Still kickin'

July 11, 2011
Broad Brook, CT

OK, OK; I've officially become a Blog Slacker. After a couple of gentle prods, we're back. Things will pick up later this month when there is actually some travel-related stuff going on. I have posted a couple of Blog updates to our travel schedule and map, but nothing substantial. Maybe life is no longer of substance? It seems like when we're just "living life", Facebook is a much more practical way to shoot out quick updates. Maybe if I eventually get that nice iPad I've wanted, I'll do more Blog updates. Hmmm...

That said, the past six weeks have just flown by. We're still at Pat & Al's in Connecticut, enjoying the summer weather. OK, we've had a few warm days and the mosquitoes have been joined by flies and now Japanese beetles, but overall things have been generally nice. We've had a few storms pass but quickly and often at night.

We've done quite a few family things with Pat/Al/Alicia/Britt and Melisa/Paul/Jesse, as usual, often including local friends (Lynne and Mike, John, Ted). Geri's son Pete/Val/Josh/Belle had us over for dinner one evening at their place in Marlborough. We made the trek to the Westbrook Elks on Independence Day. We've done our traditional cooking "nights": Wing Night, Rib Night, Pinot Noir Night (excellent Oregon and California Pinots), Mexican Night (Dos Equis and 'Ritas). Al and I cooked 100+ steaks for Ted's annual Golf Outing to support the local Athletic Boosters. We had Lobster Rolls down at the Shore and decided Pat could do better at home - and she did!

On the coach front, Al and I did all the routine maintenance and then some, spending the better part of a day changing the gaskets on the roof-mounted air conditioning units before we had major leaks (they should be done every five years or so as preventative maintenance). Oil and filters (oil and fuel) changes for the engine and generator are done, the chassis is lubed nicely, and the air conditioner filters are nice and clean. I have a few more maintenance items to do in the next ten days before we hit the road again, and I'll give the whole rig a bath before we go as well.

We did a couple of interior upgrades this summer as well. I finally found the price I was looking for on a replacement TV for the front of the coach, swapping the old 30" Sharp out for a 46" LED-LCD Samsung that's so slim it didn't require any custom cabinet work (it mounts flush to the front of the existing cabinet). While I was at it, I upgraded the DVD/surround sound box to a new Blu-Ray version, plus swapped out the rear TV for a similar/smaller LED-LCD version. We'll have the roof dish upgraded later this summer for full HD all around. I even picked up a wireless transmitter that will allow us to use the old rear TV outside without having to run a cable from the DirecTV box.

We also finally got rid of the original mattress, upgrading to a Sleep Number Bed specifically sized to fit in the RV. We'd tried everything to make the old one comfortable, with various pillow-top and memory-foam add-ons, but it just wasn't going to be acceptable. We're so much happier with the new mattress, we know we should have made that change before.

Yesterday, we had a surprise visit from our friends Wayne and Eva, who stopped by with their coach on their way to the Boston area. Al figured out a way to get them parked in the side yard off the street, and we had a nice visit, including dinner featuring more of Pat's Lobster Rolls.

Tomorrow's supposed to be a rainy day, so I'll work on mapping out our route when we leave here and update our music playlists so we have some tunes (since I refused to continue paying for XM Radio). Along with some updates to the to-do list for the next week+, we'll be in great shape. And, back to Blogging!