Our coach came with some generic artwork on a wall in the bedroom. But we wanted to personalize it a bit, so we replaced that with 12 photos of favorite places from our travels, printed on aluminum (so we don’t need to worry about breaking glass).

We laid the prints out on our bed to decide on the arrangement:

How many of those places do you recognize? I bet there are a few stumpers. Let me know in the comments which ones you recognize, and which ones you’ve visited. See the end of this post for a full list.

The prints came with metal hangers, which wouldn’t really cut it in a rolling earthquake of a motorhome, so I attached Command Strips to stick them to the wall; these Command Strips come in two parts like velcro, so we’ll be able to swap out the pictures in the future if desired:

The wall in question, with some markers to guide placement:

Adding the first picture:

Paladin helping:

Done:

How many of those places did you recognize? Here’s a list, starting from top-left, with links to corresponding blog posts:

1. Olympic National Park
2. North Cascades National Park
3. Yellowstone National Park
4. Crater Lake National Park
5. Devils Tower National Park
6. Custer State Park
7. Joshua Tree National Park
8. Death Valley National Park
9. Arches National Park
10. Goblin Valley State Park
11. Grand Canyon National Park
12. Monument Valley Tribal Park

A huge improvement, and a nice reminder of some of our favorite places.

The insulation above the engine in our motorhome came loose. Apparently this is a fairly common issue, but not ideal:

I used some aluminum tape to temporarily repair it:

But while in Red Bay we got one of the after-hours vendors, Mark Tedford (662-706-0692), to properly fix it for us.

There is an access panel to the engine compartment in our rear bathroom (yes, the engine is at the back, commonly called a “diesel pusher”):

He removed that to enhance its insulation:

The first time I’ve seen inside that compartment on our coach, looking down on our Cummins ISL 450 diesel engine:

The default engine hatch insulation:

His enhanced insulation:

His improved insulation from the back:

 

Much nicer. The bathroom floor used to get quite warm after a drive, but it is now much cooler. And now we shouldn’t need to worry about it falling apart.

Another thing we did in Red Bay was get a couple of our roof AC units looked at, as the rear and mid ones were not performing well. The units were apparently fine, but they cleared out some debris from the ducting, which solved the issue; they’re working much better now.

We did this at Bunkhouse Conversion:

They had an excellent way to get onto the roof; no dealing with ladders, they used a cherry picker truck as an elevator:

A quick and easy appointment, but well worthwhile.

We got Davidson RV to help us with a few other issues.

One was to replace our water pump, as the old one wasn’t performing well:

Another issue with fortunate timing was the entry step didn’t fully retract; they lubricated it, and it’s been fine since (I have been lubricating it with silicone lube, but have since purchased some better lube):

Finally, the USB ports on my side of the bed had stopped working, so they replaced them:

I could have done all three of those things myself, but easier to get them to do so while we were there.

Another little project while at Davidson RV was to add some custom-fit carpeting in the cockpit area:

Much better. That helps catch dirt coming into the coach, and is more comfortable, instead of walking on cold tile on cold mornings; the heated tile doesn’t extend into the cockpit area.

Our coach came with fabric valances above the windows, which we didn’t like… and Paladin liked scratching. So while in Red Bay, another project we got Davidson RV to do was to replace the fabric portions with wood.

Here’s an example of the old valance, in the bedroom:

They removed the whole window surround:

Then they replaced the fabric portion with wood, stained to a similar color:

The improved version re-installed:

Another example, the window above the TV lift:

Much nicer.

While in Red Bay we spent several days at Davidson RV, getting them to do several projects. One of those was to add extra shelves to many of our cupboards.

Some cupboards above our couch, before adding shelves:

After adding shelves:

We also got some organizers for ziploc baggies, lids, and measuring cups:

We got them to raise this new shelf up a bit, so our rice maker would fit:

Partially populated; it’s normally packed full of food:

Much tidier plate and bowl cupboard:

We also got them to add dividers to Jenn’s clothing drawers:

And an extra shelf in my bathroom cupboard:

Nice improvements that really help us organize our storage!