Yup, sure enough that was rain on the roof last night.  So far we’ve been lucky, rain at night but no rain during the day.  You have to like it.  So today was the tomorrow we spoke of last night.  True to our word, we were up at an early hour and ready to hit the roads.  We had shopping to do.  Specifically, Barbara wanted to see just how much the new cabinets could hold so we were off to Aldi and other assorted places.

First stop, I promised my sweetheart a really nice breakfast.  Does McDonalds count?

Before you say no, let me just say I put out place mats on the table and set the rest of the table real nice for her.  I know, what a guy!

On to Walmart.  I’ve been looking for a particular type of sunglasses for several weeks now.  They’re called polarized flip up sunglasses.  They clip to your regular glasses but you can flip them up when necessary, like to see the gauges on the dash when driving.

The first pair I found at Walmat.  However, through a really weird set of circumstances, they quickly bit the dust.  Barbara found them again but decided this time we’re going to get an extra pair.  Just in case I get clumsy again.

While at Walmart, Barbara decided to get a haircut.  Came out real nice.  Of course, she wanted me to get one as well.  Ah, come on I look just fine.  I dug in my feet,  I protested a

bit.  Want to guess who won?  Yup, I too ended up with a haircut.  Nice and short, almost bald, just the way I like it.

Moving on I decided to make up for breakfast and took my sweetheart for a mani pedi at a local salon she had discovered on our last trip in to Auburn.  What’s the old saying?  If mama is happy then all is well with the world.  I’m a believer.

Lunch time.  No, I’m not revealing where we went.  But it was in a mall, or what used to be a mall.  As of now it’s all but empty.  A couple of stores still left in the food court but not much more.  In fact, they’ve made the one end into an RV Super Store.  Hope it works out for them.  Regarding our lunch, suffice to say they make a decent sandwich and we both enjoyed our selections.

Now for the highlight of our trip.  Time to enter the hallowed halls of Aldi.

Whenever we find an Aldi we make it a point to go shopping for all our necessary supplies.  So we stuffed our cart, checked out, put it all in our bags and headed home.  Once home, we happily discovered that the cabinets offer plenty of room for all the extra can goods we purchased.  Nice to know we didn’t lose a bit of storage space by taking out the dinette.

Our day is now drawing to a close.  Everything has been put away.  Supper is finished.  Time to sit back and relax and enjoy a bit of the football game.  It’s been another great day, as always made all the better by the fact that we moved through it together.  We hope you had a great day as well.  Always remember to grab each one that comes and live every minute knowing it will never be repeated.  For now I’ll say goodnight and leave you with this thought to ponder:

As always,  if you are coming to the end of your day with concerns and worries, let me suggest that you turn them over to God.  After all, He is going to be up all night so why not let him handle them for you.

Time now for our evening prayers and eventually some shut-eye.  Till tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before

We awoke this morning to blue skies, warm temperatures, and sunshine.  Nice way to begin the day.  Bonus, Marti let me sleep to 7 am before he began dancing and prancing and wanting to go out.  Thanks buddy for waiting until I was up.

Simple breakfast this morning.  An English Muffin and a hard boiled egg.  Some mornings you just want to go simple.  This was one of those mornings.  No complaints from me.  I enjoyed every bite of both.

Regarding the day itself, we had planned to go up to Auburn to do some shopping for needed supplies but you know what they say the best laid plans of mice and men sometimes go astray.  All of a sudden it was noon time and we decided it really was too late to go.  Tomorrow, as they say. tomorrow is only a day away, so tomorrow we’ll get out early so that we can get back home at a reasonable afternoon hour.

As for the transformation of Graybeard we are done for now.  We went out to a local hardware store and purchased some L brackets and now the shelves are up.  As you can see, they are up against the wall, between the two cabinets and help to keep the table clear of odds and ends.

This brings us to an end of the ongoing transformation of Graybeard for now, just for now.  We’ve been here for two weeks and that has allowed us to do all that we’ve done in terms of upgrades.  However, we’re not going to be stationary and in a place where we can receive packages for at least another couple of weeks.  Hopefully, at that time we’ll know what color of blinds we want and be able to order and receive them.  Once we have them we’ll begin to remove the various valances and shades in order to install the new blinds.

