A Long, Hard Week

This is the week to have my existing kitchen counter tops removed and replaced with granite. As the post title says, it’s been a long hard week. The photo at the top of the post shows the “before” conditions. There was a mixture of laminate, tile and granite counter tops with a tile backsplash. The granite on the island in the center of the kitchen was installed about ten years ago and is not a very high quality granite. Everything else is original to the house which is going on 15 years old now. The plan is to remove all the counter tops, backsplash and sink and replace with new high quality granite tile backsplash and a new granite composite sink.

The contractor arrived punctually first thing Monday morning to begin the demolition. I was amazed at the efficiency of his men in the removal of both the existing counter tops and tile backsplash. They also removed the sink. The entire demolition only took a couple of hours and I thought that this was going to be a snap!

A snap is exactly what I heard Tuesday morning at about 3 am. The snap was followed by the sound of running water! I raced downstairs to find water shooting out of the uncapped hot water pipe that was previously connected to the sink. Water was everywhere. The sink is directly in front of the window on the right in the picture above. Water was all over the floor, the walls, the ceiling and the window. Panic took over as I raced down to the basement to shut off the main water valve to the house. I’m guessing that the water flowed full blast for a period of about 10-15 minutes before I shut down the main valve. The Bride and I spent the next couple of hours sopping up all the water we could. We used every towel we had in the house….clean or dirty, and I must say, we have a lot of towels.

A pointed phone call was made to the contractor at 6am. To his credit the contractor dispatched a plumber immediately and both the plumber and the contractor were at my house in about 45 minutes. After the plumber replaced the ball valves for both hot and cold water we investigate the extent of the damage. It was clear that water had gotten beneath the wood flooring and had run on top of the sub floor to a small carpeted area adjacent to the kitchen. Fortunately there appeared to be no damage to the ceiling in the finished basement below. The contractor assured me that he would repair any damage caused by the water. It would take another day for the extent of the damage to become apparent. Nothing further was scheduled in the home for Tuesday as this was the day the contractor was cutting and preparing the granite at his shop.

On Wednesday the contractor arrived bright and early to install the countertops. By Wednesday morning it was also possible to see the effects of the water on the hardwood floor. The water between the hardwood floor and sub-floor had caused the hardwood to cup severely. The contractor consulted with his “floor guy” and I started searching the internet for information about cupped hardwood floors. It appears that if the cupping does not get any worse it will be possible to sand the floor down once it dries completely, and refinish it. The contractor again reassured me that he would be responsible for the repairs. The granite install took all day but it turned out beautifully if I do say so myself.

Thursday was supposed to be the final work day and the day that the tile backsplash was installed. This day only one worker was sent to accomplish the task. He worked slowly and methodically and by about 6 pm completed the tile. About the time he finished up the contractor appeared with his “floor guy”. The floor guy confirmed that he could sand the cupping out of the floor provided it got no worse and since it had been two days since the flood, he didn’t think it would get worse. We set a date for the second week in May to sand and refinish the floor.

I am totally thrilled that the contractor has stepped up to the plate and accepted his responsibility without a whole lot of threats from me. If the refinishing job turns out all right the contractor will get a stellar recommendation from me.

The bad news is that I will have to alter my travel plans to accommodate the refinishing of the floor. I will still leave this Sunday and do my Forest Service Passport in Time project in New Mexico for a week but I will have to come home immediately afterwards. Once again I will have to cancel my trip to Canyon de Chelly which I had scheduled for the week of May 10th. This is the second time in 3 months that I’ve had to blow off a trip to Canyon de Chelly.

This will be the last post for at least a week as the location for the Forest Service gig is quite remote and there will be no internet connection. When I return I hope to have some fantastic stories to tell so keep tuned!

Thanks for visiting.

Never Cracked An Egg

My middle name "Giles" celebrates my grandfather. He was not an English "Giles" but a Vermont farmer turned carpenter/jack of all trades, wonderful man. Born in 1894 he saw the dawn of the modern age. One thing I remember clearly about him is that after riding in a motor vehicle and stopping without incident he would say "Never cracked an egg." That memory is so strong that I continue to use the phrase every time I turn the engine off in one of my vehicles. I did that Saturday after driving almost 500 miles from Acoma, NM to the Denver area.

The final drive was long but uneventful. I arrived home at about 5 pm and unloaded the most basic stuff (refrigerator) and saved the heavy unload for Sunday morning. The weather shamans had said that there was a possibility of some snow on Saturday and Sunday so that was the impetus to get home....before I got snowed in someplace again!

