Work Day

Today we finally got serious about accomplishing some of our maintenance tasks. We dismantled the big fifth-wheel hitch, and I lifted the parts out of the truck bed so we could sand the rust off them. Even in parts, that hitch is heavy! Then, while Ken worked on the removed parts, I worked on sanding the rest of the parts still in the truck. Whew—hot work in the sun and lots of bending and twisting. Then we put rust remover gel on all the pieces.

Ken sanded and painted a stretch of the truck step bar where the paint was coming off while I cleaned out the truck bed, first removing the generator and the other stuff we store there and all the stray leaves. I filled my bucket at a faucet across the street in an empty camp site and scrubbed everything down. Then after it dried I applied Meguiar's protectant over the whole truck bed. The guy who installed the spray-in bed cover recommended that we use protectant regularly to protect the vinyl from UV deterioration. It also looks new and shiny for a while after 8-)

Meanwhile Ken was cleaning up some other stuff. By the time we broke for lunch, both of us were worn out. We decided to save some work for tomorrow....

I talked to Vicky in Peterson's parts department and ordered a new fender for Venture to replace the one damaged by our blowout. She'll ship it to my cousin Jan's house in Scottsdale just in time for our arrival there. Jack says that it should be pretty easy for us to install ourselves, so we'll see....

We've been talking about getting a propane heater to use when we're boondocking. Our propane furnace takes lots of electricity to run the blower motor, which drains the batteries. We ended up going to a local Northern Tool location and getting the last Procom 10,000 BTU blue flame heater they had (most of the heaters had been returned to the warehouse since summer weather is here). Now we have to find someone to install a propane line for it.

We went over to Ed and Julie's for the evening, stopping on the way to pick up some groceries. After dinner Ken and Ed and I played a rematch of Ticket to Ride, and this time Ed won handily. Ken did well also, but I was left in the dust.