So where are we going from here?  Here is a sneak peek.  We leave here Sunday and will be moving to two Harvest Host Locations.  On Sunday, we are going to The Climbing Bines

Craft Ale Company.  Climbing Bines Craft Ale Company is one of New York State’s first farm breweries.  They specialize in small batch, hand-crafted ales brewed on site with the freshest estate-grown hops and barley harvested just a few miles down the road.   Of course, a tour and taste testing session will be in order!

The following day, Monday, we’re going to move a bit south to the Pleasant Valley Wine Company.  This winery is the oldest winery in the Finger Lakes region. Established in

1860, the winery proudly displays the designation U.S. Bonded Winery No. 1 and has eight remarkable stone buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  We plan on taking a self-guided tour through the Winery Visitor Center which includes historic exhibits, winemaking displays, a working model of the B&H Railroad and a unique Theatre-in-a-Wine-Tank.

From there we move to Pennsylvania where we’ll first stop at State Line Camping Center

for a needed repair to Graybeard.   Then we’ll leave there and spend about 9 days at the

Ives Run COE park.   Stayed tuned and we’ll keep you up to date on all our travels over the week or so.

So I’m sitting here trying to wrap my head around the fact that it is already August 1.  Summer is winding down.  Soon enough, we’ll be back in Florida where we’ll be doing our first workcamping gig, the first 3 months of 2019 at Dade Battlefield in Bushnell.  Where has the year gone?  It’s been a hoot for us.  Traveling, going places we’ve never gone before, visiting states we’ve never been in before, making new friends and all the time doing it the best way possible – traveling along, side by side, singing our song.

OK, time to call it a wrap.  Day is done and night is here.  Thanks again for joining us today.  Hope you also had a great day.  Now, before I go as always a thought for each of us to ponder:

As always,  if you are coming to the end of your day with concerns and worries, let me suggest that you turn them over to God.  After all, He is going to be up all night so why not let him handle them for you.

Time now for our evening prayers and eventually some shut-eye.  Till tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before

 

Well, well, well no rain and the morning sun.  Looks like another great day in store for us.  Sun was up, temperatures were reasonable and the day was ours to enjoy.  However, I had a hard time getting out of neutral.  I worked on the backsplash until Midnight and then of all things Marti decided he needed to go for a walk – at 3 am in the morning!  Very unusual for him but when he has to go you go with him unless, of course, you want to mop up a puddle.  It is what it is

So late yesterday afternoon the cabinets came.  Two big boxes just waiting for some attention.  Putting them together would be chore number one for me today.  Barbara on the other hand had another mission to complete.   She gathered all our clothes, our rugs and all other kinds of odds and ends and headed to the wishy washy.

While she was gone, I turned to the task at hand.  Took some time but in due course the cabinets were together and ready to be placed by the table.  What do you think?

Yes, we know the place mat is red so just tune that out.  We have two cabinets, one on either side of the new table.  With these cabinets we regain the storage space we lost.  We still have a few details to work out regarding them, how to secure the doors, how to fasten them securely to the floor to keep them from moving while we are on the go.

To us the area now has a cleaner and brighter look.  We also have two small shelves that we will be installing just behind the table against the wall to hold odds and ends. I need to get a few L Brackets to install each of them.  Clean, bright and nifty looking.

Inasmuch, as we have a drop leaf, we also needed a simple folding chair to use when we have the leaf up and company in the house.  This is the chair that we found.

We also have a new rug for the kitchen which gives it a bit of a splash.  Coffee anyone?

The backslash is also finally done.  I worked to midnight on that one.  It came out great.

And, of course, we also have the new slip covers for the couch and the recliner.

We’re getting there.  Shelves tomorrow and in a couple of weeks all the shades and the valances will come down.  In their place we are going to put up all new wooden 1 inch blinds.  Graybeard is no longer a cookie cutter RV, but it is now becoming our home finished the way that we want.  Yipee!  We are having a great time, looking, mulling over changes, shopping for just what we want.  Hats off, of course, to my dear wife, Barbara has spent countless hours chasing down things for our home.  Ask me she is doing a great job.

So that was our day.  Supper was Chinese.  Funny thing most of the time I will order spicy beef yet, by and large, I don’t believe there is a Chinese restaurant that knows what spicy is.  Until now, wow it was great, it was spicy and, of course, we leave this area this Sunday.  I wonder how far they will go to deliver?