The rig has been unloaded and I'm now in the process of returning to the normal life after 21 days on the road.

It was a great trip and I'm sure that I'll post more stories about it soon....

Thanks for visiting.

Mojitos To Mountains

“Ten days on the road and I’m gonna’ make it home tonight…” I can hear the lyrics in my mind but for the life of me I can’t remember the title of the song? Even Google didn’t help with this one. Anyway, it was ten days on the road and we did make it home. We had a great time and it was good for The Bride and her mother Ladder Lady to spend quality time together.

Disembarkation in San Juan on Sunday was a little dicey because our “servants”, our “employees”…the ICE…Immigration & Customs Enforcement decided to send a total of three….count em’ 3…officers to screen about 3,000 passengers that were trying to get to their land hotels or flights back to the mainland. In the end they pretty much let everyone through by just flashing an ID card of some type and not inspecting any baggage….Feel safe now America?

Fortunately I had built in time at both the beginning and the end of the trip. After disembarkation we went to the fabulous resort hotel, El San Juan for a night of de-pressurization before making the last leg of the journey. I had stayed at the El San Juan on business, many years ago and always fantasized that it would be great to show this place to The Bride. It took about 20 years but I did make the fantasy come true.  The ladies were suitably impressed and even commented that they would have considered spending ten days there rather than on the cruise. Little did they know that it was about three times more expensive per day that to “cruise”.

The trip back was “payback” and the only way to survive is to put yourself into a catatonic state…which I did for the day of waiting, lines, and inconsiderate people. We arrived home at about 8 pm on Monday evening. Just in time to watch the Bronco’s lose the Monday night football game…..just more payback for having a great 10 days.

The remaining part of this week will be filled with all the inglorious details of coming home…laundry, restocking the fridge, paying bills, etc. Fortunately, the weather is not a total shock, with temps in the 60’s for a few more days until colder weather sets in.

Now I have to reset my mental latitude and get back to thinking of the new trailer, getting a fifth wheel hitch, doing all the small details so that in about 30 days I can start on the next adventure.

Thanks for visiting.

Catching Up and Searching

This week has been one of catching up on all sorts of things after being on the road for two weeks. Early in the week it was catching up on clean clothes and cleaning out the RV. Mid week it was catching up on normal chores like mowing the lawn…hopefully I’ll only have to do it once or twice more before the weather impedes it’s growth.

The weather has definitely turned more fall like. A front swept through yesterday with strong winds and today the high is in the 50’s with more wind. I am enjoying the cooler weather. Nothing is better than a crisp day, cool enough to have to wear a vest or light jacket, the colors of autumn and that cobalt blue Colorado sky. The only down side is that it doesn’t last long and winter is next. They are actually calling for snow (4”-8”) at some of the ski areas tonight!

I’ve also been catching up on my search for a truck. I have searched car dealerships, want ads and craigslist. The other day I spotted one that met all my needs and traded several emails and phone calls with the owner, who lived in Cheyenne, WY. The owner agreed to drive the truck to Denver and if my inspection verified his description of the vehicle, I would buy it. The owner also said that someone else had expressed interest but had offered him a lowball price. About an hour ago I got a call from the owner and he said that the other party had called back and offered his asking price and was going to meet the owner on the north side of Denver for the inspection….I live on the south side of Denver, so I lose out due to a couple of interstate exits.

The owner is a young man and I told him that I was disappointed that I was treated this way especially since I contacted him first about the vehicle. I am disappointed and somewhat… peeved, but on the other hand if the young man didn’t have the integrity to honor my first offer, he may not have the integrity to be totally honest about the condition of the vehicle? So, it’s back in the hunt….

In the meantime I’m going to try and take a trip into the mountains this weekend. The leaves have already peaked at higher elevations but there’s plenty of lower altitude areas that should be just as spectacular.

Thanks for visiting.

P.S. The picture at the top of this post was taken at the Old Agency Forest Service Work Center, two weeks ago.

Amache, Lamar, Hicklin Springs, Vogel Canyon & Home

It was only 7:30 am when I got back to the RV so that left the whole day for more adventure. I had a number of things on my list but the first was only a couple of miles away, Amache Relocation Camp. Amache was one of the infamous Japanese American Internment Camps from World War II. Between 1942 and 1945 over 7000 citizens of the United States were kept prisoner at this place. It was a sad chapter in our history but it is our history and I wanted to visit this place.

