so I’m sure of my procedures, I’ve modified that by measuring a hundred times, but somehow still needing to cut a thousand!

Oh well, someone has to keep these stores in business!

Anyway, when retro fitting, and with no real “plans” available for this project, going from concept to reality can be a tad challenging. It’s a good thing that Paula is as patient as she is with me, because she knows that when I tell her, “Don’t worry, it’s a piece of cake!” that the cake won’t be ready for quite a while. In fact, she has mentioned to me that my “piece of cake” is rapidity turning into a full-sized sheet cake. (As long as it’s chocolate…..)

As I write this early on Saturday morning, you should know that this project started last Monday, when Travis helped me extricate the stupid old unit (which did take the two of us as it was quite heavy), so I’ve been at it for a while, not fulltime mind you, there’re critters to tend, and other life-chores to take care of, so I’m not that bad…… hopefully it will be finished today, but that was the plan for yesterday too.

Photos enclosed, and I’ll wait to post this so that the Finished Project Photo can take its rightful place in the Motorhome Hall of Fame (Renovation Category)

(Project Note: It is now Sunday morning and my plan to show you the Finished Project went kerflooey. If I showed you a current photo, it would look much the same as the previous one. This after an almost full day of “Reto-Fitting” (but just two trips to Home Depot!) There were too many “bumps” along the way yesterday to list. But there’s still today(!) to make some headway on this project. The issue du jour was moving the power from one side to the other in an attempt not to have unsightly wires running amuck on the shelves. Today’s plan involves just one (hopefully) trip to Home Depot, they open at eight and I’ll be there waiting!)

(PS Note: The wind came up; the clouds threatened a shower, so I elected to work on the electrical wiring for the appliances inside instead of finishing the cabinetry. So, a Finished Photo will be had sometime in the future.)

When that’s all finished and the critters are sufficiently spoiled, we will leave here and continue eastward on our way back to New Jersey and the rest of the Summer Travel Itinerary, which I will give you brief(?) synopsis of, just so you know where you too will be travelling this season!

 -Just outside of Denver for an old high school chum of Paula’s

– Lower Michigan for a night with Sandra and Darla from the World Cruise at Darla’s parent’s farm.

– On to (depending on time, etc.) stops at Cuyahoga National Park in Ohio, Niagara Falls, Watkins Glen, Cooperstown, and finally back in our spot in Yetter’s Diner parking lot by sometime in the week before Memorial Day where we attend the Opening Day of the Pool Club that Matt, Paula’s son and his family belong to.

– A week later, we’re up in Manchester-by-the-Sea for my son Donny and his family, then back to Jersey for my granddaughters Ballet Recital, then up to Vermont for Paula’s sister Barb’s 80th birthday, then Maine for the 4th of July with Brian her son, then back to Vermont, then the Jersey Shore for a week with my sister, her family, and my daughter Heather and her family and eventually heading Westward by the first week in August. Stops to include the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with Darla and Sandra, Minneapolis with Claire, one of Paula’s high school friends, a week in Seeley Lake, Montana with Phillis and Steve, my partners from the Chatterbox, then down to Oregon for three separate visits, two with friends from the World Cruise, Sandi and Steve, & Brian and Kristine, and one with Liz (my old friend from Sysco) and Beth. On to Salt Lake City for a drive-by visit with one of the surgeons that Paula used to work for, then dropping into Utah where we hope to visit some of the National Parks that we’ve not been to yet, Canyonlands, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Capitol Reef before we make our way back here to Durango sometime in mid-September.

Where we will collapse and work on removing the calluses from our steering wheel-hands.

I’ll reserve the rest of the year’s itinerary for a post later on this year.

We know you like to travel as much as we do just by the comments that we get from all of you, and we love having you all along with us! So, fasten your seatbelts but at the same time get ready to jump out as there will be many stops along the way for photo-ops and snacks!