OK, night is here and I’m dog tired and ready to call it a day.  Thanks again for joining us and we hope you are enjoying our continuing transformation of our home.  Got a project that you’ve been wanting to do?  Why not begin it now?  No time like the present to tackle something you’ve been wanting to do for perhaps a good long time.   So I’m calling it a day and going to get some shut eye.  Before I go, a closing thought for each of us:

As always,  if you are coming to the end of your day with concerns and worries, let me suggest that you turn them over to God.  After all, He is going to be up all night so why not let him handle them for you.

Time now for our evening prayers and eventually some shut-eye.  Till tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before

Awoke to another cool but wonderful day.  Probably the last though for a bit.  The weather report is calling for 60% chance of rain for the rest of the week.  No problem I have enough inside projects to keep me busy for the next few days.

Super breakfast again.  One of my favorites which Barbara sort of invented for me.  We call it cheese potatoes.  In essence, it’s left over mashed potatoes to which she adds an egg and then several different types of cheese.  Then you take and fry the whole concoction for several minutes.  It is definitely tummy filling and so delicious.

Well, since the sun was out for the early part of the day, I figured it best to get the outside chores done first.  I first dumped the gray tank.  I can’t leave it open like I normally do since I discovered we had flies coming in through the shower drain from the sewer.  We never had this issue before but I guess there is a first for everything.

Then I turned my attention to under the hood.  Checked all the fluids and did an eyeball check on everything else.  Everything OK under the hood.  Next time I’m going to have to take the air cleaner box apart and check the air cleaner.  I was told it was replaced just before I bought it a year ago so I’m not too concerned about it.

Now it was time for a pressure check on all the tires.  Front were within spec’s.  Back needed some attention.  So I got out the Viair Air Compressor and got to work.  The inside tires on the back dual tires were always a pain, that is until I remembered what I used in the past on my motorcycle.  It’s called a Valve Extender and it works like a charm.

Now it was time to turn my attention to the inside.  Today, I wanted to get the new back splash tiles up.  One thing I knew I was going to take my time and do it right.  Also I wanted to stop from time to time to step back and view what I was doing to see if I wanted to make any changes.  Yup, half way through I changed my mind and went in a different direction then I first had in mind.  In the beginning I was going to just do the section under the Microwave.  But I later decided to go the complete length of the kitchen counter.  I also considered just doing one row of titles high.  Changing that as well.  When I’m finished here I’m going to add another section of titles and bring the back splash up to just under the Microwave.

So that’s what was done today.  Tomorrow I’ll put the new cabinets together that arrived today.  We measured, and remeasured and then measured again and we still were not 100% sure if they would fit where we wanted them.  Well, taking the pieces out of the box it appears all will be OK.

We’re also going to take all the day/night shades down along with the stock valances and replace them with wooden blinds.  We have color samples coming by the end of the week but it doesn’t appear we’ll be able to order the actual blinds for another couple of weeks.  No rush we’ll be living here in Graybeard for some time to come yet.

We did finish decorating the bathroom.  We have the accessories for the counter in place and the toilet seat cover and bathroom rug in place.  That room was easy.

So, the transformation of Grayberd continues from a cookie cutter RV to our unique home.  No more, no less than what normally happens in a stick and brick house.  Only difference, our home is on wheels!  To date we’ve done the following:  removed the dinette and added a new free standing table and chairs; put down a new kitchen rug; added a new back splash, and decorated the bathroom,  Much, much more to come.

Yes, it’s fun and it’s rewarding.  We lived for some 20 years in our stick and brick house and, unfortunately for so many reasons, were never able to do things like this.  Now we can and we are stoked!   Stay tuned for the continuing transformation.

So night is here and so is the rain.  Wish I could send some of this rain to those poor folks in California.  It sure is needed out there.  Believe me, I’m not really complaining since we’ve already had so many beautiful days to enjoy this year.  No doubt there will be plenty more to come.  Thanks again for joining us today.  We hope you had a great day, a day that was full and rewarding.  Before I leave you, as always a thought for each of us to ponder:

As always,  if you are coming to the end of your day with concerns and worries, let me suggest that you turn them over to God.  After all, He is going to be up all night so why not let him handle them for you.

Time now for our evening prayers and eventually some shut-eye.  Till tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before