When I left the Dorenkamp’s ranch it was overcast, drizzly and cold. Somber weather for a somber tour. Shortly after the Japanese surrendered in WW II, the people held in the camps were released and the camps were razed. As a result there is really not much to see at Amache except the foundations of the old buildings and some informational signs that were erected by the town of Granada, CO which now owns the site.

It was interesting to try to imagine that time with a multitude of buildings and 7,000 people carrying on with life in this desolate place. One thing that struck me was the trees. This is high prairie and trees are not native to the area. If you look at pictures of the camp you can see how open the terrain was…but you can also see young trees that were planted by the internees. Those same trees now are grown and many are in the process of dying, much like the former occupants of the camp. After spending about an hour looking around I headed to Lamar, CO. Enough somberness for this day. I needed to lighten things up a bit.

Lamar, CO is home to one of 12 Madonna of the Trail statues all across the United States. An interesting bit of history and just the kind of history I like to seek out. But wait! There’s also some kitsch in Lamar, Colorado and I haven’t had a dose of kitsch in a while.

A building that claims to be the oldest on the planet? In Lamar, Colorado? Yup. This building is constructed of petrified wood and has even made the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not books. It is kitsch with a capital K. The  but now serves as an office for the car dealership next store. I also found a wonderful old art deco movie theater in Lamar….appropriately named the “Lamar”. Unlike a lot of theaters I come across, this one seems to be thriving. Not surprising I suppose when you consider that this is a small town VERY far from the next larger town.

Time to move on to my next adventure, Hicklin Springs. I was a little concerned at the directions I got while visiting Bent’s Fort. Wherever the site was it was way out in the sticks. If the directions weren’t accurate I would have blown a lot of time. While at the Dorenkamp’s ranch I asked if they knew anything about the site. They said they didn’t but they gave me the name of a gentleman who works for the Corps of Engineers at John Martin Reservoir and said that if anyone knew about it he would.

Right around lunchtime I pulled in to the COE office and asked for this gentleman. I was in luck, he was there and he was a fountain of information about the place. He even gave me a map to the site and a copy of an article he wrote about the site…..what a stroke of luck!

After about 20 minutes of great conversation I headed out with his map in hand. It was only about 10 miles from his office so I was there, well almost there in about a half hour. I was told that the road down into the site could be difficult at times and I didn’t want to chance driving down the trail in my RV. That left me with a 1.3 mile hike in each direction. No problemo, I can do that. As I walked into the site, this strange sensation came over me that the area looked familiar. If finally dawned on me that Guitar and I had driven down this trail in my Expedition about a year and a half ago, while camping at John Martin State Park! At the time we knew nothing about the petroglyphs and were just “exploring”.

The walk in was pleasant, it was overcast and cool but conditions were dry. This site was really interesting to me. I have seen a lot of ancient petroglyphs in the last few years. Most of the time you will find modern graffiti in the same area and a lot of times the ancient images are defaced by the more modern graffiti. This site contained both but the level of defacement was a lot less than other sites I have seen. Incredibly at this site I found the historic graffiti even more interesting that the petroglyphs! When I say historic graffiti I mean anything that European people left behind. In this part of the country that can be dated back to the late 1700’s or early 1800’s.

It looked to me that in historic times, ranchers or sheepherders spend considerable time in the area. There was a lot of intricate drawings on the rock that I had never seen anywhere else. Two especially intrigued me. The first was a very detailed drawing of an old sailing ship with the name Sea Queenee etched below it. The other was a drawing of a priest or friar. Next to the image was engraved the name Jesus Oglin. It took someone a very long time to complete either one of these petroglyphs.

I was glad it was cool and overcast because a lot of the area looked very “snakey” and I was told to be on the lookout for rattlesnakes if I climbed around the area. I spent over an hour looking around before heading back to the RV.

Once back at the rig I decided to head for Vogel Canyon and spend the night. This is a small picnic area maintained by the BLM. Guitar and I had been there a couple of years ago so I knew it was a good…and free place to spend the night. When I arrived there were two other cars in the parking lot and by 5pm….and for the rest of the night I was the only person around.

Friday morning it was time to head home. The weather was overcast and drizzly so I didn’t feel too bad about ending what had been a very interesting two days. I arrived back in the Denver area a little after 2pm. It was really good to get on the road again. I saw a lot of interesting sights and by Friday evening I was thinking about my next trip. Stay tuned and I’ll tell you about that.

Thanks for visiting.

Back In Colorado

I arrived back home yesterday at mid-day. I had a bit of trouble getting here but I made it in better fashion than The Bride, The Emmer and CaJen did on Tuesday.

