We had some extra shelves added in several cupboards in our motorhome, but they just had a bare wood surface. To make them a little nicer, and not quite so slippery, I added some self-adhesive velvet flocking liner to them:
Simple and easy.
shopping
Buying stuff.
Replacing pump connections with Wago lever nuts
Our water pump was randomly cutting out. I determined that the power connections were loose, so decided to replace the wire nuts with Wago ones, which are easier to use, and hopefully more reliable.
The pump, with boring wire nuts:
Replaced with Wago wire nuts:
ENGWE Y600 830W electric scooter
We bought electric bikes a couple of years ago, which we mostly enjoyed, but Jenn didn’t find her one very comfortable, so in due course we sold it, with the idea of replacing it with a trike or something.
A while back we had the idea to try an electric scooter instead, as a more compact alternative.
After some research, we decided to buy a ENGWE Y600 830W electric scooter (see that link for the price and stats).
One reason we chose this model is that it comes with a seat, but it can be removed and replaced with a foot guard, if you always want to stand while riding. We wanted both options; it’s easy to both stand and sit while riding.
Here are some photos of unboxing it:
The assembled scooter:
It folds up fairly small, with the seat and handlebars folding down:
And easily fits in the back of our truck:
Charging port:
Fold down seat post latch:
Fold down handlebars lever and lock:
Brake, head and tail light switch, turn signals, horn:
Display with gear, speed, odometer (or other values), and battery level, plus power and mode buttons and throttle lever; a second display with the battery voltage and key:
For now we have kept my ebike, and have the scooter as a second option. So either we each ride one, or I can quickly get the scooter out when exploring the campground or taking out the trash, etc. The scooter isn’t as useful as the bike, since it doesn’t have any cargo capacity (like a trash bag or when picking up packages), and doesn’t have any exercise benefits, but being more compact and easy to set up are big benefits.
In due course we’ll decide whether to keep my bike and buy a trike for Jenn, or sell my bike and get a second scooter, or just keep both options, or some other variation.
Shed
As mentioned, we bought a shed for our Washington home, to store stuff we want to keep for the future, but not carry around the country with us (storage space even in a 40 foot motorhome is limited!).
We got the shed from Home Depot, a 10 x 8 foot wooden shed with shingles on the roof. The purchase included delivery and installation, since we would not be home at the time; we wanted to have it ready for when we arrived.
Here’s the shed as installed, unpainted:
With the doors open:
Inside:
I caulked the joints:
Then Jenn and I painted it, starting with the main color:
And the trim:
Nice.
U-Haul to move stuff from a storage unit to a shed
Ever since we started preparing for our current RV lifestyle, we’ve had a storage unit in the Portland area, somewhat near our old homestead. But paying for ever-increasing storage rental was getting old. So we bought a shed for home, and one of our projects during our annual visit home this year was to move the contents of the storage unit to the shed.
To do this, we rented a 15 foot U-Haul truck near the storage unit:
At the storage unit, before loading the truck:
(Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of the loaded truck; it was full, just big enough.)
The truck at our shed:
Looking in the empty truck after we had unloaded it:
Not too hard. Nice to have our stuff at our Washington home.
Using a filter canister to help sanitize the coach water systems
Since we drink the water in our fresh water tank, it is important to keep it clean. In addition to five filters, that we replace every three months, every six months we use bleach to sanitize the tank and pipes in our coach. This involves diluting 12 ounces of bleach in the water tank (about half full), running it through the pipes until we can smell the bleach, then filling the water tank and leaving it overnight, and finally flushing it out with a couple of dump/fill cycles.
Previously, we tried adding the bleach via a small inline container hooked to the hose, but it was too small for the amount of bleach required. We also tried mixing the bleach in a bucket and pouring it in the gravity fill for our tank, but that wasn’t ideal either.
But I came up with another idea: I purchased a filter system with a clear canister, and put the bleach in that, without the filter itself, and connected it to my hoses (with quick connectors, naturally). It’s bigger than needed, but better too big than too small. And is much easier to add the bleach without risking spilling any:
That was much easier!
Custer Battlefield Trading Post & Cafe
After visiting Little Bighorn Battlefield, we stopped by Custer Battlefield Trading Post & Cafe on the Crow Indian reservation.
Swag:
Cafe:
Menu:
We’re big fans of Indian fry bread, so had Indian tacos for dinner:
Shower shelf bar
A handy tweak: to be able to leave bottles on the upper shelf in our shower, even when traveling, we added a self-adhesive shower shelf bar (Amazon link):
A closer look:
It works really well. One less thing to have to worry about on travel days!
Mitchell Corn Palace
We stopped by the World’s Only Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota (Wikipedia info). It’s a multi-use arena decorated in corn and other grains, with the decorations changing each year:
Inside continues the corn theme:
Sheets for coloring:
The arena was set up with swag for sale, with more corn art around the walls:
We bought some interesting popcorn:
An interesting place.
Mall of America
We visited the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area.
According to Wikipedia, it is the largest mall in the United States, the largest in the Western Hemisphere, and the twelfth largest shopping mall in the world.
We had dinner at Shake Shack (first time we’ve seen one since we visited New York years ago):
In addition to being a huge mall, the center is filled with an amusement park:
Minnesot-ah!:
It’s an impressive mall… but still just a mall.