My three ladies left Columbus on the shuttle bus at 5 am Tuesday. About 5 miles south of the Atlanta airport they encountered an accident which had the Interstate closed. The driver managed to get off the Interstate on to the secondary roads but was caught by all the other people that did the same thing. It took them two hours to make the last five miles. Because CaJen was not checking luggage she managed to run to the plane and got there just as they were closing the door.

The Bride and The Emmer were not so lucky and missed the flight. They were re-booked on another flight at mid-day that would fly them through Chicago and then on to Denver. After they loaded the plane a mechanical problem was discovered and the flight was canceled. They finally made it out of Atlanta at about 4 pm.

I stayed a day later and left on the 5 am shuttle yesterday. Not too far from where the ladies got caught on the Interstate, our shuttle ran into two accidents that had I-85 closed both north and southbound. We were between exits so we didn't have an option other than to sit with everyone else. Sit we did for about an hour and 45 minutes.

We made it to the airport about 30 minutes before my flight was scheduled to leave. Because I was not checking luggage I managed to make the flight with a bit of running through the concourse.

The weather here is warm...upper 80's but it is delightful compared to the heat and humidity of Columbus, GA.

I'll take a few days to get my life back to normal and then I will probably head up to the mountains for a few days. Not sure where but I'm considering the Leadville area.

Thanks for visiting.

A Day Makes a Difference!

Well, it is Colorado and it is March...or almost April. This is the time of year for contrast. We went from the top picture on Saturday, an absolutely glorious spring day, to....


This is what Sunday morning looked like. Not a whole lot of snow and it was gone by the afternoon but is sure is a mood breaker. This morning looks exactly like Sunday. We had another snow last night. Only about an inch but it's cold and dreary.

I took full advantage of Saturday's nice weather and did some modifications to my RV. The major one was to install a vent cover over the fresh air vent in the bedroom. The picture above shows the original vent. It basically is a big hole in the roof with a screen over it. If it rains and the vent is open, guess what, you get wet. You can't take advantage of the vent while the RV is moving either because you're likely to have the vent ripped off by the force of the wind.

If, you install a cover over the vent, you can open it in all but the most severe rain storms and you can also open it while the RV is moving. This is a great way in the summer time to keep the inside cool without using air conditioning. It's a fairly straight forward operation and the cover itself costs less than $20. I had already installed one on the forward vent so I was comfortable with the installation technique. I have two other vents, one over the bathroom and one over the shower. I believe I'll install one more over the shower.

Saturday evening The Bride and I went to dinner at a restaurant close to home. The Old Blinking Light is the second of two restaurants with the same name. The original is in Taos, NM. A pretty nice menu with an informal feel. I had Poblano Relleno with Risotto, Spanish Paprika, Ratatouille and Tomato Buerre Blanc. It was very good with a slow burn on the spice side. When I ordered, the waiter made sure I knew that this was a meatless dish....worked for me.

Because the weather was less than optimal on Sunday I started a chore that I've been planning to do for some time. Bad weather and the fact that The Emmer is out of town made this the perfect opportunity. We finished off the basement about 9 years ago and in that time we've never shampooed the carpet. The Emmer's bedroom is in the basement as well as a dining area and a TV room. About 1100 square feet in all. That was my chore. I've just about finished The Emmer's bedroom and will start on the rest of the space later today....

In other news, the local rag reports that a skier died on the slopes this weekend after crashing into a tree. This is the 14th fatality of the year for skiers and snowboarders in Colorado. This is why I snow shoe and don't ski anymore. At my age I can't get up enough speed on snow shoes to make running into a tree dangerous.

Thanks for visiting.

Time Flies...

Wow, it's been a week since my last post. Time really flies now that I'm retired. I'm keeping pretty busy with not very interesting stuff to post about. It really is nice to have the time to do all the routine stuff that I used to try and pack into the weekends.

Thursday night was cheesbugha night at Bud's and all of The Circle was there. Saturday night we all got together again for dinner at our place so we've had our Circle Fix for sure this week.

I've been doing little things to the RV like replacing some of the "speciality" light bulbs that were burned out. Had to order them online as I couldn't find anywhere in town that carried them. They are for the footlights in the bedroom, bathroom and doorway and look more like a fuse than a light bulb. I've also got an appointment with a locksmith on Friday morning. The previous owner had a home built rack on the roof for his kayaks. they were fastened to the luggage rails with Yakima towers and he had lost the keys to the locks. I would leave the rack there except I want to put a vent cover over the vent in the bedroom and the position of the rack won't let me do that. So, the rack goes.

The rest of the week is pretty filled up. Sometime this weekend I cracked a tooth and have a dental appointment tomorrow morning to have it looked at. I'm guessing I'll probably need a crown. On Thursday, I have to take The Emmer to the airport. She is going to North Carolina to see her grandmother for a week. She is looking forward to the trip.

Thanks for visiting.

Home

Monday morning broke cold, windy and snowy in Raton so I was pretty well decided to hunker down for another day. As the morning wore on, snow gave way to sunshine and I checked the Denver weather on my computer. The weather folks did it again....missed the forecast. It seems like the 12" of snow that was forecast for the Denver area ended up further north and east. Just to be sure, I called The Bride at work and got a first hand report that there was a little snow but the roads were fine.

I decided that I would start towards the Denver area and if the weather started to look bad I would just stop where ever I was. The south side of Raton Pass was fine but by the time I got to the summit it was snowing pretty good and it continued until I got north of Trinidad, CO. Once I was north of Trinidad, the sun came out and it was just another spring day.

This leg of the trip was all on Interstate. About 240 miles. This gave me a good opportunity to see what kind of mileage I could get if I held my speed to right around 55 mph. Slowing down to that speed did help. I got the best mileage of the trip by doing that. Are you ready for this??? 8.7 miles per gallon!....and remember that was the best of the entire trip. So now you see why I will not be able to take endless trips of thousands of miles. Gasoline prices in New Mexico ranged from $3.19 to $3.29 a gallon....average it at $3.24 and it costs about 40 cents a mile to travel in the RV.

Anyhow, I arrived back home at around 4:30 and unloaded most of the stuff in the RV. Today I unloaded the rest and installed a roof vent cover on one of the vents on the roof of the RV. This will allow me to open the roof vent while travelling or when it's raining. I did not buy this brand but this will show you what I did. I have three other vents on the roof and I'll probably add covers to all of them.

So now it's time to sit down and start plotting my next trip. Hopefully, yesterday's snow was the last of the year for the front range. Maybe eastern Wyoming??? Stay tuned.

Thanks for visiting.

Mr. Mom

It's been typical February weather around here. Every few days a storm blows through dumping a couple of inches of snow on the front range and pounding the mountains. This pattern is keeping me from escaping in my trailer, Bivouac, for New Mexico so I have to be content to stick around home for now.

I am managing to do a lot of the little things that I put off doing before I retired. The first of the projects was to repaint and organize our food pantry....I can hear brothers #3 and #4 snickering right now. All I can say to them is I am free to do it or not, and since I have plenty of time, and no other responsibilities, I did it. I even enjoyed doing it. #1 has no room to snicker as he is a relatively new retiree himself. 12 years of hectic living and not a lot of care, made this a poster child for clean and organize. I painted walls and shelves, put padded shelf lining in and added several wall mounted spice racks. It was so much fun I also tackled the rat hole, under sink cabinet, and did the same thing. This is addictive! There are plenty more cabinets in the house that can use some "dress right dress" and "cover down".

I've also been doing a lot of cooking. Still nothing fancy or extravagant yet. It is a learning process after all. My motivations are two fold. I do want to help The Bride now that I have the time, but also on a selfish level, this is a skill set that will be of value to me when I take extended trips in my RV.

This leads me to the next topic of conversation. I mentioned in my last post that I was looking at selling Bivouac and buying a small Class A RV. I located one that I thought fit the bill and looked at it last Sunday. It was everything I was looking for in layout and size. There is one potential mechanical problem that I need to investigate and to that end I will be taking it, with the current owners permission, to be inspected by a mechanic. If there is an issue, hopefully the current owner will resolve it and I will buy the RV from him. The inspection is scheduled for next week. Stay tuned on this one.

Guitar and I were trying to work out a trip next week to Moab, UT to go to the Cowboy Poetry Gathering. It's something that both of us would like to do but between some personal obligations and the uncertainty of being able to get over the mountains this time of year, we decided not to go. I'm going to start looking for some more of these type of events a little later in the year.

Finally, I've been able to adopt and stick to a pretty good exercise routine. I have built a pretty decent home gym over the past few years. I've got an elliptical trainer, recumbent bike, treadmill and a weight machine. A couple of years ago I was pretty good about utilizing them and then life, job and whatever just seemed to get in the way. I realize that as I age I really need to pay attention to staying fit if I'm going to be in an RV doing stuff at 10,000 feet altitude. Let's hope that I can walk my talk!

Thanks for visiting.